March 2026 1st Print Competition
The 1st print competition of 2026 was held on Thursday 26th March 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 of the same year and all rounds contribute to the Outlaw’s print league table.
The judge for this first round of the competition was Ben Lumley who is a professional sports photographer, you can see his work by following this link, benlumleyphoto
Ben joined us earlier this year to give a presentation on his sports photography accompanied by a number of his images. This was a first for me where we have had a judge that is not on the NEMPF circuit and it would be interesting to see how he scored the images presented to him along with his critique. There were two categories for Ben to judge, the Open category and the Themed category which in this instance was “Sport”. We had a fantastic response to this competition and there were 36 entries in both the open and the themed.
The Open competition as always attracts a wide variety of genres of photography including nature, portraits (including artistic nude), landscape and several of these images were presented in black & white. The themed competition equally had interesting array of different sport genres from historical motor sports through to rugby, women’s football and various water sports.
Theme Sport
The theme images were varied and there were many genres on display, all prints were of a really high standard. Six images were held back by Ben or final scoring and Ben warded the win to Lois Webb for her image titled “Early Morning Training Session On The Arno”.
The winning image by Lois Webb “Early Morning Training Session on the Arno”
I asked Lois about her winning image this is what Lois told me.
For the 2024 KitKat (Scotland) I researched the stretch of the Clyde that runs from the Riverside Museum in the west into the heart of the City. This cluster of buildings seem to have been designed with the
photographer in mind. Strong lines and angular forms dominate, lending themselves to bold
compositions and processing. I was surprised therefore when we arrived and the grey day made the Armadillo seem less attractive. It is a large building and I found it difficult to get the composition I wanted. I changed to a wide angle lens which gave the composition the shapes I was looking for. There was a steady stream of people walking past. I took a few photos of the passersby but it was the mother and son which I felt gave a better point of interest. The Armadillo is a grey building and it was a grey day so to emphasis the curves I processed the image as mono. I also changed the sky to a more dramatic one that echoed the lines of the building. Once all the ground rubbish and bird droppings were cloned out my image was finished.
Tech info: Fujifilm X-T30, 15mm, 1/80 sec, f10, iso500
Open category
In the open category there was a wide variety of subjects from architecture, nature, coastal scenes and landscapes, eight images were held back for final judging and the winner was Lois Webb with her image titled “Armadillo”
This had been a fantastic night’s work by Lois, a double winner on this occasion.
The winning image by Lois Webb “Armadillo”
I asked Lois about her winning image this is what Lois told me.
Family holidays are fun but fitting photography around everybody’s wants can be tricky. I tend to choose a morning and get up at dawn and visit locations that I have not been able to capture during the rest of the holiday. We were enjoying a week in Florence in June 2024 but the weather had been wet. I decided to explore on the first bright sunny morning forecast. I also knew that I wanted the Ponte Vecchio with the morning sun on it. So that’s where I headed. I arrived on the banks of the Arno at around 7am. I noticed the gate to the Florence rowing club was open. No one was about so I walked through for a better angle of the Ponte Vecchio and the bridges beyond. As I was shooting the rowers came out and into the boat. The sky was stormy but the sun came out just as the rowers set off. It bathed the bridge and bankside buildings in glorious sunshine and the navy-blue clouds behind added drama. I took several shots as the rowers practised up and down the city centre stretches of river. After about 20 minutes someone hailed me and gestured vigorously that I should leave. That person was very cross and it turns out I may have been trespassing. Oops. Got the shot though.
Tech Info: Fujifilm X-T30, 43mm, 1/900sec, f8, iso400
ADD GALLERY OF OPEN HELD IMAGES
The Outlaws would like to thank Ben Lumley for providing everyone who entered with beneficial critique and being so appreciative of the images he was judging, there was many a time when he said out loud, “I like that one”.
Thanks Ben.