April 2026 2nd PDI Competion
The Outlaws photographic competition year is now in full swing and this is the second projected digital image (PDI) competition so far, with a further three to follow. Competitions are held every month and are alternated between PDI’s and mounted Prints.
This month’s competition had approximately thirty images entered into each of the competition categories. The Outlaws competitions are certainly very popular with the membership, to the degree that a limitation had to be invoked otherwise there was insufficient time to display and critique the work.
The judge for this evening’s competitions was Phil Peat from Ilkeston Photo 2000 Camera Club.
Phil was made very welcome and there were two categories for him to judge, the Open category and the Themed which for April was “Reflections”.
In total there were thirty-three submission in the themed section and thirty-one in the Open.
In both the Open and Themed categories there was a wide variety of photographic genres including; Nature, sports, landscapes, architecture, flowers, portraits and abstract. Phil did comment that the Themed competition section on “Reflections” really did have some fantastic high-quality images and judging was a difficult job because of that.
As the competitions progressed Phil gave detailed critique on a positive basis to the authors and scored them appropriately or offering suggestions where (in his opinion) improvements could be made.
Theme Reflections
The Themed PDI had some fantastic images and Phil said they were all of a high standard and nine were held back for final scoring and the winner was Lester Woodward with his image “Stokksnes Vestrahorn”.
Themed winning image: Lester Woodward, “Stokksnes Vestrahorn”.
Here are the images that were held back by judge Phil.
I asked Lester to give me some background information on his fantastic Icelandic landscape, this is what he had to say. “The winning shot of the Stokksnes Vestrahorn reflection was taken back in April 2024 on a trip to Iceland with my wife Sue. We hired a car and drove round the ring road of the entire island, touch and go with the snow and ice at times. We were fortunate to be at Stokksnes under beautifully sunny skies (landscape photographers nightmare) but it worked really well for this reflection shot. Taken at f8, handheld 1/500, no filters, single shot using Sony A7M3, using a 12-24mm lens at 12mm. Processing was entirely in Adobe Lightroom, messing about with clarity and saturation, further cropped for presentation.”
Open category
In the open category twelve images were held back for final judging and the winner was Lois Webb with her image “Round & Round The Reichstag”
Open Winning Image Lois Webb, “Round & Round The Reichstag”
Below are the held back images selected by Phil for final judging.
I asked Lois to tell the story behind Round & Round The Reichstag and this is what she had to say.
“The dome that sits on the top of the Reichstag in Berlin is an iconic photographic location. I had seen many images of the stunning cupola but was not prepared for the experience of climbing up and round to the observation platform and down again. It is awe-inspiring. I finally got to vsit as part of our club trip to Berlin in October 2025. As I had booked the NOPS group in at the start of the day there were fewer visitors which made for a pleasant visit. However, what I had not taken on board was the fact that because the dome is open to the elements at the top then the glass of the dome would be covered in condensation. This meant there were no views from within the dome to the outside. Turning this handicap into an advantage, it gave us all the chance to focus on the structure. Any image I took was always about form and would be in black and white. This image combines the upward lift of the central column with the curving walkways with a selection of visitors to provide scale. I tried several versions of this idea and I was really pleased this version did so well.”
The Outlaws would like to thank Phil for providing everyone who entered with a detailed set of constructive comments and critique of their works.
All in all it was a great club night, enjoyed by all and everyone eager for the next round of the competition.