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SEPTEMBER

2015

CLOSEUP

&

OPEN

PROJECTED = 45

PRINTS = 04

TOTAL IMAGES 49

JUDGE

TERRY COCKFIELD

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CLOSEUP DIGITAL A GRADE

At Attention: A very well executed abstraction. You have created apleasing design while incorporating the symbols of mourning (the “reversearms” position) and the crosses. Honours.

Bee: : Bumble bees going about their business are very appealingand I think you have capture that appeal. The image is well com-posed, with each part contributing to the story. The out of focusgreenery at the right is good, but a little more sharpness and depthof field for the main bee/flower combo is desirable. However, Iknow just how difficult it is to get this sort of shot at all unless the beehas been very cooperative. Merit.

Brooke: Good image quality and the lady is very attractive. The lighting gives goodmodelling, but has slightly exaggerated a bump to the upper left of her lips. Unfortunate-ly my eye keeps going to it.

Acceptance.

Coffee Time: Nice design and colour contrast. My concern though Is alack of sharpness throughout. The exception is the lettering which is distort-ed (very pleasingly) but sharp. Acceptance.

Apple Core: An or ig inal idea , but un less there is some

message that I ’m not see ing I can only ask “Why”? The

gu ide l ines I ’ ve been given ask me to be pos i t i ve in the

comments , but honesty must come into i t too . Sor ry , To me

this i s not an A Grade Acceptance leve l image . However ,

you might l i ke to present i t to a d ifferent judge . No

Award

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Dried Out : Th is i s an image that might very wel l be improved

by pro ject ion . On my computer moni tor I ’m f ind ing i t a b i t

br ight and contras ty . You’ve used depth of f ie ld and the frame

wel l to show off the shapes agains t t he muted background .

However , for me the des ign features do not make up for a lack

of appeal ing content . Acceptance .

Kate: A very direct sort of portrait. I’m struggling with this critique, I think be-cause the hair is so dominant and to me off-putting. However, no doubt that isher style and you have captured it. The lighting gives good modelling, but thereis a bit of burn-out on the left hand side (her right) of the face. Merit

Crane fly: A very fine macro image. Sharpness is excellent anddepth of field well chosen. Beautiful detail and contrast for theinsect. Honours.

Feed Time: There is nothing that I can say that isn’t obvious in thepicture. Beautifully framed, executed and presented

Honours.


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Lemurs: An excellent quality image of an engaging ani-mal. For me there is not quite the X-factor to take it to anhonours, but a very good Highly Commended.

Pin Cushion: Brownie points for originality and the lively feeladded by the “flying” strand of wool. Sharpness and contrast areless than is needed though. Am I seeing cell phone photography inthis (and a few of the others)? Merit.

Preparing for Winter: A nice bright image which is well litand very sharp. It falls just short of the top award due to thelarge amount of blank black. Sometimes that works, but I thinkthis would be stronger with a crop. Highly Com-mended.

Lemon: The segment dividers and the pips make for an interesting ifsomewhat central pattern. My concern is that nothing is really sharpand I think it needs to be. Acceptance.

Pretty in Pink: This appeals to me for the story I read into it. Cor-rect or not I see a little girl totally enchanted by a spectacular fieldof flowers, with the image carrying me right into her mind.

Honours.

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Ready to Run: A very well executed portrait of the animal. It would have been aplus if a little more context was included to show that it was indeed a running situa-tion. That would have made it a story, not just a portrait. I like it a lot though.

Highly Commended.

Rotten to the Core: An excellent quality shot of the snail andits shell. I do find the quantity of blurred foreground distractingthough. I realise you wanted to retain the rotten vegetable, but Ithink the picture would benefit from a fairly heavy crop.

Highly Commended.


Silver Eye: A very engaging picture of the little fellow.Very good colour and sharpness. I would suggest croppingabout a third of the frame on the right, making it a vertical.My guess is that you didn’t want to reduce the image area incase it gave more prominence to the noise. However, thatcan in fact be controlled very well and without losing detailusing a judicious mix of sharpening and noise reduction.

Merit.

