August 2026 4th PDI Competition
August sees the Outlaws undertaking their fourth Projected Digital Image (PDI) competition of the year and things have started to warm up. Prior to this competition the leader was Lester Woodward with 132pts, second was Sue Hartley on 131 and Ray Andrews on 127pts. Which means that this month’s round has everything to play for.
The evenings judge was Sue Wilson, a NEMPF competition judge who some of the Outlaws had met on previous occasions. Sue offered constructive comments, suggestions and lots of detail especially if she thought an image could be improved. Sue is a member of Clay Cross Photographic Society
There were two categories for Sue to judge on the evening, the Open category and the Themed, which this month was “Nature”. There was thirty-six entries in the Nature category and thirty-seven in the Open, competition nights in the Outlaws are very popular as we are seeing ever increasing numbers of entries each month.
The Nature competition attracted several elements of nature photography from Elephants in Africa to Baboons through to small insects within plants, but it was our feathered friends that dominated the theme and they ranged from exotic species seen and photographed on travels through to the more common species seen in the UK.
The Open competition equally had a wide variety of images from glamour models, motor sports action, landscapes and portraits one of a punk rockers amazing hair style.
Theme – Nature
The Nature images are quite stunning so please take a look at the image gallery below and you will I am sure appreciate the skills of our photographers.
Sue commented that the images on display during the evening were of a very high standard and that made her job of judging very difficult. She managed to whittle them down to a final ten which she again
re-evaluated and announced that the winner was Sue Hartley with her image “Male Bearded Reedling”
Nature winning image Male Bearded Reedling by Sue Hartley
I asked Sue about her image, and this is what she told me.
I’d had a run out to a nature reserve to try out a new camera and lens. A few people were already in the public hide there, so spaces were limited. Not in the best spot for the bitterns, I was hoping to see, I scanned the reed beds off to the side for signs of life and spotted some small birds in there. Zooming in I was delighted to see that they were a small group of bearded reedlings, and even more delighted to get the occasional clear view as the breeze blew the reeds. Sometimes you just get lucky!
Open category
In the open category Sue held twelve images back for final judging and then announced that the winner was Ray Andrews with his image “Vita Nova Wreck 2”
Open category winning image by Ray Andrews.
Following this round of the competition the Outlaw of the year standings are as follows. Leading the pack is Sue Hartley on 203 pts, second place is Nigel Stewart 201 pts and in third spot Lester Woodward on 200 pts.
The Outlaws would like to thank Sue Wilson for providing everyone with an entertaining evening, offering constructive comments, positive suggestions and having an appreciation of the Outlaws creative works.