BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MATSAPHA – A weekend at Summerfield and 12 months’ worth of business.
This is what Summerfield Botanical Garden and Exclusive Resort is offering the winner to their Annual Photography Competition. The hospitality location has invited photographers in Eswatini to submit their portfolios and artworks before November 17, 2022 to enter the competition.
Summerfield is offering a weekend stay for two and the opportunity of being a preferred photographer at Summerfield Botanical Garden and Exclusive Resort for a whole year.
Speaking about the competition, photographer and media business owner Sandile Makhanya, said that this sounded like a great opportunity for all photographers. He cited that this is great in terms of giving all photographers access to the business opportunity. However, Makhanya added that the adjudication process would be very critical in judging if the competition makes sense or not.
He suggested that Summerfield should be more forthcoming with their judging criteria – further suggesting that they should ideally have two South African photographers on the panel to judge based on quality, and emaSwati who will judge based on the business and marketing acumen of the photographer. He said that this was to ensure fairness in the competition, as well as making sure that Summerfield gets the best photographers through the competition.
Makhanya’s sentiments were echoed by Mongi Simelane of Mongi Photography.
“We appreciate this as we use Summerfield a lot as a location for taking pictures – it is like they are giving back by offering us the opportunity of doing more business with them,” said Simelane.
He also added that Summerfield should be more detailed with the application process, to let photographers know exactly how much of a portfolio to submit as part of their applications.
Summerfield Botanical Gardens directed this reporter to their Facebook page for more information about the competition.
Summerfield offers visitors supremely sumptuous Luxury Rooms, Executive Suites and Garden Villas as part of their hospitality services.
