NDPS club’s POTY (Photographer of the Year) competition is underway for the 2023/24 season.
In my league, I came fourth last year so am hoping to do well again this season.
Two members who have consistently made the top two in recent years have moved up to the higher league therefore, if I maintain the same standard, I could make the top three this time round.
Of course, this does not take into account the third place member from last year, and others members – either existing ones who have improved and new members who are an unknown entity at this point.
Will I be capable of slaying these competitors by consistently high scores and more winners?
New Approach
A new approach this season means that club members can enter a range of individual competitions (digital images, print images, and print panel) with the photographer of the year gaining the best cumulative score from all rounds.
The themes this year are:
- Close-up (this round)
- On the street
- Seeing double
- Colours
- Monochrome
- Contrasts
- Urban jungle
- Taken in Norfolk
- Print panel
I will be honest and say that thanks to the narrowness of my creative thinking, one or two of the themes are likely to be a struggle. For a stab at the overall POTY itself, I am intending to produce my very first print panel.
POTY Digital League Round One (Theme: Close-up)
The theme for round one of the Digital competition was “Close-up”.
This was defined as a close-up shot (macro excluded) that shows more detail to the viewer.
I really struggled with choosing an image and have a fellow club member to thank for not only helping me choose an image, but also advising on editing.
Technical Issues on Judging Night
There were some issues with the competition software and the new projector which my rusty tech skills could not resolve.
It appeared that fiddling with settings while a waiting audience sat there was not going to help diagnose and resolve it at pace.
This meant that a workaround had to be used, which was basically all the images being downloaded from the competition software and projected direct from the laptop.
This worked fine but the other consequence was that no titles were declared for the images.
Themed Image (Close-up): Aye Eye
This image of a gannet I took earlier this year at the famous Bempton Cliffs (blog post here) and have cropped in significantly.
As I often do, I took a virtual copy of the source image, reset it back to as shot and began editing from scratch. I used the Topaz suite to enhance the photo which enabled more significant cropping and an enhancement in image quality.
I then cloned out distracting specs or blemishes on the gannet’s head but I didn’t remove everything as the crevices and marks on the bird’s beak in particular I think are very interesting.
Finally, and thanks again to a fellow club member, I cropped right in to remove blank space around the edges.
I was really pleased with the final image.
The bird’s eye goes black like that when it has suffered (and obviously survived) bird flu apparently. Some gannet’s eyes go completely black. The eye gives this shot added interest.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge liked the texture of the skin and thought the blue colouring surrounding the eye was very striking.
They wondered if the beak was superfluous.
They commented that there was more detail in the skin and eye than the feathers which they didn’t mind.
The image was scored at 8.5/10.
Free Choice Image: Dramatic Norber Erratic
For my free choice, I went for a shot from the same Yorkshire trip earlier this year of a famous rock at Norber Erratics – blog post here.
I started a new edit and ended up revisiting (and upgrading) my Nik suite of filters because I found using that software brought me a few options to produce a bit more ‘oomph’ to the final output.
After submission, I had doubts about the image due to pondering if it’s just a snap or a bit dull.
The sky is what makes it, a 92 second long exposure, and I’ve always liked the sun casting light across the valley in the background but I do wonder what the ‘wow factor’ really is – of course, the reality for many photographers when entering images is, we probably lean to what we like rather than what we think a judge may like.
I also lifted the brightness of this image following a monitor recalibration, and have been left pondering if the image brightness is too much such that a little of the impact of the brighter sunlight in the background over the valley has been lost.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge said this was a monumental and Neolithic rock and said that the sky makes the shot.
They felt the valley was a little soft but felt that was fine with the sky.
The image was scored at 8/10.
Reflections
I am pleased with a round 1 total score of 16.5/20 (82.5%) which is my best first round score compared to last two seasons.
Gannet shot (Aye Eye)
For the gannet shot, I think the judge missed the texture of the beak, which I think is one of the reasons it was worth keeping in the shot.
Could the feathers have been sharper with more detail? Possibly, the shot was shot at f/7.1 so stopped down from wide open and feathers on a gannet are quite smooth (almost like they’ve been combed) so to speak anyway, but I did crop in aggressively.
