A recording of a Zoom competition in which the IOM Photographic Society participated was the subject of this week’s meeting of the Society – and a highly unusual format provided one of the main interests. With the Covid pandemic having caused chaos for the holding of regular photographic society meetings over the past 2 years, the Cwm Rhondda Club in South Wales had the idea of a multi-club digital competition, and invited a wide range of clubs to compete. In the end, 26 clubs entered, the mix including clubs from around the UK, the USA, Malta, South Africa and Canada, as well as ourselves, with just 4 images from each. Each image was to be judged with a maximum score of twenty, the total for the four images then determining the winning club.
The competition was held on-line via Zoom, the judge with an unenviable task of commenting on 104 images in total was Leo Rich, a highly respected judge with the qualifications of ARPS, EFIAP/gold, DPAGB, BPE3* and based in the South of England, so independent of all of the participants. A chatty commentary ensued, every image given a considered feedback.
Our four images comprised “Star Attraction” by Sue Jones, a lovely foreground of the Laxey Wheel against a brilliant star-lit sky behind, which gained a score of 17. Then followed “Coming In To Land” by Sue Blythe, a close-up portrait of a puffin with sand eels in its beak, the action sharp, the colours delightful and very well seen – and again scoring 17. At this point, half way through the competition, we were lying approximately 11th equal – a respectable position but not a winning one, several clubs already gaining several significantly better scores ahead of us.
Then came the second half, our next image on display being “Swallow on the Wing” by Jeremy Broome-Smith – another close-up portrait of the bird taken three-quarters on and obviously flying fast, but again the image was sharp, the bird seen in lovely detail – and pleasing our judge with a score of 18. The final image in our entry was “Victorian Belle” by Claire Schreuder – a super image of a young lady appropriately dressed to suit the title, hands carrying a bouquet of flowers. It deservedly earned maximum points of 20, giving the IOMPS a final score of 72 points out of a maximum of 80 – and gaining us a “3rd Equal” in the club competition – a very satisfactory result given the truly international nature of the competition.
The next meeting of the IOM Photographic Society will be on Wednesday, 9th March when Tony Curtis will be judging the third open competition. All meetings are held at the St John Ambulance HQ on Glencrutchery Road in Douglas, the meetings starting at 7:00pm. Full details of our programme may be found on our Facebook page or on our website www.iomps.com Meetings are open to the public (non-members with a modest entry fee), and all will be given a very warm welcome.
Chris Blyth
