Dear Forum Members

Here are the results of the Forum’s August photographic competition.

This month the theme was “Movement” and we had one of the largest batch of entries in yet — only beaten by Landscapes and (naturally) the Open round. There is little doubt that when we have a classic theme like this we do get the highest quality of entries in and it is great to see the extraordinary variety of interpretations of the theme.

This month I have awarded four Highly Commended and one Winner — they are as follows.

Highly Commended: Rhys-Hardwick — Stretch!

This is a nice execution of an idea and I like the fact that the main focus of interest is in the middle of the frame, and it draws the eye to the ball. There is a slight slope to the left and the pocket could have been more symmetrical, but that is really nit-picking — a really nice piece of work.

Highly Commended: John Baker — Leap of faith

I am not a great fan of multiple image pictures, but this one has been done very well indeed and the composition suits the oft-neglected square format. Well done.

Highly Commended: crymble — Early morning birds

This is wonderfully atmospheric and graphic. I like the way the composition essentially runs from the top left hand corner to the bottom right hand — very moody, probably the picture I would be most inclined to put up on the wall.

Highly Commended: Ian_A — Dance school

Very impressionistic, (as indeed is crymble’s Early morning birds), but this composition is also beautifully balanced. Ian regularly comes up trumps in this competition and I salute him for his consistent excellence.

Winner: datawise — Come Back Here

This is a fascinating image, partly because the subjects are ranged to the far left and right of the image. Normally, this would be a problem, but it works because there is essentially nothing to catch the eye between them and most importantly, the subjects have eye-to-eye contact with each other creating a link and making the picture work.

Conclusion:

So, a big well done to everyone who took part — whilst this was not as difficult as some of the other rounds, ‘Movement’ has so many potential interpretations that it did rather fall to my own personal view on composition rather than purely about the quality of images — which were all first class. I believe the next theme is Buildings and Architecture and I have no doubt that this will be another round with bumper entries, so I’ll look forward to judging those at the end of the month.

All the best

Garry C-W