First Competitions of 2016

"Wild Swan Anemone" by Anne Nagle

It’s always a pleasure to welcome Bob Webzell to the club torun the rule over our images. His perceptive comments and sardonic humour always make for an enjoyable evening. Being the first competition of the season it was good to welcome new and returning members to the competition scene – well done to you for “diving into the deep end”.

Prints went first as usual with 28 entries of which 16 made 18 or above for a mention in dispatches–the opinions here are Bob’s as noted during the evening.

  • 2 eighteens for Kevin Harwood. “Clear for landing” would benefit from a deletion to separate the gannet main subject from the fore ground. “Dorset Sunset”–ticked all the boxes technically.
  • 2 eighteens for Daisy Kane;–“Battling it out” good, intentional out of focus horse racing image. Even If the race was actually going uphill might have been better to adjust it to “on the flat”. “Water Vole Feeding”–delightful and good technically.
  • 2 eighteens for Chris West. Monochrome “Dartmoor”–all good except weather conditions which were too good and untypically Dartmoorish when picture taken. More drama needed. “On the Scent” – obeyed rule of 3 with good spacing of subject matter.
  • 18 for Martin Tomes’ “Swan Lake”–again all boxes ticked but not obvious where to crop this picture to get best arrangement.
  • 18 for Janet Brown “Covent Garden- 3am” – commendable monochrome print quality and exposure for rain reflections. Good symmetry and good alarm clock work as well!
  • 18 for Liz Barber “Threating rain over Glenfinnan” good monochrome of architectural subject (although your reporter, unsurprisingly, sees this as Civil Engineering, not architecture). The viaduct curve was very well positioned.

There were four 19s

  • Liz Barber’s “A secret stash”–not easy to see from my seat and I was too busy socialising to catch up with it at the break! Sorry Liz–but I’m sure it well merited the high mark.
  • Dandelion clock by Anne Nagle. A variation on the “straight” picture of this with addition of an escaping seed–Bob was a little critical of the uncompromising black background.
  • “Abandoned to the elements” by Norman Kirby – Bob liked the HDR affect to an image which he correctly surmised was taken at Dungeness.
  • “Beetle in Bindweed” by Derek Grieve. A light picture well handled.

This left 3 perfect 20’s

  • White anemone by Norman Kirby. The first image reviewed certainly set the standard by being held back and gaining the top mark on its second showing. Again a white on white picture a situation which always needs careful handling which this certainly showed.
  • “Sedge Warbler Singing” by Derek Grieve. It’s one thing to photograph the bird and another to do so with an exquisite background like this. The obvious crop would have been in portrait aspect but the strength of this was its landscape format making the most of that background.
  • “Our friends in Nepal” by Janet Brown. We were first captivated by this in the “Every Picture tells a story” evening last season and it captivated Bob Webzell this time. Just a delightful image capturing a moment of joy–candid photography at its best. Well done Janet for the best print of the night.A black and white image of a woman surrounded by three interested children

Now for the projected images–and Bob said that in general he found many projected images to be overall too bright and he often tones his projected work down as much as a stop when preparing PDIs.

  • 18 for Ray Foxlee for “Steinway Serenade”–classical architecture, classical music and classical monochrome photographic treatment - what’s not to like.
  • 18 for for “Weasel” for Pat Arculus–a rare subject well captured–impressive if a captive animal, much more so if in the wild.
  • Alex Swyer’s “Squash” scored 18 with a technicolour small fruit among several monochrome (or almost) larger ones - technically good and well liked.
  • 18 for for Chris West’s “Early Morning taxi, Havana”. No specific criticism–maybe an over familiar subject.
  • Kevin Harwood scored 18 for “Orca, mother and calf” If Havana is over worked then this subject certainly isn’t–the first image of Orcas Bob had seen in competition that he had judged.
  • 18 for Audrey Gray for “Rose at Sunset”–it was this image which prompted Bob’s comments about overall brightness. This image did, indeed, seem darker than others but this was its strength–maybe a lesson for us all. (as an aside chatting with Audrey afterwards she acknowledged advice she had had from Di Walker about using manual exposure to take this–again another lesson)
  • 18 for Sarah Beard for “Physallis”–again technically well done but was the white background too bright–maybe more subdued would have been better.

There were 4 nineteens:-

  • David Seddon , with his “Derelict shed”. The judge commended the treatment of the sky, making it darker and more imposing, but by omitting to darken the sky showing through the roof and the door the image lost a point.
  • “Natural curves” by Norman Kirby. The judge was complimentary about the fact that the picture filled the frame and that the new shoot in the foreground made a good contrast to the older leaves.
  • “In the lavender” by Janet Brown, the judge remarking on the joy the picture exuded He made some comments with regards to desaturation of the sky and background trees, which may have caused a slight purple colouring in that area, reflecting the lavender. A point to note rather than a criticism.
  • And last but not least “Soap Bubble” by Daisy Kane. This “out of the box” image caused much comment from the judge, applauding the effort and idea and congratulations on avoiding the photographer being seen in the bubble. Bob saw this as clever, different and interesting, but it would not end up on his wall it seems. However he admired the thought and effort justifying the mark of 19.

3 Images scored the coveted, perfect 20 :-

  • “Rome Abstract Architecture” by David Seddon impressed for its stark contrasting colours andsimple shapes. Bob commented that the photographer had a good seeing eye to present a clean, well seen image which well deserved the top mark.
  • Derek Grieve earned the second twenty. A top class nature study of a rare bearded tit in its natural environment. The judge commented about the point of sharpness perhaps being more on the bird’s feet than its head and eyes, but that he described as “nit picking” (and that after hours of waiting to get the shot!). The background was suitably blurred, perhaps an intrusive reed detracted from the bird’s head, as Bob said more “nit picking”. The need for such comments identifies the high standard of the entries.
  • “Wild Swan Anemone” by Anne Nagle. The square format suited the subject well, giving a beautiful well illustrated picture, which impressed Bob and the rest of us and truly deserved the title “Best projected image” of the night.

So congratulations to Janet and to Anne and to all other members who scored well in this competition– Bob Webzell is a very discerning judge and difficult to please - all in all a very successful start to the competitive season.

Submitted by Audrey Gray on