My photography career highlight.

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Jeremy Moore
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Yes, it's today! I'm judging the photography section in my local village show!

The categories are -

1. Somewhere to sit.
2. Time of day.
3. Black and White.
4. A picture of a scene, event or person in the local area.

And I have to be accompanied by a steward at all times to make sure I don't turn the cards over to see who has entered what!

Can anyone beat that?
 
Good luck with the judging ;)
 
Heh. I've been on the committee for our show for many years. It's been very interesting to see how different judges will gravitate towards certain images. Sometimes they nail it, sometimes they get it wrong. In My Opinion of course :) Hats off to all art judges. With generic themes like "black & white", that's going to be a tough one!

I stick to stewarding the baking judge & the jams & liqueurs. I get to scoff bits of all the nice cakes & wash it down with booze. It's a very onerous task :)
 
I remember once being asked if my image could be used in a local village publication.
I believe it was used, but never got sent a copy

Well done on your stardom
 
got comments such as "The lid is the incorrect colour"
Ooof... I know exactly the sort of judges that do this, and we studiously try and avoid them!
 
Cant beat that.
I did once judge the prettest baby competition at a local fete with my brother as the second judge, we deceided they all looked the same, so we picked the prettiest mother instead on the basis that she should have the best baby (no logic but we were half cut on home made wine) We were happy but the result was a tad controversial..... Havent been asked to do it again. :)
 
so we picked the prettiest mother instead
Is that where your avatar picture came from? As you were making the decision?

Either way, you got a proper lol out of me for that one. Thanks!
 
Quite a few very bad sunsets. Dogs, lambs, people sitting in funny places. Very few stood out from the masses really. I would have liked to award three thirds for a couple of the classes. It was quite hard work actually, but I told myself it was all a bit of fun and I had a doggy bag full of cakes to bring back with me. Not to mention the red judges rosette which will have pride of place on the fridge door.

And I got a few hints from the jams and conserves judge for next year...... :naughty:
 
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And I got a few hints from the jams and conserves judge for next year
Including acceptable lid colours?

Sounds like you had fun. Last year, one of the photographers collared the photography judge and confronted him about his choices. It was all very awkward and embarassing. The complainee was a regular challenger for the top spots and didn't get a whiff. Village shows are ace.
 
Including acceptable lid colours?

Sounds like you had fun. Last year, one of the photographers collared the photography judge and confronted him about his choices. It was all very awkward and embarassing. The complainee was a regular challenger for the top spots and didn't get a whiff. Village shows are ace.


Yes, it was the woman who likes nice white lids, and standard 340 or 454 gm jars. None of your re-used trendy Bonne Maman foreign jars. :)
 
Not to mention the red judges rosette which will have pride of place on the fridge door.
Ah well, if you got a ‘First’ you couldn’t have been so bad! :LOL:
 
I actually entered one of those sorts of competitions yesterday, only the second time I’ve entered a competition
category was garden insects if I remember correctly was very pleased to get a second, my entry was an arty shallow depth of field shot that would not have appealed to everyone, the winner was a phone shot of a ladybird on a flower that was actually really good :)
 
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I actually entered one of those sorts of competitions yesterday, only the second time I’ve entered a competition
category was garden insects if I remember correctly was very pleased to get a second, my entry was an arty shallow depth of field shot that would not have appealed to everyone, the winner was a phone shot of a ladybird on a flower that was actually really good :)


It sounds like the quality of the work at your local show was higher than at Penrhyncoch.........
 
I won a photography competition - as a model! Well, maybe not a model but the subject of the shot. It was a silhouette of me dribbling blood during a rugby match at school.
 
You have great courage, not so sure about your common sense.

I pride myself on my common sense but am very short of courage, so have zero experience of judging.

Can I suggest that you take an important accessory - a getaway driver :exit:
 
Actually the judging was over before the photographers arrived. And to be fair, few of those entering would have had any pretence about "being photographers". There was one guy there who was stewarding while the judging took place and he asked me afterwards about his own entries. I just gave him a honest opinion about why I had chosen some of the others above his and he was very reasonable. As I said earlier the quality of most entries was so low that in many cases it was more about finding something (anything!) positive in most of them.

