Our final print competition of the season was judged by Roger BathardLRPS. He held back a dozen images, and several scored 18 or 19 straight away as well. With just five of the held backs left to score, Roger decided he wanted to go home, but did manage to make his final deliberations. He did say he preferred to just choose the top three, but managed to give us a good spread of marks from 14 to 20. Common themes were the size of the subject in the frame, and subjects placed centrally, but there was nothing really bad!
Derek Grieve was the unlucky one with an image held back which ultimately only scored 17, but he redeemed himself with an 18 for his 'Male Bearded Tit' straddled between two reed stems, with the judge commenting that it was very nice indeed. Liz Barber also gained an 18 for her well presented, well printed 'Starlight Harbour' which was taken at Shoreham on a dark, cold night for the Night View topic on the Flickr 52 Challenge. Ray Foxlee also scored an 18 for 'The Unhappy Bandmaster', a very well done monochrome with the blacks, greys and white all there.
I was pleasantly surprised with two 18s for 'Misty morning, Parham' and 'Shy Orchids', both of which were very soft and easy on the eye. These were my first time of using the Marrutt Fine Art paper (and custom profile) I bought earlier in the season.
Di Walker went one better than me, with an 18 and a 19. 'Portrait of a Young Girl' had lovely lighting, with very sharp eyes that “hit you” according to our judge, but one ear pulled the score down to 18! 'The Dancer' was a very creative image, and the sort of thing Roger liked, which makes you think “what is happening?”.
Daisy Kane went one better again with two 18s and a 19. 'Chained up for the Night' opened her account with an 18. The neatly moored boats lead the eye through the image, and all the elements worked well together. Next up was 'Singled Out', a single flower against an out of focus background of its neighbours, which Roger enjoyed. Finishing her hat-trick of good scores, 'Peacock Finery' came in at a 19 for a beautiful image, although I can't repeat the peacock story Roger told us, as it might get him in trouble!
The last four photographers each achieved the magical 20. Anne Nagle's 'Harvest Mouse' was one of those images that can be very difficult to take, and indeed our judge said he would have been “proud for the rest of my days” to get an image like this.
Starting with an 18 for 'Falklands Overland', a lovely picture, Jean McWhirter's 'Black Crowned Night Heron at nest' had nothing wrong with it whatsoever. Despite being hand-held on her bridge camera, this was of superb quality and scored her a 20.
Jane Coward won the night on points overall with a 17, a 19 for 'Aerial Ballet' with three white birds (apologies, I am not sure what they were, so ID please) in flight, integrating well with each other and standing out from an out of focus background. Her 'Flamenco Red' gained a 20, and vied for first place on the night, with a lovely line in the dancer's skirt, and movement in the hands. From the sound of it, we might see more of this subject, as Jane admitted she took some 2,500 images at this workshop!
Martin Tomes started with 19 for his lovely landscape 'Fuschl, Austria' with snow on the mountains and the sky reflected in the lake. The winning image of the evening however was his top-scoring 'Cwmorthin Chapel'. Roger particularly liked the low viewpoint, and said “I want to be there, and know about the history of it”. Martin very kindly elaborated on this slate mine chapel, and explained how long he had been waiting in the rain for a brief break in the sky to light the chapel.
Martin was also updating the website scores in real-time, and there was a not-very-well suppressed sound of glee as he realised he had won Print Worker of the Year! Well done indeed, Martin, your beautiful landscapes are something for all of us to aspire to. I particularly enjoyed hearing a few details from each of the top marked photographers as to how they had achieved their results.
Thanks to Roscoe Turner for organising the night's competition, and Alex for helping run the evening, which went very smoothly.