“Dogs on the Parkway” will be a focus of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s component of the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition this year. Being one of the most popular categories of the competition, the Blue Ridge Parkway Journey® category will be a rotating category featuring a different theme each year.
Floppy Ears (Scott Brown)
“Dog owners love their dogs,” states Houck Medford, executive director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. “It is part of the Parkway journey!” It seemed only fitting that we make this the theme for the Blue Ridge Parkway Journey category. Entries will be judged on impact, lighting, composition, and effectively conveying the idea of traveling, hiking, motorcycling, or whatever Parkway activity with your dog. Posed or studio photographs will be disqualified. (Also, make sure that your favorite photo shows your dog on a leash if out of the vehicle . . . ahem, newly enforced regulations! Ouch, the fines hurt!)
Registration for the 6th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition is scheduled to begin toward the end of September of 2008. Start gathering your camera gear and get those ideas churning!
Dale King and his image Solitary Cloud entered in the Blue Ridge Parkway Vistas category took top honors, receiving Best In Show. Category Winners acknowledge the top image in each of the seven competition categories and will receive Mast General Store prize packages with a retail value of $275.
Solitary Cloud (Dale King), 5th Annual AMPC Best In Show – Overall
This year marked the largest participation in the People’s Choice Award sponsored by Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters with more than 1,100 individually registered voters casting nearly 2,400 total votes. In the end Scott Hotaling and his image Mountain Calm will take home the $350 cash prize.
Mountain Calm (Scott Hotaling), 5th Annual AMPC People’s Choic Award
Judges were also asked to identify images of distinction and merit to receive Special Mention honors and an additional ten photographers have been recognized.
The Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition is a partnership between Outdoor Programs, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University, and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. Support for AMPC is provided by Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters, Bistro Roca Inventive American Cuisine, Peabody’s Merchants of Fine Beer and Wine, Mast General Store, and VirtualBlueRidge.com.
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Thanks to everyone who submitted to the 5th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition. Forty-six images have been selected for exhibition from the more than 860 submitted. Photographers whose works have been selected for exhibition have been notified.
Swallowtail on Joe Pye (Bob Peterson), 5th Annual AMPC Finalist – Flora & Fauna
Beginning with a public reception on Friday, March 7, 2008 and running through June 7, 2008, this year’s selected images will be available for viewing in the Mezzanine Gallery of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Images selected for exhibition will also be available for viewing via the Internet and the public is invited to vote for their favorite images as part of the People’s Choice Award sponsored by Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters. We will make an announcement in this blog when the voting procedures are posted.
5th Annual AMPC Finalists List
You can find the 5th Annual AMPC Finalists photos in our archives.
Adventure
John Nichols
“Frosty Early Morning Hike”
Heidi Hatcher (2)
“Meadow Nap” &
“Backpacker’s Silhouette”
Lynn Willis (2)
“Paraglider flies over western Watauga County, NC.” &
“Catch of the day!”
A huge round of applause and congratulations for this year’s winners of the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition! Virtual Blue Ridge will be posting a gallery of this year’s winners soon. Thanks again to all of you for participating in this year’s competition. After seeing the stiff competition from this year, we look forward to next year more and more.
The 5th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition is a service of Outdoor Programs at Appalachian State University and serves to subsidize students participating in Student Outdoor Learning Expeditions (SOLE trips). SOLE trips are 21 to 55 day educational journeys of discovery to remote and exciting destinations including New Zealand, Fiji, Wales, and Alaska. Outdoor Programs has been offering human-powered, adventure-based programs to the students, faculty and staff of ASU for more than thirty-five years.
The 5th Annual Appalachian Photography Competition judges were announced today. Below is information about each of the three judges selected by the competition directors.
Banister Pope
Describing himself as “an extra-large, middle-aged, bearded-american studio artist and photographer,” he brings a lot of experience and creative eye to the table for this year’s contest. His imagery captures the whimsy of our most ordinary surroundings. www.banisterpope.com
Heather McClintock
“Acknowledging a growing discontent with her studio pursuits and seeking a deeper connection to documenting the commonalities of our existence, along with a deepening desire to pursue humanitarian work and simply to get a little dirty again . . . .” Heather McClintock has had work exhibited all over the globe and is sure to bring a worldly view to the AMPC. www.heathermcclintock.com
Pac McLaurin
“I learned a little bit about photography in my career which related to medical imaging, and then by my own self teaching and going to workshops. I have learned the most from the students I teach and I thank each of them.” Pac currently teaches photography at Appalachian State University where he has lead several student workshops overseas for “endless photographic opportunity.” Pac is an inspiration to the amateur, and proof positive that practice really can go a long way. www.pacmclaurin.com