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CLOSEUP DIGITAL A GRADESomeone Needs a Tissue: I f you apprec iate a touch of

vulgar i ty , t h i s i s a de l ight fu l and inc identa l ly very good

qual i ty photograph. Honours.

Time for Nesting : The main subject i s captured

beaut ifu l ly . A del ight fu l express ion . However , t he

very br ight b lurred background on the lef t t hrows

i t out of ba lance whi le a l i t t le more space on the

r ight i s needed. Meri t

That’s My Girl: A very nicely captured expression. The very low res-olution suggests that it might be a heavy crop – a pity, because it wouldbe great at a larger size Highly Commended.

Who’s in Trouble Then : A picture that wi l l cause a

me ltdown with in every animal lover ! Th is i s another

image that lo ses impact because of the low reso lut ion

and the resul t i ng s ize l im i tat ion . I f you have more pix-

e ls , for goodness sake use them! In spi te of that though

- Honours.

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Bee-ing Busy: Magnif i cent ! A minor improvement would be

to c lone out t he unsharp edge of some petals on the r ight hand

s ide , but th is i s a very minor concern . This i s t he peak of the

nectar gather ing operat ion caught to perfect ion. Honours

Emerging Pine Seedling: A very h igh qua l i ty image . I l i ke the ar-

rangement and the c lear separat ion of the p lant from the background. The

l ighter out of focus spheres at t he top serve we l l to f i l l t he space , but are

a l i t t le b i t i nt rus ive . Highly Commended

Frog: I daren’t ask how you got him to cooperate! Beautifullydone. This is something for a picture book in the composition andquality. Honours.

New Born: The cha l lenges of managing the subject are a bit less

for an emerg ing monarch than for some of the subject s in t h is set .

However , t he shot has been arranged with care and prec is ion and

the resu l t s show that . Highly Commended.

Skeleton Leaf: A very n ice des ign, wel l captured. I

suggest present ing i t a l i t t le br ighter and with more

c lar i ty or sharpen ing to add impact . At t he tak ing

stage, I fee l a smal ler aperture would have kept

sharpness across t he whole of the leaf . However , you

might , qui te leg i t imate ly , fee l t hat fal l off in focus to-

wards the edge creates the mood you wanted .

Meri t .

CLOSEUP B GRADE DIGITAL

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CLOSEUP DIGITAL B GRADE

Takeaway: I know th is mus t have taken a hugeamount of t ime and effor t to set and make the cap-ture(s ) . Whether or not from a s ing le shot , i t i s pret-ty much perfect ion. Honours.

A Light in the Night: A very nice ly arranged and

executed image. The f lame is almost pure white , but in

the set t ing i t i s qu i te in keep ing and does not i r r i tate .

There is enough colour and deta i l i n t he base for i t to

anchor the compos i t ion . Al t hough there is a large area

of b lack , i t i s in keep ing with the s tory and i s wel l con-

tained by the white border . Honours.

Frosticles: Great to see someone working on a novelapproach. Technically well done – there is good sharp-ness and contrast in the central zone and the image is wellpresented. I particularly like the double border. Havingboth black and white surrounding the picture has beenvery effective with the majority of the content being grey.The question though is – “does it work visually?” For me,the answer is “not quite”. Having ¾ of the area unsharpwith no focal point or strong graphic design is a big askof the viewer. If you have the resolution available in youroriginal file, try cropping it to get a much greater propor-

tion of the content sharp.Then perhaps rotate it so the sharp zone lies on a diagonal. There are other op-tions you could take, using your original idea as a jumping off point. Acceptance.

Furled Up Tight: This p ic ture al so suffers from too l i t t le of the area be-ing in focus . I t i s a formula that can work, but on ly if t he sharp focalpoint s t rongly draws the eye, and i f the unsharp surrounds do not com-pete too s t rongly for at tent ion . Here the compos i t iona l layout i s good,but t he unsharp leaves capture my eye . Keep exper iment ing though.The des ign idea is promis ing, but t he detai l needs ref in ing. Acceptance.

CLOSEUP DIGITAL C GRADE

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CLOSEUP DIGITAL C GRADE

Lichen Beauty: Good colour and presentation, but the same basic issue of being able tolook at it comfortably. There are spots in the picture that are sharp but they do not providesomething that the eye can latch onto. This may have worked well if you had used a smalleraperture to give a sharp zone that incorporated all projecting lichen leaves.

