Melbourne Photographic Society vs Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society

November 15th, 2012

Each year (well this is the 3^rd) we have a friendly (?) battle with Melbourne PS, we have won the first 2 encounters, the last one being by just one point, even after several recounts!

This year they promised to avenge that narrow defeat……………………………

We changed the format slightly from just prints to a mixture of Prints and Projected Digital Images (PDI), we both entered 15 of each section making a grand total of 60 images to be judged on the night.

Melbourne village is set in rural Derbyshire and has plenty of history, it is a delightful pictureseque village even though I have only ever seen it at night.

9 members of the Outlaws turned up at the village hall which was a very good turnout, and I would like to thank all those that supported us. The clubroom is really nice and was full to bursting when we had been seated. The competition was to be adjudicated by Les Nixon, a seasoned senior NEMPF judge who has done the rounds over the years.

We started with the PDI’s, a quick run-through ensued and from this I thought we would be ok but not have a commanding lead at half-time, the judging process started (albeit quite slowly) and the first 15 images saw 5 held back from the Outlaws (2 from Melbourne), this had to be encouraging. The second half of the PDI’s saw a slight turnaround with only a further 2 images held back which were both from Melbourne, clearly it was going to be close. On the Outlaws held images the scores on the doors were;

Here comes the Sun-Michal Tekel-17 points

Fractures in Sky and Sea-Chris Newham-17 points

Pavillion Theatre, Cromer Pier-Chris Newham-17 points

Sliced & Diced-Scott Wilson-18 points

Evil Queen-Rick Martindale-20 points (equal winner on the PDI section) Well Done Rick!

Surprising casualties were; Gooooooooooooooool and Rise & Shine, both from Scott and scoring unusually low, you can’t win em all!

So after totalling the PDI’s the Outlaws had 236 points and Melbourne had 231 points, it looked as though it was going to be a very close battle.

A quick turnaround from projected to Prints then occurred and we were ready to go with the second half. The first 15 prints went up and the Outlaws had 5 held back, (Melbourne had none) it was looking good, the second half of prints then yielded a further 4 held back from the Outlaws and only 2 in total from Melbourne, I now felt really confident of a win. On the Outlaws held images the scores were;

At the Beginning-Michal Tekel-18 points

Elgol, towards the Cuillins-Scott Wilson-20 points (shared overall winner)

Fallen-Ian Pinn-18 points

Far off thoughts-Scott Wilson-20 points (shared overall winner)

Lions, Masai Mara-Ian Pinn-18 points

Looking Out- Sue Hartley-19 points

Neck & Neck-Scott Wilson-18 points

Tree Frog-Sue Hartley-19 points

Whitby Pier-Chris Newham-20 points (shared overall winner and judges favourite by a whisker)

Congrats to all the above, and especially Sue, whose 2 images did really well and this bodes well for the future.

So overall print totals were; 217 Melbourne, 257 Outlaws, we won the print section by a staggering 40 points, which is almost 3 points per print! Brilliant.

Over/Overall score = Melbourne 448……..Oulaws 493

A brilliant result and well done to all those that entered, also thanks to all those that went along to support us, a great night with a great result.

Next year we are at home!