ACC Q1 DPI

Ashford Camera Club Projected Images for 2013, Quarter One

I have submitted two images one general and one nature.

The general image was taken on a boat trip on the Thames in Summer 2012, it was a lovely day with great company. The food was good too!

The nature picture is of an Egyptian Goose taken at the WWT centre in Barnes, London.

Ashford Camera Club AGM 2012

The ACC AGM took place on 2nd October. Along with the usual AGM business the themed competition was held. The theme, set at last year's AGM, was Red. Everyone can submit up to four pictures and members vote for their favourites using tokens.

I submitted four pictures this year.
The first was a Guelder Rose berry taken at the London WWT centre at Barnes.

Guelder Rose

 The next two were taken on Brownsea Island. The first is one of the mad chickens (they run right up to you and then slowly strut along in front whilst making low, slightly menacing, chicken calls.

Chicken Stare

The third pictures is of a Red squirrel feeding at the National Trust feeder on Brownsea Island.

Red Squirrel

and finally, some Chinese Lanterns from Chinese New Year in London.

Chinese Lanterns

There were a lot of photos submitted (all as prints) and the votes were well spread. I received a vote for Chicken Stare and Guelder Rose berry. The winning print was of the Field of Rememberance focussing on just the crosses and dominant red poppies.

Next year's theme is Humour.

ACC Q3 DPI Competition 2012

Following the summer break the Ashford Camera Club is back in session. The digital projected image competition for quarter 3 is on 25th September. (I haven't been entering any prints so far this year).

The two images I have submitted are shown below. The judges comments will follow, unless they are really poor in which case I might remove this post!

General category:  Prospect Cottage

This is Derek Jarman's cottage in Dungeness, Kent. The model is Gill.

Score 9.5/10. The judge liked the composition including the low angle which brought in the strong colours of the flowers. The exposure of the black cottage was good and the interest in the sky helped add to the picture. The young lady, who appeared to be looking at something out of frame, was placed well.

Nature Category: Eagle Eye

This was taken at the English School of Falconry. The bird is a juvenile Bald Eagle and so is yet to gain the characteristic white plumage of a mature adult Bald Eagle.

Score 9.5/10. Good composition with the bird looking into the frame. The blurred background helped concentrate on the bird which showed sharp detail in the eye and feathers. The half point was lost on the overexposed beak. Annoyingly, I noticed this when reviewing my pictures for the competition but it was too late to resubmit! 

ACC Q1 DPI Competition 2012

Now I am in the advanced class I need to ensure the best quality pictures! I have not submitted a portrait photograph as I do not have anything up to scratch.

General category - Faded Prospect. derelict cottage at New Romney in Kent on the South coast. The judge wasn't keen on the lack of colour in the house and didn't have much else good to say about the picture. 7/10

Nature category - Barbary Macaques ( Gibraltar apes ) The judge thought the pose was good but suggested we didn't need to see the whole of the adult animal and a tighter crop may have been better. 8/10.
Subsequently, there has been what can almost be called email hoo ha about the standard of the judge and his inconsistencies. Oh well it is only a bit of fun.

ACC Q1 Print Competition 2012

Owning to techical difficulties on my printer (user fault as the 'remove this sticker' was still on the ink cartridge!) I couldn't produce any prints for the first competition of the year. Now I am in the advanced class they pictures need to be top notch to do well - no reason why they shouldn't be :-)

ACC Q3 DPI Competition

General - Spirit of Ecstasy. Taken at the Egham Royal Show 2010. Scored 9.5 points. The judge liked the composition and the amount of the car in view, particularly as it was suitably out of focus. Also, the colors with the blue bonnet of the Rolls and the reds reflected in the chrome (which is in fact my reflection).

Portrait - Enjoying a Beer. Taken in Mayrhofen. One of the few people portraits I have and it scored 9. Good points being the the out of focus background and composition although let down slightly but the loss of elbows and the base of the beer glass.

Nature - Grey Squirrel. Taken at Brompton Cemetery. Scored 10. Sharp detail in the squirrel, well placed in the photograph and a non distracting, out of focus, background.

ACC Q3 Print Competition

A successful evening at the third quarter, print competition. The judge held all three of my photos back for further consideration. Next week sees the third quarter digital projection competition. Should be interesting as the intermediate standard in the club is very good!

General - Abandoned Boat. Taken in Bideford, September 2011. Scored 9.5. Only let down by insufficient space around the boat. This was not a crop but the full picture so I should have stood further away to take it.

Portrait - Smile! Taken at ACC studio session. Scored 9.5. Let down by the reflection in the glasses. I did notice this but did not know how to remove it in photoshop.

Nature - Golden Pheasant. Taken in Kew Gardens. Scored 10.

ACC Q2 Print competition

General Jump  7.5 points. Taken in Mayrhofen 2011
Lack of action in picture and jacket should be red!

Portrait: Richard 7.5 points. Taken in Mayrhofen 2011

Nature: Brown Hare. 9 points. Taken on the day of William and Kate's (royal) wedding.

