Judges – Donna, Rose and Coen. Scribe – Margaret H.
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- 1. Pep Ventosa Lemons –Salon- Great image almost feels like the shiver you do when you are eating a lemon. The almost drawing feel compliments the colour well. The Image has a good balance The use of the dark texture mainly in lower half could have been toned down as it feels unnecessary for the story. The leaves almost make it look like a pineapple, this could be deliberate, and the glass makes that shape stand out. However it was felt a smaller leave would have been better. -Honours
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- 2. Take Shelter – Novice Stormy clouds do create an ominous effect on this otherwise well lit scene of a historic church. It is nicely in focus where it needs to be. Nice story to the image with good detail in blacks and highlights. The image is sharp in all the right places with a good blur in the foreground, However it is a little crowded, the foreground does not add to the story line. The tree on the right needed a bit of a crop as it is a bit over powering. –Merit
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- 3. Pathway Patterns – Salon-Mono- Patterns Good symmetry and an engaging story. It is a pleasantly balanced composition of interesting boardwalk patterns. It makes you wonder where the track goes to, and what adventure is waiting.Great choice of monochrome, however the blacks are slightly too deep. Losing a little bit of detail and raising the question if the netting was real or added later. A very small crop from the right would bring it dead centre. -Highly Commended.
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- 4. Subtle Shades Of Fall –Salon- There are lovely shades of the bush. Good Depth of field. It almost looks like fire. The hints of colour are very nicely placed. There is a good perspective of the hill side. You really need to bring in a little more of the blacks by either UN hunching the contrast or move the curve a little more to the black. The colours will then really pop! – Merit
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- 5. Park Rain – Intermediate -Great sports shot with a fitting title, well chosen it has a good depth of field the image is nice and sharp in the foreground and a good story throughout a busy scene. This image also has a great close up shot hidden in it, we were fascinated by the guy running while clutching his cell phone This current way shows the whole story of the race and therefore could have been shot with a little wider depth of field. For an overview shot try a narrower aperture. And a small crop on the right would take out the bright yellow/green rain jacket on the bridge. -Highly Commended
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- 6. Eyes Left – Intermediate – This image is super sharp with a well well-handled background. Great texture and good lighting there is nice highlights on the jewellery and in the eye. Not too sure about the story or the need of the negative space on the right. It really needed the creating of a little more story to tell us. This is quite contemporary and has you guessing of what the story is? – Highly Commended
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- 7. Wild And Free – Salon -Amazing shot, DOF, Story, Light, contrast it is all there. The horses are sharp and they set the wild scene. How beautifully these animals blend with their environment. There are lovely details of the horses and the tussock. However sharpening has made the rain a bit harsh. The choice of fast shutter speed was great to avoid a rain haze, just be careful not to create blown out dots with sharpening. There are two photos in this image. Honours
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- 8. Kaka – Salon -This lovely bird is keeping out of reach high above. There is good feather detail, good lighting and lovely DOF. However the top left corner and on the right at beak height have some artefacts from postproduction this is a shame as the image would have a higher score. Highly Commended
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- 9. Moira Gate Arch – Salon – Great location to find a well handled composition creating a nice flow through the image. Rich tannins in the water glow in this image. It’s a shame about the blown out highlights, and harsh greens. Try playing with HDR, or layer two images with good outside and good under cover lighting. – Accepted
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- 10. Pukeiti Gardens – Salon – Looks like a 80s postcard, in a good way. There is nicely composed with the person in a good spot on the thirds. Nice garden setting in a landscape its sharp throughout and good flowing composition but there is a lack of focal points as there is no engagement with the person in the image. Boosting the vibrancies and or saturation has resulted in a very distracting blue sky. Tone the blues down a little or try cropping out the sky as it is distracting. The yellow hat of the second person could easy have been cloned out. -Accepted
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- 1. Whananaki Sunrise – Salon – This is a stunning image of our lovely coast. Horizon haze is well handled. There’s lovely colour thru out. However there is some colour noise in the ocean area. Also there is a need to remove the little noise that is in the Blacks. – Highly Commended
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- 12. Atlantic Puffin – Salon – What a show-bird! Great detail and background is fitting. There is a little noise in the blacks this is very easy to remove you can do this to the point where the details of the feathers are not affected but making for a cleaner presentation. You have been awarded an Honours
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- 13. Sea Goose and Chicks – Lovely image of this family of geese her fluffy chicks well in focus. This is a rare case where two heroes does work, as it enhances the story to have the two chicks at the bottom with mama looking over them all. At first, you wonder if all the area was needed then you spot the second pair of little ones down in the right corner. It is a well seen family shot however your whites are a too little bright.- Merit
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- 14. Ant Checking Out the Centre – Salon – This would have been a winner in a colour competition! It’s a humorous concept. You have handled DOF well and good details in the blacks and no blowout highlights. Its potential development is uncertain. A well deserved Honours
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- 15. It’s A New Day – Novice Nice calm morning. Nice reflections of the sky. You feel the chill in the morning air. Lovely sharp horizon line keeping your attention the dock is a little dark and missing some detail. Also, the land on the left side is missing the story a little by being too dark. You could brighten the image without blowing out the sky by letting the level curve have a little more shape. Merit
