Twice a year members of the Photography Club of Beaufort submit their best photos in competition among their peers. This year, the club is meeting monthly via Zoom so the process of judging was more creative.

Normally the club chooses judges who are in the geographic proximity of Beaufort.  In October, since the club was meeting virtually, competition chair Sandy Dimke realized that they could uses judges from anywhere in the country, or in this case, North America. The club could select the best three judges available on the night of the competition.  The 2020 judges were Jeff Amberg, a commercial photographer from Columbia, SC; Donald Brown, a landscape photographer from Charlotte, NC and Viki Gaul, a nature photographer from Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The group of international judges had the opportunity to review the images a few days prior to the judging and came prepared to cast their votes.

Winners this year were:

Novice: 1^stplace:  Dave Gottschall for “Heron Through the Looking Grass” (right)

Intermediate: 1^stPlace: Karen Norwood for “It’s Cold" (left).  Also receiving awards in this division were Peter Ferrier for “Doll at Old Car City,” Jim Bright for “Fire on the Lake,” and Jack Beaucaire for “Dragonfly.”

Advanced: 1^stPlace: Bob Norwood for “Monks at Play” (below). Also receiving awards in Advanced were: Rich Matheny for “Let Go My Shrimp,” Karen Gottschall for “Painted Bunting,” and Gregg Hunt for “Rice Field Trunk.”

The Expert 1^stPlace winner was Joan Eckhardt for “Golden Hour” (top of page) (Also receiving awards were Lynn Long for “Off to Dinner;” Paul Nurnberg for “Daniella” and Randy Thompson for “Laotian Rice Paddy.”)

The club will meet virtually the 2^ndMonday of every month at 7pm through Spring 2021, when hopefully life will begin to return to normal. www.beaufortphotoclub.com