The Set Subject of Birds in Nature joined Head and Shoulders Portrait as our most popular this year, each accounting for over 70% of entries respectively.  This demonstrates where our photographic passion lies!

Still, only 12 members entered the competition and it would be great to see more members enter the fray!

There were some stunning photographs with beautiful captures of birds in action – flying, feeding, calling and interacting but images of birds simply perching and resting were also impressive.

Don was impressed overall with the standard of our bird photography and loved Judy Sara’s Fish Dinner, Screeching Seriema, Spoonbill Perching, Landed, Wren Huddle and Cape Grassbird.

Frances Allan demonstrated a talent for capturing the moment and the light and was rewarded by judge, Don Brooks, with multiple 10s.  Her Splendid Wren in How Splendid wowed everybody and The Smile made everybody smile, despite Shoebills being an “ugly” bird according to the judge and Art Deco Eyes was something a little different.

Di Gage’s Coming in for a Landing, Eastern Yellow Robin and Fairy Wren, Helen Whitford’s Am I Welcome?, Bee, Mama!, Cormorant Preening and Lori, James Allan’s Tell the Truth, Hope to Die, Ansty Osprey and Feeding Time, Sam Savage’s On the Move and Screech and Sheila Gatehouse’s Fairy Wren in the Rain rounded out the Set Subject high scores.

There were also some beautiful photographs among those which didn’t make the top scores as the competition in this Set Subject was fierce.  And I haven’t even mentioned the Open category!

For all of the high scoring images, including Open Section photographs, go to Top Prints and Top Projected Digital Images

This competition saw an almost equal number of entries in the set subject and open categories. Members’ interpretations of the subject was quite varied, with many images depicting love between animals as well as humans.

Vicki Kramer’s entries were all in the set subject, with Labour of Love, Loving Sons Bidding Farewell and Twins Love among the top scoring images.

Paul Hughes entered a collage, Walter and Doris, showing aspects of a couple’s loving life together.

Judy Sara’s Cormorant Love Story was a clever interpretation of the topic.

In the open category James Allan’s Landscape gained the top score. The Judge, Geoff Smith, was impressed with the composition and lighting; a great shot both technically and aesthetically.

James also had success with Dunes and Collapse of Greater Plains

Di Gage’s Fairy Wren and Sam Savage’s Morning Light were also among the top scoring images.

At the Peer review workshop next week we will be looking at imitation as a technique to unleash creativity. To kick off the discussion I would like you to look at these famous monochrome portraits, select an image and have a crack at emulating the style. Bring your images along to the workshop where we can discuss how it went. Regards James.

Not sure what to do? Here is an example.

Above is an image I took that was inspired by the famous image below.

I am interested to see what you all come up with. Regards James.

Following our creative workshop on Zoom Burst last month we checked out some of the results and images inspired by the night in Thursday’s competition.  For the most part members were not keen to print these images, with few entries in Set Subject in the prints but in PDIs Set and Open were equally represented.

Judy Sara and James and Frances Allan were rewarded for their creativity with Banksia, Art Gallery, Zooming on Traffic on a Wet Night, City and Let’s Celebrate.

In Open, Vicki Kramer’s Outback Sunrise impressed judge, Peter Phillips, who felt that it took him straight into the Nullarbor.  We sincerely thank Peter for rushing his dessert, dropping everything and coming in at the last minute following a judging mix-up.  Peter gave positive, thoughtful commentary on each image with lots of helpful tips.

Judy, James and Frances continued to make an impact in Open with Inside the Poppy, Waterfall and  All things Citrus.

Click the links to see all of the Top Prints and Top Projected Digital Images.

In a rather different night, we broke with tradition and ran this competition with “community
judging.”

“Half the Story” proved challenging, with only one third of the 64 entries being in Set Subject, most
of which were images showing half of an object or creature.

Vicki Kramer’s “Fill in the Blank” was probably the most creative take on the theme.

With the exception of Judy Sara’s Delicious, images showing a whole image or scene which was half
of a story requiring interpretation did not fare as well.

In Open, Di Gage impressed with Blue Heights and Chameleon, Frances Allan’s Parry got everyone’s
vote and James Allan’s From another Dimension was popular.

It was an interesting change which gave everyone the opportunity to step into the judge’s shoes for
a night. Some liked the fit, some didn’t but there was general agreement that the right photographs
rose to the top.

Thank you to James for organising the evening!

Follow the links for Top Projected Images and Top Prints.