CVCC 2004 Awards Banquet -- January 8, 2005 

    Desert Falls Country Club

A Report By
Joan Petit-Clair

Photos by Woody Kaplan

The 2004 Awards Banquet saw the end of a great photographic year for the Club!  There were so many outstanding images taken by our members throughout the year, culminating in the awards slideshow that Stuart assembled for the Banquet.  Keep up the great work!

The Banquet was hosted at our new Club location, The Desert Falls Country Club.  Everyone seemed impressed!   We had a great turnout.  It was a nice time for friends to socialize as well as a time to honor Club photographers.

There was no passing of the gavel this year: Roger Kipp and the other officers are continuing in their positions for another year.

This year we took a walk on the wild side.  We restructured our whole awards system. We presented more awards to many more deserving photographers.   For the Photographer of the Year Awards Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals were awarded (but no Bronze medal in Intermediate).   These awards are based on total performance and participation in competitions throughout the year. Click here for medal winners!

For the Image of the Year competition, Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals and seven Honorable Mentions were bestowed in both Intermediate and Advanced (click here for winners and winning images).  We also took a pioneering stab at electronic judging: a first for us.  Both proved to be a huge success!

Byron had the difficult job of narrowing the field down to 10 images each in the Advanced and Intermediate Divisions from over 100 entries.  This, he noted at the Banquet, was a difficult task, since they were all so good.

Byron Hindman, who has judged our competitions several times before, accepted our invitation to judge the Image of the Year competition.  He judged and ranked the images before the holidays in the comfort of his home, having been provided with a personal website of all the entries!  Prior to the banquet, he had no idea who the actual photographers were.  All he saw were the random numbers that were assigned to the images.
Judge Hindam satisfied with a
well-done job!

At the Banquet, he commented on the winning images, why he chose those particular images, and what he looks for in an outstanding image.  It was a great learning experience for everyone.

Byron added that he has watched this Club grow and is very impressed with the superior quality of the work that the Club is now producing.

Congratulations to all our winners and a special heartfelt thanks to Byron for agreeing to judge our first electronic awards competition.  That was a huge task to undertake just before the holidays. He did an outstanding job.
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