Around six or seven ImageZ club members attended the CCAC championships on Sunday at Amersham. The venue was held in a new refurbished sports centre which had a swimming pool and cafe alongside.
I arrived a bit late but the event had already started at 11am. Two of judges had travelled from the east coast and the other from south London, so a fair trip for them.
Entering the hall it was in darkness but no usher with a torch to show us to our seats.
The individual digital competition was under way and with a number of titles starting with the word ‘dawn’ I quickly realised it was being done in alphabetical order by title. So lucky for me my title began with the letter ‘T’.
The three judge’s had previously marked all images before the start of the event and each had up to 5 marks available to allocate to each image. Each image had a possible mark to a maximum of 15, so even to get a 12 one needed to get the judges each to give 4 out of 5.
Like all these competitions the result is subjective and wildlife and nature seem to be a more favourable selection. Intentional movement or abstract images just did not seem to go well. The majority of pictures averaged around 9 or 10 with many of those previously winning club competitions and Rosebowl rounds. So competition was hard.
In the individual round the best scores for Imagez were
Shattering Chenxi Ni 14, Sunshine and Flower Kathy Chantler 12, Another World Kes Ward 11, Bond of Friendship Tami Nunley 11, Buttermere Reflections Chris Andrews 11, On the Beach at Twilight Nicholas Razey 11, Surprise Surprise Steve Beckett 11, The Farm Girl Brian Worley 11.
In the Club Digital round best scores for ImageZ were
Cupboard under the Stairs Kes Ward 14, Keep Your Distance Brian Worley 13, The View from Blea Tarn Chris Andrews 12, Angelina Julia Cleaver 11, Deep in Thought Nick Razey 11, Half Full or Half Empty Kathy Chantler 11, Millenium Bridge at Night Kathy Chantler 11, Sunset at Pitstone Windmill Chenxi Ni 11, The Fig Leaf Julia Cleaver 11.
In the Club print competition round the best scores for ImageZ were
Long Forgotten Chenxi Ni 13, Inside Tate Saint Ives John Timbrell 12, All at Sea Chris Andrews 11, Out of the Blue Brian Worley 11, Patching the Wall Kathy Chantler 11, Peekaboo Tami Nunley 11, Sand Patterns at Low Tide Julia Cleaver 11, Single Shot David Gibbs 11, Vulnerable Brian Worley 11.
The winning image was a fly on a flower stem with water bubbles which were as sharp as I have ever seen, I must get one of those £5000 macro lens.
The print competition followed and a portrait titled ‘Brown eyed girl’ was stunning and won the print section and probably the best portrait I have seen in any competition.
I can proudly say I picked both the fly and the portrait to win their sections.
It was also noted that the fly turned up in the relevant club selection as well as the individual round and took both first prizes.
All the results are published on CACC website:
- Image Gallery
- Chilterns Hundred 2022 Result.pdf
- Print Championship 2022 Result.pdf
- Digital Championship 2022 Result.pdf
From our club’s entries, well done to Kes for getting a 14 in his first entry in this high levelled competition.
For those that attended it was a good lesson on seeing images that did well and what is needed to win a competition of this level
Derek