This week Irvine Camera Club had our first live, in person, judging evening since the pandemic started. We took up residence in the Fullarton Community Hub in Irvine and we were delighted to welcome a large number of members along for the judging.
Our judge for this Digital Projected Image competition was Marty McNaughton from Beith Camera Club. Marty is a well-respected local photographer who, until recently, was perhaps best known for his studio photography where he is fond of experimenting with colour and light to produce dramatic and eye-catching imagery. With the recent travel restrictions and his self-confessed need for little sleep, Marty has also found himself getting up early in search of misty & ethereal morning landscapes in the countryside around where he lives. The results are often stunning and allow us less nocturnal folk a chance to witness scenes we are unlikely to witness ourselves.
For this competition we had asked our members to submit 3 digital photos of any subject or genre. With 69 good quality images entered, Marty certainly had his work cut out to provide constructive comments on each of them and to select his favourites. He didn’t fail to deliver though, and provided a very entertaining and informative evening of observation and critique, with a good sprinkling of humour added in too.
As always, not everyone can leave a competitive evening completely happy, but as I remarked at the end of the night, everyone should have learned something to take away from Marty’s comments on all of the images presented.
Tracy Ross carried over her good form from last season earning a joint 3rd place with her glossy beach silhouette “Light my Fire” as well as picking up good scores for her other two images. Tracy was joined in 3rd place by new members Fiona Wallace for “Zzzzooommm!” and Colin Houston for “Fiddler”. Also in 3rd, and showing just why he won Most Improved last year, was David Spelman with his monochrome “Steam Train Driver”.
Second place was also shared. Fiona scored again with her very moody and atmospheric “One Man and His Dug” and she was joined by Alan Campbell with his excellent studio portrait of “Amber”. I also picked up a joint second place with my nature shot of a Wren in action called “Alarm Call”
After two hours of judging it was time for Marty to declare the overall winner and I am very happy to say that he selected my image “Bow Fiddle Rock & Kayaks”. It is always an honour to be given high praise by a fellow photographer and to be recognised and compared favourably against such good photography produced by the many other talented photographers in the club.
I have included here the photos that Marty placed in the top 3 here along with some of the others that received high marks and commendation. I really hope you enjoy looking at them because I know just how much effort our members put into their hobby to produce such high quality work.
You can find out all about Irvine Camera Club and everything that we do at our website www.irvincecc.co.uk
