|
Ivybridge
& District Camera Club’s third Digital Shield
League competition of the year was kindly judged by
Mr John Hawkins of Newton Abbot who provided an entertaining
evening for us as well as a result that concludes the
digital league table – no announcements until
the award evening though!
John said he
had “… great difficulty separating many
of the top entries as well as the winning ones,”
but he finally settled the issue by awarding two highly
commented entries as well as the requested six top places.
An exquisite bird photograph entitled Silver Eye
by club Chairman Keith Miller was awarded first place.
David Rayner from Ivybridge took second place with a
red and purple sundown coastal picture called Durdle
Door & Portland Bill. Third place was won by
Alan Davey, also from Ivybridge, with an intriguing
study of three men and a dog on a railway station. It
would have been difficult to have a wider selection
of subjects in the top three places!
On the following
Tuesday we held the last Practical Evening of the year,
hosted by David Rayner who showed us some of the tricks
to using the Clone Stamp tool and it’s much under-used
Photoshop partner, the Pattern Stamp tool. The session
finished with an ad-hoc demonstration of turning a person
into a statue!
Frost, snow
and ice came early to the camera club on 10th November
when Chairman Keith Miller judged this year’s
Challenge from the Chair competition with the subject
theme of ‘Winter’. Some members had started
taking their photographs last winter, while others had
waited until later in the year, but visited higher and
colder climes to achieve their images.
As a variation
to our normal judging process, members were asked to
secretly vote for their choices for top images before
Keith critiqued the prints under the spotlight. It was
interesting to note that even in the face of the high
quality of all the work entered, members picked the
same top three images as the judge for both the colour
and monochrome sections in all but one print. Just the
order of the placing varied in a couple of cases.
The judge’s
decision is always final though, and for the monochrome
section Keith awarded first place to Neil Doggett’s
Winter at Penn Beacon, a contrasty lone tree
and rocks covered with snow. Second Place went to Margaret
Martin for a misty, snow covered scene and single figure
called Chilly Morning. Neil Doggett also gained
third place with Winter Scene depicting some
snow-pounded trees.
In the colour
section a snow covered children’s playground in
a gentle vignette called Slippery Slide gained
Margaret Martin first place while David Rayner was awarded
second with Off-Road, Off-Pedal, a heavily
haw-frosted woodland scene with two slipping cyclists.
Third place went to Neil Doggett with Winter Sunset,
an appealing snow covered landscape of raking sunset
reds and shadows. Alan Davey and Keith Mason were awarded
Highly Commended, a testament the Judge said, to the
high quality of so many of the colour images that made
awarding places so difficult.
The digital section
was won by Alan Bracey with a forest gate and path entitled
The Gate. David Rayner’s Winter Scene
took second place and depicted a lone tree approached
by footprints in the snow, while Alan Davey was awarded
third position with Austrian Chalet.
Visitors are
always welcome to club meetings and we meet at Bittaford
Community Hall from 7:30 pm, normally on the second
and fourth Tuesdays in the month. Our programme, members’
photographs and much more are all available elsewhere
on this website.
 |
Silver
Eye - Winning entry in the 3rd Digital Shield
League taken by Keith Miller in New Zealand |
|
