Annual comp puts photography in the frame

THE winners of the Lal Lal Moorabool Photographic Group’s eleventh annual photo competition have been announced with shutterbugs in Ballarat and Golden Plains Shire taking top spots.

More than 300 photos were submitted and group secretary Kristina Kitchingman said she was amazed at the quality of work.

“It just goes up every year,” she said. “We’ve added a new phone category which changed the dynamics of the photos we normally look at.

“We also changed our subjects around so we had a miscellaneous subject which meant people could put in works that didn’t fit the other criteria.

“There’s a lot of the same people submitting but over the last two years we’ve had a lot of new people. The competition sort of promotes the group and promotes photography in the area.”

The competition’s open, youth, and novice awards saw six subjects each, ranging from landscapes, flora, pets, and wildlife.

Mount Clear’s Deb Hamilton has been a member of the Lal Lal Moorabool Photographic Group since 2019 and took the top spot in the open award phone category for her work Pink.

She said the new category made the competition more accessible.

“All of us carry around a phone these days and in reality 95 per cent of us will get the phone out first to take a photo rather than carry around a big camera,” she said.

“For the photo, I had been to Lake Tyrell in July last year to do some photos. It happened to be at sunset and had a big beautiful salt crystal with the sun behind it. I thought it was perfect.”

Lyn Steele from Bannockburn took first place in the open landscape and miscellaneous categories.

Having joined the Lal Lal Moorabool Photographic Group about five years, she said the competition, like the group itself has encouraged her to keep honing her craft.

“It’s amazing how much attending a club ca help with your progress in your hobby,” she said.

“When I first started it, I joined Lal Lal and the competition. As time goes on, your photography improves and that’s sort of represented in the prizes.”

All category first-place winners received a $100 Camera House voucher, while the Mayor’s Prize and Sarah Peckham Award recipients won vouchers of $500.

Roughly 20 people attend the Lal Lal Moorabool Photographic Group’s regular meetings on the third Wednesday of every month, which has 40 registered members.