2005-2006 Image of the Year Winners

Slide of the Year		Digital Image of the Year
Swallow Tail Gull by Greg Hunter		Rising Sun by Mike Goodman
Click thumbnails for larger image.

The BWPS Slide and Digital Images of the Year was an exciting competition. Our judge Kent Crossley had his work cut out for him. He went through many rounds of eliminating our club's best slide and digital image ribbon winners. After careful elimination of the slide and digital images Mike Goodman's "Rising Sun" was selected Digital Image of the year and Greg Hunter's "Swallow Tail Gull" was selected Slide of the Year. Congratulations to both Mike and Greg for a photographer's ultimate accomplishment. Our award winners were given certificate plaques at our awards banquet in June.

Other awards given out at the June banquet included the top three competitors in Slides and Digital Image. In Class A slides Bruce Sooy won 1st place with a score of 38 points, Greg Hunter took 2nd place with a score of 33 points and Jim Blanchard placed 3rd place with a score of 32 points. Since Bruce was in first place, he will be moving up to Class AA in September.

In Class AA slides Ed McGuirk won 1st place with a score of 36 points. Mike Goodman placed 2nd with a score of 33 points and Frank Forward took 3rd with a score of 32 points.

In our digital competition, awards were given in Class B to David Poorvu for 1st place with a score of 40 points, Pat Clarke for 2nd place with a score of 35 points and Sandie Block for 3rd place with a score of 29 points. Since David was in first place he will be moving up to Class A in September.

In Digital Class A awards were given to Greg Hunter for 1st place with a score of 37 points. Ron Todd placed 2nd with a score of 32 points. There was a tie for 3rd place between Erik Samwel and Karen Randell. Both had scores of 30 points, but Erik had earned more blue ribbons than Karen which was the tie breaker and gave Erik his 3rd place standing. Since Greg came in first place he will be moving up to Class AA in September.

In Digital Class AA awards were given to Ian Dicker for 1st place with a score of 35 points, Mike Goodman for 2nd place with a score of 33 points and Ed McGuirk for 3rd place with a score of 32 points.

BWPS Invests in the Future of Digital Competition

After a long and diligent search, BWPS has selected and purchased what the digital photographic world considers the latest and greatest in digital image projection. This season's digital competitions will reach and possibly exceed film quality with the use of Canon's new Realis SX60 digital projector. This latest model features Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) projection technology, which experts claim offers all the best features of LCD and DLP (older) technologies, with non of the disadvantages. To our knowledge, no other club in NE is currently using this state-of-the art digital projector.

To make our decision, we emailed dozens of camera clubs across the country and asked them to recommend models they had firsthand experience with digital projectors. We got back several emails. We heard about the contrast limitations of LCD and the color problems of DLP projectors. And we also heard that those who bought the Canon LCOS technology, combined with SXGA+ resolution, felt they were now projecting digital images that matched or exceeded film quality.

The new projector has SXGA+ (very high) resolution of 1400 horizontal and 1050 vertical. This means that digital images will need to be sized differently than last season. New digital image preparation instructions will be posted very soon.

If you are a slide purist who has been waiting until digital imaging "catches up" with film quality, now is your opportunity to finally venture into digital imaging. If you are a novice in digital photography, you can easily create images with enough resolution to take advantage of the high quality of this new projector. Even entry-level (3- or 4-Mp) digital cameras are capable of resolution that exceeds the 1400x1050 projector specs. That means you can shoot digital images in your camera's highest resolution setting and down size them for competition.

We are very excited about this new acquisition and eagerly anticipate the upcoming digital competition season.