This was the first round of the new season and the first under the new competition rules at Farnborough Camera Club. Each round has two “themes” set by the Club. The challenge for participants is to then submit images that have a roughly defined “genre” with the added condition that each submitted image must have a different “genre”.
A further change was the combination of the two PDI divisions into just one.
This first round was set to have “open” for both themes.
Flying low
This image of an F-15E Strike Eagle was captured on the morning of our last day in the Mach Loop from Cad West. These were the first passes by the USAF and I had my speed set to 1/2000 to ensure I captured the aircraft in focus!
I selected “Travel” as the genre . . .
Summary of judge’s comments
… you have done exceptionally well to pan with the aircraft to get it central in the frame and perfectly sharp
… your depth of field that you have got on that telephoto lens has meant that we have lots of detail in the background and you’ve used a shutter speed.a conservative shutter speed I’d say, to freeze the aircraft and background , as that thing is probably going at over 600 knots through that valley , so to make sure that you have frozen it you have used a very fast shutter speed
… and for me that has frozen the background and I wonder whether it would be better if we could have got a bit of motion blur in the shot
… the other thing that I really like on these is the heat that is coming out of the engines giving the blur and of course the vapour coming off the wing tips aqll adds to the magic of this shot
… very centrally framed , I wonder whether a little bit more space at the front of the aircraft for it to “fly into” would also help
… nevertheless it is a good shot
And from the summary of held back images:
… a strong image but just let down by not having a blurred background
Into the light
This image was of a shaft of light in the City of London. This was my second workshop with Ovi Selaru in August 2024. Once again I was using my camera in manual mode and choosing a spot and waiting for something “to happen”. In this workshop I chose to use a lens with auto focus to “ease” the workload!
I selected “Street photography” as the genre. No issues about this choice!
Summary of judge’s comments
… you have gone for really bright lighting here and it is absolutely working really well,
… it emphasises that figure and you wonder why it only has one leg don’t you?
… it asks question this photograph doesn’t it? That really brilliant shaft of light from the bottom right upto the figure really emphasises that figure
… I love the fact that we have lots of detail but hidden away in the background , just waiting, just tantalising with the detail there , looks like fairly old architecture , but I want to know more
… it is a very challenging composition , I think that you have done remarkably well with this
… I am looking for creativity from the photographer and you certainly have given it here and the treatment is such that what has been emphasised and what hasn’t been emphasised, I think the balance of those two elements is particularly good
… it is a different image that we don’t often see that
The scores
There were 38 images in this round of the PDI Trophy. “Flying low” scored 9.5 and “Into the light” scored 10.
The original images
Flying low
Wales in July 2024
Into the light
Ovi Workshop August 2024