Josh Clemens, photography major at American River College, won a photography award at the “College Seen” photo contest in August 2011.

The contest, sponsored by the Foundation for California Community Colleges and the CollegeBuys purchasing program, tells the story of California’s community colleges from a student perspective.

Clemens won first place in the “Technology and Learning” category. “It was a beautiful shot of some students working on solar panels … there’s nothing else more technology around it than solar,” Clemens said.

He entered a photo for each of the eight categories which include: “Campus Experience,” “Campus Elements,” “News and Events,” “Career Preparation/Work Experience,” “Technology and Learning,” “Portrait and Personality,” “Conceptual” and the special category “Hands Across America.”

Clemens was awarded with prized that included: Adobe’s Creative Suite 5, Design Premium, InDesign CS5, Photoshop CS5 Extended, Illustrator CS5, Dreamweaver CS5, and more software prizes courtesy of the contest’s sponsors.

All winning photographs will be published in Affinity, California Community College’s magazine.

To enter the contest, you must be over 18 years old and be currently enrolled in community college classes. An official transcript is required for proof.

Entries must be submitted online and photos must be in JPEG format with a minimum of 1600 x 1200 pixels with a file size no lower than one megabyte and no larger than 15 megabytes.

The process started in April 2011 and ended in June 2011.

On top of being a photography major, Clemens also has a background in journalism. He previously suffered from a head trauma when he was 15 years old, but Clemens says that “does not affect my daily life or photography.”

He has plans to enter the “College Seen” contest in 2012 and recommends that other photographers enter the contest as well.