Rangiora wins Bledisloe
Rangiora wins the Bledisloe Cup!
Not just rugby, but photography too has its own Bledisloe Cup, in this case to honour the best six prints, on any subject, submitted by a Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) club.
With some 2500 PSNZ members across the country, the cup is fiercely competed for every year and the standard is very high.
This year the coveted cup has been won for the first time by the Rangiora Photographic Society. Rangiora is a small club compared to its city cousins, making the win all the more noteworthy.
“It’s a wonderful achievement for us to win this premier cup,” says Rangiora Photographic Society committee member Trevor White, who snapped one of the six winning prints at a black powder shoot on the West Coast, (West Coast Warrior).
Fellow member Rob Brydon, whose image ‘Damselfly’ was also one of the six entered, recognised the potential for a special photo when he spotted a pair of damselflies in his garden. “I was able to get quite close to them and get a nice sharp image. The best photos seem to need a bit of luck and a bit of skill too … This is a big cup coming to a small town. It’s a real feather in our cap.” Rob’s photo also came second in a recent online Canon photo competition run by the PSNZ.
Other club members who contributed winning images were: Stephen Lloyd (The Stand Off), Levitate (Steve Webb), Mona Knox (Hector Dolphins) and Dianne White (The Lion At Sunset).
Eight or nine years ago, the club was struggling to attract new members, but the rise of digital photography has brought with it fresh interest. The Rangiora Photographic Society’s current membership stands at around 100 members, with competitions regularly held within the club.
Rangiora won the cup ahead of the Auckland Photographic Society (2nd), and third equal place-getters the New Plymouth Photographic Club and the North Shore Photographic Society.
History of PSNZ’s Bledisloe Cup
The prestigious competition was first initiated in 1919 by the Dunedin Photographic Society for four monochrome prints.
In 1932, Governor General Lord Bledisloe, patron of the then Wellington Camera Club, donated a cup for the competition. It was first presented in 1932 to the Auckland Camera Club. In 1953, the Cup was held by the Wellington Camera Club, who on formation of the PSNZ, handed it over to the Society.
