Lauren Devine Named Grand Prize Winner in Photo Contest

By Katie McFadden

And we have a winner! Congratulations to Arverne resident Lauren Devine for winning the 2024 Rockaway Times Photo Contest! Her photo of her son Warren, engaging in some nature watching on Jamaica Bay, won her the top spot and the $500 grand prize!

In mid-February, we opened our contest to submissions and by the close of the contest in late April, we had received more than 1,000 submissions. So that gave our panel of about 13 judges the tough job of narrowing those down. By early May, we had our Top 30. Those photos, and five honorable mention photos, were blown up into posters that were on display on the boardwalk in Rockaway Beach and by the ferry landing all summer. By August 15, we had our Top 10. Last week, all of those photos came down and were brought to our office at 114-04 Beach Channel Drive for the announcement of our Top 3, including the grand prize winner. Our panel of judges once again deliberated and narrowed our Top 10 down to a Top 3 and the winner was crowned on Thursday, August 22.

Lauren Devine’s photo was found to be the best of the best. A local resident and surfer, Devine submitted entries into the contest for the first time this year and had two photos in the Top 30! But her photo of her adorable son Warren earned her first place. “I’m shocked because it’s such a good contest and I had two in the Top 30!” she said. Devine said she snapped her photo on her iPhone while her husband was doing a Gum’s Jerk dinner popup on a beach on the bay last summer.

In second place was once again, Don Riepe. Riepe is a photo contest regular, earning first place for his swans at sunset photo in 2018, but he has also earned a second-place spot four times. This year, his photo of Dan Leary fishing off the beach while a swarm of seabirds passes in the background, earned him second place. Riepe also shared that he takes his photos on his phone.

Last but not least was Theresa Racine, a regular photographer who won first place in 2020 with a photo of surfers on a sun-basked beach. This year, her entry of a gorgeous beach sunset earned her third place. “I feel great because when I look at it, there were over a thousand photos, so when I was in the Top 10 and I saw the competition, I didn’t know If I was going to make it with all of the other great photos there, so I’m very pleased winning third,” Racine said. “I’ll enter again next year.”

We look forward to everyone’s entries next year! Make sure to look out for an announcement for next year’s contest around February. A huge thank you to our sponsors at NYC Ferry, Jamaica Bay – Rockaway Parks Conservancy and NYC Parks Department for once again making this year’s contest a big success!