Nantwich Camera Club: Competitions

Competitions

Every year as part of the Camera Club season, we hold 5 competitions both in prints and slides, which are open to all club members to enter. Four of the competitions are "open" subject, where you can enter any type of image, eg: colour, monochrome (black & white) or creative (i.e. not reality), as long as they comply with the competition rules. The other competition in the club season (usually the 3rd) is a set subject, where the subject of the entry is given to members by the competition secretary. This year the set subject is "Colour in Nature". To see when this years competitions are and find out closing dates for entries, see the "programme". To read the rules of club competitions, please "Click Here".

29th April 2008
Five Towns Monochrome Competition
"Nantwich Take The Overall Victory and Print of the Night".

Below is the winning entry of the "Five Towns Monochrome Print Competition 2008" for the Allan Challinor Trophy, by Nantwich Camera Club.

Click on the images to see a larger view.


"Print of the Night"

If you would like a printout of all the results from the 2008 Five Towns Competition, Please Click on the link below.

The Complete 2008 Five Towns Results
(48kb)

8th April 2008
Inter-Club Battle with Crewe, Judged by Bill Buck CPAGB.

This was the Annual Inter-Club battle with Crewe Photographic Society. The judge for this competition was Bill Buck CPAGB from Wrexham. Bill decided to judge the competition on a knockout rounds system. He commented on the high quality of images that both clubs had presented him with, and it was going to be very difficult to separate them. After numerous runs through Bill was left with two prints that he could not separate, so he awarded them joint first place. The winning prints were "Line Dancing" by Tom Seaton from Crewe Photographic Society, and "Amaryllis" from Bryan Averill of Nantwich Camera Club (see below). The overall scores for the print section were, Nantwich 178 points, Crewe 170 points. In the slide section Bill used the same system as he had done in the prints, and after several runs through he picked out "Just the Five of Us" by Harry Smith from Nantwich Camera Club (see below) as the overall winner of the slide section. The overall score in the slide section were, Nantwich 170 points, Crewe 169 points. The overall club results for this competition were Nantwich 348 points, Crewe 339 points. Another successful evening for Nantwich Camera Club members.

Click on images to see larger view.

Joint Winning Print

"Amaryllis"
by Bryan Averill
Nantwich Camera Club

Winning Slide

"Just the Five of Us"
by Harry Smith
Nantwich Camera Club

To see the individual scores from this competition, please click the link below.

Adobe Acrobat reader. pdf file
(28kb)

25th March 2008.
5th Club Competition, Judged by Tony Keeley

Tonight was the fifth and final club competition judged by Tony Keeley. Tony was very kind to stand in for us last minute to cover for our original judge, who was unable to attend because of family commitments. Before Tony started his judging he told us he would be looking for, subject matter, lighting, colour, simplification and composition. The only thing he didn't like was run of the mill and long titles. After scoring all of the prints, there were 6 prints that had scored 19 points. Tony requested to see the top 6 prints again from which he would pick one overall winner. The overall winning print went to Andrew Charlesworth for his print "Lily",(see below).
In the slide section, Tony chose to use the same system as he had in the print section. At the end of the slide scoring the top 5 slides had scored 18 points. From the top slides Tony selected the slide titled "Reeds" by Trevor Clowes as the overall winner, (see below).

Winning Print

"Lily"
by Andrew Charlesworth CPAGB

Winning Slide

"Reeds"
by Tevor Clowes

To See the top 6 prints from this competition
Click Here

To See the top 5 slides from this competition
Click Here

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11th March 2008.
Inter-Club Battle with Alsager. Judged by Bill Preston LRPS.

This was the Annual Inter-Club battle with Alsager Camera Club. The judge for tonight's competition was Bill Preston LRPS. Bill is a member of Whitby Photographic Society which is based in Ellesmere Port from where he travelled from this evening. Starting with the slides, Bill remarked on the excellent set of high quality image, and he would have to be harsh with his marks to put some separation between them. After a couple of runs through he awarded the first place slide to Nantwich Camera Club for
"Just the five of us" by Harry Smith. The overall slide scores were, Nantwich 167 points, Alsager 155 points.
In the print section Bill held back seven prints until the end, five of which belonged to Nantwich and two to Alsager. The overall top print went to Nantwich Camera Club for "Goldfinch" by Brian Sankey.
The overall print scores were: Nantwich 175 points, Alsager 150 points. The overall results were Nantwich 342 points, Alsager 305 points, so that is another excellent winning result for Nantwich Camera Club.

