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Irvine student’s photo gets the right exposure

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When Irvine High School graduate Tim Lantin was shooting pictures of the beach over winter break, he had no idea that a brief change of weather would help earn one of his photos a first-place prize in Laguna Beach’s Junior Art Exhibit.

The 18-year-old entered his photograph, “Fleeting Youth,” into the art show in March. The work features a shoreline of Newport Beach with seagulls standing in the wet sand and distant figures of three beachgoers blurred by a patch of fog.

Lantin’s picture was one of many beach photos he had taken for an assignment in his high school’s advanced visual imagery class. When his art instructor Mandy Tucker saw the photo, she encouraged him to send it to the exhibit.

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“He has such a good eye,” Tucker said. “He recognized the beauty of the fog and how the people and the seagulls continued to play regardless of the weather.”

The exhibit is a section of Laguna Beach’s summer show, The Festival of Arts. The wing displays more than 300 works submitted by Orange County students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12.

About 70 students were honored with first-, second- and third-place awards for their pieces in the show. The awards were separated into categories for photography, 2-D and 3-D art and were divided by grade level.

Lantin took first place in photography for grades 11 and 12.

The young photographer said that capturing this image on the beach was not an easy feat.

“I like pictures that aren’t exactly posed but that involves a bit of luck,” Lantin said. “With this photo, the fog had rolled in for only a few minutes. I liked how it made everything look white and gray as opposed to all the beach sunset pictures out there.”

The judging panel that determined this year’s student winners consisted of PIMCO Foundation founding board member Mark Porterfield, PIMCO trade compliance analyst Collin Kroeger and Festival of Arts artists Shelley Rapp Evans and Jacquie Moffett.

“[Lantin’s photo] made me think of how youth flies by,” Kroeger said. “One body, who I assume is a younger kid, in the photo is running while the two grey older figures are standing still. I thought the picture did a good job of showing how time flies and youth really is fleeting.”

The junior artist said he began to study photography with Tucker during his sophomore year in high school.

“I remember walking in the photo classroom and seeing the pictures that past students took,” Lantin said. “I liked them all and knew I wanted to be a good photographer like they were.”

Since that year, the pupil moved on to more advanced courses with Tucker, learning the elements of portraits, nature shots and abstract art. He stuck with his photography classes through his senior year.

“People don’t always like to receive criticism but I remember him thanking me for critiquing his work,” Tucker said. “He’s mature beyond his years and truly has strong compositional skills.”

Lantin is set to attend the University of Washington in Seattle this fall.

As an incoming freshman, he will study biology. As a photographer, he has already landed a job taking pictures for the university’s school newspaper, The Daily.

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