Again, this was for high resolution projected images, but allowed for more scrutiny if necessary.
Our judge, Alan Taberer was confronted with a wide range of subjects. Like all our judges he was asked to give marks between 12-20, although for most of the judging, he did not drop below 14.
For the whole of the competition, each image was discussed in some depth, with all the strong points being outlined first and then constructive criticism later, with the emphasis on constructive.
He was perhaps a little too kind to one or two images where the camera clearly had its own idea what to focus on, particularly in closeup images with limited depth of field.
With several images, he clearly wanted to remove distractions to put more emphasis on the subject. My own image of Towards the Downs was a case in point, whilst liking the low viewpoint he found the out of focus buildings in the far distance a distraction.
Images that Alan particularly liked was Leon’s washing trawler crates, David Butlers “waiting for their mates”, also his image of Common Toads mating, which ended up in fourth.
Dave’s Orange dustbin lid, which was a few pixels across created much favourable discussion but his image of Album to Airline perhaps was perhaps unfairly marked down. He really liked Sue Hipperson’s image “I wonder where he is” and it was no surprise that this ended up in first place. Her image “No such thing as bad weather was also highly praised and got 5th. My deer feeding was praised for its good texture but was eventually marked down because the ears had been chopped off! (ear today, gone tomorrow)
Jeremy got third place for his well-executed monochrome image “Working at height” and my Pelican image got second spot and he remarked that it was the best Pelican image he had seen for some time. (He clearly had not seen Jacqui’s pelican images)
The last image to be shown was Leon’s dramatic “Rising wave” and he was impressed with the drama created.
Alan ended up by complimenting PSCC for putting together such a good range of quality images. I endorse that opinion.
Terry Day
Friday, 30 April 2021