Acceptance.

Spring Beauty: Nice colour and texture have been cap-tured here. My suggestion is that you look at cropping a littleto focus in on the main blossom and de-emphasise the support-ing branch.

Merit.

Nut Bran: A visually compelling design. Your idea that hasbeen extremely well executed and presented. Honours.

Passion Flower Dancer: This too has a small zone ofsharpness. However, it is sharp in one element and the eye canrest on it and feel comfortable. In this case, the general un-sharpness is accepted because the “dancer” element of the titletells us to interpret it as movement. Merit.

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Blech: An entertaining idea well executed. Triptychs are muchthe better for a story content. Technically the image is a bit de-graded by light flare which could be corrected by darkening andadding some clarity. Highly Commended.

The Opening Meet: I like the way all the elements cometogether, bringing us to the hounds with their total focus on the jobin hand. Honours.

Yosemite Top: The landscape is captured superbly andthe presentation is first class. For me it lacks only the elementof surprise or insight needed to push it to the top. However, itis a very good Highly Commended.

OPEN DIGITAL A GRADE

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OPEN DIGITAL B GRADE

Tui: A very good portrait of the bird. The downside is theoverwhelming effect of the very bright left and right whiteareas. I would crop it to a square and lose them. Merit.

It wasn’t Me: Good title and a pleasing picture. I’m finding the darkness ofthe background to the right of the dog slightly irritating – not a huge issue, buteasily corrected if you agree. Merit.

Double Exposure in Camera: Th is works surpr is i ngly wel l . I ’m

not do ing we l l t ry ing to ana lyse why , so I ’ l l qui t whi le I ’m ahead

and jus t g ive i t an Honours.

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Substar: : I like the bold presentation. That and the muted colours are veryappropriate for a combat, potentially enemy, submarine. It is a simple picture,but every element has been handled with authority. Honours.

Bridge to Nowhere: Very well captured and presented. Iwould use clarity or sharpening to reduce the effect of flare.However you might quite legitimately decide to leave it as partof the mood of the picture. Honours.

OPEN DIGITAL C GRADE

Streaming: There is a very nice feel to this picture.Exposure time has been well chosen and the colour andimage quality are very good. An improvement couldbe made by darkening the top left corner and thebright bits along the top edge. Highly Commended.

OPEN C GRADE DIGITAL

Tortured Terrain: A very good picture of the wild terrainaround the Red Crater. Cross lighting would have helped toillustrate the title more strongly, but sometimes you just have tobe content with what is available. Highly Commended.

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Its All About the Hair: For heaven’s sake, get this pho-tographer out of C Grade! A beautiful image with abso-lutely nothing in it that I would want changed. Honours.

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Bon Appétit: A lot of thought and effort has gone into this ar-rangement. The quality of each component is excellent. There is theobvious content link of food, but graphically I feel the need for flowbetween them. The top image starts hard left, the central one isitself central, as is the bottom one. Consider sliding the soup platesto the right so that there is a diagonal movement through compo-nents. It is very good none the less. Highly Commended.

Framed: A very stylish pattern has beencreated here. I like it very much, but feelthat a little bit more tonal separation be-tween the upper forks and the backgroundwould be good. Mount cutting is a bit rough– the job really needs a proper bevel cut-ting tool if you are going to do it yourself.

Highly Commended.

No 4: Yes! This works for me. I like the complementary colours and the texturesemployed. Having a space between the upper and lower layers creates a nicefloating effect. Honours.

CLOSEUP A GRADE PRINTS

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OPEN A GRADE PRINTS

Grumpy Day Eh: I n i t ia l ly there seems some ambi-

gu i ty . At f i r s t s ight I p icked up the road and fo l-

lowed it i nto the midd le d is tance - where there is

nothing much . On a second study I recogn ise that

the pr inc ip le (and very beaut ifu l ) e lement is the

large bare tree , which the road had directed me

past . However , af ter spend ing t ime jus t roaming

around the p ic t ure and process ing i t as a who le I

found i t very sat i s fy ing . Honours.

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