There was set of photos featuring the village petrol station, which was a step above all the others. I happened to know that the daughter of one of the owners had taken some kind of photography course, and it showed. She got one straight up first prize which was of a far higher standard than anything else (even the rest of hers). I could have chosen several of her others but thought I'd spread the joy a bit!
 
I did the judging of photos in our village produce show* several years running (which precluded me entering). A couple of times it was hard to give a first prize for some categories.

Separately I've won the 'fruit liqueur' category a couple of times and the home made wine once as well. We still make a lot of sloe gin, but I don't enter these days because we're usually away at the beginning of September.

*When we first moved into the village it was run by Ivor Greenhaus. Really.
 
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Heh. I've been on the committee for our show for many years. It's been very interesting to see how different judges will gravitate towards certain images. Sometimes they nail it, sometimes they get it wrong. In My Opinion of course :) Hats off to all art judges. With generic themes like "black & white", that's going to be a tough one!

I stick to stewarding the baking judge & the jams & liqueurs. I get to scoff bits of all the nice cakes & wash it down with booze. It's a very onerous task :)
I suspect they gravitate toward certain same as photograper's do. if I were judging I'd be tempted to place dog photo's and homesteads above others I think!
 
A few years ago I got asked to judge the photography competition at a local arts fair a few years back (I’d entered the year before for a giggle and got second place).

It’s actually quite a big event and as you were allowed I think three entries, there were hundreds to go through, as well as digital, and under 16’s. The standard was generally good, a lot of stuff from local camera clubs so lots of birds on sticks and those composites with a face in the foreground and something else in the background, etc. Being a contrarian - and not a camera club member or judge - I obviously picked something completely off the wall as the winner which didn’t go down that well at the opening of the show, but never mind eh?

The under 16’s was interesting. It was an open completion with no theme, but the quality was generally poor and the presentation, framing and mounting was even worse. I somehow picked a winner and didn’t bother with a second and third. It turned out that it was the local high schools GCSE photography class that had entered, and at the opening the teacher had a bit of a go asking why there was no second or third. I told her the standard of picture, printing and presentation was poor. She looked exasperated and said ‘but the assignment I’d set them to do in class was to do work that was distressed and using low quality or old materials!’ To which I replied ‘yeah but I didn’t know that’. The penny dropped with her and she walked off in a bit of a sulk.

I’ve not been asked back.
 
A few years ago I got asked to judge the photography competition at a local arts fair a few years back (I’d entered the year before for a giggle and got second place).

It’s actually quite a big event and as you were allowed I think three entries, there were hundreds to go through, as well as digital, and under 16’s. The standard was generally good, a lot of stuff from local camera clubs so lots of birds on sticks and those composites with a face in the foreground and something else in the background, etc. Being a contrarian - and not a camera club member or judge - I obviously picked something completely off the wall as the winner which didn’t go down that well at the opening of the show, but never mind eh?

The under 16’s was interesting. It was an open completion with no theme, but the quality was generally poor and the presentation, framing and mounting was even worse. I somehow picked a winner and didn’t bother with a second and third. It turned out that it was the local high schools GCSE photography class that had entered, and at the opening the teacher had a bit of a go asking why there was no second or third. I told her the standard of picture, printing and presentation was poor. She looked exasperated and said ‘but the assignment I’d set them to do in class was to do work that was distressed and using low quality or old materials!’ To which I replied ‘yeah but I didn’t know that’. The penny dropped with her and she walked off in a bit of a sulk.

I’ve not been asked back.


Oh dear............ talk about a misunderstanding.:( However were you suppose to know that?
 
Oh dear............ talk about a misunderstanding.:( However were you suppose to know that?
Exactly! If I’d have known I’d definitely have judged them differently. As it was I judged them the same way I judged the adult competition, where the entries were all superbly printed and presented as you’d expect for camera club competition entries.
 
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