February is the start of the Nottingham Outlaws photographic competition year and the first competition is a projected digital image (PDI). Over the course of the year there will be a further four PDI’s, these are interwoven with a separate print competition on a bi-monthly basis.
This month’s competition had more entrants than we had experienced in recent times (many new entrants) and that resulted in over forty entries in total in both the themed category as well as the open. This is indeed refreshing news and it shows the popularity that the club has. This should make for an exciting competition year wanting to take the title of Outlaw of the Year off the current holder Lois Webb.
January is traditionally the start of the Outlaws competition year and “Members Choice” is the first competition of the year. It is a stand-alone competition having both PDI and Print sections. It is open to all members and the contributions especially in the DPI format are quite significant with forty-six entries in total.
The judging is carried out by the membership on the night and the DPI images are projected onto a large screen with several run throughs allowing members to make notes and each choosing their own individual top six entries.
The Print competition takes part in the second part of the evening with prints being displayed allowing all images to be placed side by side for direct comparison.
Again, judging is carried out by the attending members on the same basis as the DPI competition, no voting for your own image and your top six in order of preference.
The David Cawthan Trophy is the final Outlaws competition of the year and its aim is to demonstrate a photographer’s competence across a number of photographic genres. There are two formats, a Projected Digital Image (PDI) and Print format, both are run as separate competitions. Members can enter six images and they must embrace four genres and that is of their choice.
Congratulations go to Chris Houldsworth & Malcolm Nabarro who were both victorious and share the prestigious Print Outlaw of The Year title for 2025. After a closely contested series of competitions across the year it all came down to the final event and just a few points separated both entrants.
The judge on the evening was Phil Newman of Bolsover Camera Club and he acknowledged that the quality of the images entered by The Outlaws was extremely high so we didn’t make it easy for either of them
Congratulations go to Lois Webb who has won the Nottingham Outlaws Projected Digital Image (PDI) Outlaw Of The Year (OoTY) competition for 2025.
A portrait image of Lois
Lois is a respected club photographer (as well as NOPS Chairman) and she approach’s all genres of photography with a level of competence and confidence. Her images are creative and imaginative and she enjoys subjects such as Street, Travel Photography, portraiture and creating composite works.
The Outlaws are undertaking their fifth round of their Projected Digital Image (PDI) competition of the year and it’s a close thing at the top of the leader board. As we head into this the final round, Lois Webb, Malcolm Nabarro, Lester Woodward, Sue Jackson and Nigel Stewart are all contenders for the title.
Robert offered detailed & constructive comments on composition including image cropping.
There were two categories for Robert to judge on the evening, the Open category and the Themed, which this month was “Alley Ways”. There were approximately thirty-two entrants in both the Open category and the themed.
Several members of the Outlaws recently enjoyed a hugely successful five-day photographic expedition to Berlin, a city where the history of the 20th century meets the radical innovation of the 21st. The trip provided a phenomenal canvas for our primary focus: the stark lines of architectural photography and the fleeting narratives of street life.
Our journey began at Nottingham’s East Midlands Airport where we boarded a mid-day flight to Berlin. Upon arrival we caught the overground train service into the heart of the city, the adventure had begun.
Our first evening was in the city’s modern core, where the Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Centre offered a masterclass in modern geometry. These structures demand precision if we were to capture the lines & scale. The coloured lights, water fountains and grandeur of the buildings was quite breath-taking and a memorable experience for the new arrivals. Following our first photoshoot it was an evening meal and time to rest before the demands of a new day.
The fourth print competition of the year was held on Thursday 25th September at St James church Hall the home of the Nottingham Outlaws. The print competition started back in March and is run on a bi-monthly basis. Going into this leg of the print competition Lois Webb was in first place on 317 points closely followed by Malcolm Nabarro on 316 and then Chris Holdsworth & Lester Woodward tying on 314 points. Tonight’s penultimate competition could give one of the leading group the edge over their close rivals.
The judge for this round of the competition was Ashley Franklin who is known to many of the Outlaws as they have attended some of the fine photographic presentations that Ashley has delivered to the society. Ashley is also the Chairman of Derby City Photographic Club There were two categories for Ashley to judge, the Open category and the Themed which for this evening was “Urban”.
Ashley started off the evening by explaining that he had looked up the definition of “Urban” in the dictionary to ensure that images presented to hit met the subject criteria.
In total there were 24 entries in the Open and in the Themed.
It is August already and the Outlaws are undertaking their fourth Projected Digital Image (PDI) competition of the year and it’s just not the summer days that are warming up, the PDI competition is too. Preceding this month’s competition, the DPI leader-board was as follows, Lois Webb on 216 points, Malcolm Nabarro 209 points & Sue Jackson on 206 points.
The evenings judge was Roy Maddison from Long Eaton Camera Club, Roy offered constructive comments and scored the images in his own unique style.
There were two categories for Roy to judge on the evening, the Open category and the Themed, which this month was “Metal”. There were approximately thirty-two in the Open category and thirty-four in the themed.
The Open competition attracted many genres of photography from portraiture study, wildlife, sport, and landscape images to name but a few.
The themed competition equally had a wide variety of images with many different visual interpretations of the theme and Roy again offered his opinion, critique & some suggestions of editing that would (in his opinion) benefit the image.
It is late July and the third NOPS print competition of the year was about to take place. Going into this round Lois Webb currently leads on 211 points with Malcolm Nabarro very close 210 points, so there is still all to play for & there are several other Outlaws that are challenging for the Print Outlaw of the Year (POOTY) tittle.
The judge for the evening was Dave Hollingsworth who had visited the Outlaws on a number of previous occasions. Dave is Chairman of Arnold & District Camera Club. Dave congratulated the members on the quality of their printed images on a number of occasions throughout the evening.
