Abstract (Print #2)

Do you have a dime, to listen to me whine

About nothing & everything all at once?

Hello

and welcome to the asylum

medicines will be handed out later, but for now …

Last Wednesday, we had our second print competition.

Normally it’s very hard to get members to supply images, what with the cost of printing, and on top of that, I’m paying something like two quid for a piece of A3 card just to display them on … it’s scary.

However, ten of our members took on that challenge.

And what a challenge.

Abstract.

Of course it’s the eye of the judge you have to convince that this is not just an ordinary subject, but one that is worthy of the accolade of abstract.

The dictionary defines it as non-concrete, conceptual, notional, non-realistic, symbolic or contrived. I just wish I’d checked that out before putting camera to eye … Ho hum.

OK, tonight’s adjudicator was Simon Shore.

All the way up/down from Cambridge.

Simon has visited our house before, and we obviously liked him enough to invite him back … so there is that!

He had to go through 39 images, giving him plenty of time to eulogise over the pros & cons of our offerings.

And he did, not chastising us for the over exposed highlights, but maybe go back to the original file and see if there is anything more to be gleaned from it. If not, maybe a touch of cloning just to take down the glare. His comments about dead spaces and cropping, were incitefull but not cruel.

He liked our usage of ICMs, Bokeh, OOFs?

Overall the scores averaged just over eight per photo, with my contributions dragging it down.

Simon did hold back ten images (that’s about a quarter) with photos from illuminating authors such as Kevin, Steve, Colin, Dave, Graham & Tony.

He put up all the images side by side on our racks, juggling them up and down to come up with ...

Graham’s Reflect - nice strong colours that work well - eight ana half.

Steve’s Boots of Spanish Leather and Kev’s Mirror Tree each scoring a credible nine. He liked the way the boots had been made into an abstract, and the Mirror Tree had a great colour scheme, just a shame the highlights were blown out.

Now the nine ana halfs.

Weird, should that be halves or halfs … hmm, I’m undecided.

Anyways Kevin (again) Colin & Tony. Kev’s Fire Tree, he liked this, maybe a crop at the top would have lifted it up with the big guns! Colin’s Whimsy (I think you can get a cream for that) he loved the ICM (intentional camera movement) and the whole picture works well. Now Tony’s Old Town left him scratching his head … it’s right … it’s wrong … does it work as an abstract? Yeah it does … see me later to explain.

Which brings us to the tens, just four

Colin’s Sparkle - great bokeh, lovely out of focus highlights (is out of focus, or OOF going to be the new standard?) and nice soft colours worthy fourth place.

Colin again in third place with Maritime Mayhem. This is a good abstract that the title fits well.

Kevin just loses out with Some Tree. A nicely printed abstract with great colours … well worthy of second place.

Top of the heap is Dave’s Wistaria - a true abstract, it’s full of dynamism, good colouration and a very successful picture.

OK, that’s it, a good night for most of us.

Me, I gotta get back to the drawing board.

Catch you soon