Last Thursday we welcomed Catherine Jolley LRPS LBIPP to our 3rd PI competition. Hailing from Littlehampton Camera Club, Catherine is a Wedding, Portrait and Fashion photographer. She described her role on the evening not as judging us, but that she was there to help coach us. She certainly provided some excellent and useful comments throughout the evening, often about how the image could be brought to life more with a slight crop, or a little work in the post-production. On a couple of occasions however, she felt that the author had perhaps taken things too far! She seemed to enjoy herself, and I know that we all had a great evening.
With 66 PI's to look at, the marks ranged from 13 to 20, with the emphasis being on how the images expressed themselves. A baker's dozen scored 18 or more. Many thanks go to Martin Tomes for gathering the images, and John Gauvin and Alex Swyer for their work on the night to ensure the competition ran smoothly.
Derek Grieve earned the first 18 with his lovely 'Common Blue Butterfly' against a well diffused background from use of a good aperture. Jean McWhirter followed with the next two, 'Little and Large' of an elephant seal appearing to have a conversation with a small bird, a lovely fun image. Her second was 'Long-tailed Meadowlark'. Catherine commented that we must have very long lenses in SCC, and enjoyed the red in the bird's plumage, saying that any primary colour in excellent, and this image also had blue in the sky!
Liz Barber came next with her HDR processed 'Evening Stroll on the South Bank'. Proving that SCC photo shoots are well worth attending, Liz managed to capture a lovely painterly background of Big Ben, with people in the foreground on our recent trip to London. Despite being a people-photographer herself, Catherine almost wanted to get rid of them in this, but then decided that she was enjoying what she was seeing. Alex Swyer then proved that the weekly challenge was also a worthwhile experience with one from our first year's challenge called 'Frozen'. Nothing to do with the billion dollar movie, this is a simplistic image of a flower beautifully framed in ice, although it did make Catherine feel a bit sad.
Several BW images prompted our judge to speculate what they might have looked like in colour. 'Riverside Tranquillity' from Ray Foxlee was one of these. However, there was lots of lovely movement in the willow and the water, so it was very pleasing. One that was timeless in BW was 'A Train ride with Grandpa' from Jane Coward. The lovely expressions on the child and grandparents face really gave the feel that everyone was having fun in different ways.
Anne Nagle went one better with her 19 for 'Salisbury Cathedral Font', an interesting viewpoint making an almost symmetrical image which then draws you into the centre. Enhanced well with the post-production, it certainly makes you want to go and look at it. February photo-shoot sorted then?
David Burton also gained a 19 for his good use of a wide angled lens in 'Lock Gates'. Converging lines in the sky draw it all in, giving a good perspective.
Perhaps David Seddon should miss the next PI competition as well, because he stormed to the top of the points table in his absence, with three successful images! In marks order (but not the order we saw them in) he opened his account with 'Chip off the Old Block', a very nice portrait of a young man with a darkened background, keeping our focus on him. With lovely catchlights in his eyes, and a wry smile, Catherine felt that this was shown by someone who was very proud of the subject. Going up to 19, we moved to the banks of the Thames at 'Low Tide', giving an interesting viewpoint and lovely lighting on the water under the bridge, which leads us in well. Remarking on the way the colouring had been brought out, Catherine commended the time and effort taken in the post-processing. Closing his excellent evening, David then gave our judge a tough time with his other image 'Uniform Squared'. With converging lines and diagonals, this image of a set of escalators is interesing anyway. However, it was captured at the moment a group of people in military uniforms were going one way, what worked so well was a man looking across at them from the other direction. This earned a well deserved 20, and yet again second on the night, although it was close, and at one point our judge asked if she could give two firsts.
Luckily for me, this did not happen, as I'm yet again embarrassed to report that my kitchen still life 'The Afternoon Meal' (from week one of the Flickr challenge 2015) also scored a 20, and won the night. How does a couple of loaves and a bit of fruit look so pleasing? I'm not sure, but I am certainly very grateful to Melendez for his composition, Kim Klassen for a couple of her free textures, and Sainsburys for the raw materials.