Competing at Queensland Camera Group is fun and a great way to improve your photography.
At QCG, the print is supreme – we strive to promote the printing of images as the superior way in which to enjoy and appreciate a photo. There’s also no hiding in a print – the good, the bad and the ugly are all there to see which is why a faultless print is something after which we all strive! And there’s so much to consider – colour, black and white, stock, matting, size, orientation – the list goes on! Printers themselves aim to deliver the best blacks and the widest array of printing styles and products.
After you’ve been in the club for a while you will, like many of us, begin to accumulate some beautiful prints. We’ve put together these ideas on what you might like to do with them:
Home gallery – it’s obvious, but needs some thought and a little planning. If you find yourself printing the same sized images for competitions it makes creating and maintaining a home gallery so much easier to organise. Just pop out your images from their mats, and into a frame. Hang, and admire! Gallery systems can be purchased online as well as at Bunnings. Here are some examples from some of our club legends!
Phil Lawrence’s home gallery.
Phil Lawrence’s work space and surrounding gallery.
Tony FitzGerald’s work up on the walls at home.
Gorgeous home gallery by Tony FitzGerald. This is a gallery-style set up where the images are hung from a sliding mechanism above and just out of shot. A similar system is used in many galleries, including Percolator Gallery where we will host Collections 2020. Beverage, anyone?
Photo swap – a personal favourite! Do you have an image that you admire over and above any that you have seen in club competitions? If so, why don’t you ask the maker if they would like to do a print swap with you? You choose the print you so admire, and they choose something from your collection. I have David Bullock’s beautiful ‘Egg and Bowl’ still life in my kitchen and David has a portrait of his friend Sarah which I took a while ago. ‘Egg and Bowl’ bring me so much happiness every time I look at it in my kitchen, plus I was absolutely thrilled that another club member liked an image of mine so much that they were keen to hang it in their own home. The practice of print swapping is not new, but it was to me when David first proposed it to me. My image of Sarah is part of a gallery which David has curated for his home – a mixture of his own images and the images of others - and I asked David how he made his selection.
“My own (images in my home gallery) are all time favourites where I achieved exactly what I intended in my mind’s eye,” David said.
“The others are images that have blown me away in the capturing the moment perfectly and appeal to my particular preferences and affect me emotionally. Almost always prints.”
Many of the professionals who participate in the AIPP APPA (Australian Professional Photography Awards) competition often swap their entered images with each other. It’s a lovely compliment to pay to another photographer.
Egg and Bowl, by David Bullock.
Sarah, by Anne Pappalardo.
Swapsies! Phone photo of David Bulock’s home gallery, which features his own images and prints by other makers.
PSQ Salon of Excellence – the Salon of Excellence is a club vs club competition that is held annually as part of the Photographic Society of Queensland’s annual conference. It is open to any member of a camera club, and you participate as a member of the Queensland Camera Group. There is a cost to participate, but it is not expensive, and, you enter a digital thumbnail of your print via My Photo Club, with which we are now all experienced! There are four categories in which you can enter including Nature, People, Social Documentary and Mono and you are able to enter four prints and four DPIs in each category. The competition is graded, so you will compete against others in your own grade, but still representing the club. QCG has taken home two Salon of Excellence trophies in 2018 and 2019 because of both the strength of our images and the number of members who participate, particularly in the area of prints, where we are one of the strongest clubs in Queensland. Please consider entering as a way of giving back to your club! It would be great if you could look through your portfolio of prints and consider entering them in this competition. A coordinated delivery of print entries will be organised by the club, so you will not have to worry about getting your images to the Gympie Camera Club (who coordinate the judging). For more information contact Esther Andrews from Queensland Camera Group. The link here will take you through to the winning entries from 2019 https://psq-seq.myphotoclub.com.au/. Entries close Friday 27 March, so there is plenty of time to look through your existing catalogue and maybe print one or two new images! Good luck!
A couple of years ago, John Edwards and David Bullock would set up a display of our competition prints outside the front doors of Frontier Digital. Not only did the customers at the shopping centre enjoy viewing our images, it also led some foot traffic into the Frontier store, which was great for Frank. We’ve also for the last couple of years had exhibitions at libraries in the western suburbs as well as a long stint in the gallery at Brisbane Square Library. If members have any other ideas or contacts that would allow QCG to hang its prints, please let us know as providing a gallery experience to our members is one of the goals we aim to achieve.
Good luck finding new homes or uses for your competition images – don’t forget to tell us how you’ve given them continuing life.