March 2025 Print Competition
The first print competition of 2025 was held at St James church Hall the home of the Nottingham Outlaws. The print competition is run on a bi-monthly basis, through to the final round which is in November and points scored by the entrants contribute to their position in the Outlaw’s print league table.
The judge for this first round of the competition was Richard Houghton from Market Harborough who has judged at the club previously. There were two categories for Richard to judge, the Open category and the Themed category which in this instance was “Black & White”.
Richard gave a description of the criteria that he would be working to and it went like this, 1 Composition, 2 Focus, 3 Exposure, 4 Storytelling, 5 Impact (a WoW moment!) and finally 6 Impact on the judge.
In total there were twenty-seven entries in the Open category and twenty-nine in the Themed.
Theme Black & White
The themed competition had an interesting array of images and in many cases the actual subject was black & white (e.g., a Zebra) as well as the printed image.
The theme images were varied and there were architectural images as well as portraits, pedestrian Zebra crossings, nature and artistic nudes. All of the prints were of a very high standard and Richard confirmed this on several occasions.
Seven images were held back for final scoring and Richard gradually worked his way through them offering valuable critique to each in turn. He awarded the win to Malcolm Nabarro for his image titled Norfolk Wind Pump
The winning themed image by Malcolm Nabarro “Norfolk Wind Pump”
I asked Malcolm about his image and what inspired him to take it, this is his response. “My Norfolk Wind Pump image is actually an image of Thurne Dyke Wind Pump, alongside the River Thurne in Norfolk and part of the Norfolk Broads. The image was taken in early January 2024 and as the weather was cold and wet it made for a rather bleak and moody setting. This was my motivation in processing as a mono image. Apart from the character in the sky I think the black and white treatment emphasises the shape and textures of the old building. The upturned boats in the foreground add more interest. The image was shot on my Sony A7iii and printed on Pinnacle Baryta semi-gloss paper”.
Below are the images that were held back by Richard.
Open category
The Open competition again attracted a wide variety of genres of photography including sport, nature, portraits, landscapes and still life.
In the open category eight images were held back for final judging and the winner was Lois Webb for her image titled “Kilchurn Castle Ruins On Loch Awe”
The winning image by Lois Webb “Kilchurn Castle Ruins On Loch Awe”
I asked Lois about her image and this is what she told me.
“Kilchurn Castle was a bucket list location for me after I saw Fototripper film a YouTube video there last year. It gave me an insight to potential compositions and how muddy the fields were. Whilst I was familiar with previous images shot by photographers, I wanted to give my own spin on it. I was initially disappointed that the early morning dawned dull and grey but those conditions also afforded some atmosphere. I spent some time finding the right combination of castle, lake and reeds. This included becoming stuck in the mud and I nearly lost a welly. Then the wind dropped and we saw the reflection so I had to recompose to include the castle reflection. The reflection balanced the composition and all the elements sat comfortably with each other.
My camera/lens/settings; D610, 24-70, 2.8 Nikkor at 62mm lens on a tripod. I took some fast and some with a ND filter on but the competition image was the following settings: ISO 100, 1/8 sec, f14, -0.3 EV
Editing; There was a fence around the castle ruins. Though feint I wanted to clone this out. A slight increase in contrast. Sharpening on the reeds, rocks and castle but none on the water or mountains to keep the ethereal feel of the misty morning. Adjustment to the colour balance to warm it up a bit. There was an extra rock in the water that I cloned out too
Below are the images held back by Richard in the open category.
The Outlaws would like to thank Richard Houghton for providing everyone who entered with beneficial comments and critique and being so appreciative of the images and quality of the prints he was judging.