The exhibition was open from 09.30h until 17.00h on 29-30th May at the Corn Exchange, Blandford where approximately 430 photographic images entered by over eighty individual workers could be seen. As usual, the exhibition showed photographs from members in the Club Section and work by photographers from the surrounding area in the Open Section.
Our judge this year was locally-based Colin Varndell, justly renowned for his splendid wild life photography, and it was a pleasure for us to have him to present the various cups and trophies and also to welcome his wife. The Mayor of Blandford, Councillor Esme Butler, also graced the event with her presence when she gave a short address and made presentations to winners of the mobile phone photo competition which had ‘deposited rubbish within the town’ as its subject.
About a half of the photographs on display (202) were from club members. Twenty-seven members entered a total of 66 colour prints and Peter Gafney won this competition with Andy Fale and Jackie Poynter in second and third places respectively. Jackie is now a SAPA judge of course and the fact that she needed to enter just the one print to achieve the second spot reflects well on her judgement!
The monochrome print competition, with twenty prints on display, was supported by ten club workers. Peter Gafney did even better in this section coming first and second but with Dave Hurley just behind in third place. The Founder’s Cup is awarded for the best set of three – generally related - monochrome prints and this year it was especially well supported with seven members entering. This was in sharp contrast with last year when nobody entered! The winner of this trophy was – wait for it - Peter Gafney, with Brian Winkle second and Mike Ballard third.
Five members entered the club slide competition which was won by Bernard Smith with Graham Poynter second and Eric Langley third. The digital projected image competition (we’re going to have to learn to call them DPI’s or similar at some stage) was popular with no fewer than nineteen members entering a total of fifty-six images between them. Success here went exclusively to the women members with Heather Bowditch winning the trophy and Marilyn Peddle and Dionne Horsfall placed second and third. In this competition, three images were commended and all of these too were awarded to women, including Heather Bowditch (again!), Pat Catley and Jackie Poynter. For readers wondering what happened to Peter Gafney, I should explain that he didn’t enter either of the projected image competitions.
It is a feature of our annual exhibition to invite visitors to vote for their favourite print from among the club entries and on this occasion it was won by Ronnie Welstead with a picture of a cat – possibly her own - named ‘Truffle’. A further regular feature of this annual event is the raffle, and on this occasion the star prize was a bottle of champagne. Who won it, I hear you cry! Well, if I say that Peter bought a ticket, need I say more – except that it is perhaps fortunate for some of the rest of us that he didn’t buy more!
The results from the open section of the exhibition were as follows. The Open Challenge Trophy for colour prints was won by Ron Holmes of Wimborne with Graham Hutton (Wimborne) second and Roger Holman (Wimborne) third. The Open Challenge Shield for monochrome prints was won by Malcolm Bowditch (Broadstone) with Geoff Munsey (Fordingbridge) second and Keith Chaloner (WImborne) third. The David Gent Memorial Trophy for transparencies was won by Raymond Baker (Sherborne). Sheila Brown (Poole) was placed both second and third in this competition. The DPI Cup for digital images was won by John Larry (Verwood) who also came third. Norman Crabb (Yeovil) came second.
In reflecting on an exhibition of pictures of this kind a day or two after the event, it is interesting to find just which have stuck in the mind. Of the hundreds of images viewed, which ones have imprinted themselves on the memory cells? Five in my case and all showed originality and imagination but failed – no doubt for very good reasons - to make a significant impact on our judge. It would be invidious to identify them but unfortunately they weren’t mine!
It has become a tradition to show photographs produced by the Blandford School Photoclub and this year we featured four top pictures with Evie Opalka (1st), Charlotte Matthews (2nd), Lindsay Acott (3rd) and Adam Gonthier (Commended).
Overall, the exhibition was a great success and made the more pleasurable by the availability of fresh, home-made sandwiches, cakes and other delicacies provided by club members. This was a little like the club DPI competition all over again with the women performing well and the men totally excluded! It was also a pleasure to have our President, Fred Denham, present on both days. We hope to see more of him next season.
Under Norman Carey’s stewardship, the annual exhibition has continued to develop and flourish as he and his team have shown themselves willing to embrace changes that help – often in small but important ways - to improve the standard of the event in terms of the manner in which it is mounted and the way in which it is organised. Thank you folks!
Malcolm Bowditch