New school categories for show photography

Photographers are preparing their entries for the Gunnedah Show photography competition, with this year’s judge Barry Smith, a former senior newspaper photographer in Tamworth for some 38 years.

The old saying “one picture is worth a thousand words” will certainly be the case at this year’s competition going by the number of enquiries leading up to this year’s show in Gunnedah.

After a number of years of COVID, the society believes that people are keen to get out and try different things – photography included.

Last year’s show competition introduced a new promotion which invited show patrons to upload their photos to the show’s email address.

These photos were later published throughout the weekend as the show society received them.

The idea was a huge success, with more than 180 photos submitted.

Prizemoney of $250 is up for grabs again this year for winning show photo submissions.

Locals should stay tuned to the show society’s website and social media throughout the show weekend for details.

The show photography section convener Paul Mathews predicted record numbers of photo entries this year, especially with the introduction of  primary school and secondary school sections in the 2023 line up.

“Everyone has a camera now, whether it’s on their phone or on an actual DSLR camera,” he said.

“The phone has introduced a hobby that people don’t even realise they are into.

“This generation ‘the throw away generation’ is renowned for exactly that.  They are the most photographed generation of all time, and yet will be the least recorded. People don’t move to get hard copies printed, then the image that is sitting somewhere in a cloud or on a memory card, gets lost, or they can’t be bothered getting a print done.

“Everywhere I go I promote getting hard copies of images done so they don’t disappear from the media they are stored on.

“It’s a shame for the generation who are going to ask questions later in life, where are all the photos my parents took of me as a kid.”

The OBG Co is still sponsoring ‘Capturing Gunnedah’ while the Mammen family is again sponsoring the Chris Burgess Memorial Prize for the grand champion of the show.

Also introduced this year are two sections of the school children’s photography competition. Primary and secondary schools have been notified and are promoting for the society the sections students can enter.

MEX (MacKellar Excavations) is sponsoring the school sections, which include ‘My Pet’, ‘People Studies/Portrait’, ‘Plants Flowers’, and ‘Landscape/Waterscape/Sunset/Sunrise/Clouds’.

Black and white photos and colour photos will be entered together in sections.  Show photo entries close on Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the show secretary’s office.