The meeting of the IOM Photographic Society this week was a showing of the much delayed Three Way Digital Battle between the Oldham Photographic Society, Rochdale and District Camera Club and ourselves, an event held earlier this year. It is an event which has been held annually for the last 10 years or so, and one always greatly anticipated one of the Oldham Society members is an expert videographer and records the evening, then sends it to us to show at a later date in our programme. Each club enters 25 images, no more than 4 from any individual member, with each image being marked out of a maximum of 20 points. Apart from the convenience of being sent a recording, the event is the rare opportunity in our programme to watch and listen to a UK based judge comment on and mark our images in direct competition with two UK societies of similar size to our own, as well as see just what makes for a winning image in current photographic competition. It should also be confessed that it is an event which we have won only once in all those years, otherwise always coming second to the Oldham Society which has a number of top-class members who one suspects mentor other members to raise their overall standards..
The competition was judged by Ray Bramall ARPS EFIAPb DPAGB BPE3* APAGB and an ex-President of the Yorkshire Photographic Union he provided an excellent commentary full of interest, very quickly identifying both the strengths of the various images and his personal thoughts on what could have been improved. The usual judging system in the UK is to comment upon all images in turn, to award marks to the middle of the road images, and to hold back those images likely to gain a highermark of 18+. At the half-way stage, with marks awarded for at least 12 of the 25 images from each club, the Oldham Society held a lead of 10 points over the IOMPS, with Rochdale a further 3 points behind. But Oldham already had more images held backwhich were destined for high marks than either of the other two societies and by the time of the final round-up, Oldham awaited a result on 10 images, the IOMPs on 6, and Rochdale just one image. The final scores emerged strongly in Oldhams favour, with 455 points, the IOMPS on 425, and Rochdale trailing with 408 points. Oldham scored particularly well with a style known as composites - images composed from at least 2 images (usually a background plus a foreground subject, often to portray an historic re-enactment or a fantasy topic) and requiring considerable skill with photo editing software.
However, Sue Blythes four images all did well, the best being Brothers in Black with a maximum of 20, Jeremy Broome-Smith close behind with his White Tailed Sea Eagle getting a score of 19 points, as did Nigel Owens Eryngium Donard.
Our next meeting is on Wednesday 16th December when the Society will be holding a social evening, together with a showing of members images taken during recent monthly challenges. The meeting will be held the St John Ambulance HQ on Glencrutchery Road, starting at7:00 pm. Full details of our programme may be found on our Facebook page or on our website www.iomps.com Our meetings are open to the public (non-members with a modest entry fee), and all will be given a very warm welcome.
The Isle of Man Photographic Society is supported by the Arts Council
By Chris Blyth
CAPTIONS:
IMAGE 01: 'Brothers In Black' by Sue Blythe scored 20 points for the IOMPS in the Battle between Oldham, Rochdale and the Isle of Man
IMAGE 02: 'Eryngium Donard' by Nigel Owen scored 19 points
IMAGE 03: 'White Tailed Sea Eagle with Catch' by Jeremy Broome-Smith also gained 19 points
