CCC: PoTY

Photographer of the Year, PDI, Mono & Colour Prints - our two end of season competitions where the classes are stripped away and everyone can enter two images scoring 9 and above from the current season.

PDI: Down to the last 19 out of 63 images

Not placed

Colour Prints:  I will actually state - and probably for the only time in my club life that I did feel rather hopeful with Bosham - it's an image I'm incredibly proud of. HC. One winner and three HC out of 40 images, with 11 being held.

Not placed

Mono Prints: Both images held - 17 held out of 40 images.

HC - One winner and four HC.

A pretty good season over all.
1st in the Mono Print Competition.
3rd (joint) in the PDI Competition
HC for Annual Exhibition Panel
HC for PoTY Mono Print
HC for PoTY Colour Print

A good season but I won't need to get a bigger car to take home the trophies this year lol.

British Wildlife Photography Awards

At the last minute, I decided to enter five images into the BWPA. In fact the day before entries closed! Today I have received an email to say I have been shortlisted, and go into the next round.  I have no idea how many people enter this competition but it's probably the largest competition I have entered to date.  I also don't know how many have been shortlisted but I would suspect a fair few!

These are the images I entered....

And this one has been shortlisted.

I know it will go no further but chuffed to have been shortlisted!

CCC: Season 3 - PDI Summary

Interesting - so many 9.5 but no 10's! So near yet so very far!

 Frozen Flowers: 9.5

Emerged 9.5

Just Resting: 9.5

Early Autumn Colour: 7.5

The Real Hungry Caterpillar: 9

The Mist: 8.5

Evening Calm: 8.5

Misty Sunrise: 7.5

Gerbera: 9.5

Memorial through the Trees: 7

The Cub: 9.5

Photographers at Work: 8

Coming joint 3rd with 103.5 (well done JB), second place 104 with first place receiving 106.  Pretty close all round and on this occasion - staying within the intermediate group for 2017/18 season.

Rethink Your Mind

So, a few months back I entered a couple of images for the Rethink Your Mind - The Yellow Book.  I entered two images two years ago and got an image published... click here to view.  Always trying to improve - this year I not only got my image published in the book, they chose my image to appear on the Audio Book Cover, winning a prize!  I think the cover of the Audio Book is most app (for those that know me well) and is being released on 11.11.17 - was it meant to be - who knows!

Over 500 people entered, 50 pieces of work (25 words, 25 artworks) were selected for The Yellow Book 2017, with 14 prizes being given out.

As I'm a free agent this year I decided to go and get my prize in person.  A fine day out at the Houses of Parliament, I would have liked to have looked round the back rooms while there but security was VERY tight! Invite and extra ID at the ready .....

 Armed with only my iPhone, as other camera equipment was not permitted I took a few images without getting myself arrested!

 

Not great images, but an opportunity to take from a position I'm not likely to stand again!!  So with one my prize of an iPad in hand I went for a swift drink with my friend to celebrate!

1 in 5 people have dandruff, 1 in 4 have mental health problems. Ruby Wax.

CCC: Season 3: PDI 6

Well the final round of our Projected Digital Images.  With very little left to offer I'm pleased I do not need to find anymore images this season.  I look forward to going back over images during the summer ready for next season now!

Photographers at Work: Just some minor changes on this one. Warm tones need adding, Shadows and Highlights. A small crop.  A good weekend was had.

Final: Pretty happy with this one, I don't think it's a 10 but like the simpleness of the image.

Judges Comments: Good separation between the people. Liked the camera on the tripod, comes over as a nice image.  Good light through the long grass. Score: 8  Note: This looks much sharper on my screen than it did on the wall

Fox Cub: Saved at last hurdle by this image, invited round my friends at the crack of dawn to sit in her garden the cubs put in a brief appearance.  However, where they stopped I was blessed with great light. I have learnt so much over the last few years, however, the most important lesson would be light.  Light is most definitely the photographers friend.  Nothing exciting really about this image, but the light on the fox cub is just the best.

Unedited:   Lots of distractions in the picture, especially the white behind the foxes head.  The usual shadows and highlights, with a LOT of cloning! And a very heavy crop.  I wanted to leave detail in the background so the Shadows came right down.

Fox Cub Final: OK.  I'm not sure about the cloning, once again I can clearly see where I have tried to remove stuff, and I'm not sure how obvious this will be on the big screen.  I'm also not sure of the green bag to the left would have preferred to remove this but not happy with the result and have just gone for a darken.  HOWEVER, I love the light on the cub, and I love the 'frame' of the pot behind the cub.

Judges Comment: Good 'evening light' on his face, and good capture of light on his ears. Lovely circle behind his head.  However, too much black to the right of the cub should have gone for more of a crop. Score: 9.5 Note to me: I process my images slightly darker and they project very light on the screen.  New laptop seems to project a little darker.  I can still see detail of the green in the back ground on my laptop but on the large screen there was no detail as all.