Overlooking the landscape

"Broadway Tower" by Martin Tomes

It was very interesting to have a different viewpoint on our images from Lisa Beaney. She is a professional photographer who was invited to judge for us after a chance meeting with Martin Tomes in a Steyning pub! She specialises in wedding, portraiture, commercial and boudoir photography. All in all though, it was an evening of post-processing, whether it was something that added to the image, or was lacking!

We had a wide spread of marks from 13 to 19, with no-one getting an elusive 20. Her style of judging was different, but very helpful to me, as she gave the mark first after a few moments quiet deliberation, followed by her comments. This meant that I didn't have to scribble so much on each image, so a big “thank-you” to Lisa from me!

She held 12 images back, with these scoring 17 to 19 points, with two others also scoring 17, so I will work around these images for this report, starting with those two 17s.

The first came from John Gauvin, and was a monochrome landscape of 'Fairfield Church'. Lisa enjoyed the path leading in, the dynamic range and good detail. One of her favourite comments of the night was about post-processing, generally to say an image needed more, but this was “lovely”, although Lisa would have liked even more of the dramatic sky. The second came soon after, with Terence Bermingham's 'Nile Morning' with a sailing boat given lots of space to sail into, with a lovely reflection, and a beautiful calm feel.

Jane Coward gave us two of the held-back 17s. 'John and Maggie at home' showed a man and his dog on a houseboat, with great character in his face. As Lisa said, it really didn't need a title, as the image explained and told the story. Her 'Dartford Crossing on a murky day' was a lovely composition, with good dynamic range and detail. Lisa would have liked to be on a boat sailing away from the traffic on the bridge, a feeling I can certainly empathise with on the way home from numerous trips to Lee Valley Whitewater Centre!

Anne Nagle did one better, with a hat-trick of 17s. Rounding the bend was one of my favourites of the night, with racehorses galloping away from the viewer. Her second, 'Woman in the fountain' was one where Lisa wanted to change the subject's position, but certainly seemed to enjoy. Finally, 'The River Bank' was a lovely image, but might benefit from a different crop!

Ray Foxlee gave us the first 18, 'Illuminati', a “really beautiful image” where the author was obviously going for symmetry. If you're doing that, Lisa's advice was to ensure it is perfect, as this was potentially one of the best images of the evening. If all else fails, she recommended cloning!

Derek Grieve was back with us after his recent illness, in order to see two of his images scoring 18. The first was 'Kingfisher with lunch', an unusual study of the bird swallowing a rather large fish, with his eyes showing on either side. Enjoying the lovely control and separation using depth of field, Lisa commended the photographer's patience in achieving this image. In fact the control of depth of field and exposure were “lovely” again in his other 18, 'Bee eater tossing a bee'.

Alex Swyer achieved an 18 in his absence for 'Lazy', a close-up study of a bored dog. Describing it as a lovely image, Lisa liked the monochrome conversion, detail, texture and light in both of his eyes, but being “very picky”, felt it would be nice to see all of his left paw.

Last but not least of the 18s was Daisy Kane with 'Lake District Highlights and Shadows'. Another monochrome, this showed lovely control of the dynamic range, with nothing blown out, good shadow detail and the river leading into the image. All that Lisa wanted was slightly more drama!

Just two images scored 19. Our runner up for the evening (unfortunately in his absence) was David Seddon, someone who is new to us, but certainly not new to camera clubs. 'We have lift off' was a night image of a skyscraper wreathed in mist, giving the impression of being about to rocket skywards. Commenting that the image drew the eye in, the photographer had captured the dynamic range, whether it be by luck or planned, and the post-processing was good.

It was a very close run thing, but our winner for the night was the other 19, Martin Tomes' 'Broadway Tower'. A beautiful image of Broadway Tower with low light giving a slight flare, Lisa loved the processing, and felt that the tower was given plenty of space to overlook its landscape.

Submitted by Janet Brown on