Despite the constraints that arise from the Covid pandemic and the cancellation of some activities, the Hermanus Photographic Society (HPS) remained active over the past few months with members participating in national and local photographic salons.
Indeed the club goes from success to success with awards in national and international salons.
At the Brandpunt National Salon, Carina de Klerk and Phil Sturgess both obtained three certificate of merits each. Carina’s were for “Golden Wave” in open colour section, “The Climax” in the wildlife section and “Karoo Prinea with Cape Snowbush” in the birds section. Phil’s awards were for “Dead Tree Shadows” in the open colour, “Canola Fields of Plenty” in the scapes section and “Togetherness” in the wildlife section. Phil further gained five acceptances at the salon, Carina another three, Elizma Fourie seven acceptances and Charles Naude three.
Success in international salons continued for David Wilson with a silver medal for his “Confusion in Pink” in the open colour section of the Perasto Salon, a bronze medal with “Green Wood Hoopoe and Chicks” in the nature section of the Oriental Dragon Circuit and an honourable mention for his “Thames Barrier” in the travel section of the CMYK Salon. Added to this David obtained no less than 112 acceptances in international salons during December 2020 and January 2021.
Elizma Fourie was the First Runner Up with “To the Centre” in December’s PSSA’s Website Competition.
February club meeting
An outstanding level of success continued as at the first meeting of the club in 2021 after the holiday hiatus, the regular photographic competition was truly competitive with no less than five certificates of merit handed out, three of which went to Carina de Klerk. The meeting was held via Zoom.
That made judging the Senior Winner of the month far more difficult than normal as two of her entries gained a very impressive 29 points from 30 with “Namid Triangles” and “Mom I am Going to be Like You” but the latter was ultimately selected as Senior Image of the Month.
Hiatus with club activities there might have been, but December saw the club have a Virtual Photowalk Competition that although greatly impacted by the new Covid-lockdown regulations, saw a small but impressive number of entries.
The club set three themes for the Walk – How to get Rid of Unwanted Christmas Presents, Rubbish and Street Signage. Being purely for fun the judging for the six entry short list allowed great latitude in the entries and overall winner was Charles Naude in the Signage category with “No Bicycles Please”.
First Runner up and in the Unwanted Christmas Presents category was “The Disposal Team” by David Wilson whereas Daniel Reddie was Second Runner Up with “Please Open” in the Street Signage Category.
Not to be outdone in trying to make the best of the Covid situation, the Club still is a part of Hermanus First Fridays Art Walk and although activity in the last few months has been less than normal, on Friday 5 February the Club featured a showing on 1970s era mono prints by Daniel Reddie that was extremely well received by visitors.
For the time being all club meetings will be by Zoom only so anyone interested in photography please contact either of the above for permission to join in as you will be greatly welcomed.