Photographers in club competitions are familiar with judges criticising their images on the basis that they do not follow the rules. Caroline argues that there needs to be a reason behind a rule and set out to demonstrate that there are no rules just a series of tools than can be used in different ways to enhance the message that the photographer is intending to convey by applying some science to the decision making.
Our third competition of the 2023-24 season was on ‘any subject’ and took place on 25 January 2024. It was judged by Chris Dixon ARPS of Horndean Camera Club. Chris briefed us on how he proposed to judge our images; the key consideration being Expressive Quality, as advocated by Ken Scott. This was music to our ears and this, together with Chris’ sense of humour, set the scene for an enjoyable evening.
Chris chose his favourite images and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images. He was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries.
Virtually all of the time members present single images for comment, discussion or judgement. On this occasion members were asked to present a panel of images and/or an audio-visual presentation and they responded magnificently. Panels tend to follow a theme and can be of any number of images from three to 40. The latter was evidenced by the photographer Iain McGowan who addressed us in 2022. Dean, who masterminded the evening, was first with a panel of monochrome images of folded paper creating abstract shapes in a varied array.
It has been a long time since we attempted the exercise of taking an image and letting members process it in any way they chose but there was an echo of an earlier attempt involving a donkey that will be referred to later. George Reekie provided us with three images. One was of Blackchurch Rock in Devon, another of a dancer and a third of a dog on a wet beach reflected in the water. Without any disrespect to George it is fair to say that the images were not perfect.
Our second competition of the 2023-24 season was ‘any subject’ and took place on 30 November 2023. It was judged by David Smith, whose anecdotes and useful suggestions kept us all entertained. David was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries.
Judges are asked to choose their favourite image and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening
As always at Storrington, the standard was high. The judge’s favourites were:
Ken Scott ARPS, a local photographer, planned a 5000 mile walk in 2017 around the mainland coast of Britain over the period from February to October. His presentation of photos, audio visuals and narrative was inspiring on a number of levels. It was primarily a walk. There was not time to make his photographs to his exacting standards but his selections from his 6,000 images were nonetheless impressive.
The Regnum Print competition is one of two conducted by the Regnum Crouch group between 6 camera clubs from Henfield, Littlehampton, Mid-Sussex, Southwick, Steyning and Storrington. In the print competition 8 prints from each club is presented and judged in a series of rounds. This year the judge was Paul Graber ARPS from Guildford.
This talk was originally commissioned in 2019 when she was artist in residence at Parham House. A confident, enthusiastic and entertaining Elizabeth Zeschin delighted members with a life in photography presentation. Born in the USA she studied theatre in Chicago before becoming an assistant to a leading theatre and film photographer.
Our first competition of the 2023-24 season was ‘any subject’ and took place on 19 October 2023. It was judged by David Hughes of Godalming Camera Club and an accomplished wildlife photographer.
Throughout, David gave copious feedback which was helpful to all and made for a very enjoyable evening. He was particularly impressed by the quality of the printing.
For this season the scoring system has been changed; judges are being asked to choose their favourite image and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images.
Influenced by the radio programme 100 Best Tunes John Bradshaw FRPS brought 100 interesting images to the club covering his over 30 years of photography. A member of Chichester Camera Club and the Arena and Focus groups of leading photographers, John talked about five different genres of photographs that were far from being "snaps".
