Attention to Detail

"Tulip" by John Gauvin

We were joined by our old friend Walter Benzie ARPS on 15thMay for our Best of Year competition. He started by shaking several peoples’ hands, then telling a story about a photographer in Bombay, who just happened to be Henri Cartier-Bresson. I have since discovered a Cartier-Bresson quote, “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”Perhaps there is something in my 365 obsession!

Prints

Walter had a short discussion as to whether he would mark first then talk, or talk and give a mark after he had listened to himself. Deciding on the latter, he did say at one point that he had talked himself up to a higher mark!

There were eight 18s and six held prints, of these, two went on to get 19s and four the coveted 20/20. I guess this reflects the fact that this is a best-of competition, although I certainly feel that the standard within our friendly little club has improved enormously over the past couple of years. The main theme running through the prints was about the mounting of the images, with some adding to the overall impression, and others unfortunately failing to do the image justice.

The first 18 was my ‘The Enchanted Forest’, and I was somewhat embarrassed to find that my competition reports do get seen, as Walter said that he had seen this one on our website! Although he felt it was very effective, he didn’t like the layer of mist I had added. Oh well, win some… Next came Jean MacWhirter’s ‘The Colonnade at Guys’, a very clean image that was out of the ordinary. John Gauvin’s ‘Freesia’ was described as more like visual art, and technically well done. ‘Unseated’ from Jane Coward earned the comment that action shots are very difficult, and have to be taken on the hoof! Ian MacWhirter earned an 18 for ‘Surburban Sophistication’, an elegant fox licking his lips after drinking from Ian’s birdbath “exactly the right moment”. Chris West’s ‘Family Holiday’ was charming, and beautifully presented. ‘Updating Angus McBean (1947)’ from Norman Kirby gained the reflection “What is truth in photography?” as well as “odd, but the original was odd”. Last but not least for the 18s was Ray Foxlee’s ‘The Gallery, Strawberry Hill House’, a lovely architectural shot with fantastic detail. This was one that Walter felt had worked well in mono, whereas others he would have preferred to see in colour.

The 19s were ‘Recession in Reflection’, Jean’s other print entry, which had a strength about it, and was clearly and nicely cropped; and John Gauvin’s ‘Lion’, a BW with lots of texture.

The first 20 was my ‘Come Here Jack’ in effect in 4th place, a very creative picture. In 3rd place was Peter Picthall’s ‘The Stare’, with the subject in a very interesting position, and his stare wary. In 2nd was Derek’s ‘Osprey – Just Up’. The shutter speed was perfect, and the image impressive and beautifully taken and the fish didn’t know what had happened to it!

Taking the top honour was ‘Rough Sea’ by Di Walker, a beautifully lit seascape from Iceland, with the very dark beach looking very attractive, especially when printed on matt paper. Our judge loved the wind on the waves, the cropping and positioning and the attention to detail, indeed he said he could look at it for ages. Well done Di for your beautiful work, and what a shame that you weren’t able to be with us to see your image win. We miss you!

PIs

There were no less than eleven 18s, so I will do a whistle-stop tour: starting with Anne Nagle’s ‘Flower with Attitude’: effective but unlucky as there were other flower PIs; both of David Burton’s offerings ‘Raindrops’: intriguing and well captured, and ‘Scotney Castle’; Paul Setford’s ‘Rural Housing Vermont USA’: cleanly done with the lighting right; ‘Jamie Rockhill’ by Alex Swyer: overall a strong image; ‘Flipping Cowboy’ capturing the moment by Terence Bermingham; Daisy Kane’s ‘Aah! Bliss!’ again captured that moment; ‘Dark Days’ from Martin Tomes, although Walter didn’t fancy a flight that night; ‘Hoverfly approaching Red Campion’ from Derek Grieve with the fly definitely on the wing; Ian MacWhirter’s ‘Horseplay’ with an Icelandic horse’s bite being a bit more of a nip than it seemed; and finally another capturing the moment shot from myself, ‘Sun Khosi rapids’.

Our three 19s were ‘Quiet Time’ from Ray Foxlee, a very thoughtful and contemplative study capturing the nostalgia of a dignified old age. Yet again, mono worked well here, although Walter hoped that the frame was produced by the photographer! ‘Dahlia’ by Alex Swyer was a very interesting flower image which had “moved to fine art from the conventional, and been manipulated to the extreme, its worked!” Last but not least was Ian’s second image, ‘Arctic terns - courtship flight’ captured at the moment.

Now for the six 20s! Jean MacWhirter’s ‘Snow Bunting Singing’ was unfortunately missed off the set, so was marked after the close. I therefore have no specific comments noted down from Walter, although I know he was very impressed. Terence had struggled with PI issues most of the season, so we had not had the privilege of seeing his two entries before (to the best of my knowledge). He made up for this at the Best of Year, having already gained an 18, he scored a well-earned 20 for ‘10K Champion’ Mo Farah portrayed adjacent to an advertising hoarding proclaiming him as World Champion. Not only was his position spot on, but also both his feet were off the ground, although he might have needed a bit more space to run into! Daisy also rounded off her evening with a 20 for ‘Mother’s little helper, Luang Prabang’ a charming image of a child helping at a market stall. The child was having fun and smiling, although Walter did think he might be a bit of a hazard with the eggs! He said that he loved pictures like this, and guessed it was from a female photographer, as men were sadly somewhat frightened to take them. Jane Coward had a rather successful evening, with both her PIs scoring 20. ‘Radiating Flower’ was an outstanding flower photograph and extremely strong with the centre “where you wanted me to look at it”; ‘Spring Tulips at Nyman’s’ stood out strongly, with the low camera angle helping to mark it out, although Walter did think it might have been more difficult for the photographer to get up!

The winning PI was ‘Tulip’ from John Gauvin, fighting off the challenge of the other very competitive flower images. This was very clean and precise, with delicate photography of the white petals, and overall a very minimalist image which worked very well indeed. Walter thought that the photographer had shown great cunning and detail, something we have come to expect from John! Well done from all at SCC.

Submitted by Janet Brown on