NOPS were once again invited to the Richard Balter Inter-Club Challenge, and duly entered and attended, the following is a breakdown of how we did.
8 clubs entered:
Barton Camera Club
Derby City Photographic Society
Melton Mowbray Photographic Society
Newark & District Photographic Society
Nottingham & Notts Photographic Society
Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society
Rushcliffe Photographic Society
Worksop & District Camera Club
Judge: Steve Myall EFIAP
The first round kicked off with some controversial decisions resulting in NOPS losing 2 images. Ian Pinn lost his “Spurn Dawn” with comments about the reds being too heavy and would have suited a darker mount. Next to fall was Scott Wilson with “Tim Burton’s New York”, due to the fact the image was too busy for the judge’s taste. I felt sure at this point we were onto a losing streak with such strong images going at such an early stage. Further shock to follow when Padraig McKenna’s “Tree with Hoar Frost” fell in the second round, the judge felt that the image was too grey overall and didn’t have nice crisp whites, he felt that again the mount may have compromised the presentation stating a darker mount would have made the image pop.
At this point it was clear that the judge was marking based on the whole presentation of the image, so images with marked, damaged or poor quality mounts were getting dropped. The standards were high in all honesty, so the judge was picking out minor issues as an excuse to prevent the image appearing in further rounds.
Round 3 saw NOPS left with 2 images, these sailed through to round 4. Round 4 saw Chris Newham’s “Whitby Pier” bite the dust with comments that the image was a contender for the top slot, however a dark line on the print (later thought to be adhesive seep from the tape on the back) prevented the judge from carrying it further. Into round 5 went our last print, up against very few images but of a high standard, our last print sailed through to round 6, up against a very good image of a Snake Eagle with prey. Round 7 saw our very last print sat there on it’s own proud and happy, Les Marriott’s “The Usual Suspects” got the top slot and Les will be the happy recipient of the covetted best print trophy.
The end result saw Worksop & District Camera Club win the overall club trophy with 17 points, followed by a joint second with 15 points Newark & District Photographic Society and our very own Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society. Although we did not follow last year’s win with another overall club win, and we saw some shock decisions early on, a good result for the club and an excellent outcome for Les.