By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (JANUARY, 2018)-Images that captured a safari truck (painted in the design of the St.Kitts-Nevis national flag) filled with cruise ship passengers going pass the Catholic church at East Independence Square Street, a resident non-national sitting amongst greenery following a hike at Mount Liamuiga, a Sugar Mas reveler (Mr. GQ 2017 Desyl Hamilton) in carnival costume on parade day, seagulls in flight about the coastline at the Bay Road were among the six (6) snaps that won the judges’ nod out of 98 submissions in the recently concluded 2017 Best Destination Photo Contest.
On Monday this week (8th January), a ceremony was held at the office the Ministry of Tourism located at Port Zante to spotlight the winners of the said contest which saw two categories-Youth and Adult.
The results are as follows: Youth Division- first place Shermar Jr. Moore, second place Jacquan Olu Phillips and third place Carolyn G Adams while for the Adult Division-first place Pin-Hu Wu, second place Charlin Joseph and third place Maialen Langaran.
Gift distributed included cell phones, tablets and cameras. Folders consisting of the top judged photos respectively as well as a certificates of excellence were prepared as well.
Adams and Joseph were not present at the ceremony while Wu had a colleague representative.
In giving an overview of the competition, Taiwan ICDF Overseas Volunteer ITing Tina Wang informed that the contest ran from 1st to 27th November, noting that people were invited to visit any attraction and take photos to demonstrate the beauty of St.Kitts.
As explained by her, the photos could have been any image including important landmarks, historical sites, events, the sugar cane industry or lifestyle in St.Kitts.
Participants were asked to post their submissions to their personal Facebook page with #ILoveStKitts.
As it relates to the contest criteria, the following areas were focused on by the judges: Expression of Theme, Marketability, Memorability, Creativity and Technical Execution.
A contest judge Garth Archibald, who is a professional photographer and owner CreateOne Media, said he enjoyed the competition.
“The one thing that I can say is that I really enjoyed this competition. The reason why is because, I’ve been a photographer for close to fifteen (15) years and I’ve seen a real surge in young people being interested in photography, graphic design and general arts away from singing and that kind of thing. Videography is another thing that is shooting up. To the young people who have taken up these things, excel it.”
He added: “The competition was slow but it was good. You can see where it can build for more progress. This is an area for it to improve but the starting point as of now is proper; I have to give it props…”
Archibald applauded the top contest participants saying: “Spectacular images from the persons who won. I’m happy that you put in the effort even if it was just for fun. You might have just done it for fun and realised afterwards that you did something good. Social media is such a far reaching (network) these days…”
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Carlene Henry-Morton touching on the observation made about young people as it relates to the arts and the advice given, encouraged such positive outlets.
“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life so that might be some of the areas that our young people can continue to look into.”
Henry-Morton continued: “That does not mean that I don’t want any older persons participating because I’m happy with whoever as long as we have persons who are willing to go and capture all the different sites and actions and get the word out that we are a beautiful island with warm people and we have a lot to offer. Whatever the avenues are for that type of exposure, we welcome them.”
More insight from competition judges and comments from contest winners to be provided in a follow-up report.