Amateur Photographer Magazine

Amateur Photographer monthly forum photo competition results for July 2010

Thursday 2nd September 2010

Damien Demolder

Shoot it square

Don't get me wrong, but I laughed when I first looked through this month's entries. I didn't laugh because the entries were particularly funny, Lord Vader on a bicycle being the exception of course, but the laugh was one of delighted disbelief that there are sooo many really good pictures submitted for this competition. The laugh was one, too, that marked my realisation that it would not be an easy round to judge.

I am really glad that you have taken so well to the theme. Seeing in a format other than that which you are used to is no easy matter, and even though we have all seen square pictures I expect that for many of today's photographers a square viewfinder is something yet to be experienced. Perhaps for many of those entered here this encounter with a square picture frame was also a first. I hope so, and I hope for those who have shot square in the past, but who have no facilities to do so now, this will have acted as a prompt that reawakened, if not a love, an awareness that the square format has a look, a purpose and an individual set of characteristics that can add more to an image than needs cutting off a rectangular frame to create it.



This year's competition is being supported by Samsung, and this month's first prize is the Samsung ST550 compact camera with dual LCD screens - one on the front as well as the back, and 12 million pixels. This is the Amateur Photographer Compact Camera of the Year 2010. The second and third placed winners will receive a wonderful Amateur Photographer Loves My Pictures mug.

My original shortlist stretched to well over 50 images, but I've hammered it a bit to get that number down to just 42. From there I really struggled to make a top three, and in fact I have failed once again. That we have just two third-placed images is only because I killed myself to eliminate four other pictures that are certainly good enough to be winners.

Those who nearly won, and who made the Bridge window from which I picked the winner deserve a special mention, and they are: ChrisByrne, RogerMac, tomeda, Seven, Zou





So, on to the winners.

3rd Place

turbulentwheat for oops

Unlike the other images in this winner's list, there is a very good chance this macro shot was not shot square originally. But the cropping has been done so carefully that the square format works perfectly to balance the subject and its background elements - creating a cascade of flower bells playing a neat second fiddle to the dangling spider against his black background. Does a silhouetted subject have to be black against a white background? I don't have time to look it up, but it is obvious for all of us to see here that white against black is just as effective, and in this case creates such a visual spectacle that our attention is drawn immediately by the unusual display. I love the white spider, and the shape and direction of the white flowers, and on top of all that I love the carefully controlled depth of field that delivers three dimensions to the scene.

2nd 3rd Place

4BIKER2 for Minky

I didn't know whether to laugh, be sad or frightened when I first saw this staring primate, but either way I was immediately struck by the massively powerful atmosphere of the image. The direct gaze of those almost completely shadow-hidden eyes is completely engaging. The eyes seem to glow from the sunken depths of their sockets like faint reflections in the distant surface of water down a well.

The backlighting is astonishingly effective in creating a strong outline of the subject, and as the fur lights up its texture is revealed and leant a three dimensional effect. That there is movement and blur in the frame only adds to the mystery, and bring alive what could have been an inanimate object. It's a brilliant, spell-binding, picture.

2nd Place

webbian for Isolation

What a very clever and utterly stunning picture! webbian's framing appears to devote the majority of the picture to a nothingness, but after only a second or two the cloud-like texture of trees begins to come through and fill the space with a collection of wonderful layers.

The lone fisherman is tiny in the composition, but stands out straight away for his tonal value and the micro contrast around him. His dark figure works beautifully against the misting water and the streaking reflections of the background. The tones and softness make for a fascinating, contemplative and relaxing picture, and one that webbian should be really proud of.

1st Place

PhilW for Look at me

This has been a seriously tough competition, but there is no doubt about the power of this portrait. Quite why the girl is there, in the field, I don't know, but what could have been a very ordinary picture of a child in a park is transformed into something really quite extraordinary by PhilW's composition, use of light and colour. The square frame works perfectly as the format of portraits, and the balance of sky and subject is either very lucky or very well planned. The blast of light from the right makes the subject really stand out, and delivers that attention-grabbing sense of the studio-taken-out-of-doors. It's a thoughtful and well-constructed picture that really makes its mark as something a bit different. Great job.

I'm tempted to run a square theme again, as it has produced so many interesting shots. The number of strong portraits is striking this month, and more than anything else the fact there has been extra attention to composition and framing is obvious. Don't just save cropping for making a square, but consider it for every picture you make – cutting away space that's not needed and creating tight, full, and reflective images with edge proportions that make the most of the subject and its environment. Most, most enjoyable. Thank you all very much.

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!!

Have a look here to find out how to submit

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

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

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