The 2nd Set Subject Competition of the 2021/2 season on the subject ‘Contre Jour’ was judged on 17th February by Alfred Brown (CPAGB) from both South Manchester and Branhall Photographic Societies. There were 100 PDI and print images to get through, but Alf kept his comments short and to the point so we finished in good time. Recurring comments were about controlling specular highlights, achieving good black and white tones in mono images and sometimes cropping to a letterbox shape for added impact.

The featured image for this competition is Celestial Dawn by Chris Taylor, which scored 20pts in the PDI category.

2nd Set Subject Competition – Contre Jour Images

Celestial Dawn by Chris Taylor

The 2nd Open Digital Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 20th January by Nick Berentzen (CPAGB, BPE2*) from South Manchester Camera Club. Nick laid out his criteria for assessing images at the start – looking for impact, emotion, story telling and atmosphere, and only placing technical competence at the end. During his critique he mentioned placing of subjects within the frame as important, such as offsetting subjects in a landscape, or providing looking space for nature shots, and also talked about the right lighting conditions for landscapes.

Congratulations to Brian and Tim in the Intermediate Group and Gordon and Sheila in the Advanced Group who all scored 20pts for one of their images. The featured image for this competition is Flooded Forest by Sheila Giles, which scored 20pts in the Advanced Group.

Flooded Forest By Sheila Giles

Lower Sweden Bridge By Tim Amphlett

The 2nd Open Print Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 16th December by George Steele (CPAGB, LRPS, BPE2*) from Bury PS. George also had the task of selecting the Christmas Hat and Jumper winners. Congratulations to Carol and Kuli, who scored 20pts in the Advanced Group, and to Tim Amphlett whose image Lower Swede Bridge scored 20pts in the Intermediates, and is the Featured Image for this competition.

Chevvy by Stuart Cahill

The 1st Set Subject Competition of the 2021/2 season on the subject ‘Something With A Number On It’ was judged on 18th November by Jim Cunningham (CPAGB) from Blackburn Photographic Society. There were a lot of images to get through, so Jim’s comments were of necessity short and to the point, but he did mention several times about whether the image contents looked comfortable in the frame and whether he was pleased or interested in the image. The featured image for this competition is Chevvy by Stuart Cahill which scored 20pts in the PDI category.

The 1st Open PDI Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 22nd October by Dave Butler (MFIAP, MPSA, ARPS, BPE5*, Hon L&CPU) from Chorley Photographic Society. Dave’s style of judging was quite rapid, commenting mainly on the quality of the prints and pointing out where these differed from the digital images being projected on Zoom. The featured image for this competition is A Very British Holiday By Peter Cotton, which gained 20pts in the Intermediate Group.

1st Open Print Competition – Image Gallery

A Very British Holiday By Peter Cotton

The 1st Open Digital Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 23rd September by Keith Barber (CPAGB, LRPS, FIScT) from Swinton Photographic Society. Keith commented on the high standard of the club’s photography in general, but did make some comments that a simple crop or slight change in position to adjust composition could have significantly lifted some images. His top scoring images from the evening are listed below and our featured image for this competition is Camels In Wadi Rum by Justin Clayton, which was Keith’s top image in the Intermediate Group.

1st Open Digital Competition – Image Gallery

Camels In Wadi Rum By Justin Clayton

The 3rd Open Print competition of the season was judged on 20th May by Harry Emmett (CPAGB) from Accrington Camera Club. Harry’s critique on each image was quite short and to the point, and he made comments regarding directing the viewer’s attention to achieve a particular impact and that some images could be improved by a little cropping or cloning of content. He also noted that several prints had some colour casts that let them down, and that choice of paper could also be important. Congratulations to Gordon Watson, whose Scaleber Force was the only image awarded 20pts on the night.

3rd Open Print Competition – Image Gallery

Scaleber Force by Gordon Watson

The 2nd Open Print competition of the season was judged on 15th April by Nik Hilton (EFIAP, DPAGB, BPE5*) from Southport Photographic Society. Nik explained that he marked by providing a competent image with a standard score of 15, then marked images higher or lower than this depending on whether there was something extra in the image that warranted a second look, or whether there were some technical shortfalls in the image. As he judged, he could then explain why each image had scored above or below his standard. Congratulations to Andy Dickson whose Juvenile Linnet scored 20pts in Intermediate, and is the Featured Image for this competition.

Juvenile Linnet By Andy Dickson

The 1st Open Print competition of the season was judged on 18th March by Diana Magor (EFIAP/b APSA MPSA CPAGB LRPS BPE3) from Hoylake Photographic Society. She had been sent the prints in advance to judge, and although the PDI versions were viewed over Zoom, her comments and markings were based on the print versions. As the entry field was relatively small, there was sufficient time for Diana to explain her judging approach and to provide a good critique on each image.  As this was the first Print competition she had judged by Zoom, she said she had been slightly more generous than usual, and handed out 3 scores of 20 in each group, as shown below. Congratulations to Bill Breckenridge whos Mere Sands Cockfight is the Featured Image for this competition.

Mere Sands Cockfight By Bill Breckenridge

The 3rd Set Subject competition on the subject of Everyday Moments Action was judged on 18th February via Zoom by James Hardy (LRPS, CPAGB) from Chorley Photographic Society. He had a clear idea of what he was looking for as a Everyday Moment, but also considered the photographic content and impact in making his final scores. The highest scoring images are shown in the table below – congratulations to Christine Round who’s It’s A New Day scored 20pts, and is the featured image for this competition.

(Note that some images featured children taken locally – these have not been displayed unless parental permission is available).

3rd Set Subject – Image Gallery

It’s A New Day by Christine Round