Using Judges

Using PSNZ Accredited and Trainee Judges

By Caroline Ludford LPSNZ LRPS Chairperson, Judge Accreditation Panel

SITTING DOWN TO evaluate a bunch of images for a club takes time, and has been estimated to take 15 -20 minutes per image for an accredited judge and much longer for a trainee. If you do the maths, you will see that many hours are taken up performing this essential task. We ask our clubs to consider the following please:

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2. Plan well ahead and if you are emailing a number of judges, please use bcc to avoid having all the email addresses and details on view.

Please make sure you provide the definition given to your members of any set subject.

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4. Please ensure that you give the judge your club’s clear guidelines on how you would like the images to be assessed.

Please keep the number of images to a maximum of 50 to 60. If you have more, consider splitting the images between two judges.

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8. Please ensure that the judge has enough time to assess the images for you. A minimum of three weeks is preferable.

If you are wanting to use trainee judges, please make your request in good time with full comprehensive details. Our secretary (Jenny) will do her very best to source trainees for you BUT we cannot guarantee that we will be able to fill all your requests.

Please don’t forget to complete the online feedback form. We encourage all clubs to send in feedback to all judges, not just the trainees.

A ‘thank you’ email or card is always appreciated and will encourage our judges to volunteer again.

At the end of the day, please remember that all the judges and trainees are volunteers and we are continuing to work hard for PSNZ. Any ideas or suggestions are always welcome. Please feel free to contact me direct at caroline_ludford@hotmail.com.

Looking for Constructive Critiques of Your Images?

PSNZ has for many years organised Print Circles. Many of our members have been (and are) involved in these groups as a way of receiving well thought-out, constructive feedback on their images. Each circle consists of a group of up to ten photographers who periodically receive a folio of prints from the other members. When you receive the folio, you review and comment on all the other prints, read the comments from other photographers in the circle, add a new print of your own, include a newsy letter, and post the folio to the next member.

Similar to the judge training weekends, assessing images is a great way to inform and influence your own photography, making you think about what it is that really captures your eye in a certain image and explain it in a constructive manner.

If you would like to join a print circle, please fill in an application form in the members’ area of the PSNZ website https://photography.org.nz/. If you’d like more information about the circles, contact Lindsay Stockbridge at dilinz@actrix.co.nz.

We are also keen to expand the print circles to include digital images and are in the process of investigating options for this. If you would like to be involved in a pilot group, please contact James Gibson APSNZ EFIAP at gibsondesignnz@gmail.com for more details.