The images I entered into this digital image competition were originally intended for a print round at Bracknell Camera Club.
The digital image competition was organised into an open section and a creative section. Each participant could enter up to two images entered into either of the two sections. Both my images were entered into the open section.
Forest walk
This image was from our visit to the New Forest and is of a couple walking along the Rinefield Ornamental Drive converted to balck and white.
Judge’s comments
… trees often look better in the Winter, we can as photographers use the way light falls on the trees, even trees in leaf to present a very different picture than we would had they not been in leafIn this case, the photographer is using monochrome very effectively to show the different way in which light could fall upon those leaves particularly on the right hand side and we see very different patterns . Think we see if we look just to the right of the figures, sorry above and right, a bit of conifer that shows something very different to the other leaves,
We have got water that is picking up some reflections and a very strong leading line from that bottom right hand corner
Depending on your view of what you are permitted or not permitted to do in your photographs, I just wondered about twisting this one the other way around so we saw the leading line coming from the bottom left hand corner, as we read from left to right and often our eye interprets and sees things better if we start from the left and go onto the right. Whereas I was starting her from the right and a have strong line coming from the corner and taking me to the left.
That can sometimes work in a different way and make us think a lot more because we to get our mind to work as it goes in that way.
The two figures, they are over lapping but for me they are only providing a sense of scale, they are going away. They are not actually crucial to this image other than providing that sense of scale
So I think the monochrome works, I like the tree on the left hand side, providing a frame for the image itself. It is quite dark and forces our eye into the rest of image.
So as a whole I think that the square crop works quite effectively.
This is probably one of ‘just missed’, it is not going to be held back but it just missed.
Rehearsal
At the photoshoot I took the opportunity to take images of the model, Kate Byrne, while she was posing for other photographers in front of the mirror.
Judge’s comments
I enjoyed the composition of this one in which we have the thee elements; the dancer, the reflection and and what I am assuming is a light. I enjoy the separation between the three
What I wasn’t too sure about is the fact that the sharpest part of the image is in fact the stand on the bottom left.That is not actually the most interesting it is on the edge of the image anyway.
So, it is a challenging composition, I suppose conventionally the dancer would have been sharp, the light would have been out of focus, and possibly the reflection would have been out of focus.
So the trouble is that this has given us an interesting challenging composition, I am not sure that it works for me as I say because my attention is constantly drawn back to the sharpest part of the image which is the stand in the bottom left. Which is not the most interesting part of the image; the most interesting part of the image is the dancer and the reflection.
I think not even having that light and the dancer and the reflection out of focus might have worked better for me. It is all subjective but I think that is probably what I’m looking for…
It is a challenge, I love the separation between them that works really well
The original images
‘Forest walk’:
‘Rehearsal’:
