BPC Annual Exhibition and Presentation of Awards December 3rd 2020
2020 has been an extraordinary year, full of twists and turns and surprises, including the postponement of our Annual Exhibition due to the brief Covid 19 lockdown two weeks ago. Happily, we were able to hold the event live on December 3rd with 25 members present.
As our 2020 competitions were revamped to include only Projected Digital Images the evening took a slightly different format, with no prints on the walls, but with twenty members entering a total of 163 images we had a strong competition and a fabulous display of the talents of our members.
Congratulations to Suzie Smith and Frances Allan who emerged to challenge the regular strong performers, James Allan, Judy Sara and Helen Whitford and it was great to see the awards spread between 8 members.
We introduced two new award categories this year – Nature and Portrait. The images were all judged in Open category but the highest scoring image nominated in each of these categories (and the existing WEA Australian Landscape category) won the award.
Nature was won by Suzie Smith with her exquisite Pink Robin.
Portrait was won by Frances Allan with Surfing Pondalowie.
The WEA Australian Landscape Award went to James Allan for Last Light on Rawnsley Bluff
Colour Projected Digital Images
In the Colour PDI section Suzie Smith’s Pink Robin was First.
Helen Whitford’s Feather came Second
James Allan’s Last Light on Rawnsley Bluff was Third
Merits were awarded to:
Frances Allan for Pied Kingfisher and Shaped by Prevailing Wind
James Allan for Mist on the Water
Mark Pedlar for I Beg your Pardon
Jenny Pedlar for King Penguins
Steve Wallace for Ever Watchful
and Helen Whitford for Pearls and Bonney Light
Monochrome Projected Digital Images
In the Monochrome PDI section Suzie Smith’s First Train of the Season was First
Frances Allan’s Surfing Pondalowie was Second
and Helen Whitford’s White Cheeked Gibbon was Third
Merits were awarded to:
James Allan for Hooded Robin
Di Gage for Had Better Days
Suzie Smith for Reynisfjaara
and Helen Whitford for Timid
Aggregates 2020
The Aggregate Awards for competitions throughout the year were also different in 2020. As Print categories were not possible we ran just two sections – Colour PDI and Monochrome PDI.
Colour PDI Aggregate 2020
First – Helen Whitford
Second – Judy Sara
Third – James Allan
Monochrome PDI Aggregate 2020
First – Judy Sara
Second – James Allan
Third – Helen Whitford
Thank You to our judges Peter Phillips SSAPS, Brad Hodge and Sandra Goulter.
The Bill Templer Award for Service to Blackwood Photographic Club over the past 12 months was presented to Helen Whitford
See below for the slideshow of all entries and awards.
October 2020 Camera Clips
Posted on October 27, 2020by James Allan
The banner this week is a montage of what I considered were the great character portraits from the recent competition. The Authors were, Frances Allan (1&3), Shiela Gatehouse (2&4), Helen Whitford (5) and Steve Wallace (6). I chose these images because of their unwavering gaze. I was not the judge, but there would be several 10’s in this collection if I was.
The alternate (second) Banner comes from Vicki Crammer from the product photography competition with a strong image called the handbag. Of course all of the original images and a write up of the competition can be found on the club web page.
It is time to choose your favourite images for judging. The end of year competition looms. Of course this year the competition is only projected images, with 2 categories, colour and monochrome. In addition there are 3 special prizes, one for Landscape, one for Portrait and one for Wildlife. Entries are due in early November, refer to the wabpage.
This month I have articles from Mark Pedlar (A photo journal of his Antarctic holiday) and Ray Goulter (Baby Brownie Camera). To that I have added a write up of another photographic location in South Australia, the Paiwalla wetland near Murray Bridge.
So this month I am going to start a new feature. As there is a lot of trial and error in photography, I have decided to look at the problem solving aspect of capturing an image. This week I will pose a problem and once you feel you have the answer, have a look at the answer page. Best of Luck.
Enjoy this edition of Camera Clips.
James Allan
Post script:
There is a change of format this week. Word Press has updated it’s editor and I can no longer nest the pages within each months newsletter. Accordingly I have made each of the articles a post on the home page. However you can navigate to the articles in the usual way from the table of contents below.