Click on images to see larger view.

Winning Print

"Goldfinch (Corduelis, Corduelis)
by Brian Sankey
Nantwich Camera Club

Winning Slide

"Just the Five of us"
by Harry Smith
Nantwich Camera Club

To see the individual scores from this competition, please click the link below.

Adobe Acrobat reader. pdf file
(29kb)

26th February 2008.
Inaugural Digital Black & White Competition.

This was our first digital black & white projected image competition. There were a couple of reasons why we ran this competition. The first reason was to help us select an entry for the annual five towns monochrome competition. The second reason was to find out how members would submit entries, and what problems could arise, when we convert from slide to digital projected image competitions.
Tonight's competition was very well supported. We asked members to submit up to 4 monochrome images for the competition and a total of 51 images were entered. The competition was judged by our competition secretaries Andrew Charlesworth & Bryan Averill. Andrew & Bryan judged the competition on a knockout rounds system. The weaker images were knocked out in the earlier rounds, leaving the stronger images until the end. Andrew & Bryan gave brief reasons why the images were not strong enough to continue into the next round and therefore were being knocked out. They didn't agree on everything, but they did manage to agree on the final 3 images they were left with (see below). The overall first place went to John Wornell for his image titled "Flight Path". The other top two places went to Ann Dykes for her image "Italian Facade", and David Foster for his image, "Swaledale Barn".
A couple of problems occurred in the competition. The main problem was that most of the projected images had lost detail in the shadow areas, which were visible on the laptop, this should be solved by profiling the digital projector. The other thing that was noticed is that some of the images had not been sized using the instructions Andrew had given earlier in the season. This was not a major problem during this competition, but will need addressing in the future.

Click on images to see a larger view.
"Flight Path" by John Wornell	"Italian Facade" by Ann Dykes	"Swaledale Barn" by David Foster

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15th February 2008.
4th Club Competition, Judged by John Cartlidge EFIAP/b

The 4th club competition was judged by John Cartlidge EFIAP/b, from Cannock. John has judged for us on numerous occasions, he always does an excellent job, and tonight was no exception. The slides were judged first. John commented that slides are now going out of fashion, and soon he would refuse to judge them, as people are just digging out old stock, but after saying that, he said we had a very reasonable selection. The overall top slide went to David Foster, for his slide, "Beneath the Peaks". In the print section he continued with his comments and constructive criticism all presented in that humorous style of his. The overall top print award went to Keith Wild, for his print, "Blizzard in Kadriorg Park". At the end of the evening John commented to me, what a good selection of quality prints we had. Thanks John, hope to see you again very soon.
John's lecture was sponsored by "Ink Express". They supply continuous ink systems for Epson printers at a very reasonable price. To find out more visit: www.inkexpress.co.uk.
If you would like to see some of John's own work, visit: www.johncartlidge.co.uk

Winning Print

"Blizzard in Kadriorg Park"
by Keith Wild

Winning Slide

"Beneath the Peaks"
by David Foster

To see the top 7 prints from this competition
Click Here

To See the top 6slides from this competition
Click Here

15th February 2008.
North Cheshire, Inter-Club Digital Slide Knockout 2008.
Judged by Jack Bamford, DPAGB, APAGB, AFIAP.

On Thursday night (14th February) Nantwich Camera Club submitted an entry (see below) into the North Cheshire, Inter-Club, Digital Slide Knockout competition at Poynton. The competition was judged by Jack Bamford DPAGB, APAGB, AFIAP, from Whiteheaven in Cumbria. Each club submitted 5 entries and 21 clubs entered, so there was a total of 105 images for the judge to get through in 2 hours. The competition was run on a knockout system, this means if your image goes out in the first round you score 1 point per image knocked out, if your images go out in the second round you score 2 points and so on until there is one image left which is declared the winner. There were a total of 7 rounds and the winning image went to Gwen Carrnock from Wigan 10, who also took the overall top club award with 29 points. Nantwich finished in joint eight with 13 points.
The individual scores for Nantwich were: "African Darter" by Brian Sankey, 1 point. "Crafting Shapes" by Bryan Averill, 2 points. "On Frozen Pond" by Alma Sankey, 4 points. "Waterman" by David Foster, 3 points. "Zebras at Sunset" by Andrew Charlesworth, 3 points.


