Helen Whitford_City Gulls

It seems that at Blackwood PC we are all individuals and won’t be told what to photograph!  🙂 Once again our set subject received far fewer entries than the Open section, although Nature in the City seemed like a relatively user-friendly subject.  Judge, Keith Seidel, came armed with his ready wit to exchange repartee with Chris over image titles and his penchant for segues. Keith took our images seriously though, thoughtfully discussing aspects which impressed him and offering suggestions for improvement.

It was great to see one of our relatively newer members, David Brown, do well with his artistic images – Microcosm and Silk Screen and battle with Alberto Giurelli and Helen Whitford for top spots in the Colour Prints. Current President, Ashley Hoff, made a great impression with his projected monochromes and James Allan and Gloria Brumfield showed some beautiful nature and wildlife images.

Ashley Hoff_Castellated Nut

Gloria Brumfield_Bursting into Song

James Allan_Sand Patterns 2

But competitions nights are not  just about scores – they’re a great opportunity to receive feedback on your images from an experienced photographer and to show other members your images that you like.  All members are encouraged to enter competitions and especially now start gathering your best images for our Annual Exhibition.  It would be fantastic to see at least one or two images from all members!

Visit our Top Projected Images and Top Print Images to see some of this month’s great images, and scroll back through the year for perhaps a little inspiration!

Ron Hassan – Sunset in Turkey – Open

Last month I mentioned that I hoped we’d do better with our Set Subject this time around but it seems that while there was a little envy over other people’s scores and pride in achievement, we mostly displayed sloth (or am I being mean saying we were too lazy to get out there and find some sins to photograph?)  Perhaps we’re all too angelic or maybe  we need to stick to more conventional Set Subjects?  Committee members will be looking for suggestions for 2016!

Out of a total of 68 images presented on the night just 8 were in the Set Subject.  At least we didn’t give the judge, Susie Lipert, too much difficulty in deciding what was ‘in category’.  Susie gave a lot of thoughtful feedback, showing a preference for sharpness throughout the image and often urging us to get in tighter.  She made the poignant comment that maybe what the author intended was not what she was seeing.  Subjectivity in judging is unavoidable, and I’m sure we all want the judge to ‘get’ our image, but this is never guaranteed!

We were all very pleased to see Ron Hassan’s “Sunset in Turkey” get the recognition it deserves with a 10.  Gloria Brumfield is also shining this year with some brilliant wildlife and nature images.

Gloria Brumfield – Is it Edible? – Open

Ursula Prucha impressed the judge with her night light scenes, taking out all the Projected Image tops.

Ursula Prucha – West Terrace Light Show – Open

It was great to see an excellent turnout on such a cold night and brilliant to again see a number of new members and visitors.  It would be great to see entries from our new members in the next competition – “Nature in the City”!

As always, click the links for Top Prints and Top Projected Images.

Cheers

Helen 🙂

For those who would like to follow the instructions of the GIMP exercise, (The painted angel) there is an article posted in Camera clips that will take you through the steps.

Create a Grunge Angel In Gimp. James Allan

And for those interested in some basic Picasa use – have a look at Chris’ slides from last Thursday on YouTube

James

Jennifer Williams_On Reflection_Set

Minimalist Landscape ….tricky to say, even harder to define and apparently almost impossible to actually select pictures for which truly fit the category!

Perhaps we needed to go back to school and have a lesson on what a Minimalist Landscape is! We created a bit of a headache for judge, Suzanne Opitz, in trying to decide which images were “in category” and which were not, as only around half of the images submitted for the set subject truly qualified as both “minimalist” and “landscape”!  Jennifer Williams nailed it with “On Reflection”, and Huw Rosser dabbling in the waters of the Novice section with “On the Edge”, taught us a lesson in Minimalism.

Huw Rosser_On the Edge_Set

Suzanne seemed relieved each time a section switched from Minimalist Landscape to the Open category (and not just because “minimalist” is a bit of a tongue twister). Then her self-confessed penchant for vignetting and cropping came out as she urged us to get in tighter and darken our edges.

It was great to see some newer members venturing into competition and other members demonstrating their developing processing skills.

Click on the links to see the rest of the Top Prints and Top Projected Images.

We might have struggled with Minimalist Landscape, but I predict we’ll all be experts on the next set subject – “The 7 Deadly Sins” 🙂

Cheers

Helen

We had a great excursion on Sunday to the Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens.  Head on over to Camera Clips and you can check out the gallery of images that has been submitted by those attending. Click here

James