Hello, I am Alicia, the owner of Studio Bismillah. I'm a mother of two lively children and a wife to a hilarious and very handsome husband. I always enjoyed being the archivist of my large family of five siblings. During graduate school, I was an intern at the North Dakota State Historical Society.

Part of my work was traveling throughout the state documenting the deteriorating remains of the one-room schoolhouses as they stood in woebegone on the open prairie. It was my first time with a SLR, a Nikon. Even though I had to turn it in at the end of the summer, I later purchased my own and I have had a Nikon ever since.

• Color.
• Scale.
• Layered.

I am an owner's representative for a Development firm in Minneapolis. I spend a lot of time on construction sites and enjoy the many details and material textures that they provide. On this particular day, I asked for permission to climb the 131 feet on the construction crane to see the work going on below. It was the last nice day before winter set in, it was now or never.

There was so much activity going on with the trades as they shaped the rebar tensile grid and ties for the post-tensioned concrete structural pour. The layers of material, the bright colors and the lines that intersect, gave this composition an interest that could hold ones attention and let them see something new each time they saw it.

Leaving the scaffolding for the crane was also intentional as I didn't want the photo to be mistaken as being taken by a drone. I chose to enter this image because of its unique perspective. It isn't often that construction sites are documented or are considered worthy of fine art.

1. Zack Jokela out of Billings Montana.
2. Sarah Cornish out of Fort Collins Colorado.
3. Miriam Hancock from New Zealand.