Experienced ‘local’ photographer and judge, author and researcher, Patricia Tutt was the guest when the Society members (and several guests) gathered for the first ‘open’ competition for prints and projected digital images last week. Patricia, says her career in Malawi, and the British Isles has informed her passion for photography – and vice versa! Her illustrated publication ‘An introduction to Architecture of the Isle of Man’ still adorns many a coffee table. The Society is pleased and proud to be able to regard Patricia as a ‘friend’ who has accepted such invitations over many years both to present her work or to judge.
Judging any ‘open’ competition can prove rather daunting a prospect because it is often difficult to pick a favourite image when such a variety of subjects is entered. However, showing her wide experience, Patricia set about her task with typical enthusiasm. She was patient with her comments and yet took sufficient time to give her honest assessment of each one. As always, Patricia’s comments were succinct and well considered.
After careful deliberation, Patricia expressed her opinions and announced the following results -
Colour Prints: "Canopy" by Ron Shimmin with 19 points (out of 20) was overall print winner.
Mono Prints: "Done Fishing" by Barry Murphy was the winner with 19 points.
Mono DPI (digital projected images): "Oxburgh House Norfolk" by Chris Blyth was the winner with 18 points
Colour DPI: "Heavenly Encounter" by Barry Murphy with 19 points was the overall DPI winner
During the first half of the night, Patricia judged the mono and colour prints and the mono PDI images.
Patricia pointed out possible improvements, where appropriate, and described Ron's winning colour print as being ‘an excellent pattern picture’. She observed that Barry Murphy's winning digital image was made even more stunning by including Jurby Church.
In the second half of a packed evening, Patricia judged the colour PDI images, followed by Committee member, Barry Murphy, announcing that the non-competitive October challenge topic of "100 Meters from Your Front Door" had produced a wide variety of subjects. Over 30 images were projected, purely for their entertainment value. The idea of the challenge is to encourage members to experiment, and take numerous photos with a specified theme within a limited timescale. There is no criticism so this lightens the mood and adds to the enjoyment. The non-competitive challenge enables members to experiment by utilising any device, with most opting to use their mobile phones to great effect. Many of the resulting images were very pleasing to the eye and everyone who entered was complimented on the quality of their work, though many were entered anonymously so could not be credited to the author. Many of these images can now be viewed on the IOMPS facebook page and details of the Society’s events and programme for the year can be found at www.iomps.com
The next gathering of members and guests will be on 9th November at the St John Ambulance HQ at 7.00 pm When we will welcome back Jason Kinrade for a Studio Shoot and a tutorial on editing images.
By Antony Hamilton
