At the photo exhibition

This last weekend I was one of the officials for my photo club's big international exhibition that we've held for 13 times before (so logically this was no. 14 ;-) ). I was the webmaster for the whole thing, so whenever something is related to the web or pretty much anything related to IT...it's my duty to get it done. It's okay, because it's fun to do (and rarely means any extraordinary amount of work). 

So many awards!

Wait...I take that last bit back. Just before the deadline back in August, when everyone suddenly discovered that they had to send in their photos on the very same four or five days it got a bit busy for yours truly. But not the event this last weekend; that's where it's good to be part of a nine person board where everyone has done this kind of thing before. It just runs smooth!

Audience members watching accepted images in the color section on a big screen TV

We had a nice turnout and people seemed to appreciate the images we had on display, both on TV screens (for the accepted images in our two categories), large screen (for the awarded images) and in print (images from the six jury members and club members). 

Tony Clements (R) receiving his gold medal from exhibition chairman Nils-Erik Jerlemar

I didn't take all that many photos at the event since I tried to be social and a good "host", but I did snap a few, including of Tony Clementz, the winner in the monochrome section receiving his PSA Gold medal, deservedly so too I think.

Yours truly on the right discussing photos with Christer Lindberg (L), one of the jury members and an enthusiastic guest..and hopefully future club member. Photo by Ingrid Nilsson (no relation)

With all these photographers running around it was probably inevitable that I ended up in a picture or two...which is nice...I guess, but I can't help feeling a bit awkward at being in front of a camera rather than behind it. Silly notion I know!

Now it's a few days of non-photography before Friday when the local Culture Night is on, and I get to show images at City Hall, along with my dad...something we both look forward to a lot! I'll be sure to write about that too once it's all over.

Photo judging...with a very wet obstacle

This last weekend I was one of the officials (being the "tech guy") for the international exhibition that my photo club hosts every year, this being the 14th edition of the exhibition.

It was time for the two juries to do their duties and pick the medalists, honorable mentions and personal favorites. On the Saturday they did the major part of the work by going through over 2,000 images in each section (!) and picking around 10 percent that got accepted into the exhibition.

On the Sunday morning the idea was for them to start going through the accepted images to find the best of the best to give out the big awards to. Since I was part of the "crew, being the tech guy I was supposed to go there as well and stepped onto the bus to go into Malmö. It wasn't until we turned off the ring road and turned into Malmö proper that the day turned from the ordinary to the rather surreal.

The water is beginning to pour into the bus...

A lake? There shouldn't be a lake here!
I was preoccupied with listening to a podcast when I noticed that we had stopped in an unusual spot, and when I looked up to see why I saw a big new "lake" around the bus that doesn't usually exist there. Then I heard one of my fellow passengers say that water was pouring into the bus. Soon there were several inches of water forming a nice little reflecting pool where there absolutely should be no water!

A quick glance at the local newspaper's website later I knew this was quite the flood all over the place because of the month's worth of rain that had fallen in just a few hours, and that we couldn't count on rescue service or any tow truck to come by any time soon. And as we sat there waiting the rain picked up even more outside, dumping even more water into the temporary lake, and making the water rise even more in the bus.

We're walking out of here!
By the time us passengers decided to evacuate the bus on foot the water reached my thighs as we stepped out of the bus. I was still lucky though, given that there were several ladies on the bus who were quite shorter than I am! The water was cold, but at least we could traverse the lake and make it on to terra firma a few hundred yards further up the road. The bus driver had told us that a replacement bus would come and pick us up, but given how almost every underpass nearby was probably flooded I didn't count on that to happen...so I started walking into town instead. I didn't see any city bus either, which I would have on any normal day, so in the end it was probably a smart decision.

The yellow bus over there was my bus...and the water up to my thighs was quite cold!

Dumbass drivers
At the next underpass I saw several small cars try to traverse the water, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they dared to do that, since it wouldn't take much for the electronics to just go "poof" and then they'd be stuck there in water at least a foot deep! That is precisely what happened to several cars throughout the city in the end, making for quite some spectacular photos in the newspaper afterwards.

If you wanted to walk here you'd need scuba gear!

Actual photo judging
Once I made it to my destination (and one of the jury members lent me a pair of khaki shorts to wear) I was able to do what I had gone into town to do in the first place, be the tech guy at the judging of the international exhibition. I do not envy the juries the amount of decision making they have to do, just to pick their favorites and decide what image deserves "best in show". Sure we who are "staff" do a lot of work before and after the jury weekend, but I am sure the jurors are pretty much spent after the weekend.

The jury for the color section looking at entries, trying to decide what images deserve to be accepted.

This is how pleased two juries and "staff" look when the job is done and images are selected, awarded and sorted.
(Photo by Julija Broberg)

Now comes the "clean-up" period, where lists of accepted and awarded images are collated, images are prepared for slideshows and electronic report cards are sent out. Once that is done it'll be a few weeks before it's time to rig stuff for the public viewing of the exhibition. But for now the work with the international exhibition is done...almost!