Martinborough in Summer Captured in Pictures

Launched last year to showcase our region in summer, Martinborough Village’s Summer Pix competition has again been a great success. In the golden summer we have enjoyed this year the opportunities for unique and striking photos were abundant and over 300 entries were submitted by people who took up the challenge to enter their favourite shots. This year entrants were able to upload directly to the Martinborough Village website and Trish Higginson says that “ in the last 30 days there were 15,583 page views and 1250 people interacted with the site”. The strength of this competition is its focus on “behind the scenes” images of our region and what it has to offer at a very individual and personal level. The simple brief of summer vibe was interpreted in many fascinating and diverse ways, which made the judges’ task a challenging one.

The 2015 judging panel of Brooke Hoskins, Pete Monk, John Casey and Emma Mehlhopt again convened this year to assess several hundred images. In their comments, the judges remarked that had any of them recalled how tough the decision-making was last year, they “might have politely declined and headed for the hills”! They found this year to be equally challenging, with some “careful re-evaluation required in nearly all categories to finally settle on the winners”.

The judges said that they “held strongly to meeting the brief of summer vibe” as they evaluated a high standard of entries across a wide range of subject matter. The wealth of scenes and subjects to draw on in our region was clear in the rich variety of images submitted.

The overall winning shot was Michelle Hight’s Bath Time, taken on the Tora walk with Martinborough winemaker Lisa Coney and a bath full of children. In their comments, the judges said that “summer is nothing without people enjoying it, and for that reason, this scoops the judge’s top award. Whilst colour is so often a part of our summer landscape, the choice here of black and white adds enormously to the whole: beautiful textures to the bath, fence, blurred landscape beyond – and bringing clarity and focus to the pure enjoyment captured in this summer time image”. 

First runner-up was Te Muna Road, taken by David Hirst and described by the judges as depicting the “solitariness, dreaminess and silent display of scale and structure of our classically Kiwi, classically Martinborough summer landscape at end of day”. Second runner-up was River Friends, Summer Days by Rochelle Holloway, which the judges saw as “gorgeously honest and intensely fun”.

A new Under 13 category was added this year, won by George Hight-Darling with Tora Beach, which the judges described as “nicely captured motion of horse and spray, with the lovely addition of the smile of the rider”.?
Organisers Trish Higginson and Karina Hailwood were again deeply grateful to the sponsors of the competition, particularly Peppers Parehua and the Wairarapa Building Society, who have been immensely supportive. The winners of all the categories and a full list of acknowledgements can be found on the Martinborough Village website blog. The Martinborough Summer Pix Competition will continue to be an annual event, with Trish and Karina already anticipating the rich pictorial capture of next year’s Martinborough summer.