Click on images to see a larger view.
"African Darter"	"Crafting Shapes"	"On Frozen Pond"	"Waterman"	"Zebras at Sunset"

8th January 2008.
3rd Club Competition, "Colour In Nature".
Judged by Margaret Sixsmith. AFIAP, ARPS, BPE5*.

The first meeting of 2008 was the 3rd club competition, "Colours In Nature", judged by Margaret Sixsmith. Margaret made a welcome return to Nantwich Camera Club, and because she is very well known for her nature photography we knew she would be an excellent judge for this competition. As Margaret worked her way through the prints a strong theme started to show, colours blue and gold/yellow. Margaret found this to be a very strong combination, she also appreciated the true natural history prints. 14 of the 48 prints were held back until the end to take the highest scores. In the end, the blues and gold's lost out to the print "White Lily" by John Austin, taking the overall top position. In the slide section there were only 19 slides for Margaret to judge, but after the first run through she said how difficult it was going to be to select a winner. 6 of the 19 slides were held back until the end. The overall winning slide was, "Thistles" by Andrew Charlesworth.

Winning Print

"White Lily"
by John Austin

Winning Slide

"Thistles"
by Andrew Charlesworth CPAGB

To see the top 8 prints from this competition
Click Here

To See the top 4 slides from this competition
Click Here

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21st December 2007.
"Colour In Nature" Prints Preview.

The prints for the "Colour In Nature" competition have been copied, and are ready to view online.
"Click here" to see the print entry.

12th December 2007.
Inter-Club Battle with Sandbach. Judged by Gordon Jenkins.

This years annual Inter-Club battle with Sandbach took place at Sandbach, and was judged by the current president of the L&CPU, Mr Gordon Jenkins. Gordon is always a good judge, and tonight was no exception. He looked at the prints and slides very carefully and gave good comments, constructive criticism and suggested ways on how he thought the images could be improved.
The Results:
In the print section, Gordon held back 5 prints to take the high scores at the end, 2 from Nantwich and
3 from Sandbach. There were 2 winning prints, one from Andrew Charlesworth of Nantwich, for his print "Sunrise to Sunset"(see below), and one from Nigel Richards of Sandbach for his print "Further Down the Alley". The overall print scores were: Nantwich 175 points, Sandbach 174 points.
In the slide section, 5 slides were retained until the end, 3 from Nantwich and 2 from Sandbach. The winning slide went to Andrew Charlesworth of Nantwich for his slide "Migrating Herd" (see below). The overall slide scores were: Nantwich 180 points, Sandbach 172 points.
So the overall scores for the night were: Nantwich 355 points, Sandbach 346 points. Congratulation again to Nantwich Camera Club.

Click on images to see larger view.

Winning Print

"Sunrise to Sunset"
by Andrew Charlesworth CPAGB
Nantwich Camera Club.

Winning Slide

"Migrating Herd"
by Andrew Charlesworth CPAGB
Nantwich Camera Club.

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27th November 2007.
Inter-club Battle at Chester & L&CPU Colour Print Folio.

"Nantwich Camera Club Win the Inter-Club knockout competition at Chester".
Andrew & Bryan travelled over to Chester with an entry for the annual Inter-club knockout competition. Ten clubs from around the North West entered. Each club entering 3 prints and 3 slides. The judge was
Barry Colqhoun FRPS from St. Annes-on-Sea. Barry was very thorough with both prints and slides, and gave good reasons why he was keeping, or knocking out the images in each round. All of Nantwich's prints and slides made it through into the top 10 positions. In the print section, 1st place and print of the night went to, Alma Sankey for her image, "On Frozen Pond" (see below). In the slide section, 2nd place went to Bryan Averill for his "surfer" image, and taking 1st place and slide of the night was David Foster for his slide, "Waterman" (see below). The club overall score was 40 points, which was a convincing win, as second place Heswall scored 26 points. So we retained the trophy for the second year running. This year the trophy was there to be presented, and was received by the president, John Dodd. Congratulation to Alma and David for taking the top prizes.

