Hi Folks,
The Speed and Open Competition night 19th April
The first announcement of the night was to congratulate Chris Andrews and his team on the efforts they put in to the Rose Bowl competition and the achievements it has brought to the club in finishing joint second, the club’s highest place.
Well what a night last night and how opinions change from one judge to another. The Judge of the night was Paul Mitchell who is a graphics designer and sees many graphical photographs for magazines etc. As the night went on it became clear he wasn’t too keen on any photographs that looked in anyway contrived. He certainly didn’t miss much pointing out that a strawberry falling into milk on one photograph seemed to have created the splash before it had landed.
A couple of us in the audience were a little disappointed on the marks on the photograph of a water skier creating a curtain of water being marked only 16, we thought it was worth more but what do we know. It wasn’t mine, so I can say that.
The picture of ‘ lifestyle’ showing a boy riding a bike through a puddle riding ahead of a pet dog was held back by the Judge.
The second picture to be held back was called ‘Tunnel Vision’ and showed a car racing through a highly lit tunnel with the lights of the tunnel and its coloured walls standing out to give a great image.
The final picture held back was called ‘Out of the saddle’ which was of a cyclist racing up hill in the velodrome. The judge said, he like the way the cyclist in the picture was slanted upwards indicating speed also he liked the colours of wooden flooring of the velodrome and its blue walls which faded into the background
The judge’s final decision was 1st Tunnel Vision by Luke Callaghan 20 points, 2nd Out of the saddle by Steve Becket 20 points and 3rd Lifestyle by Bev Wareing 19 points. A classic car at Austen Hill also achieved 19 points but just didn’t make the podium
During the evening I learnt that positioning a speeding object going uphill or coming around a bend helps give an impression of speed and it is also necessary to leave a space in front of the speeding object to show where it is going.
Then a coffee break
The open
The first picture of the round of an oil lamp called ‘Midnight oil’ was held back by the judge saying the oil lamp had lovely textures and the smoke twisting and rising into the darker parts of the photograph made the picture.
The judge went on to say he loved natural light in pictures and just things lit by window light can make such good photographs.
Just as a bit of fun several pictures later, my photograph of the ‘Sunset amongst the rocks’ was shown. Having struggled in the past to understand that judges just do not like a dark foreground in a sunset picture, this was made clear to me on critique night so I managed to lighten up the rocks.
It was amusing as the judge started talking positively, saying he had taken many sunsets and it’s difficult to get the balance of light correctly but said, this photographer had managed it, also liking the detail in the rocks and the peninsular coming in from the right. (I thought am I going to get my first ever photo to be held back lol), it was at this point the judge turned from Len Goodman into Craig Revel Horwood saying he would have personally used a wider angled lens (but i only had a point and shoot camera lol) and then he would have gone down by the sea. That would have created a completely different picture to the one I was displaying lol.
Sorry I digress but did find it amusing
The next picture that captured the Judge’s eye was that of a portrait of a girl called ‘Georga’ taken in b&w. The judge loved the natural light and he held the picture back for a later mark
The following picture titled ‘Small Talk’ had a good impact with the audience. The photograph in b&w showed two small children sitting next to each other in high chairs and appeared to be chatting to one another.
In another picture the judge just didn’t seem to enjoy an eagle flying next to a large moon, as good as the photograph was, he couldn’t seem to accept it as a natural photograph, so just the judge’s taste.
Another photograph to be held back was ‘Frog with the hump’ a photograph of three frogs on a log, one facing the other way.
The photograph called ‘Starry Night’ shown on critique night of an abbey with its spires pointing into the sky surrounded by swirling stars had been praised by one of our own judge’s, suggesting that this picture should be entered in a higher Rose Bowl competition but this still didn’t impress the judge enough on the night, giving it only 17.
The final picture called ‘Textured life’, a photograph of an Indian / Asian guy having a strong textured skin with a highlighted white stubble on his chin and eyes that seem to have seen everything of a tough life appealed to the judge who immediately gave it a 20.
So five pictures were held back and the judge said, they were so good, he was going to give all five 20 marks, so ‘Midnight Oil’ by Bev Wareing, ‘Georga’ by Dave Cullinmore, ‘Small Talk’ by Luke Callaghan,’Frog with the hump’ by Brian Worley and ‘Textured Life’ by Steve Beckett all took the spoils.
The Judge said if he were to pick one it would be the Textured life by Steve Beckett. Brian pointed out Steve had scored three 20’s on the night and had been leading the competition beforehand, so he would be the winner of the internal competitions for this season.
So well done Steve