Nine budding Bahrain-based photographers were named winners of the ‘Reflection of the Two Seas’,  photography competition held by the General Organisation of Sea Ports (GOP) as part of the Bahrain Maritime Festival 2011 (BMF).

The competition, which was launched last month, received strong response from photo enthusiasts who were tasked with capturing aspects of Bahrain’s maritime life, industry or landscape.

In a contest that drew in a large number of qualifying entries across three categories, selecting the images was the role of three of Bahrain’s most prominent professional photographers -Khalifa Shaheen, Ali Riffai and Loredana Montello.

For each category, the judging panel selected three winners, in addition to short listing images which were highly commendable and merited being showcased at the photography exhibition being held at Seef Mall from September 26  to October 1.

Winners in the first category (10- 16 years), were Divya Damodaran, Jyotisman Das, and Ahmed Al Rawi, in first, second and third place respectively.

In the second category (16+ years), winners were Ferdi Arkiferdz, Chantal Willers and Hussain Alkumaish.

In the final category (exclusively for GOP and sponsors’ team members and their families) the first prize was bagged by Sayed Isa Ebrahim followed by Christopher Posadas who won the second prize and Aqeela Nasser Abdulaziz with the third prize.

All first place prize winners won a BD500 voucher from Sharaf DG, second place winners won an iPad 2 and third place winners won professional photography lessons.

Multiple channels of communications were used to promote the photo competition, including social media via the official Bahrain Maritime Festival Facebook page and Twitter feed.

The viral campaign succeeded in attracting significant interest from social media users, resulting in a total of 500 submitted photos.

The judges narrowed these down to around 100 entries which met the competition criteria, and in addition to the winning nine images, a further 29 images were selected for the exhibition at Seef Mall.

The exhibition opened to the public on September 26, when Hassan Ali Al Majed, Director General of GOP, awarded the prize-winners at an awards ceremony at Seef Mall.

The exhibition showcases the winners’ photographs in a section in front of Café Italia and all of the shortlisted submissions for the competition will be displayed in a section opposite Forever 21, and will remain open to public until the 1st of October, 2011.

"We were very pleased by the response that we got from the public for this competition.  As an island, Bahrain’s rich maritime landscape provides endless scenes for the competition subject, and judging by the outstanding work we have seen in the entries, this landscape serves as inspiration for citizens and residents alike," said Al Majed.

"The showcased images are truly exceptional, but all of the entries that met the criteria deserve a mention and GOP will endeavour to promote this work as best we can," he added.

The photography competition was hosted by GOP in partnership with Miracle Publishing as part of Bahrain’s annual week-long celebrations to mark World Maritime Day.-TradeArabia News Service