Banner Photograph: “Dew drops on a twig” by Geof Squarok
Our annual awards are based on our external judges’ rankings of all the images that placed 1st 2nd and 3rd or honourable mention in each category throughout this last year. We sincerely thank our judges listed below for their adjudication of our images. Participation in our competitions is a valuable learning opportunity and the Competition Committee sincerely thanks all those who have participated in this year’s competitions.
This has been another year of great images.Images and judges’ adjudication placements are available on the Victoria Camera Club website:
https://www.victoriacameraclub.ca/Competitions/CompetitionResults.aspx
Gregg Eligh: Theme
Gregg is a now retired commercial photographer, having worked in Vancouver, Toronto and Victoria since the 70s. His commercial work has been directed towards advertising, editorial, catalogue and corporate assignments.
Occasional teaching, coaching and workshops further developed Gregg’s skills and knowledge as well as contributing to his ‘community’. “Imagination is better than knowledge”.
More information about Gregg’s photography can be found at:
Rick Shapka: Open
After a business career, Rick studied photography at Focal Point and art history at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. He creates photographs of landscapes, wildlife, action, people, macro and abstracted images which he often prints. Rick’s print skills have been honed with workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Rick makes photographs wherever he travels, including Europe and western and southwestern USA.
Since Covid, Rick has taken his third Hummingbird workshop at Bull River BC, followed by a marine mammal trip from Port McNeil and grizzly bear trips to the Khutzeymateen.
Past service on the executive of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA) has led to his initial interest and ongoing education as an active CAPA Certified Judge (since 2011). Rick judges for many photographic competitions.
Some of the images on Rick’s website have been printed for a recent group show at ArtSea in Sidney BC along with three other photographers.
More information about Rick’s photography can be found at: http://rickshapka.smugmug.com/
Michael Murchison: Nature
For Michael, photography is about the experience. There is nothing in life that gives him more peace than being out in nature with his camera and an open mind and heart.
He strives to express the beauty and stories he discovers in the world through his images. Hopefully he has achieved some level of success in relaying those stories in his photography.
More information about Michael’s photography can be found at:
Mitch Stringer: People
Mitch is a freelance photographer and photography instructor in Victoria, British Columbia.
He truly enjoys the entire photographic process from capture, process to print and the constant quest of creating exciting images with each and every new assignment. As photography is his creative passion he has been constantly exploring and improving a diversity of skills, experience, and with each new assignment, creating a strong technical and creative photographic understanding.
Mitch has run many destination workshops to locations around the world. His passion and knowledge of photography have successfully driven over 30 years of teaching experience.
More information about Mitch’s photography can be found at: https://www.mitchstringer.ca/
Wes Bergen: Creative Images
Wes has been a keen amateur photographer for over 50 years. He has been a member of the Lions Gate Camera Club since 1969. Wes has also been a member of the National Association for Photographic Art (NAPA, a precursor to CAPA) as well as CAPA.
He has had numerous acceptances and awards in international competitions, and has sold many of his images for use in calendars, tourism brochures and other publications.
Wes taught Photoshop courses at local school board continuing education departments for about 10 years. He has written columns in Lions Gate Camera Club’s Photolog and in CAPA’s Canadian Camera magazine on digital photography and Photoshop. He is a frequent judge and presents workshops at local photography clubs.
Leah Gray: All Print Categories
Leah Gray, FCAPA, PPSA, AFIAP, BPSA is a Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA) Certified Judge as well as a Photography Society of America (PSA) judge. She is the past Chair of the Victoria Camera Club (VCC) External Competitions Committee and past webmaster of VCC and CAPA.
Leah Gray has accumulated over 800 acceptances for her images in International Photography Exhibitions including 17 gold medals and 6 Best in Show awards. Leah’s wildlife image “Siblings” won the year-end god medal and best-in-show in the PSA Nature and Wildlife division from International Exhibitions world-wide in 2018.
Interests range from wildlife and landscape photography to sports, travel, macro, studio and creative images. Leah teaches photography with her partner Steve Smith.
“Photography is the culmination of planning, technique, vision, composition and perception, brought together in one instant – with a little (or more) editing.” – Leah Gray
More information about Leah’s photography can be found at: https://spirithills.ca/
Leah’s photography can also be viewed at: https://www.instagram.com/spirithill.ca