Astrophotography – Competition 7th May 2026
This competition requires images depicting stars, the moon or the heavens as the main subject.
The Judge for this competion was Susanne Opitz.
The following are Suzanne’s comments and feedback on the top scoring images.
Projected Colour – Set Subject
Meredith Retallack scored highly with two of her photos. Of ‘Salute to the Cosmos’, Suzanne loved the portrait aspect. The Milky Way is very clear and the windmill helps to balance it.
The Judge loved the foreground of the below image as well as the composition. The night sky contrasts well with the desert colours.
Helen Whitford’s ‘With a Touch of Green’ has a beautiful aurora and a good composition as the trees frame the aurora.
‘Icelandic Lights’ by Duart McLean is a good composition showing the reflection of the Northern Lights.
‘Nature’s Display’ by Heather Connolly is a beautiful photo of the Northern Lights.
The below image by Cathy Freestone is also a lovely photo with good composition and a nice reflection in the water.
Projected Monochrome – Set Subject
Once again Meredith Retallack scored well in this section. ‘Heaven and Earth’ is a very pleasant image and is well composed. The tree works well, is not over exposed and has good detail.
Also scoring highly, ‘ Barossa Night’ by Michael Selge was appreciated by the Judge. Suzanne liked the composition with the building on an angle, it is a very different view.
Projected Colour – Open Category
Top scores were given to Paul Rix for ‘Mungo Sunset’ and ‘Tyre Smoker’, Sam Savage for ‘Confined Flight’ and ‘Sunset Walk’ by Michael Selge.
The Judge said ‘Mungo Sunset’ was a particularly beautifuly photo. The clouds are in an ideal position and the colours are beautiful.
‘Tyre Smoker’ has a feeling of speed with a blurred background and tyre smoke.
This is an amazing shot, with the bird in flight. It is a lovely composition and is completely in focus.
‘Sunset Walk is a beautiful shot.
The following also scored highly in this section.
Suzanne loved the colours in this image and the expression of the Galah.
‘On the Move’ has a bland background which emphasises the colours of the lizard.
Angela Cogman’s ‘After the Fire’ has beautiful lighting, it brings out the textures and colours.
‘Parrot’ is beautifully in focus with lovely light on the wings.
‘Morning Flight’ is a lovely composition with good light on the bird.
The birds grab attention and are highlighted by the plain background.
Projected Monochrome – Open Category
Meredith Retallack’s ‘What’s in in for Me’ has quite stark lighting on the side of the subject’s face, but on this type of portrait it helps to bring out the subject’s character.
Suzanne loved the simplicity and shapes of ‘Wind Directions’. The diagonal lines of weeds and the texture of the sand add interest.
The Magpie lark looks as though it has posed for the photographer with his puffed out chest. The light coming through the feathers is lovely.
Michael Selge’s ‘Helmet’ is a perfect shot and he has controlled the lighting well. The viewer can feel the musician’s beat.
‘Visiting Arles’ is a lovely shot of Arles. The wharf bending around towards the bridge and the dramatic clouds in the background are well composed.
Print Colour – Set Subject
‘Aurora Arc’ is a really good, clear, nicely coloured photo.
Suzanne loved the earthy tones of the Milky Way in ‘Just Across the Road’.
Print Colour – Open Category
A well taken photo of the Pardalote with a lot of clarity throughout the bird. The feathers are clear all the way through from front to back.
‘Please Love Me’ is very sharp in beak, eye and feathers.
‘Strummin’ is a lovely coloured photo with good light.
Print Mono – Open Category
The close crop on ‘Morning Darlin’ ensures that the viewers eyes are on the tigers. It is a good, very clear composition.
Michael has done well to to avoid getting a lot of light in the glasses of ‘Just Tex’. The centering of the subject in this case is good and the plain background brings him out.
Silhouette – Competition 9th October 2025
An image using backlighting to present the main subject as a black shape against a much brighter background.
The following are the images that achieved the highest scores in the competition and the Judge’s comments.
In the projected colour set subject the top images were from Kerry Malec and Judy Sara.
