Over the past few months I’ve had some success in photo competitions. Once again I entered the Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet photo competition (previous success in 2013 & 2018) and managed to win the Nature category, and also have a number of other photos placed and highly commended. The photos can be seen below with the judges comments. As with any competition the judging reflects the views of the judge, so its nice to get positive and constructive comments. The full list of awarded photos for the GOPI 2021 photo competition can be seen here: http://gopi.org.nz/our-activities/photo-competition/
1st place: Nature category. Judeges comment: “This image portrays the spoonbills well showing lots of character and detail.? The different angles of the beaks of the birds show the form of this distinctive feature.?The spoonbills stand out against the simple background and the rain makes an atmospheric photograph. ?A great image.”
3rd place: Nature category. Judges comment: “The image shows the characteristics of the stilts very well, with some of them standing and others in flight.? The blur of the wings contrasts with the sharpness of the heads and bodies of the birds and shows the movement taking place. The image is well composed with a simple background.”
2nd place: Human Impact category. Judges comment: “The central placement of the pole gives prominence to the manmade object and highlights its impact on the natural environment.? The mist separates the different layers of trees and shows the shape of the individual trees.”
3rd place: Recreation category. Judges comment: “A simple well composed image that works well in black and white. The lighting from the slot in the wall is very effective.”
Highly Commended: Artistic category. Judges comment: “A simple treatment of this common plant makes a high impact image.?The shallow depth of field isolates the leaf from the background and the water droplets and the light rain add atmosphere to the image.”
Earlier in the year I entered some photos into a competition run by ParrotDog, the brewery based in Lyall Bay. They had themed a competetion around a hazy beer named Birdseye and they wanted the best photos taken at sunrise or sunset. My winning photo was taken from the Paekakariki Road lookout with a view south to the (very) distant Mount Ruapehu rising over the horison above Paraparaumu.
Lastly I entered the Capital Magazine’s new Capital Photographer of the Year competition. I had two photos shortlisted for the Whenua category, one of which was a photo taken a few minutes after the Birdseye winning photo above. The competition rules stated that photos that had won another competition couldn’t be entered so I contacted the organisers and to point out that the shortlisted photo might be contentious. They agreed and that photo was withdrawn from the shortlist, fair enough. The other shortlisted photo was the tui shot below. I’ll have to head back to Mount Victoria later in the year to see if I can locate the ghost tui again. All the winning photos for CPOTY 2021 can be viewed here: https://capitalmag.co.nz/cpoty/