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- 16. Natures Power – Novice – Good use of slow shutter speed. You have a great image of the waterfall. Scene is well lit, the deep depth of field with the blurry water makes for a very interesting composition. The foreground is taking a lot of image real estate. Taking the same shot from a little lower would naturally crop the image a little. Bring your focus more into the waterfall. Highly Commended
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- 17. Twisted – Intermediate -This is an image with a few stories to unravel. It’s an interesting composition where the gnarly root is really the only thing in focus. A lot is going on, the blue window is a nice story on its own, to focus more on the twisted wood the background is a little busy and competing for attention. The bright green leaves on the left pull the eye away from the focal point. Perhaps crop out or darken the bright greens. Accepted
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- 18. Clever –Intermediate – What a character you have captured here. Food, glorious food!! Lovely action shot!! However shame the squirrel is not in focus as the camera chose the tree trunk to be the main character, and the camera focuses too much on the tree, leaving the squirrel barely visible in the frame. Crop a little on all sides, (if the squirrel was sharp) the long vertical crop ratio is fine and suits the shot, but background and leaves need to be removed in this image. Merit
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- 19. Mumbai Sunrise – Novice – This image makes you want to travel! Good light, great colour and sharp throughout, an ornate building showing the grandeur of yesteryear with birds wheeling around above. Lovely colours a difficult perspective, with a big gap between the birds at the top and the building. The story is there, but it’s just as powerful with the 4 top birds cropped out. Merit
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- 20. Night at the Port – Intermediate – Love this capture of Auckland all lit up. Well balanced image, a good foreground detailed lights with deep blacks that still allow for finding the details in the buildings. Yellow! It’s maybe a personal thing, and yes blue and yellow contrast nicely, but you seem to be held by the yellow and preventing you to see more in the image. Taking out a little of the yellow brightness, either by white balance or just some software that can take yellows out you will find you can keep enough of the oranges to keep the image very colourful. You have been Awarded an Honours
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- 21. Forest Falls – Intermediate – Love the water frozen with a slow shutter speed. A nicely framed image you can hear the rumbling of the water, this is an image that keeps the attention in the right place. The rocks along the right side of the waterfall attract your eye and they make you travel up the flow. All the other foreground leaves and left side are not competing too much for attention. However a very deep depth of field makes it a little flat. Losing the size of the falls a tiny crop along left, and bottom would enhance the balance. Merit
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- 22. Wild Waters – Salon Not a day for surfing, but great from above. Waves create a dramatic effect as they smash over the rocks, overall depth of field is making this a bit of a flat image. Not much you could do to isolate the wave a bit more. You handled the whites well with nothing blown out, but as the ocean behind the wave has the same whites it’s hard to make them stand out. Maybe a Polaroid filter would have made the sea-greens in the top part of the image a bit darker. Accepted
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- 23. Emu – Salon – You look handsome. Face nice and sharp amazing detail and a nice self-portrait captured in the eye. The story is a bit missing, we can see a bird behind it in the bokeh, but there is some action or interaction missing. There is a blue spot on the left this needed to be taken out. Highly Commended
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- 24. Charming Dogs – Salon Lovely nice sharp image the dogs are all trying to find their owner amongst the Blue Bells the image has good DOF. The frame of flowers is a little too big and is removing the attention from the dogs to the vast field of flowers. A big flower patch has a story on its own. This could be improved by cropping a bit off the left also take a bit off the top to bring the dogs more to the foreground as that is the title. Highly Commended
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- 25. On The Board Walk – Lovely clear day and the reflections are lovely. The darker soft focus on the bottom right is distracting. A crop from the right where we pick up the story from just by the blue tents and crop from the bottom where we reduce the grey patch of the water could hold our attention a little longer. This makes it a more evenly focused image. Merit
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- 26. Boys Will Be Boys – Salon Quirky and humorous and the exposure has been well handled the tongue tip showing his concentration. There are nice colours and a fun picture of a boy having fun with a magnifying glass. However there is high noise in the shadows and on the skin also patches where noise has been removed, but this does not seem to have been done on the entire image, or maybe the sharpening is done in a way where it brought back some noise. Have a play with your programme settings. Merit
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- 27. Love A Duck – Salon Love ICM, such a well seen pirouette. Good light on the top of duck. Shows reflection in the water the movement makes this duck seem to be in a spin. The dreamy effect and colours are maybe specifically chosen, but a little more contrast would boost the image. Highly Commended
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- 28. Photography’s Fun – Salon Who do I see?…a great image that draws you in to it. ( at light speed) This was a day at the beach with photographers. ICM handled well the slightly off-balance composition. The red on the right does seem to be falling out of the story. Accepted
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- 29. Black Aeoniu – Salon – The colours are lovely in this image; shame the centre of the flower is not sharp. The image has Good DOF; It holds your attention well by wanting to explore the centre or the sharp barbs. The green in the heart is a great attractor, maybe the green streak of background in left and top left and a little one on right could have been toned down to allow for maximum attention. Accepted
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- 30. Sunlit – Salon – Like the streets of a city, the leave resembles a map. Nice colours however it needed to be lightened a tad to get the real benefit of the leaves. This image is very soft. The soft green spot on the right needs to either be darkened or removed. Try the composition again. Accepted
