Hi Folks,
Club Championship Water Theme and Open 3rd Round Tuesday 7th February
Speaking with a friend before the competition who normally just takes holiday photographs I said, tonight we have a competition on the theme of water. “Well that sounds a strange subject, just plain old water”, he replied. Well not really, I said, “We had one about two years ago and one could have photographs of jet skiers, speed boats, rivers, lakes, fountains and rain”, well how wrong I was!!!
After spending several weeks whittling a hundred pictures down to two, I felt I had my strongest entry of the season and perhaps after doing a lot of work on them a chance of getting a 19 score. However, on the leaving the house on the way to the competition, I jokingly said to my wife I expect I will come home with three 15’s lol
The judge for the evening was Dave Hipperson and there were 35 images entered in the ‘Water’ Theme and 20 entries in the ‘Open’ competition.
After a quick run through, Dave said he was looking for pictures that had predominantly water in them. My image had drawn the short straw and was to be shown first and setting a pattern for the evening. Looking at my water drops Dave said, there wasn’t a lot of water and said the flower did not work being horizontal in the image and gave me 14.
The first to be held back was an image called ‘water drop’ which fitted the subject matter perfectly said Dave. The image had a droplet of water hitting a pool to produce a crown splash. The lighting used made the spheres emerging from the crown go red for effect
Other images followed and Dave’s stiff marking seemed to follow my score whenever an image could be construed as another title subject. In one case a member had a super picture of a wave breaking and had a surfer on the left for added interest which was deemed by Dave to be a sporting photograph.
Also in another, there was a goose flying low and almost breaking the water below it and was said to be a subject of a goose rather than water.
The second to get a good review from the judge was an image titled ‘The Tempest’ which had been cleverly done, said Dave. The waves in the foreground had the effect of being painted in revealing a yacht bobbing in between and it gave the impression the image was taken looking through a small porthole of a ship. Dave gave it 18.
During the evening other images of reflections in the water could have been a subject of reflections, said Dave and IMO lost marks.
Another image to attract the judge’s attention was of a rough angry sea taken from the shoreline and made to look even steelier perhaps using post processing, this was also given an 18.
The second image to be held back was titled ‘Selfie in a wet mirror’ of rain running down a mirror which created an interesting pattern and had a character in red behind the rain that all seemed to fit together.
Another surfer image called ‘Seven Surfer’ was of a figure in a lot of water and sun shining through the waves, the image was forgiven for having a character in it and given an 18.
One almost held back was of a waterfall called ‘Down by the river’ and this particular waterfall had enough detail around it to work out its size. The slow shutter speed use on the waterfall worked well with the still foreground of the river. It was given a score of 19
An image titled ‘Riding the waves’ was another sporting shot said Dave but managed a score of 18.
An image called ‘Rinsing’ showing a toothbrush under a tap also caught the judge’s eye for another 18
Towards the end two more water drop pictures came to be held back.
The first was a rain drop on a blade of grass this was a single droplet which showed an image of a flower inside, the droplet was razor sharp. The judge said this subject is water as the central subject and the photographer had angled the grass diagonally in the picture. The judge went on to say the background was bright but it makes it look like a Christmas bauble decoration.
The second one was rain drops on a clothes line, the line is horizontal in this one because it is a clothes line. The lighting was well chosen by the photographer
The images that were held back were shown again and the result was
‘Water Droplets’ by Chenxi Ni 20 points
‘Rain drops on a blade of grass’ by Julia Cleaver 20 points
‘Rain drops on a washing line’ by Julia Cleaver 20 points
‘Selfie on a Mirror in the rain’ by John Timbrell 19 points
So coffee time
In the second half of the evening there were 20 entries
The first shown was of a model called ‘Deep Thought’ almost as if taken through frosted glass, said Dave and gives a smoke feel. The girl is immaculate with a beautiful lit face and having sharp eyes. There are no blemishes on the skin and has a lovely softness and nice shadow, please hold this back, said Dave.
The next to be held back was titled ‘Richard’ the photographer must be pleased with the result. It was a strong image and well chosen light. The glasses seem to help the image, said Dave.
An Image called ‘Night bird’ interested Dave, an image of Concorde at night, the trees in the background can be seen despite the strong foreground lighting on the plane, Dave then even spotted stars appearing in the sky. Dave asked for it to be held back
A monochrome called ‘Sails in the sunset’ showing a windmill on the left of the image and just enough of the sun setting on the right. The swirling cloud formation pleased Dave and he asked for it to be held back
Also another called ‘Alaskan Hobo’ of a rugged character in a hat, breathing almost steam into the cold air had pleased Dave, who said, despite a large white patch of sky on the right it didn’t distract his eyes from the face. He thought the photographer had got lucky with the character looking in the right direction. It was asked to be held back.
The final picture to be held back was called ‘Roar’ which was a stag deer and Dave said, he was pleased the photographer had captured it without straw in its antlers. The image had a gentle light and the stag was nicely lit on its side
The result of the open
Deep Thoughts by Brian Worley 20 points
Roar by Chenxi Ni 20 points
Richard by Nick Razey 20 points
Alaskan Hobo by Peter Carter 19 points
Night bird by Chris Andrews 19 points
Next week
Benjamin Coyte: TV News Photography – Film to File
Tuesday February 14, 2017 from 20:15 to 22:15