2332 Projected Image of the Year – Whangarei Camera Club

Judged by Chris Parkin

: Christmas Flower: Love the splash of colour, quite central while generally would encourage rule of thirds. Increase depth of field to keep whole area of focus. Accepted

: Floating About: Love the steam in background. Quite like silhouette, but needed to ensure person in focus as well and increased DOF. Story about person so needed to be in focus. Nice reflection. Accepted

: Green and Red: Really interesting muted tones. Quite high key but misty day works nicely. Possibly tweak to make reds more vibrant but not on mist. Merit

: Colour Patterns: Enjoying the vibrant colours. Challenge that main focal point appears to be pink bubble. Would work better on the thirds. Overall composition could be better but difficult. Yellow bubble drawing the eye. Highly Commended

: Evil Eye Puffer Fish: Nicely titled. A lovely combination of stillness and sharpness to eye. Tale wiggle employs motion. No evidence of human nature – no nasty reflections. Like the contrasting colours. Honours

: Go Away Flies: Not an image I have seen of a sea lion. Can just imaging the smell so tells the story effectively. Wish a stronger focal point which would need lightening up a bit. Highly Commended

: Lake Wanaka: Looks like an infrared image rather than standard. This picks up leaves and foliage and makes pop nicely. Would be good to pull back the blues and darken the blues to give more contrast with sky. Horizon needs to be levelled. Worth double checking. Convert bright sand on beach to be darkened or cropped out. Accepted

: Autumn on the Nevis Road: Really love the colour here. The tree feels a bit soft. Edge sharp but leaves in foreground lost detail, maybe movement blur from long exposure. Like the broken down fence and horizon line leading to tree. Highly Commended

: Reflection: Really like the stillness. For me would crop off text that says gardens, but reflection is fine. And then darken down the grass on box hedge in foreground to focus on reflection. Accepted

: Solitary Mooring: Nice use of reflection which is subtle to lead up to boat. Rocks give sense of potential danger if mooring not well managed. Peace is given by mostly calm water. Merit

: Art Deco: Nice use of long exposure in background to give firework event in water fountain. Like the model’s period dress. Unfortunately too much motion or not enough. Ask her to walk in and then pose and then will get interesting effect. Or shorter exposure to get crisper edges of model. Accepted

: Taipuha Landscape: Lovely rolling hills and great time of day. Nice recession happening in image where it gets bluer in background. Am missing something strong in foreground to hold attention. More drawn to Windows XP landscape behind that. Horizon has blue edge that doesn’t quite fit there. Got intense shadows in middle of image, but intensity off in background. Accepted

: Almost camouflaged: Like the play with black and white with that strip against the green the moth has landed on. Wish could see more of moth’s head. But downside would be losing the geometric aspect of image. Splotches of red are interesting and wish could see more. Like have thought about background. Merit

: Coastal Planting: Interesting image. The coastal aspect is buried at bottom and edge of image. Blue sky and sea almost blend and do have element of building. Interesting components and like the guarding plastic is the story but the composition not working yet. Almost a triangle has potential. Would be worth returning and to arrange for building to be on thirds. Accepted

: Curvaceous Dahlia Petals: Nice use of colours, complementary yellow and blues. Increased DOF on petals would have improved. Bright patch on petal on left hand side. Really like the overall effect but needs DOF to make it really sing. Merit

: Split Apple Rock: Nice light on rock itself. Like the bird perched on far side of one of rocks. Would have been worth having another bird flying through to offset. Would have been better on thirds so horizon not in middle. Half rock being cut out. Accepted

: Godwit Preening: Nice capture of godwit preening. Quite an unconventional crop to top of image. Reflection more effectively posed. Sort of works because godwit looking down. Generally say give more room and darken down highlights in water. Highly Commended

: Seagull on the Skip: Definitely non conventional processing here. Often doesn’t work but in this case I think it does. Wish the eye had a darker spot for a focal point. Would have tweaked the white on splash of water that acts as a distraction. Merit

: Abandoned in Queensland: Cool and quite appropriate post production adding to story. Would pull back saturation to be rusted out rather than bright red. Like the splash of blue in sky. Well done. Honours

: Gerbera: A tiny glow down bottom right hand side and possibly clone out the little yellow bit on petal. Nice and good depth. Honours

: Across the Harbour: Interesting triptych which looks like created in image. Sunsets a challenge but sun is overexposed. Really happens is to use HDR with multiple exposures with ISO low and your F stop the same and then change shutter speed. Do on a tripod and would allow camera to capture much more detail and not burn out the sun. Placement does work but don’t think horizon quite level. Accepted

: Reflections in the Stream: Guessing this must have been a theme for club. I like how person in middle of V is outlined in reflection. Then as look further and start to see other people. Little too much greenery. Would be better to crop that out and just focus on reflection. Well seen. Accepted

: SunCatcher: Love the water droplets caught here. Some in almost each focal plane. Some white on edges all the way to ones in focus on right hand side through to sun itself. Kind of wish weren’t qujte so spread out. Line on right hand side. Merit

: WaiauToaCool: Interesting landscape. The river has potential. The mood of the sky not sufficiently developed. Maybe a different time of day could have drawn more out. ND filter could have drawn more out and allowed the water to become a blur. Sky more dramatic would be stronger. Do like the recession of 3 layers of mountain. Accepted

: Last Poppy to Pollinate: Lovely timing here. Love the fact that the whole of the petal closest to us is in nice sharp focus. Bee’s eye just in focus but not all of bee. Really nice bokeh and leading line of stem of poppy. Honours

: Dangerous Past: Fascinating erosion around lighthouse. Potential for a storm in clouds. While like the leading line of surf to beach but light house a bit squashed. Like the grasses in dunes in focus. DOF field well handled. Merit

: Mr Pullman: Nice lighting on the face and good catch lighting in eye on right hand side. Jacket a bit reflective and needs darkening down. But missing a story here. Other than his face and clothing, but nothing to set the scene. Environmental portrait can help to add to their story. Merit

: See I Am Broken: Had a lot of fun with this. Good use of colour with blue against red. Red seems to have separated in liquid in bottom which might have been better to waste some wine despite the sacrilege. Some pieces missing. It is nicely composed. Would be worth matching the top and bottom vignetting. Highly Commended