Kareline Jones is all smiles alongside the Grand Champion ribbon she won for her photography at this year’s Hancock County 4-H Fair. The photo, of a staircase inside an iconic St. Augustine lighthouse, went on to win an honor group commendation at the Indiana State Fair last week.
HANCOCK COUNTY — Kareline Jones knew she had the perfect shot. Flecks of white light were streaming through the black spiral staircase inside the iconic St. Augustine, Fla. lighthouse.
Jones took the shot, and a year later won Grand Champion honors for her effort in the photography competition at this year’s Hancock County 4-H Fair.
Her photograph went on to win a first place ribbon and an honor group commendation at this year’s Indiana State Fair, where the black and white image was displayed with the best of the best from around the state.
“Kareline has a good eye and is very artistic,” said her mother, Brigette Cook Jones.
“This artistic talent enables her to see the intriguing picture where others might miss it. She has been raised in a family of photographers, so the technical part has been taught to her from an early age, but it takes that artistic eye to capture magic.”
Jones, 19, said her flair for photography was passed down to her by her late grandfather, David Jones, who passed it on to his children and grandchildren.
“It’s really been a big thing in my family,” said the teen, who recently graduated from Eastern Hancock High School.
“My grandfather was in a photography club, and he taught my mom and my aunts and my sister and all my cousins, who all do photography in 4-H.”
Jones said winning Grand Champion honors for her photograph was a great way to close out her tenth and final year of 4-H.
This month she’ll head to Ball State University, where she plans to major in computer science. She plans to pursue a career in cyber security and data analytics, but anticipates she’ll always enjoy photography as a pastime.
Jones said she’s enjoyed being behind the camera ever since she was a little girl, long before she entered her first 4-H Fair photography contest in the third grade.
“Really anything can be a great picture,” said Jones, who uses a digital Pentax camera to take as many pictures as she can when traveling.
She was visiting the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum last summer when she took her award-winning photograph of the stairwell.
Her favorite part of the picture is how clear the image is. “There were little holes in the stairwell you could see straight through to a white wall. You can almost see all the way to the top,” she said.
As she prepares to head off to college, Jones said she’ll continue to keep her eye out for the next potentially award-winning photograph.
She plans to enter her lighthouse photo in this year’s Riley Festival photography contest, but said that, in general, she takes pictures simply for fun.
