Amateur Photographer monthly forum competition results for August 2010

Only Human

I have no doubt that people do, definitely, make the most interesting photographic subjects. That’s not to say that pictures of people are automatically exciting, as many are extraordinarily dull, but people, either in portrait or in passing, have the greatest potential for a compelling picture. And taking pictures of people isn’t that easy either. Some people are able to converse with anyone, while others find communicating with someone new intimidating, so pointing a camera at someone who knows you are looking hard can be hard in itself.



This year's competition is being supported by Samsung, and this month's first prize is the Samsung PL150 compact camera with dual LCD screens - one on the front as well as the back, and 12 million pixels. The second and third placed winners will receive a wonderful Amateur Photographer Loves My Pictures mug.

This month’s entries are really good, and I’ve had to resort to looking a few times at the theme and the brief I gave to pick between the top six images. There are just so many great shots.

The shot list is once again one of my ruthless ones, so if you are in it you should feel like a winner already. It was originally 50 strong, but I’ve edited it down to a more manageable number.

Special mentions this month go to: Rustyknight, ahar, Apchris, KBJoKeRZ, aiwa_yamaha, tozey, sidvalera, PhilW and to Done&rundleCams – because they are really talented.





The winners:

I’m going to get in the trouble, because I’m incapable of picking only three from the top group of pictures. It was painful enough pulling four from the special mentions, but dropping one of the third places here just wasn’t an option. I’m about five mugs over-budget at the moment, which probably puts me in a job-threatening position.

Joint Third Place

Tomeda for Dancing On The Beach...

This isn’t a differently named fourth place – this really is a joint third. And only fractionally off second place. This is such a positive picture. Nice colours, happy girl, sunshine, dancing and wonderful location – it really represents the best that humans can expect; those joyous, carefree moments. I love the composition and the way the shape of the girl’s arms and legs echo the lines of the clouds in the sky. The picture is also neatly split into blue and yellow right through the middle. There’s just enough of each in the wrong half to make the contrast.

It’s a lovely shot, and one that makes me smile just looking at it.

Joint Third Place

Emmamac for Morning coffee

Anne Geddes, with her babies dressed as peas and bumble bees, might make you want to puke, but that’s not to say that there isn’t a tasteful way to take a cutesy picture of small children. And here Emmamac demonstrates just how it should be done, with an understated and natural style that’s way beyond that employed by one of the world’s highest paid photographers. There is nothing sugary about this, and nothing over-contrived. In fact, I think that nappy might need changing – and there’s a sense of reality!

Here the light works magic, and the exposure makes the most of the contrasting light levels inside and out. The backlighting sets a rim about the girl and the flowers, but somehow there is enough light coming back that we can clearly see her expression. Completely gorgeous.

Second Place

AlanW for I was once as you are now . . .

I don’t usually take too much notice of the titles of the pictures entered into any competition, but this one particularly struck me. Against a background of the discussions about ‘air-brushing’ and the falsification of celebrity bodies in magazines, it is perhaps not obvious who is saying “I was once as you are now” to who.

The contrast here is fantastic, and AlanW has been lucky, but has also made the most of that luck, to capture a perfect moment. Two better characters it would be difficult to find. And what makes it all the more astonishing is that they are looking at each other.

I wonder which is most like the human we are supposed to be.

Very clever, Alan.

First place

mike_morley for chicken pox

This really is not an easy competition to win, and with the strength of this month’s challengers you’d need to pull something pretty special out of the hat to take the first prize. Amazingly, mike has done just that, with this incredibly powerful portrait that shows the arrogance of man combined with his susceptibility to the will of nature. It shows strength and weakness in one, power and affliction, beauty and horror. It also, though I’m not sure this is the intension, makes me laugh. We can laugh because, although we know chicken pox is pretty unpleasant, this young boy is not about to die of it.

I don’t know if that hair is gelled or not, but the impression is that beyond the pox this lad is ready to go out for the night. He has a straight-on defiance in his expression, and a massive amount of self-confidence, as though he is usually a strong and powerful character. Even kings catch a cold, and here a great warrior has been struck down by an ugly, encompassing, but ultimately harmless, disease. No matter who or what you are, you are, after all, only human. And this picture says it all. I think it is a work of brilliance, and I want a print for my wall. Well done, Mike.

I’ve loved this round. There is nothing more fascinating than other people, the way they do things, the way they act and the way they choose to express themselves. We are each perfect in our own head, so even the closest to us is weird and surprising. Your home town doesn’t much change, and neither does the landscape, but with their endless range of emotions, thoughts, expression and postures, people change from minute to minute.

Thanks all,

Damien

Just to remind you - we have an excellent Gallery section in the magazine every week and you should be sending in your pictures for publication in it. If the standard of many of the shortlisted this and most months is anything to go by you will be more than capable of getting a place. We pay, and you could win a prize!! SEND ME SOME PICTURES FOR THE SPOTLIGHT FEATURE IN THE MAGAZINE YOU LAZY SODS.

Have a look here to find out how to submit

I hope you can all find the time to enter the October 2010 round too.

Click the links to see all the Amateur Photographer forum photographic competition entries for August and here to read the August forum photographic competition discussion thread.

This is where you'll find all the rest of the year's Amateur Photographer forum photographic competitions and discussion threads.