Judge Jim Eastaugh

This Tuesday evening we held our annual Black & White competition with the winner being awarded the coveted Iris Overton Memorial Cup.

Members submitted a total of 45 mounted black and white prints, covering subject matter as diverse as trains and boats to trees and turbines,architecture and birds to poppies and pandas. Our judge for the evening was Jim Eastaugh of Wincanton Camera Club who passed a very critical eye over each print, pointing out what he liked and didn’t like and commenting on the quality of both the printing and mounting.

Jim likes to see an interesting combination of light and texture with the composition showing an appropriate level of detail and contrast. As he viewed the prints one by one he selected a short-list of nine prints which he considered the most worthy of merit. From this nine he selected a first, second and third and two highly commended. The winners were:

1 Brian C.

Brian receives the Iris Overton Cup from Jim Eastaugh

2 William

3 Brian H

Highly commended: William and Brian C.

Congratulations to the winners, who were up against some very stiff competition, and thanks also to Jim for being such a fair and informative judge. A highly enjoyable evening!

The Bradford Abbas Shield Five Clubs Competition was held on Tuesday evening and, as ever, provided a lively and entertaining event for all concerned. The competition is conducted between five local camera clubs: South Petherton, Yeovil, Wincanton, Yeo Group and Sherborne Bradford Abbas. Each club can submit five prints and five digital images, each of which is marked out of 20 by the judge. The club that amasses the most points wins the coveted shield, which they retain for a year.

The theme of the competition this year was ‘Wet’ and the judge was Sid Jones of Dorchester Camera Club.

We viewed a wide range of interpretations of the theme, from soaked birds to wet people, rainy streets to sodden fields and raindrops on cobwebs, leaves and a clothes line – amongst others.

Sid was an excellent judge, pointing out the best points of each image and making really helpful comments about how each entry could be improved. There was applause for each entry awarded 20 points and we looked in more detail at these winning images when the competition was over.

The Bradford Abbas Shield was won by Yeovil Camera Club with 182 points out of a possible 200. Second was Wincanton with 180 points, third was Sherborne Bradford Abbas with 172 and fourth and fifth, Yeo Group and South Petherton with 170 and 169 respectively.

Here Laura Pearce is seen receiving the trophy on behalf of Yeovil Camera Club from Sid Jones.

Well done, Yeovil – and many thanks to Sid Jones for a job well done!

Here are some of the highest scoring digital images from all of the clubs:

(click on an image to play a slideshow)

• Best Colour Print
• Best Black and White Print
• Best Digital Image
• Most Unusual Photograph

Members submitted 19 colour prints, 5 black and white prints and 20 digital images to the competition.

We invited Penny Piddock from Portland to judge our entries and she explained that what she was looking for was what was coming through from the photographer rather than technical perfection. As she commented on each photo she pointed out what she liked and what she thought could be improved and she also made some helpful suggestions for how to mount prints effectively. After narrowing the entries down into a shortlist for each category, she announced the winning entries.  These were:

Best Colour Print -Peter R.

Best Black and White Print – Michael W.

Best Digital Image – Tony F.

Most Unusual Photo – Tony F.

Thanks to Penny for being such an excellent judge, and many congratulations to the winners. Here are some of the beautiful images that were entered into the competition:

Click on a thumbnail to see the image full size.

Tony Marriott

On Tuesday we held our annual Iris Overton Cup black and white competition.

Members can submit up to five black and white prints on any subject. Over 40 prints were submitted to the competition spanning a wide range of subject matter.

Our judge for the evening was Tony Marriott of Yeovil Camera Club. Tony admitted to being ‘niggly’ judge. This was because he had awarded points out of 20 to each print and found that there were a large number of even quality photographs  in the 16-18 range that he had to somehow differentiate.

He started by telling us that he takes club competitions very seriously. In that vein he commented that some of the prints were, in fact, monochrome rather than black and white but that he would judge them anyway.

Tony commented on each picture and made remarks about its compostion and quality of photography and printing. In some cases he commented that the picture looked ‘flat’ because there was not enough contrast between the tones. In other cases he pointed out that the composition was too busy and didn’t lead the eye into the picture effectively. But, in the cases where he did like the picture, he praised points like the perspective, the subject matter and the photographer’s creativity and vision.

At the end of the judging he announced the winner to be Michael’s closeup of grass seeds, to which he awarded 20 points out of 20. In second place was Betty’s photo of the Clifton suspension bridge (also 20/20) and in third place Ted’s picture of a mock battle scene (19/20).

Here is Tony awarding the tropy to Michael:

And here is the winning image:

(click to see larger image)

Thanks to everyone who took part. Thanks to Tony for being such a good judge and congratulations to Michael for winning the trophy!

• South Petherton Photographic Society
• Yeovil Camera Club
• Wincanton Camera Club
• Yeo Photo Group
• Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club

Over 50 people attended from all five clubs and we had a lively evening competing for the prestigous Bradford Abbas Shield. Each club had to submit eight mounted prints each of which were to be judged out of 20 points.

Our judge for the evening was Harold Jenkins LRPS, a prominent local judge and a member of Bridport Camera Club.

Harold explained that he looked for photographs that he liked but he also had to be nit-picking about some things.  He said he liked ‘different’ photographs but he also asked himself whether he could live with a photograph or put it on his wall.

There were some excellent images in the 40 entries covering everything from seascapes, water, reflections and mist to architecure, boats, portraits, ducks and geese.

The results were actually very close. Wincanton won with 143 out of a possible 160 points. In second place were South Petherton with 142; in joint third place were Yeovil and Yeo Group with 141 and in fourth place were Sherborne Bradford Abbas with 139 points.

Harold presented the Bradford Abbas Shield to Jim Eastaugh of Wincanton Camera Club – who noted that this was the 25th year of this competition and that he and his club were honoured to win it for the second year running.

After the prize-giving we invited the photographers of some of the highest scoring prints to talk about their photographs, and this turned out to be a very lively and friendly session.

Thanks to all the photographers who entered the competition and thanks also to Harold and Margaret Jenkins for visiting our club. And congratulations to Wincanton Camera Club for a very well-deserved win!

See you all next year,  26 October 2010, for another exciting contest.