Photonews - TE Special 2015
Photonews
TE Special 2015
One of the highlights of the Club year is undoubtedly the annual club competition, The Travelling Exhibition, or TE for short. The TE comprises a total of 80 prints; headed by the trophy winners and the 10 winners of Certificates of Merit, all selected by the judge as best in the competition. The 4 trophy winners from that year's Founder's Cup competition are also included in the TE and the exhibition is displayed at the Rally, before travelling to up to 20 clubs during the course of the year. A further 40 prints are 'Retained' for viewing at the Rally, but do not form part of the exhibition and do not travel with it. Members who are unable to attend the Rally are able to view a CD presentation of the 80 TE prints and of the top 80 images from the Projected Image competition. The disc is made for circulation with the Travelling Exhibition but a copy also gets passed around each circle. Each year two judges are invited to select not only the trophy winners but also the TE selection, typically there is one judge for the print competition and another for the DPI competition. Each year members are deservedly congratulated on the overall quality of submissions. This year’s print judge, Les Hitchcroft ARPS, commented that “It was a daunting but enjoyable task” a comment which is not untypical of previous judges. This years DPI judge was David Flitcroft APAGB DPAGB EFIAP BPE2*, who will be known to many of you as a past PPC member of many years standing. In David’s commentary he noted that “As a PPC member for many years I gained a lot of experience from the other side of the fence and it made a pleasant change to be judge rather than judged. As I expected the standard of the entry was uniformly good.” I hope you will all enjoy the selection here and am just sorry I could not include all 160! Photonews is published four times a year.
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The Postal Photographic Club Travelling Exhibition 2015 - Prints Selected by Les Hitchcroft ARPS First let me say what a privilege it was to be asked to judge your competition. It was a daunting but enjoyable task. The judging was made quite difficult because of the high standard of entry. Once the exhibition sets had been filtered out, then the task became even more intense and in many cases final decisions came down to the smallness of details, such as perhaps a very slight lack of sharpness when comparing two prints, or maybe a small erroneous twig that could have been cloned out. Being aware of the visual diversity expected in an exhibition I tried to include a good mix of subjects, which inevitably means missing out some worthy entries, and I am sorry if you were near-missed or not selected. The wildlife was especially strong, and almost all landscapes were just stunning. I enjoyed the more quirky entries, and I felt the colour-popped prints worked especially well. What were less successful were the people and portraits. Often entries were spoiled by missing crucial moments or just poor composition. But back to the positives; I especially enjoyed the moody, surreal and abstract entries. Monochrome featured strongly in the competition showing a high degree of competence, and a black and white indeed became my top print in the competition. Les Hitchcock
Low Tide, Clovelly (overleaf) © Roger Edwardes C19
The Half Plate Challenge Cup for the Best Print in the Exhibition The Jack Cowper Tannadice Salver for the Best Monochrome Print
“The privately owned Clovelly Estate overlooks Bideford Bay in North Devon, with the village and harbour run as a heritage centre. My wife and I visited in February as part of a short break on the North Devon coast. Cars are banned from the village and we made our way carefully down the steep cobbled main street. Originally donkeys drawing sleds were used to get goods up and down, but we thought mountain goats would have been more appropriate and used the available Land Rover that acts as transport for the journey back up. Perhaps Clovelly's main claim to fame is as the boyhood home of Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), author of ‘The Water Babies’ and ‘Westward Ho!’. He came to the village in 1831 at the age of 11. His father was curate and then rector until 1836 and he often returned to the village throughout his life. One of the cottages now serves as the Charles Kingsley Museum. The photographic opportunities of the village are legion, but, for me, the old harbour was the main attraction. This old boat perched on the wall was an obvious subject and five or six goes later I had the composition I wanted; the curves of the boat echoing the sweep of the sea wall and leading the eye through to the beach and cliffs beyond, exaggerated slightly by the Canon 16-35mm lens at 16mm. Back home on the computer, the RAW file was opened into PS and I used NIK Silver FX for the mono conversion. Some dodging and burning mainly on the cobbles of the wall, the pebbles and the nearest cliff provided the finishing touches. The technique I use for dodging and burning is to create a new layer filled with 50% grey. Going over this with a black brush to burn or white brush to dodge set to a low opacity (<10%) gives a very controllable and easily reversible way of achieving localised changes.”
