Our point-scoring competitions alternate between ‘open’ (any subject) and themed, and the latter often prove to be thought-provoking for members.
Open competitions offer freedom to choose your subject and showcase your strongest work, while themed ones challenge you to operate within constraints to produce targeted entries.
You might expect the theme of “Construction” to attract images of the built world, the process of construction or architectural details. But whilst January’s competition did feature such entries, there were also several different approaches to the topic including nature, crafts and model-making.
Our judge, Dave Salter, brought his usual balanced approach to the evening, offering expert feedback and constructive guidance, and commenting on technical skill, presentation, composition and impact.
Explaining that club competitions help to test you and “benchmark” yourself as a photographer, one of Dave’s strongest pieces of advice was to remove distractions using post-processing software: “An image doesn’t need to be rammed with content to have impact and the ‘wow’ factor. Less is more!”
The results were as follows:
Print Section:
1st: “Construction in the Sky” by Seamus Whelan – 20 points
2nd: “Going Up” by Andrea Thrussell – 19 points
3rd: “Douglas Construction” by Seamus Whelan – 18 points
Digital Section:
1st: “Under Construction” by Andrea Thrussell – 20 points
2nd: “Stairway to Heaven” by Lynn Ryan – 19 points
3rd: “Liverpool Construction” by Seamus Whelan – 19 points
Dave said Seamus’ winning print of a modern windowed building reflecting clouds was “a classic mono image with great impact”, while Andrea’s winning DPI of a spider spinning its web was “superb, an unusual but fitting take on the subject”.
We thoroughly enjoyed Dave’s feedback and advice, and it is great to see new members testing the water with their entries and ideas.
The top six images can be seen here and on our Facebook page. The full score sheets and running totals will be added to the Competitions section in a few days.