Photo marathon Results

Hi Julie sent me a load of information for the results of the Photo marathon. The important bits are reproduced below along with a short piece written by her. She also sent me a table that she’d obviously spent a while working on that showed everyone's results all nice and neat. Trouble is the way that Blogger & the software we use to write the Blog posts works I can’t put the table up without spending a helluva long time transposing it by hand. So you probably won’t get to see that. Anyway here’s what Julie had to say..

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Good afternoon all, I hope you enjoyed looking through the photos last night it certainly was interesting to see how creative you all are when put under pressure like that.

I know I mentioned how close the voting was but I thought you might like to see the individual results you scored for each category. These are in the grid below and the overall winners are shown below in a 1^st 2^nd 3^rd ranking for each category. Once again congratulations to everyone who got some points, you all rose to the challenge admirably.

(as I said in the opening part of this post I’m afraid I can’t post the nice neat table she worked on for you all to see your individual scores)

Category: Street Sign

1^st Mark O’Grady (5 points)

2^nd Sally Coombs & Mark Stone (4 points)

3^rd Debbie Duncombe, Eddie House & Hanneke Ter Veen (3 points)

Category: Door

1^st Alison Davies (6 points)

2^nd Eddie House (5 points)

3^rd Hanneke Ter Veen & Mark O’Grady (4 points)

Category: Shadow

1^st Mark O’Grady (10 points)

2^nd Richard Price (7 points)

3^rd Ian Coombs (6 points)

Category: Gate

1^st Joe Scudamore (6 points)

2^nd Simon Xu (5 points)

3^rd Debbie Duncombe & Mark Stone (4 points)

Category: Commercial Vehicle

1^st Hanneke Ter Veen (7 points)

2^nd Mark O’Grady (5 points)

3^rd Maurice Iles (4 points)

Category: Open

1^st Mark O’Grady (18 points)

2^nd Ian Coombs & Maurice Thompson (3 points)

3^rd Steve Hallam , Theresa Driscoll & Wendy O’Brien (2 points)

Overall Winner

1^st Mark O’Grady (21 points for his Open Category entry)

2^nd Alison Davies (6 points for her Door Category entry)

3^rd Mark O’Grady (5 points for his Shadow Category entry)

Reflex Open Competition Round 4 Results

The results for Round 4 of the ROC were announced at last Thursday’s meeting by guest judge Hillary Britland. I really have to thank Hillary for her superb judging with fantastic detailed comments for every single image that was entered.

If the photographer has a Flickr Account their name links to it. The picture also links to that picture on Flickr (or wherever they have it online) No link or picture means they haven’t put it online or haven’t let me know where I can find it to link to.

1st Place Print Section Bicep by Barrie Tovey	1st Place DPI Distant Thoughts by Sian Perry?
	Image has not been uploaded by me as I don’t have permission from the photographer to do so and they haven’t bothered to upload it to somewhere I can link to.
2nd Place Print Section Beth by Angie Nelson	2nd Place DPI Spring Nymph by Angie Nelson
3rd Place Print Section Petal Drops by Rich Price	3rd Place DPI Foel Tower by Mark Stone
Highly Commended Print Section Punk by Angie Nelson	Highly Commended DPI Eye Then by Roger Gowan
Highly Commended Print Section Fluffy by Richard Price	Highly Commended DPI Zebra Glass by Chris Mclean
Highly Commended Print Section Bugs Eye View by Nathan Williams	Highly Commended DPI Frosty Snipe by Rich Johnson
The Photographer has not bothered to supply me with a link or a digital version of this image.
	Highly Commended DPI Trees by Adrian Cook
	Highly Commended DPI In Song by Richard Price

Outside Exhibitions & Competitions

Today I have a post from long time Reflex member Barrie Tovey. Barrie has taken the time to explain just why it is that he enjoys entering Photographic Exhibitions & Salons.

The reason that I like to enter external Competitions & Salons is that I like the thought that my images are seen by a wider audience.

I get a real buzz from getting an image accepted, because of the number of photographers that enter mean that there can be 100’s if not 1000’s of images submitted, so to get one of mine in must mean that the judge or judges think that it’s worthy. There is normally a cost for entering and I know that there is no monetary gain. All you gain is pride and the knowledge that you’ve created a great image.

So if you want to have a go at putting your images in to an Outside Exhibition or Competition, Print or Digital please talk to me. I’m happy to help you select your entries (if you want me to), though I can’t guarantee that it will get in. Also if you enter as a group you can save on postage by sending all the prints off in the same case.

The “Cotswold Mono” is coming up fast so if your keen to give it a go then please let me know.

I’ve just had 2 images accepted into the Basingstoke Exhibition, one which gained a Commended placing. So I’m pretty pleased at the moment.