Blaven in Winter © Steve Terry IC1 The Maurice MacDowell Cup for the Best Colour Print The Andrew Emond Trophy for the Best Landscape Picture
“As a landscape photographer I’ve always believed that the better you know an area the more successful your photographs will be. Having lived on Skye for 18 years I’ve got to know certain areas very well. The location for my shot “Blaven in Winter” is an area I know particularly well, having visited it on numerous occasions when I was running courses in landscape photography. Lighting is one of the key ingredients in a landscape photograph and for most subjects low sidelighting gives the best results. Shooting in the middle of winter means that you can get low level lighting without having to get out of bed at some ridiculous hour! When I set out for this location I knew that Blaven would be illuminated by sidelighting, bringing out the shapes of its dramatic ridges and creating a strong three-dimensional effect. The location offers a wide choice of possible foregrounds and I shot around half a dozen images with which I was pleased, but in the end this was the one I chose to submit. I feel the balance between foreground and background is good (too often the foreground dominates because of the use of a wide-angle) and the layering of light and dark tones creates extra interest. When I first arrived at the location there was blue sky and the sun was shining strongly. Having completed a session I was heading down when I noticed the weather was changing. I headed back up and got this shot just before the sun disappeared altogether. I feel the use of a grey sky better captures the mood of the place and of the time of year.”
Both images © Mike Atkinson IC1 Lincoln Cathedral (left) won The Singleton Rosebowl for the Best Architectural Picture whilst Goldfinch (right) was awarded The Dick Ogden Shield for the Best Natural History Picture Mike said “To be honest this was just a quick snapshot taken on my Canon EOS M and 11-22M lens. The flowers where meant to depict paratroopers as part of last years celebrations. I was just taken by the splash of colour and thought it would make a striking foreground to the back end of the Cathedral. I really do like the image quality from this little camera, I just wish it had a viewfinder the screen is hopeless in bright light! “ The Goldfinch however was a planned shot and it took almost a weeks worth of photo sessions to get the shot. Mike continued “I have lots of goldfinch visiting my garden but goldfinch on bird feeders make very unnatural and less than photogenic pictures. They frequently feed on teasel in the wild so I collected some teasel heads from near my home but unfortunately the seed content was long gone so I sprinkled the teasel heads with some tiny Niger seeds. It took a while for the birds to find and then use the teasel heads and I did eventually get the shot. It was taken with a 300mm 2.8 Sigma prime lens on a Canon body with a cropped sensor. It was very dull so ISO 800 was used.”
Eyes on the Ball Roger Edwardes C19 The Scottish Quaiche for the Best Action Picture
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have to confess, being keen on action photography, I have rather coveted the Quaiche over the years! So, coming at the same time as the success of 'Low Tide, Clovelly' it really is Birthday and Christmas come early! The kind of 'action portraits', as I have come to call them, of which 'Eyes on the Ball' is an example, is an approach to action photography that has served me well. My Canon 5D MkIII allows ISO to be set automatically within upper and lower limits. Combining that with shutter priority provides an ideal mode for action shooting. A longish lens, Canon's 100-400mm at 300mm in this case, and as near a head-on position as can be managed and away you go! Being on the staff and knowing the children helps, too! My school has a House system and Inter-House competitions are always fiercely contested and, being small, means teams are usually mixed. The image comes from last season's House Rounders competition and it should come as no surprise that this lad's House won! Shot in RAW and processed into PS with a slight vignette added to draw attention to the subject and some localised sharpening (copy the image, sharpen the copy and use a layer mask) was all the image needed.â&#x20AC;?
