'On the Beach' - FEEL FREE TO COMMENT

[Paul Jones]

Just be thankful you didn't put her in front of a brick wall

Gosh, yes. A heinous crime.

[John]

When I did Damian McGillicuddy's course "Urban Kids" we were deliberately using brick walls and other urban stuff as backgrounds. I think it can look great and gives atmosphere to the shots.

[Paul Jones]

I totally agree with you John. I've seen some of your urban shots from the course and they looked cool.

[PhilipHowe]

John, he uses Deansgate Locks a lot, as I saw him there once while i was doing the same. Loads of awful red bricks down there which are really good for photos.

[danny]

Every one beat me to the comments,What a great set of pics i like the one in Red the best . Say sand dunes next time sounds posher.

[Paul Jones]

What a great set of pics i like the one in Red the best

Thanks for your kind comment, Danny.
I think you're the only one who likes the red top (apart from me)....

Say sand dunes next time

In the competition I was firstly going to title it "Sur la Plage" - but I thought it might confuse the judge.

Having said that, if I enter any more competitions I might adopt a stategy to do just that...

[Kathy Leonard]

One thing I've learned in my three visits to the Thursday night meets.... never.. but NEVER take a photograph purely for the judges thinking it will win. There may be guidelines for them to follow, but they aren't carved in stone and at times they forget things.

Of my visits...

The first week was the battle with Blackburn, where the judge seemed to believe it is possible to pose wild animals. That you have all the time in the world to take photographs of a subject that could flee at any moment, thereby being able to get a shot from a different angle. In my experience once anything wild realises you're there it's gone, or at least moves, so just getting the camera into a position to take a shot is an added bonus..

Week two - (What Judges Look For).. & the guest speaker, Bob Dennis, didn't like the excessive use of photoshop etc to alter images, which I found refreshing I have to admit. Also seeing some of his photographs at the end of the night gave me hope as they were something I could aspire to... once I got past my fear of heights as those mountains looked very high, certainly for someone who finds the back step daunting at times... ha-ha.

Week three - (Monthly competition for digital images) The judge didn't like brick walls, white backgrounds & advocated the use of photoshop by suggesting you add/delete content etc with it.

Three different judges all with very different opinions on just about every aspect.

Maybe what you needed to do was build a brick wall on the beach & paint it white, with a stuffed Bear standing next to your model so that it could be posed, put her feet in bowls of water to add more content & give her a thick cardi to put on to add texture.. thereby covering all your bases, and the models attributes to boot.. One thing's for sure, you need a very thick skin to enter a competition.

I am, by my own admission, substancially less than a novice at all this. I know I have much to learn and therefore can only really comment on whether or not a photograph is pleasing to the eye. I found your shot of the girl on the beach very pleasing & quite wistful. I certainly didn't notice that she looked anything but beautiful facially, and I doubt many of the guys in the audience got as far up as her face... lol. Anyone who enters competitions has my utmost respect that's for sure.

K

[Paul Jones]

Thanks Kathy. I think you summed up club competitions very well. Don't let it put you off having a go though.

[-KT]

1 judge = 1 persons very opinionated view.

I've said from the start, having 1 judge to judge any competition is silly, more so in arts and photography because it is very opinionated and always will be. A panel would work more evenly, the night we had Pammie, Tom and John with their little flags was awesome. My thoughts would be to have 1 judge from outside the club, 1 judge inside the club and 1 standard member to give points to the images. That way each of the 3 would view the photo in a different way. You could still have the judge doing his thing as normal and repeating the same comments for each image ^^

Anyways, just thinking aloud out of the box....it ain't never gona happen =P

[John]

Nothing is impossible and nothing is unthinkable. The only limitation is that we need to be fair and constant for all members and at least the playing field with the competitions is level. We all suffer from the same comments and the same judge. The worst scenario is having one judge do one picture and then another doing the next one - there is no consistency then.

I agree that in art having a judge is probably slightly ridiculous, but it's the best we have if we must have leagues and a sense of competition. It appeals to my competitive spirit and it's great to do well. It's not so great to have one's image completely misunderstood.

[mike-e]

I have been watching this post quite keenly the last few days, Its such a pleasure to see what diverse views we all have, and what emotions judges can sitr in each of us .

Paul . These are really a neat set of images, colour or mono. I like them all, but have 2 that stand out for me in both the mono and colour of N0;4 . Very editorial, creative, tasteful, and allow the viewer plenty of interpretation. Fantastic

As for the judges comments and judging in general I feel that most club competitions fail to operate on a level playing field when we have members at different capabilities, and strengths
Couple that alongside an open subject matter to compound the issue and ask say a record shot to compete with an artistically enhanced image. Makes both the competition and its entrees not a real level playing field

Certainly most large competions use a panel of judges, but often are comparing a set catagory matter. As for our competitons I understand the constraints and limitations of introducing set catagories , or beginner/ intermediatary/ and advanced levels of entrees, and would probably prove prohibitive.
Would a club manual, be it the basics of photography, or a gudeline to competitons minimum requirements be of use,
I gather Bob Dennis made some benchmark pointers. to allow our newer competiton entrants a chance to compete, and, maybe in the sense of level playing field offer maybe a newcomer annual image competition
what do we think?

[Paul Jones]

Paul . These are really a neat set of images, colour or mono. I like them all, but have 2 that stand out for me in both the mono and colour of N0;4 . Very editorial, creative, tasteful, and allow the viewer plenty of interpretation. Fantastic

Hi Mike and thanks for your very kind comments. Much appreciated.

As for the judges comments and judging in general I feel that most club competitions fail to operate on a level playing field when we have members at different capabilities, and strengths
Couple that alongside an open subject matter to compound the issue and ask say a record shot to compete with an artistically enhanced image. Makes both the competition and its entrees not a real level playing field

You make some valid points Mike.

[jonbeeza]

Sorry, just can't resist this... (not a moan, Theo, promise )

Top comment of Thursday night award ?

"I can't figure out why she's standing on a beach... Why would you want to take her photo on a beach?"


(If you weren't at ADAPS last night you won't know what I'm going on about...)

I am completely new to all this, and Thursday was my first night. But I have to agree, Top Comment I am pretty good at picking up on peoples thoughts, mind you I was sitting right next to you Paul

[Paul Jones]

Thanks Jon.
You'll have all this to come when you start entering competitions...

[bert haddock]

Hi Folks,
Lots of very interesting comments about competitions and judges, the new members have certainly some very interesting and valid points, whilst I appreciate judging comps is not easy as you can never please everyone and they very rarely comment on the difficult circumstances some of the shots where taken in, Pauls shot of the model on Formby beach was a lot more difficult than if he had taken shots of the model in a studio, my shot of the sleeping bees was far easier to take than the chaffinch in flight, but the bees won.
Good to see that the new members are not afraid to post their thoughts on the forum, just enjoy your photography and do what you want to do.
Regards,
Bert.