April forum competition winners

You lot never fail to amaze me with your interpretations of a theme and the skills with which you go about creating pictures to fit. This month’s competition has produced yet another fantastic selection of work, with such a wide variety of subjects and styles being represented. There really isn’t a bad shot among the whole lot, and you should all be very proud of your achievements.

The quality of images is reflected once more in the length of my initial short list – which as not actually been short all year. I judged 25 images worthy of winning during my first browse through the entries, and they can be seen below.

I started to write an ‘honourable mentions’ paragraph, but found that actually all those in the short list would need to be covered. There isn’t one on the short list that couldn’t have come fourth.

Just to remind you of the prizes: the first placed image wins a wonderful Nikon Coolpix S210 compact camera – kindly donated by Nikon UK, and second and third placed pictures win a highly coveted ‘AP Loves My Pictures’ mug.

The winners are:

3rd place: Badgerman

The third place goes to Badgerman for his extraordinary Voracious Predator (a name that was hilariously copied by one of our newbies for the title of a picture of his soon-to-be child. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not!). Badger has captured this beast at just the right moment, and with it’s head-on angle the picture shows the beetle in all its terrifying glory. These guys are not easy to shoot, as they don’t hang around waiting while you take off the lens cap, so Badger has done well to get it all sharp, well lit and in the frame. These technical issues are unimportant, however, when you consider the impact of the picture and how it stands in its own right. Well done, it’s very impressive.

2nd place: AJUK

This month’s runner up is AJUK, with a beautiful shot of a rose. I can’t begin to tell you how many rose pictures I have seen, and you probably can’t count the number you have seen yourself. This shot though is quite different – but it has not won its place just because it’s different. The composition is not what you might expect, and yet it works – and neither is the shot especially sharp – but I like that. The ‘grain’ adds more atmosphere; and the toning adds yet more again. One assumes the photographer made it this way on purpose, but still other photographers might criticise it for its crimes against technical perfection. The consumer of photography, though, will appreciate soft romance, the natural air and the pure beauty of such a delicate creation.

1st place: OneTen

OneTen is the winner. This is a great shot that has that essential combination of technical excellence, an aesthetically pleasing subject and composition, and shows at least something of the character or behaviour of the creature in the frame. It is a good record, a wall hanging and an educational device all in one – and pictures like this are rare. Macro is a favourite of my own, but I often find my mind so occupied with the exposure calculations, extensions and lighting that I have little processing power to consider the art of the final image, let alone the documentary aspect that demands every picture should tell a story. OneTen has managed all those things and produced an image that will appeal to a very wide range of viewer. It is quite an achievement.

Conclusion:

Thank you all for entering this competition, and I really hope you are getting a lot out of the exercise. As a judge I can hardly enter myself – though I wish I could – but my reward is the enjoyment and inspiration I get from seeing your pictures and reading you discussions on this forum. Please keep entering even if you are not making the short list, as it is only by practice that our photography can improve. Study the winning shots and see why they succeed, and try to incorporate the thought processes of those that reach the winner’s table into your own work.

Damien Demolder

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