March 2025 – Expressions

Judge: Barney Douglas

So, I am back after a bit of a gap. For those that don’t know I was diagnosed with a serious retinal collapse in one eye last year and had to pull out of a club competition I was due to judge. Whilst the operation was done very quickly, just 24 hours after diagnosis, recovery took a lot longer than I had hoped and I was still suffering the after-effects five months later. I’m glad to say I am now fully recovered and, in fact, my eyesight in the affected eye is now better than
before the operation. If it ever happens to you get into the doctor as quickly as possible and press for immediate surgery.

Anyway … enough of what I have been up to. Let’s get to the judging.

The subject of this month’s competition is Expressions and I am glad to see that some entrants at least have very much thought out of the box. A quick scan through has produced an interesting set. Before we start, a couple of tips on expressions, especially of human subjects. Never be afraid to ask the subject to move very slightly, or to avert their gaze and then look suddenly and directly at the camera lens. About ten years ago I was asked to photograph a series of pre-school and infant level educational activities by an Australian client, Curriculum Kids, and one of the models I got for the job proved to be awesome. Rumer Brown, (who is now listed as an actress in three movie productions on the IMDB website, so far), is the only model with whom I have worked who, if I asked her to move her head 1 mm … that was exactly how far she moved. When I worked with her on her first job with me she was six years old, she worked with me on four more jobs, and went on to appear in a video for the United Nations before becoming the child face of the Irish Tourist Board for two years.

Secondly expression does not just come from the face. My mother was a professional dancer and choreographer having trained to qualified teaching standards as a ballerina and ballet teacher. Her hands could give more expression in a slight moment than certain well-known politicians can give in an entire incumbency, (and yes, you know to whom I am referring). I have also worked several times with the then ballet student, turned model, Elle Farran, (you’ll find her on the website Purpleport), and she has exactly the same ability. Think outside the box yourself and often you will surprise yourself.

I’ve agonised over second and third place for some considerable time, and I’ve had both of these, Happy Fireman and Joy, in second place, and both of them in third place, several times. In the end you have to make a decision, and that decision is… I just can’t split them, and they get joint second place. And that leaves our winner, photographically I would have been very proud indeed to have taken this shot and it is a worthy winner, Engrossed