The Judge loved the simplicity of this image and pointed out that it was well composed technically, with the vertical item intersecting the foreground, the mid ground and the background, tieing the whole image together.
Judy Sara’s ‘Elephants on the Move’ is an example of a perfect silhouette with the elephant and calf in motion.
Also by Judy Sara, ‘Running Along the Beach’ has good composition with interest in the foreground, mid ground and sky.
Meredith Retallack’s ‘Sunset Dreaming’ is also a good demonstration of a silhouette of the main subject with a beautiful sky. The lighting in the foreground makes the subject pop.
‘Sunset Dreaming’ by Vicki Kramer has captured the clouds as part of the silhouette and they pop against the bright sky. Plus it is a nice beach scene.
In the Silhouette set subject mono section Meredith Retallack’s ‘Leaving the Mount on Foot’ scored well. The image is defined well, the viewer can see the sunlight shining through the tower. The image has a fantastic sky and foreground interest with the reflection on the water, sand corrugations and the person giving mid ground interest.
In the open colour section, the top scorer was Sarah Bailey with “A Stroll in the Garden’. Sarah’s image was creative, and the contrast between the colours is very good.
In the open mono section Michael Selge’s ‘Victory’ is a great concert shot, the singer has been captured in an interesting pose and the lighting has been photographed well.
In the colour prints set subject category, Duart McLean scored the highest mark with ‘Palm Morning. This is a beautiful scene, with soft colouring and good gradation in the sky.
In the mono prints set subject category the highest scorer was Judy Sara for ‘Elephant on the run’. The Judge found this to be a fantastic image, the rim lighting shows the texture on the trunk and in the corrogations. The image is dynamic with action and movement.
Following the set subject categories are the open categories. In the colour prints Duart McLean’s image impressed the judge the most with ‘River Reflections’. This is a beautiful image, the lighting shows it was taken at the right time of day, it shows the texture on the cliffs and has lovely contrasts. The lines lead the viewer into the background. The ripples add interest to the photo as does the sky.
Lastly in the mono open category Judy Sara’s ‘Trees in the Storm’ is a superb image, with an interesting foreground and wonderful trees. Nice lighting shows the curve of the branches. It has a lovely background with the diagonal lines contrasting with the vertical lines on the ground.
Fill the Frame – Competition 20th June 2024
The Judge of the “Fill the Frame” competition was Keith Seidel. Keith has been a photographer for more than 50 years. He began shooting on his 13th birthday when he was given a Pentax Spotmatic camera. He is a Judging Coordinator with South Australian Photographic Federation and conducts Light on the Light workshops. He likes to spend time in the Flinders and is increasingly interested in aerial photography in “doors off” situations in helicopters and planes.
The aim of the competition was for images to fill the frame with no negative space or background.
In the colour print section of the competition top honours were taken out by ‘Daisy’ by Judy Sara which the judge said was well captured.
Of ‘Vervet Monkey’, also by Judy Sara the judge said it was all about the eyes. He suggested that with the chin dropping into shadow, cropping to mainly show the nose and eyes would really grab attention.
Continuing with the print section, for mono prints in the set subject, ‘Gorilla’, again by Judy Sara scored highly.
Moving to digital images for the Fill the Frame subject, ‘Garlic’ by Heather Connolly, scored well with the judge saying he liked it very much. He said the exposure and colour was captured beautifully across the photo with the one bulb with yellow tones providing a contrasting colour. The mix of purple and white stripes with the bulbs pointing in different directions made an interesting photo.
In ‘Scales’ by Kerry Malec the judge liked the effect, hesaid it was an ‘in your face’ composition, yellow at the bottom, but not super saturated, the viewer is drawn to the eye
Also concentrating on the eye is ‘Googly Eyes’ by Angela Cogman. Keith, the judge, said it was a fantastic underwater photo. He loved the sheer dynamism of the twist and curves, lines and textures around the eyes.
In the mono section of Fill the Frame, ‘Timing Case’ by Ray Goulter received a high score. Keith said it has beautiful black and white tones, good blacks and sheens heading towards white. There is a lovely diversity of mid tones. Compositionally there will be messy bits, but the strength of those four circular gears holds it together nicely.
