2nd, Again.....

After a short spell away from the Mold Camera Club (due to baby) I managed to get an entry in for the 4th Club Competition. I entered the following three images, mounted.

Causeway Winter Walk
West Shore's Colourful Ripples
HMS Illustrious' Blue Patch

Whilst the West Shore Image and the HMS Illustrious (Liverpool Waterfront) image bombed. The Causeway Winter Walk was well liked by the judge. Although as he went through the remaining entries it was clear that he liked any with a human involvement.

So second again. For this image:

November Mold Camera Club Competition Results

Whilst felling very sorry for myself (man flu!!) earlier in the month I managed to submit my entries for this months Mold Camera Club Competition. Once again I hadn't managed to get anything mounted therefore all of my entries were into the projected amateur category.

The three images that I submitted where:

Belly Of The Beast
Life's a ball
Parisian Night

The judge was a lady from the Wrexham Camera Club, and she was a real 'detail' person, picking up on lack of sharpness, blacks not being true black, lack of tones etc. I wished that I had not bothered submitting anything!!

Belly of the beast received quite a good mark (15), apparently this is a fine example of tonal range within a B&W image. This image caused quite a bit of intrigue, nobody could quite figure out if it was a prison or a hospital of some sort. I didn't have the heart to tell them it was a hotel!!!

Life's a ball did not score well (13), the colours on the projector really did look dull. The judge likes the candid approach to the photograph. This again proved to me that if you want to know/control exactly how your image is going to look you have to print and mount. When I have printed this the colours have looked quite vivid.

Parisian Night received great remarks from the judge, apparently this was not the image of someone that should be in the amateur category!! This again grabbed me Third place in the amateur category.

Once again beaten to the top spot by an image from Jonathan Frings; in particular this image. It is a great image though!!

Camera Club Competitions

Tonight I took place in my first judging evening at the Mold Camera Club. I really did not know what to expect from this. I wondered what the standard(s) would be like and just how critical the judge would be.

The judging was split into two classes (amateur and advanced) and two types of entry (mounted and electronic images or slides).

On the basis that I had just joined and never been a member of any club before I was placed in the amateur category for this year (fine by me!!).

The standard all throughout was very good, with a real bias towards particular types of images (interesting to see judges individual tastes coming into play).

I was over the moon to come out with a 3rd place in my first judging evening. This was for the image below which received a score of 18/20:



The other two entries that I put in are below:

Contemplate (16/20 I think)
Sun Sets over Lynnau Mymbyr (18/20)

A good friend of mine Eddie Miller (also new to Mold Camera Club) also grabbed 3rd place within the advanced category for his excellent image of Manchester Chinatown

I made some notes however on critical points to be aware of when submitting entries in future. I hope that these are of use to anyone submitting images to any club(s).

• If there is lots of sky within a landscape image, ensure that there are items of interest within the sky i.e colours, clouds
• Do not over sharpen
• No lettering on the print mount (Image title)
• Smaller images that are sharp are better than large images that have lost their crispness due to over enlarging
• In full body shots, do not cut off any limbs (keep feet in image)
• Pay particular attention to detail lost through blown highlights and pure blacks
• watch for colour cast
• Avoid strong lights in corner of compositions this detracts from the main subject.