Just for fun

Thursday is our just for fun Themed Digital Projected Image Competition. This time around the theme is Self Portrait’s. So come on don’t be shy. Set the camera to self timer, stand in front of a mirror, matter of fact who cares how you take it just take some self portraits and enter them for this competition. It’s judged on the night by everyone whose there. We hand out pens & paper for you to vote for your top 3 images. It’s not taken seriously and as long as the pictures you submit are on the theme, anything goes. You can submit up to 3 and either bring them in on a memory stick/card or, as I always say, our send them in via Dropbox which is our preferred method of submission. Size them as if for the R.O.C. (1400 pixels wide by 1050 pixels tall) and name them in the usual way ( 01_Picture Title_Your Name.jpg, 02_Picture Title_Your Name.jpg, 03_Picture Title_Your Name.jpg).

Thursday is also the last entry date for your Trio Entries. There has been a slight but very important change to the rules. Instead of 3 Digital or Print entries each person is now only allowed 2 entries. So that’s 2 Digital & 2 Print’s per person. This has been decided on because of the amount of entries we’ve had recently and the length of time it’s taken for the judge to get through them all. This applies not only to the Trio Round but to EVERY round of the R.O.C. from now on.

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.

Mpix Results

I’m pleased to say Barrie Tovey & Ian Coombs both had acceptances into the Mpix Competition this year. Barrie had two pictures accepted, Red Kite Stoop and Torso. Whilst Ian had one acceptance called “Well I Like It”. But it meant he’s managed a life long ambition of having a rat picture actually get into an exhibition.

 

Red Kite Stoop, Barrie Tovey	Well I Like It, Ian Coombs
Torso, Barrie Tovey

Highlights without the Hair Dye!

Last night we had our lovely little friendly competition on the theme of Highlights. A great night but something just didn’t seem right, could it have been the strangely calming music that was being played. I know I heard a few snore’s from the back of the room. The lack of heckling was strange. Normally one corner of the room turns into the balcony in the Muppet theatre (do I have to hide now?).
The Overall Winner was Kev Spiers with his picture of a Foggy Cadbury’s. Shame he didn’t stay to collect his prize. Nope we’re not going to tell him what it was. We’re just going to keep reminding him he didn’t get to have it.

Second place was Eddie House with his photograph Brandon Hill Sunset	Antony Bezer came third with his Lighthouse photograph

Well done all of you and thanks to everyone who entered.
_{All pictures remain the © of the original artists and are posted with permission.}

DPIC Results

Clevedon Pier © Richard Price

The DPIC results are out. We managed to get equal 43rd out of the 51 clubs that entered. 1,020 photographs were submitted and the average score was 10.60 with the highest being 15. So if you received higher than 10 you did well. Our scores ranged from a 12 down to 8.

Congratulations to Rich Price for getting that 12 point score with his picture of Clevedon Pier, shown to the left. That put his picture in the top 18% of submissions. If you look at the score sheet you will notice a cross symbol next to Rich's name. Which means at least one judge awarded him a top mark. The points shown are the average of the three judges score's.

Competitions, theme’s and the gnashing of teeth

 

This weeks meeting we get to hear the results of Round 3 of the Open Competition. Which should be good, despite what might be said its still fairly open and a few people are vying for the title this year.

Now as you know we have a Flickr Group and those of you who receive the club email will know I’m always nagging you to join up. We’ll yep you’ve guessed it this is another one of those times. Although now you have even more incentive to join us. We’re starting a Flickr only themed competition. Each one will last for around 2 months, including the voting, and the winner gets to pick the subject for the next competition. If you want to see a list of the themes that have already been suggested or want to suggest some of your own then go take a look here. If you want to see the rules then they can be found hiding in the corner here. The first subject will be chosen randomly on Thursday. If your feel you need a kick to get you taking pictures then this could be the thing to get you out and snapping away.

Trio Comp. Links to examples

O.K. so when I posted the examples for the Trio Competition I forgot to make them actually link to the bigger size shots on my Flickr account. As I've already been asked where you can see the better quality versions I'm posting the links. Go HERE for the Match example and HERE for the House one.

Trio Competition

Burning Through ©Mark Stone

Coming up on April 7th is the Club Trio Competition. Why am I telling you this so far in advance? Because we’ve had to change it slightly this year and entries have to be submitted by the 17th of March. In the past we’ve always been able to find someone willing to judge the competition on the night without already having seen the pictures. Unfortunately this year none of the judges we approached were willing to do it like that.

If your submitting prints then its really simple. You can either have three separate prints, on the correct size mounts (50x40 cm) or you can mount all of the prints into one mount. No problem there.

If, however, your going to submit an entry for the digital projected competition then you have to combine all three photographs within the same size area as you would normally only have one picture. Confused? It’s easy really. As shown in the example above you can simply put all three pictures side by side and then size the whole thing to a maximum of 1050 pixels high and 1400 pixels wide. Or you can arrange your images any way you want as long as the whole thing does not exceed that size.

