Why it Won – 15 Oct 2008

June Hill’s sympathetic study of 3 garlic bulbs won the digital imaging competition.

June’s picture conjures feelings of harmony and quiet. The 3 garlics are well placed in the frame. Slightly low to feel grounded and slightly right to give gentle movement (slap centre would have been over static). The colour and subtle tonalities of the background support the main subject by allowing the texture of the garlics to sufficiently project themselves. The diffuse lighting avoids pockets of hard shadow and gives gentle tonal transitions adding to the harmonious feel of the picture. The additional softening of the picture is not really apparent in this thumbnail.

As always with our ‘Why it Won’ these items are open for comments.

/Graham

Why it Won

Ian Farrant’s striking image of Chillenden mill won this week’s advanced monochrome print competition. Strong diagonals, graphic composition, powerful sky with an interesting solarisation effect has created a worthy winner of our first advanced mono print competition of the season.

 

I hope to post the winner of the intermediate section when I get a file/scan.

Note: comments have been enabled for this post so feel free to add your thoughts…

/Graham
Programme Sec.

Presentation of 07/08 awards – Photo of Winners

The awards for the 07/08 Season were presented at our first meeting of the new season. Pictured are 1st place winners.

Photo of Winners 07/08 Season

Peter Vears, Jim Whalley, Dave Brown, Tony Catt, Nigel May.
Diana Tudor, Sarah Smith, Ian Farrant, June Hill, Annie Spencer-Smith.

Marion (Publicity Officer) will post a full rundown of results in due course.

/Graham (Programme Sec) 

 

 

Why it Won – 12th Dec 2007

Sorry, I am not able to post and comment on the winner of the 35mm slide competition as we have not yet scanned the slide. 

Winner of the digitally projected image competition  on 12th December 2007.

MORNING MIST by Jerry Wheeler

A restful pastoral landscape with a great feeling of mood and calm. The mist is very well caught and gives good recession through the layers of the picture. The colours are warm and harmonious. The horse in the foreground is classically, but well placed to give interest without dominating the picture.

The judge on the evening, Helen Taylor, did suggest a crop to the top of the picture to remove the brighter part of the sky in order to deepen and enrich the rest of the picture; what do you think?

Well done Jerry,
/Graham

Note: This post is open for comments.

Why it Won – 22nd Nov 2007

Winners of the monochrome print competitions held Wed. 22nd Nov 2007

THE WINDWILL by Ian Farrant
(Intermediate mono print)

A richly printed graphic study of a well-known local landmark. Several of the prints that Ian put into this competition had deep blacks well separated midtones and clean highlights showing that modern ink-jet printing can produce a beautiful result. Windmills can be tricky to photograph without ending up with a boring record. A low viewpoint, strong diagonals and not worrying about clipping the sails has yielded a strong and graphic composition.

STARGAZER LILY by Sarah Smith
(Advanced mono print)

A sensitive and airy rendition of a classic still life subject. A well-chosen and prepared background of silky fabric, soft lighting, careful focusing and thoughtful ‘posing’ and framing have produced a delicate yet detailed image that would be very easy to live with. It looks like care was taken during the processing to ensure a pleasing tonality with good handling of contrast.

Well done Ian and Sarah,
/Graham

Note: this post is open for comments.

Why it Won – 31st Oct 2007

For the first of our “Why it Won” postings we have the winners of the colour print competitions held on 31st Oct 2007 which were judged by Frank Page LRPS.

CARTWHEEL START by David Brown
(Colour Print – Intermediate Section)

The photograph has a great feeling of design and captures a moment in time. The shapes are simple and very well put together. The shadow of the child falls entirely on the clean background and is cleanly seperated from, but is a perfect echo of, the child’s outline. The column at the left acts to balance the child (cover the column with your hand and then look at the balance of the picture). The deep shadow at the top also echoes the solid dark base of the picture. Capturing this precise moment has created a very neat and tidy shape that almost looks like an elegant move out of a Tai Chi kata. Quick reactions and great composition have made this picture.

JUST BUMBLING AROUND by June Hill
(Colour Print – Advanced Section)

A very sharp and well-exposed study of a bee against a beautifully soft and textured background of flower petals. The bee is well with the depth of field of the shot, shows great detail and is well positioned in the frame; almost reaching for the center of the picture. Lovely diffuse lighting has been found or created to reveal the shapes, textures, details and tones of the flower petals that are very enjoyable to look at. Technical competence and understanding of sympathetic and correct lighting have been key to the sucess of this photograph.

ANY COMMENTS?

These are my opinions. If you want to add a remark to agree, disagree or bring out a point I have missed then plese add a comment below.

Bye for Now.
/Graham Robinson

Why it Won – New Series

I thought we would try a new type of posting on the blog. What we will try to do is post the winning pictures from competition nights. I will add some thoughts as to why I think it was a winner and I’ll open the posts for comments so that you can add your ideas and reactions.

As a result of the the copying,  reduction in size, the compression and being viewed on non-calibrated monitors much of the technical quality of the image will be lost. To protect the images from commercial re-use and to save space on the blog we will only be posting the images as 400px wide. However, we hope that enough of the image is left to explain ‘why it won’.

We will put these posts in the categories “Winners” and “Discussions” so they can be found easily by clicking on the categories links.

If you have any thoughts about this you can add a comment to this posting or contact me in person at the next club night.

 /Graham Robinson
(Club Chairman)