Can you believe how fast the time has gone? I can’t!
I hope everyone has had a good break.
It’s been a very busy time in the Winsley house. Our daughter got married last Friday. It was a very small but fabulous ceremony at “Viva Gos Vegas” in Gosford. We are also getting a new grandson in June and our little Maisie is starting “big school” tomorrow.
Back to Camera club business.
As you will be aware our first comp night for 2025 is fast approaching.
Our February competition night is on Monday 10th February starting at 6:30 pm. If you’re entering prints please have your prints on the stands by 6 pm.
Our schedule for the night is:
6:00 pm prints will be on the stands for judge to have time for a preliminary viewing.
6:30 pm our competition night will begin will the digital judging. We will have a slideshow during which the judge will announce awards and make comments.
7:30 pm our digital judging will be completed and we will have a 15 minute tea/coffee break with a chance to discuss any questions arising after the print judging. Any announcements can be made during this break time.
7:45 pm our print judging will begin.
8:45 pm we will finish and commence packing up.
Our set subject for February is From Above/Looking Down. We didn’t give a definition for this. It’s simply as it sounds. If the photo has been taken from above it will be acceptable.
Don’t forget we also have our Colour and Mono categories.
We can still enter 3 entries in total per person. These can be prints or digitals or a combination of both.
Both digital and print files need to be uploaded to the website by 11:59 pm on Saturday 8th February.
Our judge for February is Chris Prior. Chris has judged for us previously on quite a few occasions. Below is a short BIO supplied by Chris some time ago.
CHRIS PRIOR
His motto is:- ‘If it moves I shoot it, if it doesn’t I shoot it too.’
Chris has been interested in photography for 35 years & started out developing & printing B&W film in his home made darkroom.
He is a member of APS, Belmont 16’s – ( serving as president for 2 years)
He regularly enters International photography competitions & has won one gold medal, two bronze & one highly commended awards.
His favourite photo subject is surfing & so subsequently has had hundreds of photos published in surfing magazines, such as Tracks, Surfing Life, Waves, Surfing Snaps, People magazine, Kodak’s – My Australia & many others.
As was announced at the Christmas Party, we are going back to putting titles on our prints.
I have been contacted by a member today saying that the website isn’t giving the print labels any more. I’m not sure what has happened here, but hopefully we’ll get it sorted promptly.
Dianne English has kindly supplied me with some very helpful hints for entering competitions that she got from Roy Killen which I’m including here.
Competition Advice Roy Killen, FPSA, GMPSA/S, EFIAP, APSEM I recently judged the three print sections of the Maitland International Salon. In each section, there were some outstanding images, and some with very obvious limitations. Some of the common limitations were:
Cropping Poor cropping choices can result in poor composition – inappropriate placement of the main subject or inclusion of distractions that could be easily eliminated.
Distracting backgrounds When an unimportant object in the background attracts more attention than the main subject, the image is unlikely to score well.
Poor colour rendition Print quality is important. When colours that should be vibrant appear dull, or when the image has a distracting colour cast, it probably will not score well. Natural colours are particularly important in Nature images.
Limited tonal range Monochrome images don’t always have to have a ‘full tonal range’. But when there does not appear to be a reason for having a limited tonal range the image may appear ‘flat’ and not score well.
Colour in mono images If your image is supposed to be monochrome (and appears that way on your computer screen) make sure you check that the printing process has not introduced unwanted colours.
Over-sharpening Over-sharpening may not be noticed during the first round of judging. However, when it comes to the awards, judges look very closely at the prints and over-sharpening will be easily noticed.
Repeat images Don’t compete against yourself by entering two (or more) images with similar subject matter in the same section. (Refer to the new rule in Jen Fawkes’ article.) If you have been on a photoshoot with others who are entering the same exhibition, talk to one another about your entries and try to avoid entering similar images.
I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone back for another year of Camera Club.