Open Print 11th January 2024

Judge: Naomi Saul. Quite technical feedback. Very little regarding composition.

Unlike Cambridge on Monday, this scored 19/20 this evening and, whereas the double mount was a negative, this time it was commended. You can’t predict what happens with these sorts of entries.

Just like Monday, this got 15/20 again. Lesson learned. My LRPS OneToOne suggested this image be colour, so maybe that’s the next try…

Hmm…

16/20. Naomi pointed out that the roof is much duller than the wall and that could be better balanced. I agree. (Nobody has noticed the artefactual verticals in the upper tenth of the image. That’s the main problem in my opinion.)

Hmmm….!

Serial Print 2023-2024 Round 2 - CCC

Judge: Chris Foster

Tried to be crafty here. Submitted this image (London Underground) because I like it, but it’s very much (I thought) not a competition image. It’s too graphical, is basically a poster, has blunt text on it, and I mounted it a) in blue, and b) with a red inlay-mount to really rub it in. I thought it would be scored 10 or less but I’d garner lots of useful feedback about why, thus informing my future submissions. That, or it would be so unusual as to go right round and come out on top.

As it was it scored 15/20, which is plenty respectable for a Cambridge score… But we learned nothing.

Mammoths was my mono submission. This too scored 15/20, which is fine, but everything he said was effusively complimentary. Nothing negative to say whatsoever, then… a brief pause… “15”.

Thanos

Experimenting with extreme close-up of my eye. Learning that the real challenge is blocking reflection while also sufficiently illuminating things. And attaining sufficient depth of field at the same time. And sitting really still.

This is a lesson that should be learned. If I take a bunch of raw images, process one significantly to the point I like it, but still have adjustments I want to make at the point of taking the shot (because the first shot was step one in learning something), I struggle to work objectively on subsequent shots because I want to edge them towards what I achieved in shot one, rather than develop them to whatever they naturally want to be. In shot two (on the right) for example, I controlled the light as far is humanly possible, and lined up the reflection of the camera lens perfectly with my pupil. But…… I still prefer shot one despite everything I sought to correct subsequently…

Curiously my eye is much less moist in shot 2. Probably because I had a megawatt lamp inches from my face frying off the moisture…

Strike 3. Clear your mind and start afresh. The frustration with this one is that (although the lens flare is added in post) the lens in the pupil is genuine, but looks pasted in there! Grr.

Wirework | Gallery

Strike one at some ICM with wires a la David Day. Clicking that link will put this effort into some stark perspective - but I’m learning through doing…. I’m going to build a little dark tent in the studio to properly give this sort of thing the space it needs to develop.

This was Cat 5 ethernet cable (de-sheathed). It would be easier to make the images more abstract if they weren’t striped, but I’m interested in that as an option. It makes it more circusey than it would otherwise.

16/12/23 Strike 2

Mill Road Winter Fair | Gallery

Went out with a 50mm to make myself interact with folk more (!). Had a lot of fun. A great atmosphere on a freezing day.

Long Exposure Workshop | Gallery

Sunday I attended a (2:1!) long-exposure workshop with Antony Zacharias. These are my shots. I did not do an awful lot of long-exposure stuff, not least because Antony showed me some of his images (see the link to his website) and I was distracted by how wonderful and inspirational they were. Nevertheless, here they are. I quite like some of them and, regardless of the quality of these efforts, the workshop was excellent.

Click to view full-size.