Open - PDI - 27-4-2023

Jim Cromwell April 28, 2023

A lower-scored competition than last time, I think, making me somewhat prouder of these non-winners than of last time’s wins. Somewhat.

Judge - Nick Bowman

Piscine II | 19/20 | Commended
I loved your swimming pool photo on Thursday Jim. I'd have had it as my winner. I took the judges point about the swimmer being further to the left but if you had taken it then the yacht wouldn't have been in the other space - so he still wouldn't have been happy.

Best wishes, Peter Baker

On Piscine II the judge correctly pointed out that having the swimmer in the left-side window would balance better with the boat. He’s right, of course.

Rue Saint Vincent was taken on my phone coming out of a restaurant after a day of lugging around an R5 and three lenses in a backpack…..

Macro and Close Up - Print - 16-3-2023

Jim Cromwell March 17, 2023

Goodness me! While I was away I came first and second in the Royston Photographic Society Macro and Close Up Print competition.

There were far fewer entries than usual but nevertheless I am feeling pleased with myself.

+++ UPDATE +++

Blimey! I scored 20/20 for both of these, and for Heliocentric - which was Highly Commended. a) I notice it was a very highly scored competition, b) I am on fire nevertheless.

Judge: Ken Payne

People - PDI - 9-2-2023

Jim Cromwell February 10, 2023

Judge: Jonathan Vaines

Pretty happy with this. All seems fair! I recall Red Alert was scored down for the bright bar next to the chin, which I don’t honestly know how I missed!

Open - Print 12-1-2023

Jim Cromwell January 13, 2023

This was quite fun. I’d mounted Gabo in a mid-denim blue mount to pick out the darker blues of the image and informal feedback on the night was “Oo-er… a coloured mount eh? Good luck with that.”…! Well the judge was rather taken with it and scored it 19/20, commenting positively on the mount - though stressing that it in no way swayed her. She liked the overall thrust of the image upwards, which was nice given that I’d hastily decided to display it that way up on the way to the club…

Judge: Naomi Saul

To Cambridge | 14/20 (This doesn’t get enough love!)

Scape - Print 1-12-2022

Jim Cromwell December 2, 2022

I managed to submit three images to this that stretched the definition of a landscape really; partly intentionally and partly because I had no regular landscapes to submit. Autumn Morning did best, but lost points due to being somewhat dark. Very irritating since I knew this when I picked it up from the shop. On-screen it is great (to my mind). I need to learn about processing for print.

(Wedge Wood scored the same, but suffered due to my insistence on taking images that are tricky to parse…!)

Judge: David Steele

Monochrome Print 3-11-2022

Jim Cromwell October 29, 2022

My second competition. Came third with Happiness which scored 20/20 (I can’t find the other results.) It got into the local paper; which was nice. Just as well I renamed it for entry from “Pig In Shit”.

Judge was very complementary about Cockpit, but unhappy about the small area of blown highlights. Turns out that’s bad. You live and learn. That’s why you submit stuff isn’t it? He didn’t hate on the lost shadows though…. Contamination was an odd submission but I like the mystery surrounding it.

Judge: Jim Bennet

Open - PDI 6-10-2022

Jim Cromwell October 7, 2022

My first competition. Quite nerve-wracking. Didn’t know what to expect, what to submit, or how to judge an image for inclusion. So just threw in the current favourites. An Open category I think gave the false impression of informality when in retrospect it means you have a broader field in which you need to stand taller.

Judge didn’t like the plain sky in Wimpole Parkrun and would have used Photoshop’s ‘Replace Sky’ function to add interest. I was disgusted at this!

Decent scores for a first attempt at submitting things I think. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself…

Judge: Penny Reeves