Marking as a camera club Judge

[andyscott]

Photography is art, so as such someone is going to praise any old s*** and someone else will criticise the same.

 

[Chipper]

charming - or perhaps you weren't being deliberately offensive?

 

[Mozziephotography]

Tried a camera club/society but it "seemed" to be more about competitions than anything else. Wouldn't have the confidence to put one of my photos in. re they all about rule of thirds and ...?

 

[Chipper]

Well, competitions are about whatever you put in and what the judges can see or not in your images. Some people at our club do some, some do all and some do none. The least well supported competitions are those with themes. We have 6 Ina year and lots of talks and presentations, outings. I have learnt a lot from being in a club as well as enjoying the company of like minded people.

 

[Brian G]

Using any points system your always going to have a bottom points and thus always going to be in a position to upset someone.. So 1.2.3 is best for the judge and also less embarresing for the competItors IMHO

How utterly pathetic.
If anyone is so easily upset by a number then they shouldn't be entering the competition.

At least a numerical score provides a guide as to how you are doing relative to the rest of the entries, but as I said previously, a numerical score is wasted without a meaningful critique.

 

[DG Phototraining]

I'm glad you're all coming down on the side of - critique is what you're after rather than just a mark

Having been a club Judge for a little over a year now and having had many positive comments on my judging the thing that stands out are comments such as 'tonight we learned stuff' and that the critique I give is useful

What saddens me slightly then is that some clubs allow up to 3 entries per comp and may have 30+ members entering, frankly this gives sweet FA time to say anything of use, and while they get marked I feel its a waste of my time and my opportunity to pass on meaningful help

What's also apparent from all your comments is that, like photography itself, there's more than one way to skin this particular cat and that no one way will suit all

I helped start a new club a couple of years back and the one driving premise was NO COMPS - this meant we have more nights talking, showing and teaching photography and that club went from 0 to 50+ members within a year. We canvassed members' a couple of time during that year and again it was overwhelmingly NO COMPS - interesting eh?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Mozziephotography]

I'm glad you're all coming down on the side of - critique is what you're after rather than just a mark

Having been a club Judge for a little over a year now and having had many positive comments on my judging the thing that stands out are comments such as 'tonight we learned stuff' and that the critique I give is useful

What saddens me slightly then is that some clubs allow up to 3 entries per comp and may have 30+ members entering, frankly this gives sweet FA time to say anything of use, and while they get marked I feel its a waste of my time and my opportunity to pass on meaningful help

What's also apparent from all your comments is that, like photography itself, there's more than one way to skin this particular cat and that no one way will suit all

I helped start a new club a couple of years back and the one driving premise was NO COMPS - this meant we have more nights talking, showing and teaching photography and that club went from 0 to 50+ members within a year. We canvassed members' a couple of time during that year and again it was overwhelmingly NO COMPS - interesting eh?

Cheers

Dave

Nice one! I wonder if I know the club that you mean.

 

[dcash29]

How utterly pathetic.
If anyone is so easily upset by a number then they shouldn't be entering the competition.

At least a numerical score provides a guide as to how you are doing relative to the rest of the entries, but as I said previously, a numerical score is wasted without a meaningful critique.

 

[Chipper]

We've had a couple of critique evenings and they were well received. At our last AGM, the members voted to divide into two self selecting groups (with a few exceptions) for competitions. The subject of no competitions was floated but sank almost immediately without trace!

Hopefully, we will have more critique sessions; our members who are judges gave much more useful critique than at least two judges this year. One of our judges said that he had to judge well over a hundred images recently and he was there until 11pm. Daft.

Anyway, in spite of a few of the comments here, I now feel more positive about my photography and that my efforts to improve over the last few years have been recognised by a judge whose critique ( prepared in advance rather than ad lobbing on the night) was thorough and showed an insight about all the images he had selected from those put in by the members from their entries over the year. Brought back down to earth when being attacked by artic terns yesterday, however!

 

[TimHughes]

This thread caught my eye as I was invited to be guest judge in a competition and the meeting to review the entries was last week. There were two other judges and it was fascinating to be part of the discussion and assessment. There were close to 90 entries which were all good and it took about 2 hours to complete. In the end there will be comments on the winning entry, 2nd and 3rd, general critique for the remaining entries (which were all good) and then clarification of judging criteria and tips for future competitions - i.e. What distinguishes the winning entries.

 

[Gaz J]

I helped start a new club a couple of years back and the one driving premise was NO COMPS - this meant we have more nights talking, showing and teaching photography and that club went from 0 to 50+ members within a year. We canvassed members' a couple of time during that year and again it was overwhelmingly NO COMPS - interesting eh?

The club that I mainly go to has a 28 week club season. In that there are 8 judged comps in the season between Sept and April. 3 Opens, Natural History, Mono, Landscape, Creative, Panels (5 Images). Each comp has a Print and PDI entry. Then, at the end of the season, the top 3 in both print and PDI go forward to the Print/PDI of the year.

The winner of each category in each comp gets a trophy.

The marks gained in each comp total up, the 4 lowest are discarded, and the highest total is the Photographer Of.The Year.

The club has tried to put a comp in place to satisfy the various interests with in the club. Some are well supported, some not so. We also have 5 or 6 mini comps which are supposed to be a bit of fun but end up being taken just as seriously as the main ones.

We have around 55 members, only 4 entered every judged comp and only 15 entered more than 3.

I don't enter because I find it boring, but now I wonder if the sheer number puts people off entering.

Would you guys want to be member of a club with that many comps?

 

[Mozziephotography]

I'd rather have an evening where you put forward an image; explain who, what, why, when etc and explain the positives and negatives from your point of view. Ask for comments. NAH, it would never work.