Our first competition of the new internal season took place on Tuesday 4th June, with many members making it to the Hall and apologies to those who were unable to join in by Zoom due to technical issues. This round had a 'Landscape' theme and the judge was Slawek Staszczuk, who had previously visited the Society on Tuesday 16th April to speak about and inspire members on the same theme.
Our Chairman, Nick Bowman, introduced Slawek Staszczuk and the competition began.
Print Competition
Eleven members presented prints in the first half of the evening.
Slawek noted the light most frequently in his comments, which in some cases he described as 'unforgiving' or even 'ugly'. He suggested some cropping where areas of sky, sea or land were not adding anything. He also referenced some over-processing. He remarked that he was not a fan of black and white since it requires even better light and left the photographer, 'only painting with shades of grey'.
Two images were held back for a second look in the print category. Ultimately, 19 points were awarded to "Hazy sunset' by Deborah Smyth and the maximum 20 points were awarded to 'Sunderland Sunrise' by Chris Murray:
Deborah Smyth - 'Hazy sunset' (19)
Chris Murray - 'Sunderland Sunrise' (20)
DPI Competition
Twenty-two members entered the DPI competition in the second half of the evening.
Slawek again referenced the importance of the quality of the light in landscape photography. He also pointed out some occasions where clouds might have improved if given time to shift their position. Patience is sometimes a virtue!
Two images were held back for a second look in the DPI category. Ultimately, 19 points were awarded to 'Dead Vlei March 23' by Justin Smith and the maximum 20 points were awarded to 'A relaxing golden hour' by Deborah Smyth:
Justin Smith - 'Dead Vlei March 23' (19)
Deborah Smyth - 'A relaxing golden hour' (20)
Finally
You can see all the entries for this final round of the competition in the Galleries section of this website.
The Results of the Session and the first cumulative totals for the Season 2024/25 are accessible from the Internal Competitions Page of the Society Website.
Thanks to Stephen Ingall and Dennis Law, for managing the image projection, & to Colin Page and Rob Wilkinson for handling the Prints.
Dan Waller
Competitions’ Secretary