Well, it seems appropriate having just posted on my last competition entry of 2011 to follow-up with my first competition entry of 2012, even if it’s a very different sort of competition!
Barn Detail
first competition entry of the year
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Tag Archives: monochrome
Entry for the last exhibition of the year – Port Talbot
Yesterday I finally got together my last competition of the year – for the inaugural Port Talbot Camera Club International Salon for digital Photography. Entries close today (31st December 2011) so my entry was pretty much last minute – an end to a year of very erratic entries to competition.
There were three classes available – monochrome, colour, and people. It will be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I didn’t enter the people class, but I did enter four images for both the monochrome and colour classes some old favourites, and some new.
Monochrome Images
Silloth Steps
Devastation #2
Ancient and Modern
Continue reading “Entry for the last exhibition of the year – Port Talbot” »
monochrome photography
I was asked this summer if I would give a talk on monochrome photography to my local camera club and agreed to do so. I gave the talk last Thursday … this is a slightly extended version of the content.
Background
I’ve been involved in photography for over twenty years, mostly monochrome photography, and used to have my own darkroom, as the darkroom was very much a part of getting the images I actually wanted. When I moved to Cheshire from Berkshire in 1999 I was unsure of whether I wanted to build another darkroom, and started experimenting with digital printing in 2000. This early start has played a part in the somewhat unusual collection of software that I use. I’ll mention the various software packages I use at the end of this article, but this is principally about general issues in monochrome digital photography, not specific software.
Silloth Steps
I’m primarily a landscape, floral, and ‘fine art’ photographer, not a people, portrait, action, or documentary photographer, so my views and approach definitely won’t cover everything! (I did shoot one wedding for a friend … while the bride and groom were happy with the results, I am definitely not open to requests from anyone else!)
Setting up
There are three basic tools involved in photography – camera (including lenses) for image capture, monitor (and computer) for processing, and printer for output.
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Silloth Steps awarded Gold Label
Silloth Steps
I entered this image into another competition – this time a round of the United Photographic Postfolios group I belong to. It’s a monochrome photograph of some old steps up the dunes from the beach at Silloth, which have clearly seen better days! (It’s a digital image, converted to monochrome using Photoshop and Silver Efex Pro). I was delighted to discover it had been awarded the Gold Label, with six of the eight other members awarding it top marks!
As a result, it will be exhibited later this year at the Annual meeting of the UPP of Great Britain. (Looking back over my records, I’ve had at least one image awarded a Gold each year except the first year I’ve been a member of this group.)
This particular image has a mixed exhibition record, scoring highly in some exhibitions (such as the Bristol International Salon of Photography) , while being rejected without a score in others.
Cotswold Monochrome Salon 2011
Old Time Engineering
LCPU 2011 Annual Print and Projected Image Competitions
I belong to the Holmes Chapel Camera Club, and as usual the club submitted an entry to the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (LCPU) Annual competition. This year we had our best result yet (by quite a long way!) – placed 9th out of 55 clubs in the colour print competition. Continue reading “LCPU 2011 Annual Print and Projected Image Competitions” »