A report of the event by Christopher Ward of the Essex AV Group
Judged by Edgar Gibbs FRPS MPAGB AV-AFIAP and Linda Gibbs MPAGB AV-AFIAP
Click HERE for the full results sheet in PDF format
Image: Edgar & Linda Gibbs judging the AV sequences
This year, again, held at Foxton Village Hall, in Cambridgeshire, a good venue with all the facilities that you could need to host this type of event.
This was my first AV event. I have only been aware of ‘AV’s’ for around 18 months, and have only created 3, 2 of which I entered into this year’s competition. I entered last year’s competition with a Joint entry with Dick Williams on my trip to Chernobyl.
Image: Keith Leedham running the projection desk
Dick Williams ARPS DPAGB-AV is the EAF AV Trophy Secretary who superbly organised (along with theSub-Committee) this year’s event together with a small army of volunteers, both technical, with all the presentation kit needed, and behind the scenes, including refreshments.
Thank you all for a well organised event. There were 41 entries (the same as last year) with 9 prizes on offer, plus any Highly Commended (this year there were 6).
Image: Malcolm Imhoff (2nd from left) receiving the EAF Audio-Visual Trophy & Gold Medal from Nick Akers & Daphne Hanson
As I have mentioned I am very new to the AV world, and have very limited experience of AVs in general, I joined the Essex AV Group in 2023 and have viewed a limited number of AVs in this time, but gained some insight from this group, and in particular from Dick Williams who has shared his wealth of experience with me and the group.
This years EAF AV Trophy competition was a good way for me to see a wide range of AVs and to see the details and effort people put into them, and to try and gain some insight into what makes a good, and winning AV.
The range of subjects and the way the AVs were created was an education for me, some very informative, some perhaps too long, and some with beautiful photography, music and narration.
The researching and the time taken to photograph the locations, some over many seasons, was to me exceptional. It puts my own efforts of pulling my abstract images together, and arranging them to, what I think, is the right piece of music, for me, and so more effort needed from me, I think.
As with all these types of competitions (AV & Photography) it comes down to the opinion of the experienced Judges, who had a hard task and overall, their choices matched most of my favourites, but not necessarily in the same order or category. They gave all the winners great feedback and good learning tips for those of us who need it!
My personal favourites were Dalmatian Pelicans of Lake Kerkini, by Alison Jenkins, which did win the Popular Vote on the day, Visions of Ashdown Forest, by Dave Brooker Winner of the Vic Hainsworth award, and Moments in Time by Brian Harvey, which won Best Photography award. All 3 of these had amazing photography, with good sequencing and dissolves, AVs to learn from.
Images: Alison Jenkins receiving the Trophy for the Popular Vote from Nick Akers: Andrew Pickess receives his Highly Commended certificate from Linda Gibbs: David Ames receives his Highly Commended certificate from Linda Gibbs.
It was great to meet new people, in a comfortable environment, with the focus on enjoying the efforts that all the participants put into their AVs, it was clearly an experienced audience with a lot of it to share, if you are new to AVs this would be a good place to start.
Christopher Ward