R.O.C. Round 1 Results

There were some fantastic images entered for Round 1 of our Open Competition. Thanks to everyone that entered and a special thank you to Matt Roach for his excellent judging and taking the time to go through all the entries & giving good constructive comments on each and every one. Especially as there were so many of them. If you want to see some of Matt’s photography then you can visit his Flickr ‘stream by going here.

All the winners are shown below. As usual clicking on the pictures should take you to that picture on the persons Flickr ‘stream. If they don’t have a Flickr account then it takes you to that picture on the clubs Flickr ‘stream. Clicking on their name will either take you to their Flickr ‘stream or their website, if they have one.

1st Place Print: Fairy Fireworks by Rich Price	1st Place DPI: A Couple of Couples by Mark Stone
2nd Place Print: Heading Home by Ruth Doyle	2nd Place DPI: Carnival Joy by Simon Xu
3rd Place Print: Brave heart by Ian Coombs	3rd Place DPI: Flowers by Adrian Cook
Highly Commended Print: Waterfall by Antony Beezer	Highly Commended DPI: Relaxing in the Sun by David Jones
Highly Commended Print: Sharing by Julie Coombs	Highly Commended DPI: Shelter from the Rain by David Jones
Highly Commended Print: I only have eyes for you by Theresa Driscoll	Highly Commended DPI: Smith & Son by Eddie House
Highly Commended Print: Going Alone by Nathan Williams	Highly Commended DPI: Occupation by Ian Coombs
Unfortunately I do not currently have a digital version of the image.
Highly Commended Print: Sit and Stay by Alison Davies

 

 

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone that took part.

Nervous yet?

If you’ve not been with the club for long then this coming Thursday will probably be a new experience for you. We had sixty nine digital images entered for Round 1 of the competition. That’s the most we’ve ever had. Plus we also had about twenty five prints submitted. Twenty three of you decided to enter the digital part of the competition. I believe I’m right in saying that’s more than the clubs total membership was 3 - 4 years ago!

Photo by Louise Iddon.
entered in
Round 1 last year.

If this is your first time entering the R.O.C. (Reflex Open Competition) then let me give you a bit of advice for when your sat there listening to the judge on Thursday.

Don’t take anything he says personally. 

He’s not saying your a bad person or that you suck at photography. He’s giving his opinion on the photograph in front of him. Most of them give good advice and suggestions. Listen to what they say. Not just about your images. But for all the photographs. If their a good judge you’ll get consistent and helpful advice. You might not agree with what they say, well actually it’s guaranteed that you won’t agree with everything they say, but try to listen impartially to the comments. It can be really hard to take criticism, even if it is constructive, but it can give you some amazing insights into how you perceive your own, and other peoples,  photograph's.

If you’ve not entered then my advice to you is to sit where you can see the faces of those that have. You’ll probably get to see everything from happy smiling faces to looks of incredulous amazement that anyone would think their image is anything less than perfect.

No matter if you’ve entered or not you should turn up, sit down and enjoy the images. You can choose to ignore everything the judge says or hang on their every word. It’s up to you. Just don’t let anything that’s said put you off entering in the future.  After all it’s your photograph and as long as you like it, nothing else matters.

Open your eyes

Last nights meeting was superb. Not only did we get to see some fantastic photography by Simon Caplan but there was literally “no room at the inn!”.

Simon got the evening off to a great start by explaining just what he hopes to achieve when he takes a photograph but instead of trying to make it sound all arty and full of technobabble he did it in an easy to follow and uncomplicated way. The words were punctuated by some wonderful images which when they appeared on the screen made you stop, look and then think “hang on a minute. I’ve seen that a million times! Why didn’t I take that photograph?”. His images are full of the little details, symmetry and colours that hundreds of people will walk past every single day and not even notice. It really does make you wonder how you could be so blind, How you’ve never really looked at your surroundings.

I’ve actually had emails from a few club members saying how much they enjoyed the evening. That’s never happened before, so I can say if you get the chance, take a look at his work and listen to what he has to say.

Just a quick note about the room. We are aware of the problems we are having at the moment and are exploring our options.

Simon Caplan

Out of the Blue © Simon Caplan

This weeks guest speaker is Simon Caplan with a presentation called “The Extraordinary Ordinary” how photography can discover hidden beauty in the urban envirionment. Simons recently had an exhibition at the YHA in Bristol’s Harbourside area and I’ve been on a few walks around the Harbourside with him and other Bristol Flickr Group members. It’ll be an evening of great photography and I can promise you’ll have walked past where he’s taken several of his photographs and you won’t have even seen what he’s taken a picture of.

Dunkirk and Fortress Europe

Back from our tour of Belgium and France, 4 intrepid Reflex members with their 4 compardres find themselves exhausted from a full itinerary but keen for more. Moved from some of the locations and stories that accompany them yet awe struck by the scale of the formidable enemy, we find ourselves with mixed emotions. There are so many ways that the war could have panned out but to see how close Germany were to the total annihilation of England with its V weapon projects is very humbling. Along with this the "miracle" of Dunkirk and its evacuation is now understood and it's clear it was certainly a "miracle" in more ways than the evacuation alone.

Ian, Barrie, Keith and myself all thoroughly enjoyed the trip along with the non members that joined us. With days full of touring various locations the evening were packed full of food, drink and a good laugh. We conducted ourselves with the utmost "promptitude" and "clarity" and we even learned a bit about "wenching". Ian scored 8/10 for his colouring at a contemporary restaurant even though the waitress had no idea what we were on about.

I'm afraid there may be things written here that are meaningless unless you were there and you may have no idea what I am on about, but all will be revealed on 9th February when we have our Dunkirk evening.