What a Load of Rubbish! – Competition April 8th 2021
Thursday was a rubbish night with our Set Subject being Rubbish/Trash. Being just after Easter it was in danger of being all over very quickly with very few entries but we rallied and had just enough to make a competition. (Yes, we’ve learned a lesson – no comp just after Easter!) Few members were willing to commit to printing their Rubbish photos, with only six prints in Set Subject, while 23 were in Open.
The challenge was to “capture the subject artistically”, which proved difficult for some. The only photograph which convinced judge David Rowlands that it had done so was Jenny Pedlar’s Elsehul Wilderness.
Jenny Pedlar – Elsehul Wilderness
Some others seemed to achieve the goal to a lesser degree.
In Open subject Jenny and Mark Pedlar impressed with Sea Ice, Drive Safe and Survival! along with Vicki Kramer’s The Orphan and Helen Whitford’s MY Grevillea!
In projected images these were also of interest.
For Top Prints and Top Projected Images from this and other 2021 competitions click the links.
A Surreal Evening – Competition March 11th 2021
Our Surreal competition was a challenge to everyone – entrants, viewing members and the judge! Members came up with a wide variety of interpretations of this set subject which stretched our imagination. Here is a selection of the more creative entries.
Judge, Tim Newberry, seemed to get caught up in the “dream” part of our definition “Surreal – Seeming like a dream or Fantasy” but he appreciated the creativity in images, as long as they didn’t include a cat!
It was great to see the top scores spread around a bit, including to new members. View Top Prints and Top PDIs here.
Landscape/Seascape Competition February 11th 2021
“If at first you don’t succeed, read the instructions.”
This was a “meme” before anyone had heard of memes and I have to admit it popped into my head a number of times during preparation for this competition. I don’t usually do these write-ups from a personal perspective but I feel the need this time as so many of the members who entered had issues with their entries – “out of category”, too big, incorrect file names, titles provided not matching title on print/file, category not nominated etc., almost all of which could have been avoided by carefully reading the subject definition and the entry instructions.
At the risk of sounding like a teacher, I do ask that everyone please take care to avoid these mistakes because each one of them makes the task of putting the competition together take that bit longer. Gordon and I are very happy to manage the competitions but it is frustrating when it takes twice as long as it should. OK, whinge over. Thanks for “listening” – Helen
Now to the competition! We had a good number of entries, with 82 photographs from 14 different members, and the entries in the Set Subject of Landscape/Seascape well outnumbered the Open category.
Despite photographing a spot which is becoming an iconic location, James Allan made an impact with From the Clifftop. Jenny Pedlar’s daring Impressionist Hay Plains did impress judge Keith Seidel, who was in his element judging Landscapes, and Helen Whitford’s panoramic Parachilna also caught his eye.
(Click on any image to see it at full size.)
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- James Allan – From the Clifftop
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- Jenny Pedlar – Impressionist Hay Plains
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- Helen Whitford – Parachilna
In the Print sections, Vicki Kramer’s El Capitan’s Fluffy Hat, Mark Pedlar’s 69 Degrees South, James Allan’s Remarkable and Judy Sara’s At Horizontal Falls were the most successful entries in Set Subject. (Photos coming soon!)
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- James Allan – Remarkable
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- Judy Sara – At Horizontal Falls
In Open category Keith commended Vicki Kramer on “breaking with convention” in baby photography with Baby Liam and he admired the simplicity of Judy Sara’s The Curl.
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- Vicki Kramer – Baby Liam
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- Judy Sara – The Curl
Keith gave thoughtful, constructive comments and offered useful tips on ways to improve technical aspects of the photographs. It was a great start to our competitions for the year!
For more Top Prints come back in a few days for an update. Top Projected Images are available for viewing now.
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.
