September 2025 4th Print Competition
The fourth print competition of the year was held on Thursday 25th September at St James church Hall the home of the Nottingham Outlaws. The print competition started back in March and is run on a bi-monthly basis. Going into this leg of the print competition Lois Webb was in first place on 317 points closely followed by Malcolm Nabarro on 316 and then Chris Holdsworth & Lester Woodward tying on 314 points. Tonight’s penultimate competition could give one of the leading group the edge over their close rivals.
The judge for this round of the competition was Ashley Franklin who is known to many of the Outlaws as they have attended some of the fine photographic presentations that Ashley has delivered to the society. Ashley is also the Chairman of Derby City Photographic Club There were two categories for Ashley to judge, the Open category and the Themed which for this evening was “Urban”.
Ashley started off the evening by explaining that he had looked up the definition of “Urban” in the dictionary to ensure that images presented to hit met the subject criteria.
In total there were 24 entries in the Open and in the Themed.
Theme Urban
The themed competition had many stunning images depicting Architecture, power stations, trams & transport, churches & city street scenes. The images were rich in both subject matter, composition & final print quality, so much so that Ashley held eight of them back for a second viewing.
Ashley carefully worked his way through the final eight, offering comment & critique before awarding Malcolm Nabarro the winning image award for his work titled “Battersea Power Station”. However, Ashley was also awarded twenty points to Ray Andrews for his image “Deliveries All Done” and Lois Webb for her image “Generations of Urban Change”
The winning image by Malcolm Nabarro, “Battersea Power Station”
I asked Malcolm to give his thoughts and comments about his winning image, this is what he had to say.
“I had noticed images of the old power station from various angles and the inclusion of the railway in the foreground inspired me to track down the spot where such an image could be taken. With help from Google Maps I worked out that a good vantage point could possible be from a railway bridge not far from Victoria Station. On a trip to London I tracked the spot down and sure enough there was a great vantage point over the mass of railway lines across to the imposing power station. Shooting in the blue hour gave me some good light but I had to wait for the lights to come on illuminating the power station chimneys. A 10 second exposure at f11 gave me the train movement in the foreground I was hoping to achieve”.
Open category
The Open competition had a wealth of variety of subject matter too, from pet portraits to travel portraits, sporting scenes, doorways, studio artwork and cattle market scenes. Tough work indeed for Ashley to work his way through, but he did just that.
In all fourteen images were held back for final judging and the winner was declared, Lois Webb with her image titled, “Market Day”.
The winning image by Lois Webb, “Market Day” ‘
I asked Lois to comment on her winning image, this is what she had to say.
“Market Day’ was taken at the Sunday Livestock market in Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, China back in 2010. The sheep were tied together neck to neck. Despite being packed in they stood quietly whilst the farmers screamed deals over their heads. The breeds of sheep in the area are bred for arid conditions and have fatty deposits on their backsides to cope with the lack of water, similar to camels. I thought this feature, combined with the unusual herding method made for a fun composition. I also wanted to take it from the sheeps’ eye level so I knelt down. Their expressions are delightful, almost as if they are smiling. Probably laughing at me kneeling in sheep poop. The black and white conversion adds to the timeless quality too. Shot on Nikon D300”.
The Outlaws would like to thank Ashley for providing everyone who entered with beneficial comments, sharing his thoughts on image improvements and delivering some anecdotal comments along the way.