Could this shot ever get a 10? Maybe not. How would I know? Do I want to enter shots I don’t like, but I think a judge will like? Not sure.
Dramatic Norber Erratic shot
For the erratics shot, I think this is another one of those landscapes which bags a decent score but will probably never get a 10.
Having said that, I chatted to another club member after who was disappointed in their seascape score, and told me their image had been selected by a qualified judge at their other club where it was considered of a standard that should achieve a high score, and it didn’t in this competition. Another example of subjectivity at play.
Softness in background
This same judge made a comment about ‘softness’ in a shot I entered last year, so I think it’s something they obviously look at in landscape shots. The one from last year did have that softness and needed a bit more depth of field.
However, this shot was taken at f/16 so depth of field shouldn’t be an issue (although f/16 may have pushed it too far and caused some diffraction). Did I have competitions in mind when I took the shot? I don’t think so, but I probably did have this softness critique in mind.
Differing opinions about ‘sharpness’
There are some photographers who obsess about ‘front to back’ sharpness, spending a lot of time focus stacking (taking multiple images with different focus points and blending them together in post productions/editing). Then there are those that say our natural eye and view of a scene won’t be that level of sharpness for something in the background so why artificially create it or aim for it if that’s not how our eyes naturally see it.
The issue is of course, we’re comparing what our eyes see when looking at something in real time, to what we’re staring at when we look at a still image. For me, I love complete sharpness, but not at the expense of hours and hours sat at a computer. Having said that, an RPS qualified judge will be aware of the standard and requirements of such shots, and there has to be some form of specification for how to judge such shots.
In using the Nik editing suite, I chose to add a details filter to improve the contrast and detail across the shot. For me, there is little softness in the background and valley and who cares anyway? Perhaps a little finicky given the overall capture?
Nigel liked it (I think)!
One thing to add is that while on holiday in Yorkshire earlier this year, I visited Bempton Cliffs and saw Nigel Danson as he was filming a wildlife video with Rachel Bigsby.
They were deep in conversation as they walked past and I didn’t feel like acting like a drippy fan so just got a shot of them and posted up on Instagram. Nigel replied to say I should’ve said hello.
To my interest, within days of this connection, Nigel visited the same location, and took the same shot and made a YouTube video of it. As it happens, he didn’t get anything decent as the conditions weren’t as favourable as when I went.
Does this mean he loved my shot? Did my image make him desperate to go there? Well he was in Yorkshire anyway so could’ve easily had this location on his list of destinations. He may well of seen my image and thought the location had potential, but necessarily my shot.
By the judge’s own narrative, the image is about the sky and the rock, yet they chose to judge a small fractional element of the image some miles away.
Bitter? Probably! Why? Because I’m not sure I could’ve captured this scene any better than I did. For balance, I did question myself before judging night on the potential lack of a ‘wow’ factor with this shot.
Many of the landscape guys think that such shots are less favoured by judges these days than abstract or things that float their boat. The judge’s view is that they see so many landscapes, that they become unmoved, emotionless, or just simply bored of seeing the same thing that they’re now looking for something extra, or different, or an image that “Tells a Story…”
Subjectivity with judges
As I’ve probably written about before, there is and always will be an element of subjectivity when a judge evaluates an image. It’s part of what we have to accept when we enter. We are invested emotionally in our own images, what we like, and the effort put in to capture the shot, edit it, and get it to a point where we are confident enough to punt it in for competitive critique.
Interestingly in this round, one of winning images had a critique where the judge admitted that the image invoked a personal emotion relating to a family member and their trade, and was quite blasé about it and rapidly gave it a ten!
We could be really generous and say good for you, but we could also say who gives a rat’s hairy about a personal feeling specific to the judge’s emotion in scoring a competition fairly? This drifts away from a level playing field and introduces a somewhat random element to competition.
Even openly writing this, I have probably qualified myself for a ticket to hell by stating these things, although I’m not a believer in any of that stuff so there! Happy to check in come the time if my honesty and integrity are intact. Judges will be judges…
Final thoughts
All in all, not a bad start, and my best combined round one score compared to my first two seasons.
Onwards and upwards…