Members of the SCPF Council were challenged to take a picture a day on their smartphones. The resulting sets of images were then sent to the latest qualified judges of the federation for their review and comment.
Here’s the submission that accompanied my images
The really unexpected outcome of doing this one-a-day challenge was the realisation of just how much time I spent on my computer doing tasks in my role(s) at my camera club and as secretary of the SCPF. The days that I struggled to get an image for the day and found myself scrambling around the garden or the house after 11.30 pm, were the ones when I hadn’t left the keyboard for hours. The images that I really like and have already posted on Instagram were from days when I was out of the house enjoying myself with my camera or smartphone.
For years I have shot images on my phone as a fun diary of my days (nearly 5,000 images in 2022 and over 800 so far this year); so my lesson learnt is not about finding it hard to do the challenge but how to get off my computers and enjoy myself.
For the request for a favourite it was a close call between the doll on the pavement, the museum stairs, running Sorbonne student or dancers in the 5’eme – my favourite is the 29th with the couple doing La Danse Apache in Square Saint-Medard off the Rue Mouffetard in the 5’eme.
I missed just one day in the month . . .
The comments received on a couple of the images
It may be a bright sunny day for some of us but not for dolly as she lays rejected and forgotten, face down on the mossy tarmac, in great danger of being crushed. I can almost smell the damp ground as she stretches her arms out but is sadly incapable of pushing up and saving herself. Is this a reject or is a child long gone, forlorn for the loss of her favourite toy.
This is very cleverly composed. I would imagine you have turned your phone upside down to get as close as possible to the ground. You have a super depth of field here with lovely bokeh in the foreground, avoiding any distraction of detail.
The detail is where it matters, placed a few inches before her and there is just enough detail in the crown of her head as her hair wisps down to her ears. There is a sense of place in the blurred out background to tell us something of where she lies.
An image of contrasting shapes and light, intriguing curves and straight lines, light and dark, part reflections and hidden spaces. It is almost like one of the 3d impossible staircase brain teaser images, your eye follows the stairs around and I want to know what is hidden in the lower level. I think there could just be a little more detail in the shadows of the lower staircase. Had the photographer thought about cloning out the sign stands at the bottom of the image? Or does it add a level of questioning to there viewer?
We see an increasing number of these shots of architectural staircases in public buildings, theatres, museums etc. I like the curving lines and the way it creates almost a physical question mark as well as one in the mind. The treatment encompasses true black through to bright white with grey tones across the full spectrum. It’s great to see the diagonal staircase showing through from beneath and adding further dynamism.
In my opinion the notice boards at the bottom add little to the composition and I wonder whether the photographer could have moved further left to both hide them and show more of the curve of the staircase. Time may not have been on your side but I think that the photo is crying out for a moving figure ascending or descending as it’s sort of lacking “the decisive moment”?