I have been looking forward to the Nanaimo 2010 Photosalon. In February I submitted two of my images for a adjudication, which were accepted. When I dropped off my prints this last Tuesday, I had a glimpse of some of the work that had already been dropped off, I was blown away by the sheer outstanding quality of images that were already there. This left me feeling like this years’ Photosalon was going to be a stupendous event. The last time I participated, in 2008, the venue was at the Vancouver Island University Art Gallery (then Malispina College). This year the Nanaimo Museum is a great partner, offering a suitable gallery space that houses 70+ outstanding prints from all over Vancouver Island. My wife and I arrived just after 1:00 pm to find several photographers already gathering. After enjoying some great company over Serious Coffee and several other conversations with friends, the big 2:00 pm announcements of the winners commenced.

The three judges that came over from Vancouver are professional judges from The Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA). The comments that some of the judges made for each image were read and I found out that both of my entries placed.

In the open category,
“Make it Stop” – model Michael Ward,
took both the Gold Medal (1st Place) and Best in show.

The theme category this year was “collection”,
my second entry called “Mother’s Treasures” took the Silver medal (2nd Place).

When the announcement came for Mother’s Treasures my wife who was standing beside me started to cry. The image had been her idea and is a photograph of her collection of “bunnies” that our daughter has sewn by hand for her each year as a Christmas present, for the last 14 years. Our daughter was unable to attend the Photosalon opening, we purposefully did not show her the image before it was entered and we are hoping to bring her to the museum to show her the image before she sees or hears about it from elsewhere.

I wish to thank the CAPA  judges; [Allen Bargen, Francois Cleroux and Lynne Kelman], Peter Gyorffy ~ Chair of Photosalon 2010 Organizing Committee, the Harbour City Photo club and the Nanaimo Museum for a wonderful opening. The feature exhibit runs from April 10 to May 24, 2010.

I also need to give a sincere thank you to the amazing model Michael Ward, without his help, “Make it Stop” would still be stuck in my head.

Make sure if you are on Vancouver Island to visit the museum and take in the show. All the images are outstanding in both presentation and quality.
(I will be updating this post with the official list of winners when I receive it from Peter)