Influential dust spots

Meeting Report

Thursday saw thelast PI competition, and it was a hard fought one. Marks varied from 12 to 20, with seventeen being held back. The judge John Bradshaw showed us a few of his wonderful images first: he likes to try and replicate 19th century darkroom techniques digitally, also working on projects such as following the Greenwich meridian across the UK.

John started by saying that he would be looking for an image that was technically well done, but also what was it trying to say. He was certainly very hot on the technical aspects, commenting several times on sharpness, chromatic aberration, distracting backgrounds and halos created by unwise “fiddling and diddling”. Regarding dust spots, at one image he commented that “you’re not going to get your fellowship with that”. Several images had cropping suggested, with the remark that cropping is one of the most important things you can do to a photograph, especially portrait format, which he felt is often too tall for the width.

There were only four 18s, Alex Swyer’s “Dahlia”, a lovely close-up, which saw Alex commended for his compositional thinking and helped him to jump three places up to third in the Projected Worker of the Year; Juliette Lester’s “Pismo Beach” portraying a surfer, which John suggested might benefit from cropping to a more letterbox format; Chris Davis’s “Reflections”, which John described as a nice bit of sculpture photography and certainly had some intriguing reflections, and finally Daisy Kane’s “Impressionist Seagull” which he thought was an unusual idea (there was another blurry bird in flight which suffered from one of the aforementioned dust spots, otherwise it would have been held).

Ten of the held images scored 19, and there were seven 20s. The evening started out with two images being held: Ian McWhirter scored 19 for “Arctic Terns Courtship Flight”, a superb study of the interaction of these birds, gaining the comment that the judge didn’t do nature photography because the creatures never do what you tell them. He seemed impressed with the club’s natural history work (or maybe it was the members’ stamina at carrying the huge lenses around). Next came Anne Nagle’s 19 for “Three Sisters”, a fishing boat on the beach. Anne had a great evening, with all three of her entries held back. The second 19 was for sun shining through a “Memorial Window”, creating a gorgeous pattern on the wall, something I am always drawn to. Anne’s third image “Chestnut Teal” scored the magic 20, with beautifully rich colours in the bird’s plumage. Thanks to these scores, Anne secured second place in the Projected Worker of the Year.

Derek Grieve’s 19 was of a “Marbled White Butterfly”, unusually shown upside down. Chris West also did well with a 19 for “Motoring’s Greatest Age”, a monochrome vintage car described as a competent piece of work with a lovely blurred background, and 20 for “Take-Off”: a bird captured in the moment of taking flight from a lake. I always feel that competent sounds unflattering, but I realise that it is quite a compliment in photography!

Ghosts at the vaRay Foxlee wrapped up the Projected Image Worker of the Year, which he led from start to finish, with his “Ghosts at the VA” scoring 19, and 20 for “Vortex”. This was a monochrome image of a triangular stairway viewed from above with good tones, patterns and shapes (was it the Spinnaker Tower I wonder?). Well done to Ray for an excellent series of images throughout the season. John clearly enjoyed BW photographs, even giving a short masterclass on how to produce one in post-processing.

Peter Picthall’s unusual study of a piece of “Jade” being worked by fascinating wet hands also scored 19, and his beautifully sharp “Tawny Owl”, a very nice bird on a stick (judge’s words, not mine) gained a well-deserved 20.

Glenn Donnelly got only her second 19 ever for “Shoreham footbridge at low light”, Daisy’s portrait of a “Wry Smile” also earned her the same score, and I rounded off the 19s with an action kayaking image called “Sun Khosi rapids”.

Another action shot that got a well-deserved 20 was Liz Barber’s “Wicked e Liquid”, a panned shot of a sidecar racing, about which the judge said that the participants were very intent on what they were doing, otherwise they’d be dead! Jean McWhirter’s nicely exposed “Young Fox” portrait scored her a 20, although the judge did suggest that she might like to make sure she had a tissue to wipe his eyes next time he visits her!

Finally, Juliette’s “Summer Raindrops” on a succulent plant not only scored her first 20, but gained her the best of the night. Well done to Juliette for what John described as competent work (it’s that compliment again!).

Submitted by Janet Brown on