ACC Q2 DPI Competition

Portrait sideways glance 8 points

Nature: Swallowtail 8.5 - background too dark lack of definition in the wings.

General: Catch Me. 9 points. Good lines into distance, the right number of people nicely placed.

ACC Q1 DPI Competition

Tuesday 22nd is the first quarter digital projected image competition at Ashford Camera club. I have an entry for all three categories Nature, General and Portrait. These were taken on the Isle of Muck, Isle of Eigg and at the Chinese New Year celebrations for the year of the rabbit in London's China town.

The Nature picture is of a horse on the beach at Gallanach on the Isle of Muck.

This scored 9 out of 10, good points being the mixture of foreground, middle ground and background, the horse looking into the picture and colours in the sea.

The general picture is the photogenic red roofed cottage on the Isle of Eigg but with a hiker approaching to distinguish it from other similar shots.

The judge did say this was a typical 'chocolate box' image and there were probably some more interesting shots up amongst the rocks in the background. He also checked the walker was approaching the cottage as my title was 'Nearly Home'. They do take the title into account. The failings of the picture were also associated with the colours, which were a bit muted and could have done with more saturation in post capture.

The portrait was taken amongst the crowds at the Chinese New Year celebrations in London in February 2011.

This also scored 9 out of 10. The judge liked the 'moment' caught in the shot and commented that these shots can be hard to capture in such a busy scene; he wasn't wrong there. 

So, quite pleased with 26.5 out of 30 on the evening. 

The next competition evening is back to prints on 3rd May.

Ashford Camera Club website - http://www.ashfordcameraclub.org.uk/

ACC Q1 Print competition

The first quarterly print competition took place on Tuesday, 1st February. The normal categories are General, Nature and Portrait. I put in two prints, both printed to A4 size at home (must do a blog entry on equipment used) and mounted on cream card.

The general picture was taken in Camden with the JLP photography club and is of a large soap bubble with pedestrians behind.  The judge scored this at 8.5

The second picture was a nature picture and was my shot of a Mayfly taken at Wraysbury in 2009. This was well received and scored 9. The points against were just that the body was a little dark compared to the rest of the image.

Ashford Camera Club website - http://www.ashfordcameraclub.org.uk/

Ashford Camera Club - Annual Projected Image Competiton.

The annual projected image competition was held on Tuesday, 23rd November.
The categories were

• Nature
• Portrait
• General

I submitted two entries. Bluebell Swirl, taken in Stroude last spring and Sun in Trees, taken in Bala with JLPPC last year. I should have put my Bluebell picture into the general category as the nature category does not allow any manipulation if even this is done by camera movement. It should be a true representation of what was seen. Oh well I know for next time. The picture was scored however and got an 8.

The judge really liked my Sun in Trees picture and gave it a 10,  yay!

Ashford Camera Club – Annual Print Competition

Tuesday, 16th November saw me make my first entries in a print competition at the ACC annual print competition. Having only just joined the club I have missed the quarterly competitions but the format is much the same. Prints can be entered in the following categories:

• Nature
• Portrait – monochrome
• Portrait – colour
• General – monochrome
• General – colour

I put forward my picture of cottages at Cuckmere Haven from Saturday’s annual show and a print of a pigeon in shallow water taken in Nottingham a few years ago.
The independent judge took a quick preview of the pictures then went through each one, displayed in a lightbox, and gave her comments and a score for each. The maximum score was 10 and a few pictures did achieve this.
My picture of cottages only scored 7.5 owing to a lack of recession into the distance over the cliffs and too much foreground in front of the cottages.

The pigeon however did grab the judges attention owning to the reflections and unusual setting. This was awarded 9.5 and so will go forward in the club’s entries for a Surrey Photographic clubs  Association  competition in the new year.

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Ashford Camera Club – Annual Exhibition 2010

The annual exhibition of the camera club took place in the St. Matthew’s Hall in Ashford. I arrived just after 9 A.M. to find a good number of members already in the hall putting up their photos. There was a wide range of subjects from portraits to landscapes and lots in between. There were some prints for sale and I noticed a few of these had scores from previous competitions so it was useful to see some that had scored highly and to try and work out why. I had named five pictures to go up so the name labels were ready and waiting.  These were either pinned or attached using Velcro tabs to the display boards.
The pictures were:

• Jackdaw
• Swans in Black & White
• Sheepdog
• Cottages at Cuckmere Haven
• Birdman

The show opened at 10:30 but there were few visitors in the first couple of hours but around midday a few groups of twos and threes arrived. The hall is off the beaten track so despite the plentiful banners and boards in the high street it is not somewhere passersby will stumble across.
I had to leave at 12:30 to get to Croydon so will find out on Tuesday (next club night) how the exhibition went in the afternoon. It was due to close at 4 P.M.
The morning was a good opportunity to meet and chat to other members of the club and see their work. It is always beneficial to do this to learn and get ideas to try different things with photographs.
The next club night is for the annual print competition so I’ll need to sort out a print or two for that and prepare a digital image (one to display on a projector) for the following week.

Technorati Tags: ACC,Exhibition,prints,Ashford,Photography