This week was the first round of our 3-part set subject competition, on the theme of “Weather”. George Todd had won the first round last year and earned the right to judge this competition. There were 39 entries from 13 members. George began by discussing whether particular judges had favourites. SPF accredited judges are trained to give an unbiased critique of each image, and they will usually comment on the sharpness, composition, etc… But it is natural for a photographer with a specific speciality to judge images in that category against their own high standards; so an award-winning landscape photographer (for example) will tend to expect a high standard from landscape images. George said he would try not to let his preferences influence the marks, except for the images he doesn’t like… 😉 You can find out more about the SPF judging process on their web site:

SPF: All Things Judging and Lecturing

Members had chosen to represent the weather in a variety of ways. There were landscape images showing different weather phenomena, photographs of sporting events taking place in difficult weather conditions, and photographs of people or things enduring the weather. Most of the images showed bad weather, but Ed Robertson’s “We also get good weather” showed some lovely sunshine. George commented on the composition and sharpness of each image. Some images were spoiled by dust spots in the sky, or by post-processing faults. A few images were over-sharpened, which produced some unnatural effects. Snow scenes are difficult to get right, as you need to compensate for the blue hue and make sure there is still detail in the highlights. The best images were the ones that had nicely captured a weather event, were sharp in the right place, had well-handled exposure and colour and had avoided processing faults and distractions. Mike Clark’s “Frosty Morning” image nailed all those requirements and captured a rare view of undisturbed hoar frost on a jetty at Lock Ard. The top scorers were:

• 4th place (51 points)
  • John Fowler
  • Malcolm Roberts
  • Elaine Gilroy
  • Carol Edmond
  • Melanie Gallacher
• 3rd place (52 points)
  
  • Jennifer Davidson
• 2nd place (53 points)
  • Derek Muller
  • Nicola Cawthorne
• 1st place (54 points)
  • Mike Clark

The top images were:

• Frosty Morning (Mike Clark) – 20 points
• Break In The Storm (Derek Muller) – 19 points
• First Winter Frost (Jennifer Davidson) – 19 points
• Be Careful (John Fowler) – 18 points
• Wild West Coast NZ (Malcolm Roberts) – 18 points
• Rainbow Reflection (Steven Beard) – 18 points
• Storm at Fairy Pools (Mike Clark) – 18 points
• We also get good weather (Ed Robertson) – 18 points
• Change in the Weather (Elaine Gilroy) – 18 points
• Windy Golf Course (Carol Edmond) – 18 points
• Misty Wet Madeira (Derek Muller) – 18 points
• Lonely Walker Melanie Gallacher) – 18 points
• More snow on the horizon (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points
• Little boat before the storm (Nicola Cawthorne) – 18 points

Well done to Mike Clark, who wins the right to judge next year’s competition. Well done also to new member Nicola Cawthorne, who achieved an impressive 2nd place. This is just the first round out of 3, and the overall winner is the one who has the highest marks from their best two rounds. So the competition is still open, and there are a lot of members still in contention.

• Please send your 3 JPEG images for the second round of this competition (on the theme “Emotion”) to George Todd this weekend. George needs the images early because he is going away on holiday and needs to pass them to Derek.
• Next Thursday (5th February) we have our annual quiz night. Jim Innes will be this year’s quizmaster.
• Please note that the 3-way competition has been moved from 12th March to 2nd April. Our “Photo Scavenger Hunt” will take place instead on 23rd April. Derek Muller is going to make use of the changes in March to give us a special indoor photoshoot (more details later).