The biggest event of the year for the Camera Club of Brevard occurs on Saturday evening, December 6. All club members in good standing are invited to join in the festivities at the Indian Harbour Beach Recreation Center.
Mandatory and amazing side dishes are a part of the event fee and the CCB supplies the main entree and drinks. Of course, the highlight of the evening is the presentation of monetary awards in color and monochrome and merit awards in ten additional categories. Traditionally, the acting president of the CCB selects the judges for APC, independently of the board of directors, and I thought it might be interesting to share the judging process with you.
Since our monthly competitions are digital, the files can be sent anywhere and I have tapped several of my professional photographer friends the past few years to help us out. But it is really hard to find available and qualified judges for the APC. Since the APC is not digital, the judges need to be in fairly close proximity to Brevard. For the past two years we have asked local photographers Erika Masterson and Josh Conti to judge the competition and they did a wonderful job. But it was time for a different perspective. As it so happens, in April at my portrait workshop I met the president of the Orlando Camera Club, Rita Ritner, a cousin of CCB member Bev Braun. A month later we met again and initiated a very pleasant relationship where we shared our camera club experiences. Ultimately we traded benefits; I agreed to make a presentation at the OCC annual banquet and she agreed to supply two judges for the APC.
Here’s the process.
Competition Director Pat Indorf organizes and manages our monthly competitions all year. For the APC, she solicits several other CCB members to take in and collect pay for the entries at the November meeting. Each entry cost $8, which helps pay for the annual dinner costs. It was darned impressive I must say! Pat then takes all the entries home, sorts them into color and monochrome, and assigns a number to each photo.
The actual judging took place on Thursday, November 14 at the Mark Street Senior Center near Winter Park in Orlando. I asked 2026 Competition Director Stuart Landman to accompany Pat and I to the judging so he will know what to expect next November. We were greeted by Rita Ritner and judges Wayne Bennett and Susan Francis. Check out their websites at https://waynebennettphotography.com/ and https://catchlight-studios.com/about
Once the 78 entries were set up on tables, Pat discussed the judging criteria and supplied tally sheets. Then Pat, Stuart and I left and took a walk around the neighborhood (corporate upscale) and did what we always do; we shot a ton of photos. You can view some of them on the CCB Facebook page. The judging took just one hour and the entire group shared a lunch together at a nearby Italian restaurant. All in all, it was a very pleasurable experience and I consider it one of the many perks I have enjoyed as president of our club.
See you at the APC!
John