Pictures by talented photographers from around the world will be in display in Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre starting Saturday.
It’s all part of the 7th annual Vancouver International Photography Festival Exhibition, with award ceremonies and a free travel photography seminar happening on opening day.
Photographers from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia will be taking home medals. This year’s Best in Show award goes to photographer Lori Metcalfe from Ontario for her image “Wolf Pack Hierarchy – There Can Only Be One Alpha.”
She captured the image on a grey March day in Quebec.
“In nature photography, you’re not supposed to do anything,” judge James Yip told the Richmond News. “It’s supposed to be in its original form.”
Yip, a Richmond resident, has been taking photographs for over 40 years. He helped set up the inaugural VIPF eight years ago.
As a judge, he looks for an image that’s well-composed, nice-looking and that also tells a story. He found all of that in Metcalfe’s wolf photo.
“The colour, it’s quite prominent. And the composition. It’s a whole group sticking together and you can see the faces clearly, including the eyes,” he said. “They’re like a group of children playing there.”
Yip wanted to encourage more people to enter next year’s contest, because having experienced judges provide feedback can help photographers improve their technique.
This year’s festival was held at VanDusen Botanical Garden on Sept. 22, and afterwards all the photographs were moved to Aberdeen Centre where they’ll be on displayin the atrium until Dec. 31and upstairs after that.
The Richmond opening ceremonies start at 1:20 p.m. on Sept. 29 in the Aberdeen Centre’s central atrium. Photorapher Ying Chan will be starting the travel photography seminar at 1:35. The event will be hosted in both English and Cantonese.
