This was the second round of a new league competition for digital images in the 2021-2022 season. Bracknell Camera Club had cancelled the print league for the second consecutive year and substituted a digital image league competition.
Walking by
In July on a creative photography workshop I stood in a doorway and took this picture as the couple walked past in the light rain.
Summary of judge’s comments
… I do look at that umbrella and it does look as if it has had better days, it has bits hanging of it
… when I look it I wonder where you have based yourself, because we have got some foliage at the bottom there […] the lady doesn’t know you are taking the photo, the guys has got his eyes on you “why are you doing? Why are you taking the photograph of me?” That’s what street photography is all about, is that element of surprise.
… you have a couple of people walking up the other end of the street, it is not a busy area, there is a red bus so maybe it is London, please beware of signs, be careful because it is the first thing that I looked at, what does it say? So instead of looking where I need to be looking I am actually looking at the sign, I wonder if you have left the sign there because you want me to believe that it is in keeping with where he is looking?
… I don’t think it is the best street photography , being honest with you, you needed to get somewhere else, the green in foreground doesn’t do very much good
[discussion on mono]
… There is an umbrella but I can’t see if it is raining , it looks as if it is quite dry
… for me it is just too busy, foliage coming in, I would definitely have got rid of the signpost and if you wanted that sign to be part of it maybe you should have called the image “Thieve beware”?
… So just not strong enough for me
The Old Pier
On our long weekend in Swanage we went to the pier and as it was a bright day and resting my camera on the railing I took a half second exposure image of the old pier..
Summary of judge’s comments
…. you have chosen to do this image in very high key, which is something that people want to do to make their image different to everybody else’s [image]… when I go through it, I really like the detail in the wood, the way it has sections all the way through, and I think the strength in this one is that you’ve gone high key what keeps this image together is where you have got the shadows, the movement in the water, and as we go along each one of these, you can see the water levels and it makes your eyes travel all the way through
… and then just as you go into the other ones we can still see that bit of shadow and so we have some definition between where the water is , where you want it to be and where the remains of the quay are
… the last four four are lost a little bit, because they aren’t based, I can’t see their base and their is also fluting in the air where as the other ones are grounded because we can see where the water is
… I have no problem with it being high key , I think it is a nice change for someone to do something different but what I would say is just go into your Photoshop and just put a little bit of shadow under them so that they don’t look as they are just floating in air and it will just base them down and it will be a bit stronger for you
The scores
There were 22 images in this round in the Division 1.
‘Walking by’ scored 6 and ‘The Old Pier’ scored 7.5.
The original images
“Walking by”:
ISO 100 35mm f/3.5 and 1/125 sec
“The Old Pier”:
ISO 100, 70 mm f/22 and 1/2 sec