This was the third round of the PDI Trophy Competition at Farnborough Camera Club in the 2022-2023 season. Both images were open images.
Waiting for the fish to bite
We had been taking images of the sea and groynes at Bawdsley Quay, in Suffolk, and were walking back to the car park when I spotted this fisherman with his rods and bag just sitting there.
Summary of judge’s comments
… the strength of this image is in the feeling that night is coming on us and we have this lonely chap sitting on the sea shore waiting for something to happen , with the blue tones it is getting a bit cold we can seen that even though he is in silhouette he is wrapped quite warm and waiting there very patiently, I think that is the strength of this ,
… the three single elements; his kit, him and his rods
… I am slightly in two minds about the processing, it just feels to me that the sky has possibly been over processed , it is maybe a bit too vibrant , too much contrast, , it feels as though it is starting to dominate the image
… and again I am not sure that you really want that because the image is not really about the sky it is about fisherman sitting on the shore
Aura, protecting us on Svalbard
Our first stop on our visit to Svalbard on Hurtigruten’s MS Spitsbergen was to Ny Alesund. As we walked around the settlement we were protected from polar bears by members of the expedition team.
Summary of judge’s comments
… what I really enjoy about this is the real warmth of engagement with this young lady, and that just really shines through
… she is very happy to be and having her photograph taken
… there is interest in the image in terms of the way she is kitted out for those cold climes and that is accentuated by seeing the snow behind her
… again sensibly done , the top half of the image the balance is good because you don’t need to much of this [snow] to distract us again because it is very bright white snow but the interest is here
… I just feel that there is just maybe too much down below and creating an imbalance in the image because by including the binoculars in , what has happened is that you have forced her head right up to the top of the image and that is the most attractive aspect – so would a crop give us a slightly better balance and balance not only in terms of where the interest lies in the frame b[], there is not so much down below there
… but I enjoyed the image
The scores
There were 38 images in this round in the Advanced Division.
“Waiting for the fish to bite” scored 8 and “Aura, protecting us on Svalbard” scored 8.5.
The original images
“Waiting for the fish to bite”
image
ISO 100 f/7.1 1/100 sec -0.3 exposure 65 mm
“Aura, protecting us on Svalbard”
image
ISO 100 f/8 1/400 sec 63mm
Ny-Alesund – TBA