News items
Only one week left to get your print entries in for the next competition. Entries must be in by 18th Jan. There will be no extensions as the prints will be collected by the judges next Monday evening. Please DO NOT write your name on the back, only the title, as the competition will be judged by a panel of club members. Also, don’t forget to send your entry form to me as usual.
Good luck!
Club photographer Len Claydon has just won a Gold medal and had two other exhibition acceptances at the recent Royal Photographic Society Projected Image competition. His medal was for coming top of the Open Colour section for his “Girl on the Balcony” image. From around 1000 entries, only 200 are selected for exhibition, three of which were Len’s. The images are published in the monthly RPS DIGIT magazine for December. Very well done Len, a great achievement.
Many congratulations to Conor who has been awarded his ARPS.
In order to gain his ARPS, Conor had to submit 15 images to the judging panel and then attend the assessment day in Bath. He commented:
“ The first three panels that were assessed on the morning all failed due to technical faults with image sharpness so as you can imagine I was a nervous wreck sitting there in the audience when the fourth panel up was mine. Having four natural history expert judges plus a Chairman taking your pictures off the stand to examine them in detail for all of five minutes, talking to each other in low whispers about their thoughts on your work can’t help but induce some tension. Five minutes seems like ages. But when the Chairman asked them to vote on my panel they passed it unanimously and the relief was terrific, all the effort, print and re-print, trip down to Bath etc all seemed worthwhile”.
Conor is planning to bring along his Associate panel to the President’s evening on 4th January. If you can’t wait that long, here’s one of his winning images.
Many thanks to everyone who came along and participated in our first home-judged competition. Despite the technical hitches we managed to get through everything, thanks in no small part, to our volunteer critiquers (Mark, Len, Howard, Alan and Louise). They somehow kept us on track with concise and insightful comments on all of the 50 entered images. Congratulations to Steve Gresty for taking the top spot, with Louise Acton in second and Anthony Gosling and Conor Molloy sharing 3rd place. Louise did particularly well with all three of her images in the top 10. All of the top 10 images are now available to see under the ‘Competitions’ section of this web site.
It would be great to know how everyone thought the evening went, compared to the more usual format with an external judge. Please use the forum to leave feedback along with any ideas you might have for future competitions or have a chat with any of the committee members.
After two competitions the accumulated scores are as follows:
Conor Molloy 16, Kevin Blake 15, Paul Scott 15, Steve Gresty 14, David Tolliday 13, Louise Acton 12, Anthony Gosling 11, Vince Sparks 6, Malcolm Brunt 4, Kevin Lomax 4, and Irene Lea 1.
Italian photography magazine FOTOGRAFI have published a two page feature illustrating the work of club member Anthony Gosling. They have used two of Anthony’s images to explain to their readers the beauty and technical quality of his architectural photography. Anthony was pleasantly surprised with the publication which picked up on his Flickr account “For me, getting some recognition for what we photographers do no matter how big or small that may be is always a satisfying feeling and as a club we must get our images out there! whether it be the local paper, one of the many online photo sharing sites or a print down the local pub, lets share them with the world and you never know what we might achieve!!”
A translation from the Italian ……on the more symmetrical skyscraper image “The very bright sky looks like if it is about to impinge upon the upper part of the building, but the author has managed to preserve the highlights. In cases like this you need to correct the histogram, use the “Raw” processing tools and, if necessary, adjust the contrast. The wide-angle and the symmetrical composition has created an enclosed effect. Reflections have a strong graphic impact, but from a technical aspect require great attention to exposure and focus; here the subject and its reflected image blend perfectly.”
On the One Angel Square image….”The clouds seem to replace the fumes of these hypothetical smokestacks. When photographing the sky, the clouds are an element of the composition hence place them in line with your expressive intent. In this image we can appreciate the management of the light that enhances this futuristic architecture. The wide-angle focal length and the closed framing accentuate the vanishing point. In the presence of glass and steel architecture, look for an angle which enhances the reflections. And remember that in photography the subject is reproduced not for the light that hits it but for that which it reflects.
Well done Anthony, great to see your work get the commendation it deserves.
