Mitchelstown photographer wins top awards
A Mitchelstown man has won 'photographer of the year' in the annual awards at Mallow Camera Club. Bill Power won the top annual award in the club and he also won the trophy for best colour print and another for best monochrome panel.
Each member of the club was allowed enter up to twelve images in the competition, with the marks of each entrant’s five highest scoring images being used to determine the overall award. Adjudication was undertaken by Cork photographers Michael O’Sullivan, Niamh Whitty and Martin Duggan.
Bill’s photograph ‘French Window’ won the trophy for best colour print. The images that won him the award for best monochrome panel were titled ‘Rodders,’ ‘Lismore Mountain Stream,’ ‘Mr Paternac,’ ‘Padre’ and ‘Along Monastic Lines.’
‘It’s a great honour to win Photographer of the Year in Mallow,’ said Bill, who admitted that, although he took ‘French Window’ while on holidays last August, he didn’t show it to anyone until recently. "I liked the photograph from the moment I took it, but didn’t think others would have the same reaction to it."
Bill’s top scoring monochrome print ‘Rodders’ was taken at the Gent music festival last July. "I saw a face in the crowd that I thought was interesting and just took the shot," he said. "It’s gotten a great reaction from everyone who has seen it"
Bill’s monochrome print of a mountain stream near Lismore came in for particular praise from the judges.
"The control of lighting, composition and framing of the bridge in the photograph is an excellent example of this genre of photography. It’s one of the best images of this kind that I’ve seen," said Michael O’Sullivan who is a judge with the Irish Photographic Federation and holder of fellowships from the IPF and Royal Photographic Society.
Winning the title of Photographer of the Year is the culmination of a year of successes for Bill, who was awarded an associateship in photography last November by the Irish Photographic Federation.
In January, his image ‘Griston Bog’ won the Peatland Ireland category at the Southern Association of Camera Clubs’ regional Nature Photography Competition finals hosted by the Southern Association of Camera Clubs. The image went on to get the maximum score of 20 out of 20 to go on to win that category in the National Nature Photography competition.
His photograph of a toadstool called ‘Amethyst Deceiver’ won a silver medal in the Regional Nature Photography Finals and took the same position in the national finals a couple of months later, also scoring a maximum possible mark of 20. His image ‘Toadstool Triplets’ also obtained a maximum score in the projected category of the competition and successfully won him an 'honourable mention' in that category of the competition.
"I’m an amateur photographer who loves what I do," said Bill, who only joined Mallow Camera Club three years ago.
"My preferred styles of photography are nature and landscapes, but in recent times I’ve been trying more and more portraiture, which seems to be doing well for me in competitions."
Published:
Friday 7th June 10:57am
