The first open competition of the season attracted 24 prints and 48 DPIs, featuring every category from nature and portraits to action and landscapes.
Clare Payne made a welcome return to judge this competition and began by explaining that she looks for creativity, technical ability, composition, use of colour and the colour spectrum. She added that in images featuring people and animals, the eyes should be sharp and ideally there should be space in the frame for them to look into.
As always, Clare was positive, enthusiastic and constructive in her comments. She allocated points in the range 15-19 and said there were some “very impressive” images on show.
Print section results:
1st: “Barn Owl Hunting Prey” by Steve Johnstone – 19 points
2nd: “Juvenile Robin” by Sue Clegg – 19 points
=3rd: “Red Deer Humour” by Peter Skears – 18 points
=3rd: “Red Eight” by Jim Gibson – 18 points
Digital section results:
1st: “Dragonfly in Flight” by Steve Johnstone – 19 points
2nd: “Half Moon” by Jim Gibson – 19 points
3rd: “Full Steam Ahead” by Seamus Whelan – 18 points
Clare praised Steve’s winning print as “flawless” with “perfect depth of field” while Sue’s runner-up print was “technically spot on”. Two prints tied for third place and Peter’s deer image was “well-framed and caught a moment” while Jim’s Red Arrows image was so sharp Clare thought you could almost see the whites of the pilot’s eyes!
In the digital section, she described Steve’s dragonfly as “so fast and difficult to capture” while Jim’s moon shot “captured every detail” and Seamus’ third-placed monochrome image was “the perfect environmental portrait”.
Well done to those above and also to everyone who entered; there were several comments about the high standard of entries and it was an enjoyable evening.