The first intra-club, print competition of our year offered three categories. Members were allowed to enter no more than 4 prints per category. The photographer remained anonymous as images were viewed in a display box for the judges to assign point values. Judges often shared their reasons on why they scored certain images as they did.  

All prints were judged on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale with “5” being the highest score and “1” being the lowest score. With a total of three judges, the highest score for a print could be 15. The assignment of scores, competition rules and further information pertaining to Club Competitions can be found in the Competition Guidelines.

Click the category image to see the winning images!

THANK YOU judges for giving your time and sharing your expertise! 

Our judges for this competition are:

1) Jean Paley: Jean is from Urbana. She arrived here as a student in 1959, and has never been able to (or, frankly, wanted to) achieve escape velocity, though she has travelled widely, mostly with camera. She holds a BS in Zoology (an ancient designation) and an MBA from the University of Illinois. After a work life in the not-for-profit world, then private industry, and the University of Illinois, she now glories in retirement.

Her first camera was an early Canon digital point and shoot, gifted her by her photography enthused husband in 1989, just prior to their leaving for two years working and traveling in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia. While a newcomer to her own camera, by then she was thoroughly steeped in the principles of excellent image capture via membership in this camera club. That was pre-Photoshop. In the intervening years, the quality of photography associated hardware and the software has made enormous leaps in range and quality. As has Jean’s appreciation of the image art form.

Jean has judged a number of competitions for the club in the past, and continues to be impressed by the skill and creativity found here.

2). Mike Heniger: Mike is from Morton, Illinois, pumpkin capital of the world. He graduated from Taylor University with a B.A. in Accounting in 1987. He began his career as a CPA in Indianapolis, and later worked as the Director of Finance at Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana. In 1999, he began serving on the pastoral staff at Grace Church in Monticello. In 2004, he helped launch Crossroads Church in Mahomet, serving as its lead pastor while obtaining a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies from Urbana Theological Seminary.

From the moment Mike got his first camera as a high school student--a Canon A-1-- photography had been a developing interest, and, beginning in about 2010, he started turning his love of photography into a part-time business. Then, in 2015, he decided to leave Crossroads to become a full-time professional photographer. Currently, he specializes in photographing Seniors, Families, Sports and Events, and in doing Commercial Work. Mike has judged several competitions for our club, including Best in Show.

3) Stretch Ledford: Charles “Stretch” Ledford, presently an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has worked as a visual journalist since 1983, telling stories through still and moving images in more than 50 countries on five continents. As a freelance journalist and advertising photographer, he has had his work published by dozens of major magazines and newspapers, including Time, Newsweek, Smithsonian, the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

Since joining the U of I faculty in 2011, his multimedia productions have been featured on-line and/or broadcast by major news organizations around the world. His photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums in a number of states and have received numerous professional awards. In 2014, he was honored by the Associated Press as Innovator of the Year for College Students.

Throughout his long career, his goal has been to find, capture, and produce stories that foster the shared sense of community that he believes defines our deepest human nature.