Summer Plumage Dunlin © Derek Walton

Derek Walton's 1st in the DPIs with "Summer Plumage Dunlin"

There was a good turnout for our first Merit Competition last Tuesday, when John Haines of Great Barr CC judged the competition using the new formula of 2 Prints and 2 PDI's per member. John is well known to us having judged a number of Merit competitions, and giving a commentary on our 70th Annual Exhibition 2 years ago. His style is to use humour, and encourage entrants whether beginners or advanced, to look carefully at the compositional elements, consider what message is being intended, and pay attention to detail, in terms of tonal range, depth of field and sharpness.

There were 3 entrants (6 print entries) in the Beginners Prints section with Paul Thomas jumping into the lead with an attractive sunset scene entitled "Maldivian Fishermen", followed by Ruth Roach with an excellent image of "Lake Gunn" in New Zealand, and John Vining in 3rd place with "Ecstasy".

John was very complimentary about the high standard of work that he always sees at Stratford, and that we give him a "hard task" selecting the best work. He chose Derek Walton's superb image of a "Little Egret Taking Off" for 1st place out of 22 entries from 11 advanced print entrants, Paolo Lubrano 2nd with "Just an Old Lamp" - simple but very effective, and Jill Dyson-Orme in 3rd with "Beautiful Demoiselle"- a reward for spending the summer chasing dragonflies!

Cliff gained an HC with a shot of "Broadway Towers" taken on infra-red film, scanned and printed digitally - Good Boy! Phil Welch also gained an HC with "Rainy Day in the City" a atmospheric mono which won the Exhibition Selection Award after being drawn out of the raffle bag by John Haines - Phil now has the joy of producing a mounted print for the winner! Paolo struck again with an HC called "Simplicity" - I'm beginning to get the drift.

That makes Paolo Lubrano 1st, Derek Walton 2nd, and Jill Dyson-Orme 3rd.

In the DPI section only 2 Novice entrants Paul Thomas and Ruth Roach took part, Paul gaining 1st and 2nd with cracking shots "Dead Tree Monument Valley " and Light Ray Antelope Canyon - he's been to the USA this summer! Ruth Roach took a leaf from Wordsworth with "Lonely as a Cloud" in 3rd place.

There were 30 entries from 15 entrants in the Advanced DPI section with wild life photographer Derek Walton trouncing the competition with a superb image of a "Summer Plumage Dunlin" , with John Edwards in 2nd place with a shot of a man in the Wolf Run mud championships "Should've Worn Goggles"  - he should've seen that coming! Malcolm will be chuffed with his 3rd place entry "7802 at Bewdley South".

HC's went to Dick with Oakland Bay Bridge, Doug with "Dream in the Sun" a nice nude study, and David P Howard with a stunning shot of "Concord G-BOAF" lit up in blue.

This leaves Derek Walton in 1st place, John Edwards 2nd, and Malcolm Ranieri 3rd

As they say "ALL TO PLAY FOR!"

Stewart Band

Chairman SPG

Results of Novice Prints

Results of Advanced Prints

Results of Novice DPIs

Results of Advanced DPIs