Hey, is it really a year since this trophy was up for grabs.
Wowser!
Ok, tonight it was the Jan Reilly Trophy.
The competition was set up to commemorate Jan, a constant source of energy, cruelly ripped away from us a few years back. Jan & Kev were one of the driving forces in the club. This blog was her idea to let everyone know what they’d missed.
They were also footloose & fancy free. You’d put in a travel shot from Clacton, hers would be from Kazakhstan or Oz
You can still go back and read her witterings, she wrote under the PubOffy Life handle.
As I said, Jan & Kev loved to travel and for this, we cherish her memory with this Trophy, with a set subject of travel as the theme.
Tonight’s adjudicator was David Portwain, no stranger to these shores, having judged here on many occasions. Also entertaining us with evenings of travel, the letters after his name awarded for travel related portfolios.
So, no stranger to this theme.
He started with
‘a good image, you’ve give it a timeless quality with your presentation. 5’
Wait … what? Only a five? Nobody has scored us that low before! Is he mad?
Looking a bit deeper into his reasoning, OK, you’ve travelled to this spot & taken the shot, but it’s static, it’s not moving, it’s a dead parrot … whoa, sorry, wrong sketch. Looking at this shot, it’s a flat, lifeless record, there’s nothing to say it’s moving, it’s not travelling anywhere! (He also added the addenda that another judge might give this a higher score, it’s his personal opinion)
& so it continued up unto the tea break, handing out fives, sixes and sevens whilst holding back 14 (of 30) images for a second look.
The second half of the comp he carried on at a canter. Perhaps 64 images was too ambitious on my part. Perhaps 48/50 images (back to three per member) would have made it less strained. Still, David managed to get through them all (including the ones the program refused to show, who’d be a projectionist?) holding back a total of twenty three images for a second look.
After another look through, a flurry of eights and nines dropped, and the hold backs were down to seven images.
All of these picked up maximum scores of ten. In no particular order (‘cept for the top three) they were -
Cheryl’s Hiking Rest - I like the capture and the ratio. I feel for you, many times I’ve been there with sore feet. Homework for this shot, go back and shoot from a lower angle, it might (or may not) improve the capture.
Rob’s The Edge of the World - a lovely rendition, the colours are gorgeous and the boats well positioned. A great composition.
José’s Oban - what a cracking sky. The moored boat carries us into the shot where another boat is going about its business.
Nick’s Val Wants to Break Free - a leading line drags us into the shot, perhaps a step to the side might carry the chain in from the corner.
Chris’s Old Travel grabbed third shot overall - Beautiful shot of a old aircraft, great skies, you can’t even see the strings 😄
Steve’s Is that Our Ferry? - Love it. Says everything about travel. The inclusion of the child is superb, giving us the wonder of the outside world through their eyes.
And in top spot
José again with Stroll - very strong movement from left to right. We should all study this image. The author has given us movement of the beach and sea. The subject is perfectly placed and you’ve even given him a shadow. Obviously a composit but brilliant.
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