Judge: Jonathan Vaines
Pretty happy with this. All seems fair! I recall Red Alert was scored down for the bright bar next to the chin, which I don’t honestly know how I missed!
Red Alert | 19/20
Undead | 16/20
Juggling | 19/20
Open - Print 12-1-2023
This was quite fun. I’d mounted Gabo in a mid-denim blue mount to pick out the darker blues of the image and informal feedback on the night was “Oo-er… a coloured mount eh? Good luck with that.”…! Well the judge was rather taken with it and scored it 19/20, commenting positively on the mount - though stressing that it in no way swayed her. She liked the overall thrust of the image upwards, which was nice given that I’d hastily decided to display it that way up on the way to the club…
Judge: Naomi Saul
Smoke | 17/20
Gabo | 19/20
To Cambridge | 14/20 (This doesn’t get enough love!)
Scape - Print 1-12-2022
Autumn Morning | 17/20
I managed to submit three images to this that stretched the definition of a landscape really; partly intentionally and partly because I had no regular landscapes to submit. Autumn Morning did best, but lost points due to being somewhat dark. Very irritating since I knew this when I picked it up from the shop. On-screen it is great (to my mind). I need to learn about processing for print.
(Wedge Wood scored the same, but suffered due to my insistence on taking images that are tricky to parse…!)
Judge: David Steele
Wedge Wood | 17/20
Going Underground | 16/20
Monochrome Print 3-11-2022
My second competition. Came third with Happiness which scored 20/20 (I can’t find the other results.) It got into the local paper; which was nice. Just as well I renamed it for entry from “Pig In Shit”.
Judge was very complementary about Cockpit, but unhappy about the small area of blown highlights. Turns out that’s bad. You live and learn. That’s why you submit stuff isn’t it? He didn’t hate on the lost shadows though…. Contamination was an odd submission but I like the mystery surrounding it.
Judge: Jim Bennet
Happiness | 20/20
Cockpit | Forget the score
Contamination | Forget the score
Open - PDI 6-10-2022
My first competition. Quite nerve-wracking. Didn’t know what to expect, what to submit, or how to judge an image for inclusion. So just threw in the current favourites. An Open category I think gave the false impression of informality when in retrospect it means you have a broader field in which you need to stand taller.
Judge didn’t like the plain sky in Wimpole Parkrun and would have used Photoshop’s ‘Replace Sky’ function to add interest. I was disgusted at this!
Decent scores for a first attempt at submitting things I think. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself…
Judge: Penny Reeves
Sprout | 15/20
Wimpole Parkrun | 14/20
Birthday Flowers | 13/20