I went to camera club last night, and I had shocking results.  So vastly different to last month, but that seems to be my trend… I have one good month, and then a bad month (just to cut my ego back down to size!).

Silver – Winter Tree – Landscape category – they didn’t like that the tree was partly cut off.  The telephone pole was ‘disturbing’ and the bark was too dark.

Silver – Masked Michael Jackson fan – Photojournalist category – the light behind him is too bright, and I should have brought the exposure down by one stop.

Gold – Horse Whisperer – Pictorial category – They liked it a lot, and they liked the story it told, but said that the photo was too tightly cropped.

Oh well, maybe next month will be better

I went to camera club tonight, and I’m so very pleased with the results (and myself) that I have to blog about it before I go to bed (much to Lance’s disgust ).

Tonight was my first night in the 3 star category – the first of the senior categories according to the PSSA.  That means that I now have to submit photos according to different categorisations and the judging gets more strict – there’s a lot more emphasis on impact of the photo as well as the normal exposure and composition etc.  I took quite a big gamble with my photos this month too, all were Black and White and I’ve never submitted B&W images and I was very worried that the levels weren’t perfect and that I didn’t get the proper range of greys.

Anyhoo, then just to make my life more interesting, I also decided to submit a photo in the set subject section, just to see how it would do.  The subject for the night was “Obsolete”.  Now, I rarely submit photos for set subject, partly because I tend to do quite badly with them.  But tonight I thought I’d be daring and try a photo that was a bit of a risk.

I have shown you this photo before, but I treated it slightly differently when I posted it as part of my Soweto series.  It’s of the inside of the old car that we found in the Diepsloot hostel.

I actually WON the set subject image of the night!!

Then came the advancement photos… and OMW I’m stoked!!

Submitted under Photojournalism – Bicycle man in market – GOLD!! They liked the image and the story it told and the B&W was perfect for the image, but said that I must be careful of the bicycle being so close to the edge of the photo.

Submitted under Portraiture – Precious Moment – UNANIMOUS GOLD!! They loved it.  They loved that it was the dad in the photo, and not the mom.  They loved the angles and the emotions in the photo.

Submitted under Pictorial – All Out of Love – UNANIMOUS GOLD and SENIOR IMAGE OF THE NIGHT!! WOW! I have NEVER got image of the night before, and this was my first month in the senior categories!  When they announced Image of the Night, they asked me whether it was a wedding and what the circumstances were because they were arguing about whether it was posed or not.  LOL! They loved the humour in it.  Her expression was perfect for the background. The setup was perfect.  The B&W was a perfect choice etc etc.

Cool hey? I’m very pleased with myself right now!

I went to Camera Club again… can you believe a whole month has passed again!!  This time, I wasn’t quite as fortunate as last month with my results, but I must agree with their comments.

“Bubble”

Gold – they liked all the circles and the sharpness of his mouth and the bubble stick.  Their only criticism was that his face is slightly soft.

“Angles and Lines”

Gold – they loved the angles and the perspective of the shot.  The only criticism was the darkness of the crossbars and I could’ve tried using a flash to fix that.

“The weeds will win”

Silver – Oh they had loads to say about this one… there was nowhere for the eye to rest, it was too busy.  The weeds at the top were blown out as well as the sky being overexposed. I actually do agree with them.  I did try fix the sky because it is too pale, but I just couldn’t get it right because of the height of the weeds on the right. 

After tonight’s club judging, I’m 2 points short of the next grade.  So basically, next month will be my last month at 2-star and then it’ll get tougher because I have to submit within different categories and I have to start entering salons (inter-club competitions).

If you are interested in following my Camera Club history, then you can follow the Photo Club tag to see all my old posts.

I went to our monthly Camera Club meeting last night, and I had a VERY successful evening for a change .  Well, kind of, I entered 2 photos (the forks and the exposed grater) in the creative section, and they didn’t do very well… the judges didn’t like them… but for the advancements I did extremely well.

My first photo to be judged was this one of siblings talking.  I called it “Innocent Conversations”.

They first scored it a Gold.  Then the judge said that he really really liked it.  He liked the muted tones (even though I heard the one person in the audience whisper that it was over-exposed – clearly she doesn’t get Photoshop).  He loved the angles and the moment I’d captured, and that everything about the photo was jut perfect.

Then the other judges started whispering… and said they needed to change the score.  And they changed it to a CERTIFICATE OF MERIT!! That’s the highest score you can get – the levels go bronze, silver, gold, unanimous gold, good gold, and then finally there’s Certificate of Merit.   Woohoo!!!

The next one to get scored was my book lover photo – which I called “Lover of books”.  It got GOLD!

In fact, it was actually the very next photo (they get scored in alphabetical order by title).  They weren’t too convinced that I hadn’t slightly over-exposed the whites, but they liked the composition and everything else about the photo.

And lastly, this one, “Wild Child” which also got a GOLD!

They loved the angle of the shot and the clothes she wore and the mood in the photo.  They weren’t sure though about the softness of her skin – which was a PS thing (I must remember to remove that for camera club – I had that problem last month too).

Excellent hey?! I’m mightily pleased with myself!

I’ve just got home from Camera Club.  I only got one gold this month… for this photo…

I got silver for the the other two, and instead of just showing you the photos, I thought I’d show you what the judges told me to do (I’ve just adjusted them in Photoshop to see if it made a difference).  A lot of readers of my blog ask me why I bother because I seem to get slated quite a bit.  But even though I don’t always agree with them, the criticism has made a massive difference to the quality of my photography over the last 6 months.

They told me that I should have cropped out the trees at the top so that the background only consisted of grass.  They also felt that the photo was too flat.  They didn’t find any fault with her face not facing the camera which is strange, because that’s the normal complaint.

So, in Photoshop, I’ve just cropped the photo a bit, and I’ve upped the contrast and brightness just a little.

And… I think they were right.

This is the other photo that I got silver for… they said the face was too dark and I should have used a fill-in flash.  LOL, it was midday actually.  And anyway, I’d actually reduced the curves on the original photo before I submitted it because I thought it was too light… go figure! I should have left it the way I’d taken it!  I should maybe have submitted the photo with the action that I’d used for Weekly Winners for that matter… the face was much lighter!

As submitted….

And changed in Photoshop by adding a curves layer and increasing the curves very slightly…

Oh well, you live and learn!