Looking at the example below you can see all three images fit into an area that is 1050 pixels high and 1400 pixels wide. So instead of the whole area being taken up by just one picture you have three squeezed in.

Just use your imagination and give it your best shot.

Don’t forget if you need a bit of help with resizing images then there are some tutorials posted on the clubs website. Just follow that link and they are listed in the Reflex Members download section. If after looking at that you still need help then just ask someone at the next meeting.

Behind the Green Door ©Mark Stone

Sober yet?

Christmas has been and gone. The new year has started and hopefully by now most of you will be over the worst of your hangovers and ready for any challenges 2011 throws at you.

This Thursday you’re going to have to come out of your warm houses and take a trip to the Langton for the first meeting of the new year. The last four months seem to have flown by since we started back in September and we’re now almost halfway through the season! This weeks meeting is the travelling exhibition for the Ace of Clubs Competition. So you’ll get to see some great photographs.

Don’t forget this Thursday is also the last date you can bring in, email or Dropbox entries for the 3rd round of the Open Competition.

We also need you to submit your best pictures for the Battle of the Clubs against A1 Camera Club from Weston Super mare, which we are Hosting on February the 3rd. We need those submissions as soon as possible as they have to be sent off to be judged very soon!

Remember if you want to write an article, have something mentioned on the Blog or in the regular email then get in touch. Because there’s only one way we’ll know what you want featured, written about or if you hate something we’re doing.

You have to tell us!

Last meeting of the Year

Reproduced with Permission. ©Luis Bustamante

First off I want to thank Luis Bustamante for a fantastic talk last night which was very insightful and interesting. I know some people went away mulling over what they had heard and thinking about the way in which they approach their photography. Also you should look out for some of his work being published in the Guardian this weekend or go take a look at, and maybe buy, his book "Brief Encounter".

This Thursday.

It's time to show your funny and strange pictures to add a bit of cheer to the proceedings. If you've taken a picture that makes you laugh, smile or is just of something weird, strange or stupid, bring it in. Share the humour with us. It doesn't have to be sized, mounted, framed or anything special, just bring it in. If it's a digital file you can also send it in via email or our preferred method, Dropbox.
If you keep hearing Dropbox being mentioned and want to use it then just follow THIS link to sign up, it's free. Once you've installed the software, as long as you use the link supplied here, I will get an email telling me when you've signed up and installed it. Which means I can send you an invite to share a folder with the club and that's all you really have to do. Ask me if you want to know more.

We're also going to have a fun little competition so bring along some prints, any prints. Don't worry about the subject's, just make sure they don't really have anything in common. So do NOT bring all portraits, or all Landscapes. Mix them up. we just need you to bring up to 6 prints and all will be explained on the night.

Also, as it's the last meeting before Christmas, if you feel like bringing along some nibbles or snacks so we can make it a bit more of a social event than a normal meeting that would be great.

Don' forget Thursday 16th is also the last day for entries to be submitted for Round 3 of the Open Competition. Prints need to be brought in on the night and Digital Files can either be emailed or sent via Dropbox to me by 10am on Friday 17th.

Ding Ding Round 2

It's that time we all dread, hate and loathe but just cant resist turning up for. It's results night for round 2 of the open competition. After last time when Ian wiped the floor with us it's time for revenge. It seems he decided to photo-shop moustaches onto every entry this time! Very strange way to try to win but apparently someone told him the judge likes moustaches. Yet again we had lots of entries and which means the judge has loads of pictures to get through. So please do your best to be punctual.

Shadow's

Congratulations to Dominique on winning our Shadow themed print competition. The pictures below are the only ones entered into the competition that I have either been sent or have been posted on Flickr. The top one is the winning entry from Dominique. The second picture is also from Dominique and grabbed a runners up slot. The third shot is from Teagan who was also a runner up. Congratulations to you two and also to the other runners up. Sorry this is only a short post but Blogger is being a pain in the ass as usual when I have to post more than 1 picture in an article.

Printing Shadows

Next meeting we have our annual Print only competition. This year the Subject is "Shadows". Later in the year we have the companion to it with the Digital only competition and the subject for that is "Highlights". If your really paying attention to the programme then you'll notice that there is also a "Trio" competition and the John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shields. Why am I mentioning this now? Because when I first joined and saw these were coming up I wondered just what they involved and got a bit confused by the answers I was given. So I'm going to try and explain them to you over the course of this and the next few Blog posts.

Now I very rarely enter prints into any of the competitions, not because I don't like to see my pictures in all their glory, but because my middle name is Scrooge. So if I get anything to do with the print side of things wrong I hope someone who knows better will let me know and I'll correct it.

