Look Ma, look how early I'm doing this one. stop nagging ...
Well, here we again, another competition.
This time the subject was Scapes, be they Land, Sea or Cityscapes and after a lot of cajoling, thirteen of us picked up the gauntlet, ready to be torn apart by the judge.
Our judge tonight ... Tom Peck from Loughton Camera Club. (a fellow competition secretary, so he can't be all that bad) Tom is one of those guys who teaches photography. He takes 'students' to all corners of this fair isle, so if your bag is the bustling metrolops of London or the wind swept Isle of Harris, Tom can help. Pretty sure he gave Val cards for his website if you're interested. But I digress ...
52 shots we gave him, plenty of Land, Sea and City, and he gave us his take on what he thought would have made the shots better. I know that may sound a little condescending, but hopefully, his insight will rub off on our future works. I have to say, most of the downplaying was due to problems that could have been bettered with some thoughtful processing. Often it was watch out for the corners, a sliver off the top, perhaps a keyline to show where the picture starts, silly little niggles that just took the shine offa the image.
Anyways, he called for fourteen shots to be held back for future discussion, that's a hit rate of just over twentyfive percent. Then he cruelly cast mine aside and chose six of those shots to give a maximum ten points to. Pushed into the corner by us for his top three, he chose Rob's The Grave Yard. This shot from Pinmill was a really striking image of the boats, excellent compositionally, well balanced and great contrast in the image.
Second he chose one from his favourite place to visit, David K's Recession Isle of Harris. a lovely simple image with blue layers continuing up to the sky. His only downside to this, and it cost him top slot, was he felt it needed a key line across the bottom to hold the shot in.
Third place was snagged by Rosie. an absolutely stonking image of a sunset over a pier.
He said the colours were beautiful, that it would make a fabulous print.
Of the other tens, there was Katherine's Into the Woods. This had strong vertical lines and a vanishing point, the two dogs took you nicely into the picture.
Katherine's Hong Kong also grabbed a ten. He said he liked it even though it was very claustrophobic. Loved the way you were drawn in to the big building, checked out the reflections and then, marveled at the sheer amount of other buildings in the shot.
And the last ten was for Rob again with his The Old Pier. A great image with strong dynamics and tonal ranges