1st Print Competition Tuesday 22nd September 2009
Tillman Kleinhans ARPS EFIAP DPAGB of St Helens Camera Club was the popular judge for this competition. Tillman is enthusiastic about all images, endeavouring to see what the photographer had in mind when capturing the image, before pointing out any deficiencies that hold the image back. He notes that photography is a means of communication and that if the image ‘speaks’ to the viewer then it has worked. He is always anxious to point out that he is giving his own personal impressions of an image and that another judge might have a completely different approach. This was some comfort to those of us who received only 14 marks for a print! The number of prints per person was reduced to three to make the evening manageable at 72 prints. Tilman judged the three intermediate prints first, then went through the advanced prints once, either giving them a mark up to 16, or saving them for later consideration after the interval. In the second half he commented that all these retained images were excellent, but it was his job to separate them. He ended up with two prints; Reflection by Martin Currie, and Hellebiore by Jonathan Bawden. He gave them both 20 noting that he preferred the “Reflection” print as his personal choice, but suggested that “Hellebore” pipped it to the post as the Best photographic print.
In his vote of thanks president Roger Dye thanked Tillman for valuable comments on all the images, for keeping us entertained throughout, and for keeping us guessing until the very end. And his finishing at 9.50pm again set a new record for judging at the club.