In the colour print open section of the competition, ‘Contemplating the Waves’ by Duart McLean and ‘Pretty Boy’ by Di Gage both scored well.
Of Duart’s image the judge said there was a lot to like. He said it was really good story telling, well shot against the light with rows of wave action, and the photo had a sense of depth.
The judge said Di’s ‘Pretty Boy’ was a beautiful photo, a lovely portrait and beautifully exposed.
‘Having a Shower’ also by Di Gage also scored highly (digital image not supplied).
In the mono prints open section both ‘Tex’ and ‘Superjesus’ by Michael Selge scored highly.
Of ‘Tex’ Keith described it as a ‘Cracker’. A full on photo with no distractions.
The judge acknowledged it is hard to get close to performers, and difficult to catch their ever-changing expressions. with ‘Superjesus’ He liked the catching of the smoke on stage and thought this image would work well in a rock magazine.
In the digital colour open section there were four high scorers. Leading the charge was Michael Selge’s ‘Komodo’ of which the judge said it had a good depth of field, the whole head being sharp and dropping off towards the back. The background was not distracting and the viewer’s eye is drawn to the head. He suggested the lighter spots could be toned down slightly in the background.
‘Daily Pitstop’ by Meredith Retallack had no distractions. The judge said it was well seen and captured with beautiful detail. He suggested the lightish patch on right hand edge of frame could be toned down and perhaps a couple of the plant tips could be removed in the bottom left hand corner to concentrate more on the bird.
‘Winter Solace’ by Helen Whitford scored well, with the judge saying the image was well exposed and he liked the backlight on the wine. He suggested a wedge taken from the cheese would make it look more real.
‘Ruddy Darter’ from Judy Sara was appreciated by the judge, saying it was a nice capture and really interesting detail. The brilliant red and black would stand out more if the lilac colour behind was taken to a more green tone so it wouldn’t be a distraction
In the digital mono open set Heather Connelly’s ‘Workshop’ scored well. The judge liked the patterns formed by the windows which melded with those from the roofline. The image inside the window gave the viewer a 3rd image to look at. He said it was a clever image which showed vision on the part of the photographer and it had lovely tones. He said it was well captured.
Scoring top marks with ‘Classics’ was Michael Selge. Keith said it was beautifully composed with great tones. The number 34 was still identifiable even though the car is out of focus and even with the different motions the shot was still sharp. He said it was a really well balanced motor sport shot
‘Trying to Sleep’ by Meredith Retallack scored well in this section as well. The judge said it had good exposure and it would be a difficult bird to capture as it has white feathers. He said the strength of the photo was in the stick with the broken bit at the end. He said it adds a dynamic element, counterbalancing the feathers of the head. He declared it was a good composition.
Judy Sara’s ‘Angles and Reflections’ scored highly. Keith said there were strong graphics in the angles and reflections, and the three way effect is interesting, forcing the humans to be almost silhouetted. He said it was a dynamic photo.
Yellow to dominate competition – 26-May-2011
Talk about Mellow Yellow. We had an interesting and quite varied collection of yellow images in all categories with 105 entries in all, including 1 monochrome effort in the set subject – good thinking there!
Our judge Trevor Bower gave us useful comments on our efforts and used a pretty full range of scores in judging those efforts. Trevor also remarked that the set subject images all fell well in category.
A few useful comments to note were:
- that when doing macro or close up work good detail is required across the whole image
- backlighting can be useful in close up
- when photographing limited colour images take advantage of patterns and try to break them up
Once again, Jo Tabe set the standard in the Set competition prints with a clever use of a garden hose on a window – well done Jo (I’ve posted the image above)! It was good to see the other club members trying to follow Jo’s lead – and many are not far behind!
Please have a look at the images in the Digital Entries page – as well as the Editor’s Choice 😆
Chris 😉
Food Glorious Food competition – 3-Mar-2011
No need for much comment here – I think a few of us were numb after the evening! I’ll let the very few top images and extensive editor’s choice selections speak for themselves.
Please read Jame’s fine post on judging to assuage your feelings.
Chris 😦
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 