People with Cameras event in Melbourne
Fujifilm hosted a photography event in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon called “People with Cameras”, it was open to anyone with any type or brand of camera and any skill level. All you needed was an interest in taking photos and be able to work within a group to take on a photography theme challenge and present a picture to the judges an hour later.
I attended the “People with Cameras” Sydney event in February (mentioned in my “Busy Couple of Weeks” blog post), which was a lot of fun, so I was keen to do it again in Melbourne. Thankfully this time I only had a 45 minute drive in to the city, rather than 9 hours on the Hume Highway to Sydney!
The 300 or so attendees met up in the Fitzroy Gardens at 4:30pm. After some introductions, a group photo and other formalities we were asked to form groups of five or six. I got together with four people I’d never met before, Corey, Lana, Steven and Josh. We were then given a theme of “Light and Shadows” and told to be back a 6pm with one image from the group to be presented to the judges. That gave us around an hour to find our locations and subjects, but only around half an our of sunlight.
Our group headed towards the city and were soon joined by Wilson, Lana’s friend who was running late. As we chased the light, we ended up in a multi-storey car park where the setting sun produced lots of light and shadows. We tried a few different ideas, but ended up mostly taking portraits of each other.
It turns out that Corey is a pro wedding photographer, his skill and creativity really helped us out. Some pros would have taken over, but he was great and encouraged everyone in the group to have a go. He even handed over his speedlight remote flash for others to try.
Our group took lots of photos in the short time we had, but we all agreed to submit Corey’s photo of Lana standing in a lift doorway to the judges. Our group was one of the final five. In the end we didn’t win, but it was fun.
The Winning Photos
So what about the winners of “People with Cameras”. There was one winning photo, and one runner-up. They each received prizes from Fujifilm and other sponsors, and their groups were invited to dinner with the organisers.
The winning photo was an amazing shot of a shadow pointing to the stars. I have no idea how you could achieve the shadow on a building with it’s arm extending into the sky, but it’s well done. I knew it would take something very different to get the judges attention!
The runner-up photo, on the other had, was really simple. A leaf with the veins and details highlighted with the light from behind.
Well done to the winners, the organisers and everyone who attended.
After the “People with Cameras” winners and organisers headed off to dinner, the photographers who stayed a little longer in the Fitzroy Gardens were treated to a spinning fire display. This presented another challenge to photographers, using a longer exposure to capture the movement of the fire balls as they spun around.
I’m not sure when or where the next “People with Cameras” event will be, but I’d love to do it again.
