By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

At first glance, Thomas Harmon looks like your average 9-year-old boy.

Blond hair. Freckles. Big blue eyes.

But photography enthusiasts had better get used to the name. They could see it a lot in coming years.

Thomas, a seven-year veteran behind the lens, already has had his work published in national magazines and chosen for exhibition at state fairs in both Kansas and Iowa.

Most recently, Thomas was the only double winner in the second annual Sunflower Showcase Photography Fest that included nearly 400 photos from 86 photographers from a four-state area.

Thomas, whose day job consists of attending class with his fellow third-graders at Otis Elementary School, has been shooting photos since he was 2 years old.

And his mom, Rachel Harmon, just happens to be owner of a video production company, Sagebrush Video Production, which she operates out of her country home near Otis.

"I've never pushed him at it," Rachel Harmon said of her oldest of three children. "He's just always done it, so it's no big deal to him."

Harmon started the photo contest in 2007 at the request of two 4-H leaders from Ellis County -- 4-H Youth Extension Agent Susan Schlichting and Donna Maskus, a master 4-H volunteer.

Harmon brought Thomas to Hays for a 4-H photography workshop earlier that year, and Schlichting and Maskus learned that Harmon was the same Rachel Harmon they had been sending 4-H photo contest entries when Harmon lived in Nebraska for about five years earlier this decade.

"So they asked me if I would start (a contest) here," said Harmon, who had moved back to Kansas in 2006.

After finding a location in which to display the photos -- the Hays Public Library -- the inaugural Sunflower Showcase contest in 2007 drew more than 400 entries.

Thomas, who hadn't yet turned 8, won best-of-show in the junior class that year.

Harmon, the mom, also has won best-of-show in the professional division, as well as runner-up honors in the same division, the past two years.

"I don't enter to just win my own contests; I want to show the kids that I can do this if I ask them to do it," said Harmon, a multi-county 4-H photography leader. "I can use them to show examples of what other judges are looking for."

The judge of this year's contest was Dale Schmitt of Dale Schmitt Photography in Russell.

"I was really impressed with the age groups, and the quality of some of the images the kids had," Schmitt said. "Overall, I thought it was a great show. The quality of work was hard for me to judge."

The 40 different categories ranged from still life to architecture, from sports action to abstract to "anything goes."

"This is a great opportunity for kids to be able to check on their skills," Schlichting said. "And that's what part of the whole process is, to challenge their skills further."

Schlichting also tried her luck in the 2008 contest and was rewarded for best of show in the adult division for her abstract entry of some pipes she had taken a photo of in Finland last summer.

Other local and area winners were:

People's Choice -- Elizabeth Smith-Moore, Hays, youth senior, and Shannon Showalter, Hays, professional.

Online People's Choice -- Cash Drylie, Hays, youth senior, and Twylia Sekavec, Brownell, adult division. Sekavec also was a best-of-show runner-up in the adult divison.

Award-winning photos are posted online at www.SunflowerShowcaseOnLine.com.

Harmon and her husband, Richard, also are the parents of 5-year-old Rebekah and 14-month-old Rynn.

But she said that Rebekah hasn't taken the same liking to photography as her older brother -- not yet, anyway.

"She'd rather paint," Harmon said of her middle child. "And right now, she's more interested in being a princess."