Crouch, McDonald share quarterly photo contest honors

Benoy takes No. 1 in monthly assignment

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

ROCKINGHAM — It was a tie.

The quarterly assignment for the Richmond County Photography Group was “Vanishing Point,” and local photographers Robert Crouch and Jimmy McDonald tied for first with 33 points.

Photo by Robert Crouch

Each of the six photographers are judged by their peers and at the group’s monthly meeting Tuesday at ArtsRichmond in downtown Rockingham, it was a close race. All six photos scored between 31 and 33 points.

Crouch, of Rockingham, used his Nikon D5200 18-200mm lens at Gaddys Covered Bridge, located within Pee Dee Wildlife Refuge in Anson County.

“I had to balance my camera in the silo using my display in live-view mode and flash to capture the photo while pointing the camera up the silo,” Crouch told The Pee Dee Post. “This was a very awkward position. I was going to crawl inside (but) decided not to. The innovativ way of taking this photo paid off with the tied win tonight.”

McDonald, group mentor, took advantage of work-related travel to snap a photo along West Washington Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He used his trusty Canon 5K MkIII in HDR mode with 240-105mm lens.

Photo by Jimmy McDonald

In the monthly assignment of “Fences,” Lee Benoy took top honors as judged by his peers. The Hartsville, S.C., resident snapped an image of a brick wall outside Prince George’s Parish Church i

The subject is Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church, located in Georgetown, S.C. The parish was established in 1721, Benoy said, and the current church was completed in 1750. The photo was taken on Feb. 20 with a Canon 5D Mark II camera with an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens.

The next monthly assignment is “Bloom,” just in time for Spring. The next quarterly assignment is due at the June meeting and is under the theme “Fill the Frame.”

The Richmond County Photography Group has changed its regular meeting date and now gathers at 6 p.m. each third Tuesday of the month.