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2007 WINTER QUARTERLEY PHOTO COMPETITIONand 2007 OVERALL WINNERS
BY Jon Jayes Secretary, BDS Photographic Committee The final quarterly photographic competition closed on 20th October, although we allowed extra time for delivery of late entries due to the postal strike. Unfortunately two or three arrived after judging had taken place, due to no fault of the competitors, one of whom had his packet in the post for 18 days. However, it was very satisfying for the judges to see how many contestants had entered the event over the year and how much enthusiasm they had, not only for the competition, but also for photography and deer has been outstanding. There were hundreds of pictures submitted during the year and I'm sure you will agree that the winners have been exceptional. Choosing winners has been an almost impossible task. Together with the prize placements, a number of highly commended certificates were also issued and we hope that this will encourage those competitors who didn't quite make it to a listed prize to continue to enter in the future. The Winter quarter results are as follows. In the Open Category and taking first place with a superbly sharp and excellently captured picture of a deer and bird was Alex Hedger who used his Nikon D70 to excellent effect. Alex wins £30 and a pack of Canon glossy photo printing paper from London Camera Exchange (Salisbury). Second in the Open Category was Graeme Purdy with his beautifully evocative 'Summer Dawn'. The judges liked this for the effect of the light dispersal through the tree and the fact that in the original print the dark areas and the deer were not too muddy. Graeme used his Canon 1D Mk2 in typical expert fashion and wins £20. In the Members' section Chris Howard took a close up of a roe buck which is sharp, well exposed and comfortably framed with his Canon 5D camera to take first place and win £30. Second place and winning £25, was Kevin Messenger who has been a consistent competitor throughout the year and whose work has improved during the course of the competition. His 'Stand Buck' is a beautifully taken shot on his Canon 30D. Also in the Members' category, third place was taken by George Trebinski with 'Wake up Call'. Also taken on a Canon 5D camera, George maintained his typical quality of image, composition and delicate feeling of picture content and wins £20. The last place of fourth in the Members' category went to Paul Holmes for his 'Stag in Bracken'. Paul used an Olympus digital camera for his study of a stag in the golden surroundings of Autumn. He wins £15.
When it came to discovering who was the overall winner, it was just a case of adding up the best three scores for the year. Simple! Except that points were so close the judges had to check and double check several times. In the end the points separating the first and second were the same as last year. Graeme Purdy lost by half a point last year but this time he took the title of British Deer Society Photographer of the Year by the same half point margin. Graeme has been consistent in the quality of his submissions all year, not only with quality but ideas and interpretation of the subject matter and thoroughly deserves to win. For his efforts, Graeme wins the Canon 400D SLR camera with 18-55mm lens donated by Canon and London Camera Exchange (Salisbury) Second overall in the Open Class was Alex Hedger whose work has also been excellent and whilst the judges appreciate the disappointment he must feel at not winning he can take some solace in the fact that he lost out by only half a point and the images that he submitted - not only the ones that have been published and placed but all his other entries too - have been of the highest quality. A second prize has been very generously offered by Society Vice President, John Willett, for Alex to spend a weekend with him at his home and have photographic access to John's own deer collection and for a trip onto Exmoor to photograph the deer there. Alex also wins a years membership to the BDS. In the Members' category it was stalwart of the photographers and a previous winner - George Trebinski - who took first place for the year. George's pictures are always superb and excellently executed and he deserves the first prize, a Canon inkjet printer from Canon and the London Camera Exchange (Salisbury). For those not mentioned, there was only 12 points difference between the 1st and the 7th in the members category so you will see that competition was very fierce. There has been some very positive feedback from the competitors throughout the year and the Photographic Committee hope that everyone has enjoyed it and benefited in some way from it. We would like to thank all those who took part and extend our thanks to the sponsors who have made this competition a success. Mick Kelly at the London Camera Exchange (Salisbury) and Jose Price at Canon have supported us from the beginning of the year and it is very much appreciated. The Photographic Committee would hope to see entries from many of you in the future and wish everyone the best of luck with their photography and deer watching.
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