7-Year-Old Oklahoma Girl Wins National Photography Contest

A photograph taken on an Oklahoma farm titled "Determination" has won a national award, and the photographer was only 7 years old when she took the picture.

When Cesily Covey spotted a tree growing through an old grain truck on her Grammy's farm in Custer County she saw something, as artists tend to do, that others missed.

“My parents didn’t even know the truck was there and my dad lived there,” Cesily said as she glared at her dad in their Norman home.

So through the lens of her iPad mini that she got from Santa two years ago, Cesily discovered the picture that would fit with this year’s PTA Reflections in Art theme: "The world would be a better place if...."

“It could have just died, but it’s strong and healthy,” Cesily said. “The world would be a better place if we all had determination like that tree.”

Cesily certainly does. This her the second year of entering the contest.

“I enter every year, not to win just for fun,” she said.

But this year she did win: first, in her school, then, in the state and then, the national award.

“I thought wow, I was speechless,” described Cesily.

Her picture was the best photography entry out of all age groups. Cesily and her family just got back from South Carolina where she collected her award.   

“There was only one boy out of the whole thing, but lots of middle school and teenagers that looked like they were a lot older than me,” she said.

Still, Cesily isn't going to let her early success or clear eye for photography influence her future. She's also interested in painting and dance.

“I just like to see where my art takes me,” she said.