I went back in time and included an image from a Timeline Events shoot at Papplewick Pumping station and the Harris Hawk from another shoot with Natures Photos. I was concerned as the hawk image had not scored well at my previous attempt at gaining CPAGB.
Gordon the Harris Hawk
Taken as the hawk swooped down to land on its handler’s hand.
Judge’s comments
… Now this one you do have to look at quite closely for a while
… it is nicely done, framed nicely within the frame with the outspread wings
… difficult to see the actual eye here, but if you look closely you can see the eye
… I found it quite pleasing but have you got in too closely? how much context have you included within it? As far as I’m concerned you seem to be floating not far off the ground, perhaps that is the case, or perhaps it is the angle taken from perhaps that might be the next field and
… excellently done
Posing Underground
This is one of the images that I took of Tara Kirsty when we were in the underground reservoir at Papplewick Pumpimg Station. Everyone else was away with the other model and we were stood by a wall and she posed for me vaping and leaning on the wall.
Judge’s comments
… I suppose that certain types of portraits or images do need a descriptive title
… This is quite an interesting one, it is quite bold as an actual portrait
a) because of the way the lady is dressed and,
b) because of her actual pose
and actually where she is
… and again it is one of those ones that could have done in colour although trying to visualise it may have been too much difference in colour and made it slightly confusing
… where as by rendering it as monochrome you start to reduce the elements down a little bit to the actual essentials
… it does work out well quite a strong production and I’ll see that one again please
The scores
There were 34 images in this print round in Division 1.
‘Gordon the Harris Hawk’ scored 8.5 and ‘Posing Underground’ scored 9.
The original images
‘Gordon The Harris Hawk’:
The image was shot at ISO 640 200mm f4.0 1/1600 sec.
I cropped the image, cloned some of the bright areas a background grass and adjusted the colours to highlight his feathers more.
These are the other images from the Specialist birds of prey workshop organised by Bob Brind-Surch.
‘Posing Underground’:
The image was shot at ISO8000 50mm f1.8 1/125 sec.
I used Adobe Lightroom to convert to B&W, tried different crops and finally experimented with Topaz Sharpen AI to remove noise.
These are the other images shot at Papplewick Pumping Station.