NEMPF Inter club PDI Championship report

Following an exciting N&EMPF PDI competition on Sunday, Nottingham Outlaws PS member Chris Houldsworth presents a report on the days events…

The Nottingham Outlaws entered the championship again this year in a spirit of great optimism (surely we’re going to win?!).

 

The selection team of Chris Houldsworth, Jack Worsnop and Lois Webb gathered excitedly at The Bonington Theatre at Arnold Leisure Centre, supported by more Outlaws members.

 

The basic idea is that each club submits a pool of 40 images from which the first round of 16 images is nominated by the submitting club. The first round images from all 20 clubs are then mixed up and the judges score each one in turn. After the first round the top eight clubs are selected to go through to the final and each club has 15 minutes to pick it’s best 20 images from the original pool of 40, using up to 10 of the first round images.

 

We sat expectantly as the test projection was run and it became clear that something was a bit wrong, everyone’s image was being cropped due to some projector glitch. There was a bit of a pause while a variety of solutions were tried and then up stepped The Outlaws Mr Fixit, John Young, who pointed out the error of their ways and off we went. Well done John!

 

After the first round Outlaws were still in the top eight with a score of 170 (the highest being 187 at that stage) and we proceeded to pull together the second round entries. Do we major on the first round entries again or do we go for mainly new shots? In the end a bit of both. After a tense final round of judging the scores came out and the scoring was extremely close. Of the eight clubs, six of them scored between 213 and 219. However, the winners were Rolls Royce (Derby) Photographic Society with a runaway score of 241. Pretty decisive I think!

 

Outlaws scored 213 and came eighth from an overall field of 20 clubs. We felt well pleased as we are one of the smaller clubs in NEMPF.

 

Great effort and thanks for the input of all those who entered. Leading scorers for Outlaws were:

 

Lois Webb (On the Ropes): 13

John Purchase (Dewy Common Blue): 12

Steve Roper (Black Headed Gull Fishing): 12

Steve Roper (Godwit): 12

 

The following scored 11 points:

 

Lester Woodward (Lady in Black, Crying on the Inside and Gossamer Eyes)

Lois Webb (Women Only, Doorstep Salesman)

Jack Worsnop (House & Fjord)

Chris Houldsworth (Crossing the Tracks)

John Purchase (The Lotus)

 

So what kind of images did well? I think this could be summed up as:

 

  • Nature action (animals doing something but caught at the decisive moment)
  • Sport (again, caught at the critical moment)
  • Simple graphic and striking images with really strong composition

 

Landscapes had to be very striking to score well. Street wasn’t actually well represented and there were a quite a few grungy portraits that only scored middling numbers.

 

All in all a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. So Outlaws, we’re on the map and are aiming for a strong showing in the next championship, devoted to Prints.

 

– Chris Houldsworth