On the Way to School Jon Allanson C8 The Harry Ridgway Cup for the Best Portrait
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Taken on the Authentic Adventures photographic trip to Kerala, south India. We were going round one of the non tourist areas of Kumily, on the Kerala Tamil Nadu border, at a time when many children were making their way to school. I spotted this boy carrying his keyboard waiting for the school bus and took a couple of images. It is good to see how proud the children there are to be wearing school uniform.â&#x20AC;?
Travelling Exhibition 2015 - Projected Images Selected by David Flitcroft APAGB DPAGB EFIAP BPE2* First of all I’d like to thank Jon Allanson for inviting me to judge your Projected Image Competition. As a PPC member for many years I gained a lot of experience from the other side of the fence and it made a pleasant change to be judge rather than judged. As I expected the standard of the entry was uniformly good. The range of subjects presented was nicely varied and viewing them proved to be an enjoyable experience. The Natural History entries must be mentioned for their wide range of subject matter and for their uniformly high quality. I was very interested to note the quite high number of infra red images included, more than one would normally expect to see in an entry of this size. Both the traditional monochrome presentation along with the ‘false colour’ variety were tackled. The portrait entries I found to be a little disappointing both in number and in approach. As in judging any exhibition/competition a major difficulty arises in deciding what should be left out and this proved to be the case. Several images narrowly missed being included in the ones selected for Exhibition display. To those who have had images selected and awarded, well done! To those less successful, don’t be discouraged, try again next time. David Flitcroft
Overleaf: The Chase © Keith Hughes CP2
Certificate for the Best Colour Projected Image The Dorothy MacDowell Salver for the Best General Projected Image
“This image was the result of having a go at something which I don’t normally seek out as a subject. I don’t have the latest equipment and find that a bridge camera in my case the Fuji HS30 suits most of my needs. We were in Doncaster for the Photo Group Exhibition Meet of the Camping and Caravan club last August Bank Holiday (2014). They were holding a World Heat of the jet-ski Championships over the weekend. So I had a go, setting my camera on its maximum frames per second with the fastest card I own. A big advantage of jet-ski racing is that the racers follow the course passing the red buoys on their left. As each racer approached this particular red buoy I released the shutter many times. Timing is a matter of chance so one has to persevere. This image was the result of using the maxim “part is better that the whole”. I have printed this image but it has not been as well received because it shows too much background.” Image details: Fuji HS30 with zoom lens at 300mm (equiv) 1/340sec @ f5.6 ISO 100
Fred © David James IC3 Certificate for the Best Portrait “Fred is an old picture, August 2009 according to the data. He is a friend of one of the members of Padiham, and was a regular model for us at the club. One of my favourites actually. I particularly like this image, but because of the black background there has been quite a lot of post processing of the dark clothes to bring them out, also removing the usual highlights from the tip of the nose and on the forehead. It was a typically simple two light set up taken on the Sony Alpha 700 with 16 - 105mm f3.5-5.6 lens. Exposure 1/125 @ f11. Focal length 80mm ISO 100”
Field Grasshopper Stephen Yates IC4 The Thomas Langley Trophy for the Best Natural History Image
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Taken while hunting dragonflies around Llyn Helyg - an artificial lake that's currently used by the Holywell and District Angling Society. I think the lake itself is a bit off the permissive footpaths through the surrounding woods, but so far I haven't been chased off by any anglers worried about photographers scaring the fish. The field grasshopper was probably the only decent image I took that day. All the dragonflies and damselflies ended up with too much clutter in the background, while the grasshopper was nice enough to pose on a more isolated stalk. Its unusually colourful abdomen drew my attention and it obligingly stayed still long enough for me to get one successful shot. I didn't notice the little fly nearby until I came to process the image; I still haven't decided whether it's a distraction or adds extra interest. To get a bit more working distance, and avoid spooking the subject, I added a 1.4x teleconverter to my 105mm f/ 2.8 Sigma macro lens; effectively converting it (more or less) into a 150mm f4 lens. It was taken handheld, and lit using a flash on a bracket with a small softbox diffuser. A bit of a clumsy setup, but one that works quite well when the subject isn't too reflective. Even shooting at f/16 (actually f/11 on the camera + 1 stop lost due to the TC) I was quite lucky to keep the subject within the limited depth of field. I often fail to get the plane of the camera parallel with the subject, and end up with one end or the other out of focus. Despite my efforts not to disturb it, the grasshopper didn't give me a second chance at getting it right.â&#x20AC;?
