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Team 1 Plastics Announces Photo Contest Winners

Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the automotive industry, is pleased to announce the winners of its 2016 Spring Photo Contest. The Grand Prize winner is Dave Sanford, with his submission, “Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.” Runner up is Greg Wood with “Kalamazoo River.” The winning photographs are displayed in Team 1 Plastics’ two Conference Rooms.

Sanford, the Quality Manager at Team 1, said that he captured the winning photograph on his cell phone in 2013 during a four-day backpacking trip on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Hiking Trail near Munising, Michigan. According to Sanford, he takes a “Man Trip” each year with a group of close friends. “We’ve been doing this for many years now. We try to find a trip here in Michigan that is a couple of days long and within a day’s drive. We look to do something that is somewhat physically challenging. We go backpacking, we go kayaking, we go mountain climbing, stuff like that.”

Sanford, who does not consider himself a photographer, said that on these trips, he typically takes quite a few photographs to have as memory keepsakes. He said that he likes taking outdoor photos. “I don’t spend a lot of time inside. I’m constantly on the go and always out somewhere in nature – whether it be backpacking or on the water somewhere.” The winning photograph is one of his favorite pictures “because a lot of people don’t really think of Michigan as how that picture portrayed it. Many people have seen that picture, and they can’t believe that it is actually here in Michigan. It just shows you that you really don’t have to go far in Michigan to find something really nice and unique.”

Team 1’s annual Photo Contest was created by its Human Resource department. According to Kiera Carter, Human Resource Assistant, “We were looking for different ways to get more team member involvement. The first contest we held was in 2015, and we had six submissions. Due to the small number of entries we received, we decided to print all of them instead of choosing a winner. Those pictures are currently displayed throughout Team 1.”

Many more Team Members, including Sanford, submitted photos for the 2016 contest. Carter said, “This year we received a whopping 19 entries! The rules are pretty basic — one entry per category. The categories were Unique Landscapes, The Beauty of my Hometown, Celebrating Nature, Bright and Colorful, Water, Flowers, Amazing Skies, and Abstract. Entries were judged on the basis of creativity, photographic quality, and effectiveness in conveying the beauty and/or unique character in one of the contest categories.” Team members had the opportunity to rate all of the photographs in each category. After the initial voting, a Championship Round was held in which the top photos from each category were judged. The two highest scores in this round became the grand prize and runner-up winners.

Carter added, “Seeing the photos hung up around the plant sparked the interest of our team members. It’s nice to have someone tell you that they plan on taking pictures on their upcoming vacation to submit for the next contest. It’s just another reminder about the culture here at Team 1 Plastics.”

Visit Team 1’s Facebook page to view all the submissions to the 2016 Spring Photo Contest.