Winning Print

"On Frozen Pond"
by Alma Sankey
Nantwich Camera Club

Winning Slide

"Waterman"
by David Foster
Nantwich Camera Club

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20th November 2007
2nd Club Competition (open subject) Judged by Tony Pioli ARPS,ABPE.

Tony made a return visit to Nantwich Camera Club tonight to judge the 2nd club competition. We presented him with 58 prints and 27 slides to judge this evening. Starting with the prints, Tony said he like to judge them at a reasonable distance, he was not one of these people who put their nose on a print to judge it. In both the print and slide section Tony preferred to read an image like a book, from left to right. So the most dominate point in the image needed to be on the right hand side, so you pass over the rest of the image to get to it. Tony's overall comments were very clear and constructive. The winning print went to Brian Sankey for a print titled "Impala at Waterhole" and the winning slide was awarded to Harry Smith for his slide titled "Just the 5 of Us".

Winning Print

"Impala at Waterhole"
by Brian Sankey

Winning Slide

"Just the 5 of Us"
by Harry Smith

To see the top 7 prints from this competition
Click Here

To See the top 8 slides from this competition
Click Here

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6th November 2007
"Inter-Club Competition with Whitchurch". Judged by Chris Kay.

This was the first Inter-club battle of the year. For a Inter-club competition each club submits 10 prints and 10 slides. We then invite an external judge to score each print and slide up to a maximum score of 20 points. The results from each clubs prints and slides are then added together to find the overall winners. Tonight's competition was judged by Chris Kay, Chris had traveled down from the Wirral to judge this annual battle with Whitchurch. He looked at the prints very closely and was very keen on sharpness and quality. He retained the top 5 prints until the end, 3 from Nantwich and 2 from Whitchurch. The overall winner in the prints section was "Orchids" (see below) by Bryan Averill, from Nantwich Camera Club. The overall print scores were Nantwich 159 points, Whitchurch 156 points.
In the slide competition Chris concentrated on composition, content & cropping. He held the top 6 slides until the end, 5 from Nantwich and 1 from Whitchurch. The overall winner of the slide section was
"Gregorio Lavilla" (see below) by Andrew Charlesworth, from Nantwich Camera Club. The overall slide scores were Nantwich 164 points, Whitchurch 150 points.
The Grand totals for the evenings competition were Nantwich 323 points, Whitchurch 306 points. Congratulations to Nantwich members for winning the first Inter-club competition of the year.

Winning Print

"Orchids (Phalaenopsis)"
by Bryan Averill
Nantwich Camera Club

Winning Slide

"Gregorio Lavilla"
by Andrew Charlesworth CPAGB
Nantwich Camera Club.

Click the links below to see all the scores and results from this competition.

Adobe Acrobat reader. pdf file
(28kb)

Microsoft Word Document .doc file
(139kb)

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9th October 2007
1st Club Competition (open subject) Judged by Andy Palakovski

This was a welcome return visit by Andy to judge the 1st club competition. Andy was his usual self, very observant and constructive when he needed to be. His comments were straight to the point and brief, they had to be, he had 53 prints and 32 slides to judge on the evening. He managed his timing very well finishing bang on time (10pm). The winning print went to Andrew Charlesworth for a print titled "Elephant Duel" and the winning slide was awarded to Bryan Averill for his slide titled "Surfer".

Winning Print

Winning Slide

"Elephant Duel"
by Andrew Charlesworth CPAGB

"Surfer"
by Bryan Averill

To see the top 4 prints from this competition
Click Here

To See the top 4 slides from this competition
Click Here

Click the links below to download a printable version of the "competition rules".

Adobe Acrobat reader. pdf file
(29kb)

Microsoft Word Document .doc file
(34kb)

Click the links below to download a printable version of a competition "enrtry form"

Adobe Acrobat reader. pdf file
(32kb)

Microsoft Word Document .doc file
(112kb)

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Updated 30-Apr-2008