March 2022 – People

Judge: Barney Douglas

So here we go again. Whilst you are enjoying a fine day with temperatures in the high teens Centigrade, (or us oldies say, “the mid to high sixties”), I’m gazing out on gloomy skies, a chilly breeze and intermittent fairly heavy showers while my dog is pestering me to take him for a walk.  

The subject is “People” and this is a fairly sizeable entry – nine in beginners, thirteen in intermediate and a whopping thirty-three in advanced. The human face and form is probably my favourite subject and it’s the genre I learned most of all from my father, aided by the fact that he was a professional ballroom dancer and I trained to a high standard in both tap and ballet. Immediate impressions again show generally a high standard of work, and again there are a few outstanding submissions. Once again I am taking the images in order of title and I’ll then pick out my highlight image(s) from each group. And again I am checking the White Balance setting on all images for which it was available. So, here we go…

Beginners

Three shots from a DSLR and the rest from smartphone cameras

Intermediate

Once again I’m looking for a higher standard than beginners. I’ve mentioned white balance previously, but only one of these images has used specific control. I will let you know which when I get to it. No EXIF data available on six of the fourteen images. 

Experienced

As before, at this level I should see at least a third of photos worthy of a Licentiate-ship panel at the RPS. Once again a very good set with an above average set of contenders

Once again an extremely good shortlist. You’ve raised your game and the standard once again is really high.
As I mentioned last time if you had a different judge on a different day any of my top images could be in
contention.

And finally, something I would like to add to what I mentioned last time.

I am still shooting regularly for two of my biggest clients – spot-the-ball football, and travel and tourism work.  In addition, my application to become a regular photographer for Metart is still progressing but has had to take a slight back seat as I am moving to live in France, in Haute-Vienne about 40 minutes south of Limoges near the medieval town of St-Yrieix-la-Perche. Getting everything ready is pretty well a full-time job in itself. Scheduled completion dates are, in the UK, 1 July, and in France, 8 July. 

Hopefully, by 2023 we’ll have a holiday home too, most likely at Port Vendres on the Mediterranean coast, not far from the Spanish border and with the Pyrenees in the background, and that will be offered at discounted rates to photographers and models booking directly with us rather than through Airbnb during the off season. With that I will also be running small group courses in both Port Vendres and St-Yrieix-la-Perche for photographers and will be looking to work with local holiday homeowners to get preferential rates for those attending.   Barney Douglas