On 17th October 2019 we reviewed the results of the Digital Projected Images competition, which had taken place 2 weeks earlier.

03 October 2019 (Digital Projected Images Competition)

The judge, Simon Wooton, had left us a very comprehensive set of feedback on the images. This gave us the opportunity to review the competition images and discuss how they might be improved next time. Most members noticed the judge had spotted distractions or faults in their images they hadn’t noticed. This is a common problem. Showing your images to someone else before submitting them can often help. Another technique is to prepare your images weeks in advance, set them aside and forget them, and then look at them again before the competition. Giving yourself more time helps you spot things you might not have noticed.

We discussed some of the common problems reported in the images, and methods of correcting the problems. I have compiled all the advice into a handy PDF document which you can obtain by clicking on the link below.

ImageImprovementTable

NOTE: On 31st October there will be a Halloween digital knockout competition. Please bring along 1, 2 or 3 JPEG images on the theme of Halloween/Gothic/Horror/Trick-or-Treat/Costumes/Ghosts/Graveyards… or anything else vaguely related to the Halloween season. The best image on the night wins a prize.

This week we kicked off our club competition season with the Digital Projected Images competition. The competition was judged by Simon Wooton of Midlothian Camera Club. Click on the link below to see Simon’s gallery of landscape, sport and wildlife images.

Simon Wooton’s image gallery.

Simon had 72 images to judge and had gone to the trouble of providing a whole page of feedback on each image. We will print out Simon’s document so members can read the comments on their own images.There were several images of flowers, landscape and seascape images (some from as far away as New Zealand) , architectural shots from Edinburgh, sport and street photographs. Distractions in the background or around the edges of images were common comments, and some images were a little too dark or too bright. There were some beautiful sky images which didn’t quite work on their own. Two images stood out as discussion points because of their humour: “Beemer” by Edward Robertson and “What Does She Want?” by Carol Edmund. Both shots were funny and timed beautifully but had too many distractions to be successful competition images. Even so, thank you for entering them and cheering us up.

A mix-up with the score sheets meant we could only give a preliminary result on the night, but we can now announce the final results. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

• 5th place (48 points)
  • Jennifer Davidson
  • Elaine Gilroy
  • John West
  • Howie Findlay
• 4th place (50 points)
  • Steven Beard
  • Mike Clark
  • Anne Yeomans
• 3rd place (52 points)
  • Joe Fowler
  • Malcolm Roberts
• 2nd place (55 points)
  • George Todd
• 1st place (57 points)
  • Jim Tod

The top images were:

• Tarasay (Jim Tod) – 20 points
• Growth Amongst Decay (Jim Tod) – 19 points
• Two Ducks At The Waterhole (George Todd) – 19 points
• Fabrication Welder (Joe Fowler) – 18 points
• Move Over (Joe Fowler) – 18 points
• Remarkable Rainbow (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points
• Church Of The Santissimo Redentore (Jim Tod) – 18 points
• Circle Of Flowers (Steven Beard) – 18 points
• Taking Jump Number Nine (George Todd) – 18 points
• Brown Bear Confrontation (George Todd) – 18 points
• Razorbill (Anne Yeomans) – 18 points

Well done to Jim Tod for winning the competition and achieving first and second place with two of his images.

Next week Christine Murdie will be giving us a fascinating-sounding presentation entitled “A Journey to 80 Degrees North: The Land of the Polar Bear”, and the week after that we will go through the competition images a second time, with more opportunity for feedback and questions.

This week was our last event at Fisherrow before the AGM on 25th April. It was an opportunity for members to bring in 1-3 prints each for an informal knock-out competition. It is an opportunity to bring along extra prints that were made earlier in the year but not used, or to try out some new images as prints. There were a wide variety of subjects: photographs of butterflies, flowers, landscapes, architecture, some beautiful portraits and some abstract images. Charlie Briggs raised a laugh with his image of a boy and a T-rex entitled, “We Should Have Bought Him A Dog”.

Prints were pitted against one-another in 3 knockout stages, in which the chairman (aided and abetted by Mike Clark) showed a remarkable inability to divide a number by 2! There was some resurrection rounds where the best images that had been eliminated could be restored and voted on again, and an image of Cove Harbour ended up ping-ponging between the two piles. At the end of the voting, members’ favourite images were as follows:

• Equal 4th place
  • Glass winged butterfly (Robert Wilson)
  • Abstract (Kevin Johnson)
• 3rd place
  • A misty sunrise landscape (Robert Wilson)
• 2nd place
  • A group of harebells (Robert Wilson)
• 1st place
  • An image of a farrier at work (Joe Fowler)

Well done to Robert Wilson for getting all three of his images into the top 5, and for securing 2nd and 3rd places! Also well done to Joe for winning the competition and taking home the box of chocolates.

