101!
We have as many submissions to the first Lee Foster Travel Photography Award as there were Dalmatians in Dodie Smith’s famous children’s book. Or, for a more local reference, the number of images that came in for this is the number of a California highway bisecting the Bay Area. 101. Thank you, submitters!
It was inspiring to have these often beautiful images taken all over come into us during this relatively shut-down period. For fun, I banged out the list of countries, cities and some sites where they were shot:
Alaska, Antarctica, Argentina, Aukland, Bali, Barcelona, Beijing, Bodega Bay, Bolivia, Brittany, Chengdu, Croatia, Dubai, Durban, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Istanbul, Italy, Jaipur, Japan, Kenya, Kochi, KwaZulu-Natal, Kyoto, La Jolla, Lake District, Libya, London, Los Angeles, Marrakesh, Mexico, Monterey, Morocco, Myanmar, New Delhi, New Guinea, New York, New Zealand, Oakland, Okefenokee, Ontario, Oregon, Puerto Vallarta, Rajasthan, Sahara, San Francisco, Seychelles, South Africa, South Dakota, Stonehenge, Sydney, Syria, Tahiti, Texas, Toronto, Venice, Wuxi, Yellowstone, Yosemite.
Oh, the places we’ve gone. Lee would have been happy with the quality of the entries that came in.
The entries will be sent, now, to our judges, the process shepherded through by an independent entries coordinator – a talented photographer and designer in her own right, Artemisia Luk.
Their decisions will be announced (we hope) at a mixed virtual and in-person event on Wednesday, November 3rd, from 5-7. The in-person part will take place at Oakland’s new Boho-style hotel, the Moxy (https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/oakox-moxy-oakland-downtown). And a simultaneous Zoom will keep others in the loop.
We’re hoping to run a slideshow (visible at the venue and online) of all the photos submitted to us, so that you all can have that heady experience of going around the world (in 80 seconds) that we have had receiving your entries. There will be a toast to Lee, our congenial, accomplished, much-missed Lee, also. We will also be assembling a panel on travel photography, in which a couple of our judges (still twisting arms) annotate some of their better shots over the years. What mix of skill and serendipity contributed to the shooting of them? Do they have pointers for photographers at various skill levels?
This will help our photog members up their games, but, increasingly, writers are also being asked to supply photos. And anyway, it’s never (in my opinion) a waste of time to hear how top people make their work sing. And then, drumroll please, the awards will be announced.
All this to say: Register today, people!
We will, of course, be watching developments with the Delta, in terms of the in-person meeting, the county and state regulations regarding gatherings at bars.
Alec Scott