Clear scenery, complex gym shots win photo contests

RADFORD – Two photographers won the Radford Photo Club’s What Brings You Joy challenge at the February meeting. Christian Marsh of Pilot won with a photo about the process of focus and Michele Borgarelli of Blacksburg won with a photo of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.

Marsh explains that the photo is not particularly about focusing through a lens, although that’s involved, but more of the process of being focused and in turn then achieving focus – “being in that deep photographic mindset that brings you to the Zen state of creativity allowing you to create what lives in your mind’s eye. The photo was taken with a Nikon Nikkor 200mm f4 @f4, using room light and one multi fixture softbox through a device I designed and built to achieve the result. The image is a single exposure and no photoshop was involved, only converted to black and white.”

Borgarelli explains, “Gaztelugatxe is an islet on the coast of Basque Coast, in Spain. It is connected to the mainland by a man-made bridge. On top of the island stands the hermitage Gaztelugatxeko Doniene in Basque or San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Spanish that might date back to the 10th century. The hermitage houses votive offerings from sailors who survived shipwrecks. This location was used for filming scenes for season seven of Game of Thrones. This image was taken early in the morning, a time of the day I particularly love because you can enjoy places like this alone and because the light is soft. This is one of the aspects that gives me joy with photography.”

For the open competition, Jennifer Allison Franklin of Pulaski took her winning photo while sitting on the beach in Aruba in January. It was taken with a Nikon D3500 at 100 mm f6.3 ISO 160 1/1250 sec. The Radford Photo Club’s next meeting will be tomorrow, Thursday, March 20 at 6 p.m. at the Radford Public Library. The photo challenge is color. There is also an open topic challenge. The Radford Photo Club is made up of professional and amateur photographers from throughout the New River Valley. Meetings, events, and outings are open to the public. If you have questions about the club, email Joyce Crowder at joycecrowder2@icloud.com, Michele Borgarelli at mborgarelli@gmail.com, or Tracy Burlingame at Tracylb3870@gmail.com.

Radford Photo Club