Even though I have been singularly scathing about the level of pictures that I have seen in photographic exhibitions presented at our camera club (York Photographic Society), I must admit that I cannot level the same complaint at the club competitions themselves - the judges have not always scored the interesting photos particularly well, preferring safety over great art.

Anyway, back to the point. Last night saw the judging of the annual digital and projected images competition. I had entered five pictures - one digital, and four slides. The judge (Peter Yeo) offered extremely helpful, directed, comments, suggesting both technical and compositional tips for each and every picture shown.
In all, there were 140 entries for the digital images competition, and 40 for the slide competition. My digital entry was ‘dynamic’, but didn’t make it into a place. My slides, however, fared somewhat better - I had two ‘walkway’s and two ‘York Fog’s - one of the walkway pictures (My favourite, by the way - Manchester airport at night, fact fans) had very interesting technical comments (good control of highlights, perhaps half-a-stop extra exposure would have made it even better), but the big surprise was that my ‘York Fog 2 - Millenium Bridge’ gained second place.

Eek.

Ok, so none of the entries I made were specifically pandering to the judge; they are all pictures that I am pleased with, so that’s good. It’s just a surprise to actually get placed. One downside (Heh, there has to be one!) is that I am now not eligible for the ‘New Members Print Competition’ (which I was hoping to enter) since I have now gained a ‘first, second, or third place’.

Oh - one more thing… There’s a related competition - The John Saville Rose Bowl which is awarded for a picture depicting an aspect of the City of York.

‘York Fog 2 - Millenium Bridge’ won that.

It’s official: I am mediocre.

Blimey.

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