Geelong Calendar Photo Competition

A while back I entered a photographic competition run by the Mayor of Geelong. The City of Greater Geelong sends out to it’s residents a calendar every year that features photos from around the region. This year the Mayor – Darryn Lyons decided to run a competition for photographers, asking each to submit a photo(s) for the 2015 calendar. The Geelong calendar photo competition brief was simple, enter a photograph that captured the essence of Geelong.

I entered my photograph of the Eastern Beach Stairs after encouragement from a friend, all the while thinking that I don’t stand a chance. Geelong has nurtured some amazingly talented photographers, born from the fact Geelong has vast and unique areas to photograph. The region is really quite stunning, with Eastern beach foreshore a firm favourite to photograph amongst both professionals and amatuers.

In September, I received an email informing me that I had got through to the second round. The competition had been an overwhelming success with over 1000 photographers submitting their entries. The next round was to be the final 13 photos and these would be personally selected by the Mayor.

Now, I shall state here that Geelong does not have any ordinary Mayor. Our public elected Mayor is Darryn Lyons, Mr Paparazzi himself. Having started his career with the local newspaper in Geelong, he then went on to bigger and better things and came to photograph the worlds most famous faces. He is also the world’s most colourful Mayor, a social media master and a tireless crusader in moving Geelong (his hometown) into a new stratosphere of tourism. If you don’t know who Darryn Lyons is then I suggest you consult ‘google’ now for some enlightenment!

Fast forward to November and I received word that my photo was one of the lucky 13 and was going to appear on the calendar. I was pretty stoked to say the least, firstly because I found out I was in the company of some renowned photographers in Geelong and for the fact that the Mayor – whom is also a photographer chose my photo.

On Friday, I was invited to attend a presentation and an afternoon Tea courtesy of the French Corner Cafe, with the worlds most famous (I’m putting it out there he is) Mayor Darryn Lyons.

We each received a beautifully framed copy of our photos and each personally signed by the Mayor with his signature catch phrase “giddy up”.

After meeting Darryn, it’s clear how passionate he is about Geelong and how he lives and breathes this town. He spent an hour with us chatting informally, sharing what he hopes for Geelong and telling us a few stories of his photography days.

All in all, I’m honoured to have been included with an awesome bunch of photographers from Geelong and whom I now can put a face to the names.

The other winners were:

Lisa Kenny

Phil Thomson

Kyle Simpson

Jon Bagge

Louise Purtell

Alan W Wright

Jules Willoughby

Nathan Marendaz