Contents:
Character Study – Competition October 22nd 2020
The Set Subject of Character Study was embraced by the 12 members who entered, with about 60% of entries in the category. The inclusion of Animals in the definition surprised judge, Geoff Smith, but he embraced the concept, appreciating that animals can indeed display character in their expressions and actions.
Geoff was impressed with Huli Wigman by Judy Sara and Helen Whitford’s Quizzical.
In Open category he liked new member Frances Allan’s In the Moment and Heather Connolly’s Painted Lady.
Rounding out the high scores were James Allan’s Climbing Boy, Duart McLean’s Linked Pair, Paul Hughes Love at First Sight and Judy Sara’s Elle.
As an Editor’s Choice I select Frances Allan’s Playing with Light, which I saw as a beautiful serene scene, although it perhaps didn’t display as well on the large screen as on a computer.
Frances Allan_Playing with Light
That’s it for regular competitions in this unusual COVID year! All that’s left is the Annual Exhibition and I would encourage EVERY MEMBER to ENTER! Even if you don’t feel “competitive” this is your opportunity to share your work and and have it seen in a public space! We anticipate showing a slideshow of images in a public display after the Annual Exhibition and Awards night and all images will be displayed on this website. Why not join in and perhaps put yourself in the running for one of the special 2020 trophies for Portrait and Nature images! Entries are due by 7pm Monday November 2nd.
Here is a slideshow of ALL of the images in this competition and you can look back over the best images throughout the year here.
BPC Annual Exhibition 2020
Hi BPC Members
It’s that time of year! Time to hunt through your best images, or go out again with your camera, and get your entries in for the Blackwood Photographic Club Annual Exhibition 2020! You have until 7pm Monday November 2nd to enter.
This year has been like no other and if you’ve never entered our “Annual” before now is the chance to take the plunge.  It would be wonderful to have at least one or two entries from every member and, as the entire competition is digital, there’s no cost involved. Entries may have been entered in competitions throughout the year, shared in Peer Review or on social media or never seen by us before! The only restriction is that they must not have been in a previous BPC Annual Exhibition. The competition will be judged by a panel of three experienced photographers from outside of the club. If you’re not heavily into competition think of it instead as an opportunity to showcase your work and celebrate your photography with your fellow members. We hope to display the digital exhibition in a public format later in the year.
This year brings more opportunities with new awards for Portrait and Nature and most of this year’s awards will be individual “keepers” as our perpetual trophies will hibernate until 2021.
Here is the BPC ENTRY FORM Annual Exhibition 2020 which includes important entry information. Email the completed form, along with your digital image files to bpcdigitalentries@gmail.com by 7pm Monday November 2nd.
Go for it!
Helen
BPC Competition Secretary
Product Photography – Competition September 24th
We had fewer images than usual but a small, enthusiastic audience enjoyed those that were on show with our judge, Susie Lipert, providing thoughtful comments.
The Set Subject, Product Photography, may have been a little daunting for some members – perhaps part of the reason for the low number of entries – and in fact the most common criticism from the judge was the lack of contextual detail in the images to help “sell” the product.
The most “advert-like” images were probably Judy Sara’s Bluetooth Earphones and Helen Whitford’s DeLonghi….for Living. Meredith Retallack’s Bake your Own made quite a strong Product image though it could have benefitted from contextual elements.
Although perhaps not seen as a strong Product image Susie was intrigued and impressed by Vicki Kramer’s The Handbag – an interesting and quirky composition.
Vicki Kramer_The Handbag
The Open section entries were quite varied in subject matter but it was a couple of nature shots which most impressed Susie.
All of the images from this competition appear below and the Top Images from all of the 2020 competitions can be found here.
We have one regular competition remaining, “Character Study” October 22nd, before our Annual Exhibition competition which will be judged off-site on November 7th.
Like everything else the Annual will be different this year with a digital-only competition. Members will be able to enter up to 6 Colour images and 6 Monochrome images. Within these 12 images members can nominate any number to be in contention for the WEA Australian Landscape, Portrait or Nature trophies. Colour, Monochrome, Nature and Portrait winners will receive a one-off individual award while the WEA Australian Landscape trophy is a perpetual shield. The other perpetual competition shields will not be awarded for 2020 as those competitions were cancelled.
So start preparinging your entries and take a chance on bringing home one of these unique COVID year awards!
Details of the competition and Entry Forms will be emailed to all members soon.