Many more prints were submitted this evening than were brought to the Photo Advice Night earlier in the year, so I hope members also got some useful feedback and advice during the discussion over tea.

This week our 3-part set subject competition reached its climax with the final competition on the subject of street photography, judged by Stephen Williams, the winner of last year’s competition. Stephen began by describing his vision of what street photography means: a candid style of photography which documents human life in the street or elsewhere. He will be looking for photographs which show emotions, interactions and actions and which tell a story. The subject works equally well in colour or black and white. 18 members entered a total of 54 images. Most of the images showed people or street performers going about their business. Jim Tod’s image “Photobombed” raised a laugh, showing a lady taking a selfie with a pigeon sitting on her head! In most competitions the judge would recommend cropping out unwanted distractions but in this competition there were many images that were too tight in the frame and needed to show more of the scene to tell the story. Is this person really a hat seller if there are no hats in the picture? Who is the artist painting this picture? Where is the audience interacting with this performer? Some images with distracting colours would have worked better in black and white, although Steve Barber’s “London Transport” had been colour-popped to good effect. There were some beautiful portraits, creative abstract images and stark images of buildings, urban landscapes and street furniture which were good images but were lacking the story needed to make a good street image. The best images were the ones which captured a moment in someone’s life and made the viewer think. The top scoring images were:

• Scrap Lady (George Todd) – 20 points
• Edinburgh’s Finest (Mike Clark) – 20 points
• Resting (Jennifer Davidson) – 19 points
• London Transport (Steve Barber) – 19 points
• Levitating Band (Steven Beard) – 18 points
• Mobile Sweet Shop (George Todd) – 18 points
• Pushy Lady (Mike Clark) – 18 points
• Out shopping (Catriona McKay) – 18 points
• View From Up Here (Gordon Davidson) – 18 points
• Waiting (Steve Barber) – 18 points

There was a spread of high scoring images amongst all members, but it was those who were consistent who achieved the better overall score. The highest total scores were:

• 5th place (47 points)
  • Lorraine Roberts
  • Jim Tod
  • Catriona McKay
• 4th place (49 points)
  • Steven Beard
  • Gordon Davidson
• 3rd place (51 points)
  • Mike Clark
• 2nd place (52 points)
  • Jennifer Davidson
• 1st place (53 points)
  • George Todd
  • Steve Barber

Congratulations to George Todd and Steve Barber for their joint win. In this situation the winner who did better in the other two competitions is the one who judges next year, which makes Steve Barber next year’s judge.

The final result of the 2018/19 set subject competition looks like this. The trophy is won by the member who (unless judging) has entered all 3 competitions and has the highest combined score in their two best competitions. The top overall scorers are:

• 5th place (100 points)
  • Mike Clark
• 4th place (101 points)
  • Jennifer Davidson
  • Gordon Davidson
• 3rd place (102 points)
  • Steven Beard
• 2nd place (103 points)
  • Steve Barber
• 1st place (112 points)
  • Jim Tod

Nobody managed to get a high enough score to overturn Jim Tod’s lead from the first two competitions, so Jim wins the trophy. Also well done to Steve Barber, who moved up to take the silver medal. It is also good to see Sandra Crowhurst, Catriona McKay and Gordon Davidson submitting some really good images to this competition.

Here, at last, are the results from the human portrait competition which took place on 21st February 2019. The competition was judged by Neil Spowart of North Berwick Photographic Society and the results read out on the night by Mike Clark. I missed the competition but I understand Mike put on a good show for those present.

35 images were entered by 12 members. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

• 4th place (51 points)
  • Malcolm Roberts
• 3rd place (52 points)
  • Jennifer Davidson
• 2nd place (53 points)
  • Jim Tod
  • Steve Barber
• 1st place (59 points)
  • George Todd

Well done to George for winning the competition with an almost perfect score! The top images were:

• Yadana (George Todd) – 20 points
• Baraha Temple Priest (George Todd) – 20 points
• Blue Rinse (Malcolm Roberts) – 19 points
• Marching To My Fate (Jim Tod) – 19 points
• Distracted (George Todd) – 19 points
• Balancing Act (Jennifer Davidson) – 18 points
• Andy (Jim Tod) – 18 points
• Arms (Kevin Johnson) – 18 points
• Halloween (Steve Barber) – 18 points
• Mysterious Lady (Steve Barber) – 18 points