Portfolios for 2023

I thought I would give you all an update for the plans for this year’s Portfolio projects. There is no doubt that last year was a great success with 17 members finalising their portfolios (and several more that I know wished they had joined in). If you want to have a look at last year’s results, the final portfolio master images and artist statements can be viewed in our Portfolios 2022 gallery.

So what is planned for 2023…

Firstly, ‘What’s good about a portfolio’?

  • Portfolios are a private collection of work based around something you are passionate about. The theme, or topic, has to be something you are interested in. This might be a topic, a technique, a new skill, a documentary or following an event in your community.
  • This is non-competitive so there are no winners, just the best work you can do at the skill level you are at.
  • By sharing your portfolio journey you can get support, advice, education, tips and praise from other members of the club
  • and… if all goes well, you get a nice certificate of achievement at our end of year dinner.

This year we will relax a few rules and expand some opportunities.

Some things stay the same… you will need to come up with a theme that you will base your portfolio on, and start collecting images that tell the story you want to share. You will need to take a number of images (between 10-25) that sit within your theme and you will still need to write some form of artist statement.

And some things will be different… How you present your portfolio is only limited by the capacity of your imagination and creativity – think photobook, poster, printed on wood, as an AV, written as a story, put to music, as a jigsaw… the creative possibilities are endless. If you just want to make a master image – that’s fine too!

Our first get together will be in April (I will be away for most of March) and will be an in-person session at our usual venue. The date is to be confirmed. We will look at last year’s portfolios, discuss what was good/difficult, what worked and what did not, and I will share the process and rules for this year’s activity.

For now, get your thinking caps on, and start to think about what you might use as your theme and envision what the end result might be. Try not to leave everything to the last minute but start with a plan, and work on this throughout the year.

I’ll see you all in our group meeting in April. If you have any questions or concerns just ask.

Creative competitions in 2023

As communicated last year, we have moved the “creative EDI” competition from the main competition nights. We did this because in months where we had an additional Creative section the number of images to judge was getting to be a significant burden on the judges, and the extra images were making for an overlong competition night.

This year we will be running the Creative EDI competition in conjunction with the “Creative Special Interest Group” meetings, which I am convening in 2023. These meetings will be held every second month by zoom and are open to all members of the club, whether or not they have expressed a specific interest in joining the Creative SIG.

The competition judging will be run at the very start of the meeting – I expect a start about 7:30 PM with a brief introduction then the images and judge’s comments will be finished before 8 PM after which we will move on to the rest of the Creative SIG meeting, so those who want can join for the judging and exit or stay with the meeting for longer if they wish.

Creative image entries due Judging and Creative SIG NOTES
Tuesday, 31 January 2023 Tuesday, 14 February 2023 Judge: Heather Prince
Tuesday, 28 March 2023 Tuesday, 11 April 2023 Judge: TBA
Tuesday, 30 May 2023 Tuesday, 13 June 2023 Judge: TBA
Tuesday, 11 July 2023 Tuesday, 8 August 2023 WCC-Geelong Creative interclub comp.
Tuesday, 26 September 2023 Tuesday, 10 October 2023 Judge:TBA

Further information and the 2023 creative competitions schedule.

Portfolio Project for 2022

Congratulations to everyone who joined in the Portfolio project for 2022. As mentioned at the awards night, the outcomes of this project far exceeded any of my expectations, and the result is 17 outstanding portfolios. I have enjoyed watching the development of ideas, the sharing of images and statements, and final results are something to be proud of.

Thank you to the committee for embracing something ‘different’.

Here is the list of members who were successful in achieving a 2022 Portfolio Distinction:

Tim Keane - Bunjil Place

PSA Interclub 2021-22 Round 2 Results

We have received some excellent results from Round 2 of the PSA Interclub with the following images receiving awards:

Jennifer Sui - Foggy Morning
Jennifer Sui – Foggy Morning

Vicki Moritz - Urban  canyon 7
Vicki Moritz – Urban canyon 7

Felix Shparberg - Full Moon Myths
Felix Shparberg – Full Moon Myths

Geoff Shaw - Splendid leaf frog
Geoff Shaw – Splendid leaf frog

Tim Keane - Architecture
Tim Keane – Architecture

Vicki Moritz - Snow Capped
Vicki Moritz – Snow Capped

Helen Warnod - Duelling zebras
Helen Warnod – Duelling zebras

Stephen Hilton - Water Fun
Stephen Hilton – Water Fun

Helen Warnod - Alley kitchen
Helen Warnod – Alley kitchen

Xiaobo Yu - Beijing Front Gate
Xiaobo Yu – Beijing Front Gate

We don’t have Photojournalism results yet, but the good news is that we are coming first in both Creative and Travel for our section!

Our next round of images can be viewed in the Round 3 galleries, this is the last round for the current season, with the new round 1 starting back in November.

Any member who has received a award for their image during the year, will have their image put into a final round of judging to determine the best of the year.