Pilbara exposes great new photographers
Winner Sheldon Pettit with Mike Clark, Harvey Norman's Dan Rivers & BHP's Chris Cottier
The Pilbara Conservation Program announced winners of its “Pilbara Exposed” landscape photography competition last week.
The competition’s aim was to expose communities to the beautiful landscapes out here and for people to get a better sense of their wonder and uniqueness.
Winner of the open category was Sheldon Pettit from Port Hedland with his stunning photograph of the Finucane Island coastline at sunset.
In the school category, Shelby Bayliss from Newman had the winning photo, with wildflowers set against a rugged rock and spinifex hill.
The Conservation Program’s project manager Mike Clark announced the winners who each received a great new camera.
Mr Pettit won himself a Nikon D90 digital SLR and Shelby scored a Canon PowerShot G12 digital camera.
On board for the announcement were sponsor representatives including BHP’s Billiton Iron Ore’s Regional Community and Indigenous Affairs manager Chris Cottier and Harvey Norman franchisee Dan Rivers.
Mr Pettit was over the moon with his success, not in the least because he’d had a great time photographing the particular winning sunset.
“I was stoked when I came home that night,” he said.
“There was just this really light cloud with the sun going down.”
He’d headed to the coastline on a Friday afternoon to do some four wheel driving and came home with what would prove to be the best of 375 entries in the competition.
“I thought, this is going to be a good sunset,” he said.
“Meanwhile, I was being eaten alive by midgies and so was my wife back there, but the colours just lasted for ages.”
Mr Clark thought both the quality and number of photographs were fantastic.
“Once the word got out there, entries started coming in,” he said.
“People were also commenting on our Facebook page when we put photos up.”
The photographs have been exhibited in turn in Port Hedland, South Hedland and Newman for locals to enjoy.
Pilbara Conservation Group is a partnership between BHP Billiton and Greening Australia WA, focusing on conservation activities across the Pilbara.
With the photography competition having drawn in so many unique and stunning Pilbara perspectives, Mr Clark said that everyone was really happy.
“The competition’s definitely done its job,” he said.
A new competition to design a floral emblem for the Pilbara is coming up in the next month.
Tags: Echo, hedland, Port Hedland
