June Third Digital Image (PDI) Competition
June is already upon us and we are experiencing a heat wave and things are also starting to warm up for the Outlaws on the competition front. They are now midway in their digital competition year and the league table is beginning to take shape with the leaders emerging.
As we head into this round of the competition Lois Webb is the current leader with 145 points, which is 9 points clear of second place Sue Jackson, followed closely by Lester Woodward on 135 points. What effect will this round have on their league position and points tally?
This month as per usual has two categories one being an “Open” where members can submit images of their choice across a whole gambit of photographic genres, the other being the “Theme”, which was “Abandoned Buildings”. There were thirty-four entries in the Open category and thirty-one in the themed competition.
The judge for the evening was Steve Walters from Ilkeston Photo 2000 club and who is also N&EMPF President, a notable guest and judge indeed. We are very grateful to Steve as he stepped into the breach at very short notice due to a judge cancellation.
As is usual the Open competition attracted many genres of photography from ICM, reflections, nature, sport, abstract, portrait, nature through to landscape. The themed competition equally had a wide variety of images
Theme Abandoned Buildings
The Themed PDI also had a wide variety of quality images (many are contained within this article) and Steve held back eight of them for a second look.
Steve gave detailed critique and offered comments where he considered images could be improved, concentrating on shadow detail & focus.
Themed winning image “Rust & Rubble” by Sue Jackson
Sue Jackson was awarded the twenty points for her fabulous image titled “Rust & Rubble”. I asked Sue to comment about her image, this is what she had to say;
Rust & Rubble was taken in Cumbria whilst on a KitKat holiday with the Outlaws. When the theme came up for abandoned buildings, I remembered the images I had taken at this location (I believe it was a mess hall in part of a disused military base) and hunted through my files. The image I submitted was the most striking with what looks like a rusted ventilation hood as the focus (after all who what photographer can resist a good bit of rust). It was taken at ISO100, F4 with a 4 second exposure (on a tripod obviously), I processed it in photoshop, taking out odd bits that were a distraction and adding a light vignette to the image.
Below are the held images from the themed category Abandoned Buildings
Open category
In the open category eighteen images were held back for final judging, quite a quantity, but that speaks volumes about the quality presented to judge Steve!
Open Winning Image “Quayside Reflections” by Tabby
Tabby was awarded the best in category and added twenty points to her seasons tally. Tabby told me all about her winning image.
“Quayside Reflections” was taken during a recent trip to Rotterdam. I was impressed with the different styles of old and new architecture and was taking photos of their reflections in the old harbour. It was just before mid-day on a sunny April day. I was using my Canon 80D with a 18-300 Sigma lens at 59mm. It was at f/20, 1/200 sec, ISO 800, Exp -0.7. It was one of several I took, but this one with the boats at the side of the quay appealed to me. Post processing using Photoshop was minimal. I cropped off the top third of the picture as it was messy, removed a couple of bits of intruding nautical floats and upped the saturation. A quick slim white border and there it was.
Below are the images held back by judge Steve for the final cut.
The final outcome following this round of the competition means that Lois Webb maintains her lead with 216 points, followed by Malcolm Nabarro with 209 & Sue Jackson on 206 points. The next round of the PDI is in August, watch this space!
The Outlaws would like to thank Steve for providing all entrants with a constructive set of comments, appreciation of their works and short notice of acceptance to judge.
Author Nigel Stewart