Both images © Graham Snowden IC2 & IC6 Glencoe (left) was the Best Landscape Image whilst Dungeness Boat on Shingle Bank (right) was awarded the Best Monochrome Image.
Glencoe was taken, on a February afternoon, from the road to the ski lift near the infamous 'Black Cottage' looking to Ben Etive, using a Lumix GX1. From the RAW file I produced three images:- one for the middle (60% of the image), one for the sky and one for the nearest part of the river (about 5% of the image). I then blended them.” “Dungeness Boat was taken on a May morning, laying on my stomach on the shingle, using a Canon 400D converted to Infra Red with a 720nm filter fitted. The colour was as produced but desaturated about 50%. Dungeness is a much over photographed shingle bank on the South coast at the Western end of Kent. There is some dereliction, which is slowly being 'improved' but not for photographers and some strange dwellings that are also being 'improved'. Talking to Graham recently he extended an invitation to anyone visiting Dungeness to get in touch as he’ll happily act as a guide if he is free.
Travelling Exhibition 2015 - Prints Certificates of Merit Stll Life Barry Roberts CP1
Where are the Boats? Bas Gunn CP1
Multicoloured Yoof David James DP
Gemmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hair Martin Short CP1
Garden Spider Kirsty Railton IC7
Just Awake Barry Willcock IC6
Boat Shed, Lindisfarne Mike Atkinson IC6
Starney Bay, St Abbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Richard Bown CP1
Lupins - NZ Richard Vale DP
Peppa Pig in Pillory Street John Kay DS
Travelling Exhibition 2015 - Projected Images Certificates of Merit
My City Kirsty Railton IC7
Still Life Barry Roberts CP1
Memorial Garden, Trent University Eric Ladbury IC5
Cardinal Beetle Eric Ladbury IC6
Looking Outside Jon Allanson DP
Too Wet To Swim John Kay DS
End of the Day Mike Atkinson IC1
Goldfinch on Teasle Mike Atkinson IC4
Poppy Field David James DP
Honourable Mentions In each competition the judges found it very difficult to whittle the exhibition down to the required number. Under the circumstances they each awarded ten Honourable Mentions. PRINT
PROJECTED IMAGE
Jon Allanson - IC4 Liz Downes - CP1 Martin Hart - C1 David James - DP David James - IC3 Eric Ladbury - IC3 Richard Vale - DP Dave Whenham - CP1 Barry Wilcock - CP1 Barry Wilcock - IC6
Jon Allanson - IC4 Sally Anderson - IC2 Roger Edwardes - C19 (x2) John Kay - CP2 Eric Ladbury - DS Barry T Roberts - CP1 (x2) Graham Snowden - IC2 Dave Williams - IC3
Finally, a few numbers for those of you who enjoy such things. The print competition attracted 236 entries from 29 members whilst the projected image section was entered by 25 members who produced 226 images between them. In the table below print numbers are in the left hand column and projected images in the right. Mono images Landscapes Portraits Action & PJ NH and Flowers Architect & Record Unclassified Altered reality*
74 (31%) 54(22%) 25(10%) 31(13%) 37(15%) 34(14%) 24(10%) 30(12%)
62 (27%) 69(30%) 16(7%) 23(10%) 44(19%) 31(13%) 13(5%) 31(13%)
* includes constructed, highly manipulated, colour popped and infra-red Telephone Box Still Working Graham Snowden IC2