This last club competition was between the ‘Boys and Girls’ and was held after the AGM on one of the last evenings of the season.
Paddling boarding on the Thames
After the end of lockdown #3 we visited the Cliveden. Due to roadworks we had to park at the alternate car park and our walk towards the house was along the banks of the River Thames. This is where we came across this couple on paddle boards.
Judge’s comments
This is a strong image in a quiet recreational pastime in a very beautiful setting.Personally I love the square crop, and it is quite a fashionable thing lately to use a square crops. So why do I like square crops? [While I as the viewer] I always feel more part of the scene, if I look through a square crop it just brings me closer. It might just be my feeling but I like the square crop in here and it pulls me immediately into it and brings me very close to these two paddlers.
Now, usually the eye enters an image from the bottom edge or from the first focus point that you can clearly see , but in this one there is no foreground . But immediately after the eye is into this image you see these two paddlers and see something that you can recognise and you the viewer are at ease.
I think the middle ground is mainly trees in beautiful detail captured very very well and well processed and I think the trees as middle ground actually act as a separation between the activities on the water and the living and the lifestyle that is going ion in the state[ly] house on the horizon.
I think that this specific building is captured very well in the available light and throughout this image there is a good mono tonality that is actually being applied.
This is for me a very pleasant mono image and I score it a nine.
Original Image
ISO125, 240mm, f/10 and 1/125sec
I first entered this image to a critique evening held at the club as a square cropped colour image.
One of the many helpful suggestions was to try the image as a mono image.
Here are the other images from our visit to Cliveden.