MORAN — Doug Dix is quite a shutterbug.
If there’s something worth seeing, the 10-year-old son of Darrell and Sara Dix is usually not far away armed with his Kodak digital camera, scouting for the perfect angle.
“He’s taken pictures with my phone, and they’re usually better than mine,” Sara said.
As such, his photography skills have already earned him recognition at the Allen County Fair.
His purple ribbon-winning entry last summer normally would have qualified Dix for a berth at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, if not for the State Fair’s age restrictions.
4-H’ers must be at least 9 years old by Jan. 1 — thus dictating their “4-H age.”
Dix, however, didn’t turn 9 until Feb. 12.
“So he has to wait, which is fine,” Sara said. “He takes really good pictures.”
Dix will be a fifth-grader at Marmaton Valley Elementary School this year.
He belongs to the Prairie Rose 4-H Club.
Dix plans to enter photography and woodworking exhibits next week at the 130th annual Allen County Fair, which runs July 27-30 at Iola’s Riverside Park.
The woodworking project is a homemade computer monitor stand he and his grandfather worked on as a team over the past several weeks.
“We actually got it done Monday,” he said. “We had completed it already, but we needed to do some touch-ups.”
The monitor stand will come in handy when Dix uses uses a computer for school.
In years past, he’s created a K-Cup holder, capable of storing the flavored containers used with Keurig coffee machines, and a set of cornhole boards. Both earned him blue ribbons.
