Paul Hayward opened by whetting our appetites for the events of the evening which would see the final results for our competitions of the year. Paul then welcome Malcolm Bull judge for the evening and thanked him for this return visit and for stepping in for Ken Boddy. 24 prints were shown, with wide ranging subjects, pleasing Malcolm for quality and presentation. He held four back, which increased the anticipation.
Three very different pictures received 18, Daisy Kane for “Sunset over Littlehampton”, which showed lovely tones with the use of panning, Liz Barber’s “The final curtsy”, an abstract ballerina like flower, which was very nicely presented, and lastly “What ever” by Sarah Beard, an orange tinted abstract, a cause for much discussion and speculation about the subject and deliberate camera movement. Well done to you all and to the committee for organising events and a programme, that stretches our skills and ideas.
Two of the held back prints were awarded well deserved 19, “Neglect” by Martin Tomes, the judge enjoying the appealing setting which offered contrast and grains of real interest, “The day after the rain” from Janet Brown, impressing the judge with dramatic shapes and contrasts, selecting good shutter speeds to highlight receding waves and tones. Well deserved marks and comments for two skilled photographers.
Janet Brown in the mix with one of the two 20s of the night, a well seen “Shelter with attitude”, a simple but well handled picture of a sea front shelter, catching the weather, light and shadows very well. The second twenty was “Another tulip dies” by Norman Kirby, this was the first print to be seen by the judge and held his attention until the end, when he named this best print of the night. Malcolm was delighted with the way the flower was captured and artistically presented, so congratulations Norman.
Refreshments all round and a closer look at the prints, before the judging of the projected images.
The 32 varied images presented attracted marks ranging from 14-20, with five being marked at eighteen, six at nineteen and two at twenty, so a high standard all round with a good range of amazing wild life images.
First up of the 18s “Fox ready for?” by Derek Grieve, with a lovely capture of the opened mouthed fox, great details with an out of focus background, second my own “Winner takes all”, which the judge enjoyed for the ad hoc tray for the game, but commented negatively on some of the processing, next “Noble beasts” by David Seddon with two magnificent male lions heads above each other in monochrome, the judge enjoying the composition and presentation, two 18s for Chris West “Landscape photography whatever the weather”, in monochrome which suited and made the most of the conditions, well done Chris for making good use of a recent evening by Tony Worobiec, then the last but not least “Men on holiday” by Chris West, which we all enjoyed for its humour, well spotted and the judge speculated as to whether or not the second man reading a paper, was planned or appeared fortuitously.
The next 7 images were all held back, 5 of which were given 19, “Reflecting wealth” by Janet Brown a city landscape, taken at a good time of the day, and using the water well, the judge felt that sharpness was an issue, but a well framed picture. This was followed by “Watchful cheetah” by Kevin Harwood, a well lit expressive image, truly depicting the wildness, “A stroll at light speed” brought forth Janet Brown with another city scene, which impressed the judge with the timing of the couple in the picture and the interaction between them, he saw the scene as interesting with attractive colour, well captured. So to “Peter” by Alex Swyre, a well deserved 19 for an engaging portrait, well presented in monochrome, but the judge pondered about the tight crop of the picture, but loved the light in the eye. The last of the 19s “Snowy sentinel” from Liz Barber, showing snow catching on tree “ledges”, which worked well with the bark, and the out of focus background helped to emphasise the patterns. The final two images each attracted 20, firstly “Scottish wildcat stalking” from Daisy Kane much praise from the judge for getting down to a low angle to capture the cat face on with good focus and highlight on the eyes, earning an enthusiastic round of applause, well done Daisy. The final PI of the night came from David Seddon “Elephant abstract”, a great selective image of the elephant’s eye and partial facial features, defining skin texture, a well framed picture, attracting 20 and the title PI of the night, much applause, congratulations David.
Paul Hayward thanked Malcolm and all those who had entered images and prints, meantime Martin Tomes was busy on his laptop and announced the winners for this year as follows:
Janet Brown is the print worker of the year with Anne Nagle second and Di Walker third.
Kevin Harwood is the projected image worker of the year with David Seddon second and Alex Swyre third.
Janet is also the photographer of the year with Kevin second and Anne third.
Congratulations to Janet our chairman elect and Kevin, good to see a relatively new member take up the challenge and do well, thanks also to Kevin for his exciting efforts in advertising the club through pictures and word locally and in the West Sussex press.
Sincere commiserations to those who came close, having said that you all did incredibly well.
Chris West will be your reporter for Best of year competition on 24th May, thanks Chris.