It’s the final competition of the season for NDPS (Norwich & District Photographic Society).
It’s the image of the year (IOTY) competition.
Last season, I achieved third place with my Sunrise Mooring at Thorpe Bay image, and to be fair, I can’t see me beating that as I am aware of the incredibly high standard across the club.
About the IOTY competition
There is a digital round and a print round with a winner selected for each, and as always an external judge will be presiding over the images.
Members may enter one free choice image in each of the rounds.
In addition, if any members have images which have scored 9.5 or 10 in this seasons POTY competitions, they may enter one extra image from those as additional entries.
This means potentially one extra in digital, and one extra in print therefore four images maximum.
Members with qualifying images must enter the images in the same format (digital or print) where they got the high score, and the images must be as they were then, I,e, No editing or changes.
My entries
Print entry
None of my six prints scored high enough to qualify, so I chose a modified version of my Alligator Rock Norfolk Coast shot for the free choice print entry.
The image below is my original POTY winning image.
Club officials recommended an edit to this image to remove the sky and make it a stronger image, and I’m told it did well at a recent East Anglian Federation (EAF) competition.
Below is my edit of that version which was put forward for the IOTY competition.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge liked this image in terms of the shape and capture.
They liked the golden colours within the dominant rock at the front.
They complimented the composition and the ability of the photographer to see it, whereas many others may have walked past it.
This image was not held back.
Digital entries
I had three qualifying images:
With the club encouraging me to enter Alligator Rock as a new image in print, it made the choice for digital easier.
Sunrise Colours at Landguard
I decided against the Landguard shot as I felt whilst it suited a ‘colours’ themed round, it would not fare well in an image of the year competition.
London Street Art
This image has been submitted but I think it’s unlikely to win.
The judge that made me the winner in the monochrome digital round liked the ‘punch’ of the image so it’s made me punt it in.
I did try several prints of this image which were good, but not as impactful as I think a digital viewing will be.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge said this type of image is presenting the artwork of others and therefore asks the question of what the photographer is presenting.
They felt this image was a good monochrome image, and they liked the ‘specialist’ lens used to create a bend in the wall.
The image was not held back.
Coastal Reflections
For a free choice in the digital round, I’ve put this shot from Happisburgh in.
This shot only got an 8/10 in POTY but I’ve an edited version that will feature in a club exhibition in August and I fancied punting this in for IOTY.
Whilst I don’t think it would win such a prestigious competition, I would love it to as I felt an injustice in the POTY competition with the score, although we must note my acceptance of the judge’s comments.
The exhibition entry of this image shown below has the contrails cloned out, and the sea defence structure scaled up in size.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge liked this image and said the colours were good as well as the reflections in the sand.
They noted the sea defence structure in the middle of the scene, and said this was a good choice.
The image was not held back.
Post-judging reflections
I didn’t expect to get shortlisted but of course you can hope.
This competition may well be the toughest because:
- It’s an ‘open to all’ competition – every member can enter a free choice digital or print image, and there are some members who put an image in where they may have either not entered anything in a POTY round, or only limited images
- There will be a lot, if not all of the POTY winning images, I.e. The best images from the seasons competitions
- The usual judges’ opinion – they mentioned this once we we were into the shortlisting
It was good to have three images in the competition- if you’re not in it, you can’t win it, as the saying goes!
It was an interesting and enjoyable evening and the standard of images was impressive – the judge said that the quality and standard of the images were fantastic.
Onwards and upwards…