The Print Competition
In theory you can enter absolutely any size print you want as long as it fits onto a piece of mount board that is 50 by 40cm. The reason we have that as the maximum size is it's the recognized standard size for National and International Photographic Competitions. The size of print that we have found fits best in that size mount is 16 by 12inches, 40 by 30cm. Those are the size of the pictures you most often see when we have a guest speaker who shows their mounted prints. The best place to get your photo's printed? Well a lot of the club tend to use Keynsham Photographic, mention Reflex Camera Club and you might just get it at a better price. There are lots of places that you can use, even the local supermarket if you want. The choice is yours.

Sorting out the Mounting of the pictures is something that I haven't quite got my head around but lots of club members are very good at it and if you ask then someone will be able to help you with it. I'm supposed to be writing a tutorial on that but I've only ever done it once and watched it done twice. So if anyone wants to write it up then go ahead and we'll gladly let everyone else know that you've done a fantastic job.

You don't have to have the print as large as possible within the mount. You can mount a 5x7 print into a full size piece of board. You also don't have to have the board at the maximum size. Any variation is allowed as long as the mount board is no larger than the maximum size allowed. Smaller mounts or small pictures in full size mounts are fine. If the picture is strong enough to suit a different size of mount then go for it.

Of course if you can't for some reason get it printed at the preferred size or mounted then there is nothing to stop you from bringing in a normal print and using that for the "Shadows" competition. Although for the open and external competitions your pictures HAVE to be mounted. So make sure you bring along a shadowy picture to enter on Thursday. Any size, mounted or not. Just take part and have some fun.

It's Guest speaker night

This week Bob Bishop is our guest speaker. He's going to give us a talk entitled "There's a first time for everything". If you would like to see some of Bob's work before you meet him on Thursday then just follow THIS link.

One of our new members, Richard Johnson, has some of his artwork on display in an exhibition at Broadwalk Shopping Centre from the 18th to the 23rd of October. It's just inside the main entrance in one of the shop spaces on the left side and is open between 10:00 to 16:00. So go and show your support for our local artists.

Please don't forget we need your Architecture photographs. Thanks to those of you who have already used dropbox and sent some in. But come on there are more of you and I bet you have a picture of an office block, block of flats, house, church or anything else that matches the subject. Email them to me or use Dropbox (if you still haven't signed up for it and want to. Drop me an email and I'll explain it and send you the link).

On the 4th of November we have our Print only competition. This year the subject is Shadows. So make sure you have a print ready by then if you want to take part. If your not sure how it works then please do talk to someone at the club about it over the next few weeks. It's easier to explain it face to face than try to type it out here.

The results of Round 1 Annual Open Competition.

The results from the first round of our Annual Open Competition are in!  Loads of amazing photographs were entered and unfortunately there could only be one winner in each category. The Judge, Roger Mallison, gave superb constructive comments on every picture, which everyone appreciated. There was no getting away from it though in the end he had to make the difficult decision and choose the winners. 

Ian very nearly had a clean sweep across the board with five pictures amongst the winners! So he gets to wear the bullet proof vest to meetings for the next few weeks. Apparently he was heard to say "the beers on me" but were not sure if he just meant he was washing in it or offering to buy us all a drink. Lots of our new members entered and just to prove it can be done Louise came top of the Digital Projected Image Section. Superb picture and an amazing win for her.

Louise Iddon first in the digital projected section with "Legs 11". Which was fantastic for her as it's the first time she's ever entered a photographic competition and she's only been in the club since the September! Everyone had better watch out, she may just be the one to beat from now on. 

First in the Prints section was Ian Coombs with "The Appeal". Which is a great shot and he owes me a pint for the wings! haha!

Congratulation's to the winners and a HUGE thank you to everyone that took part.

The Appeal by Ian Coombs 1st in Prints

Legs 11 by Louise Iddon 1st Place Digital Projected Image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd in Prints, "Clevedon Rocks" by Richard Price

2nd in Digital Projected, Ian Coombs with "Waiting"

Lazy Daisy by Mark Stone. 3rd in Digital Projected Images

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3rd in Print's Section, Ian Coombs with "Billy Whizz"

Carnival Focus by Simon Xu. Highly Commended Digital Projected Image

Highly Commended Print Alison Davies "Concarneau Brittany"

"Manx Sunset" Ian Coombs, Highly Commended Digital Projected Image

 

Richard Price Highly Commended in the Print Section with "Common Blue"

Hanneke Ter Veen, Commended Digital Projected Image "Cloud Cowboy"

Commended Print, "Slow Pour" Ian Coombs

If anyone is still reading this far down. I have a question. If you know of an easy way to get Blogger to allow you to design a page with multiple photographs then please let me know. Hopefully I'll have figured out a better way to do it by the time the results for the next round are due. Because I can virtually guarantee the way you see this page on your screen is not how I had it laid out when I designed it!