| Title | Rating | Full Name | Comments Judge 38 |
| before plastic | 1 | Bruce Dorset | These are a fabulous collection of old toys. They could be worth quite a bit. This collection would have been set by the photographer on the lawn. There are beautiful textures on each of them. My suggestion would be to perhaps consider photographing closer, or from a lower angle. Even in setting up for a shot, do consider composition and use the shapes and forms to form a good composition. I see a lot of potential interesting images from using these objects. Keep working with them or individually under different lighting or settings. |
| My New Toy | 3 | Christine Anderson | The concept of toys have certainly change. This one is an image of an unboxing of a toy we cannot live without anymore. The setting is good with the use of a dark clean background. Works well for a product shot too. |
| Flossie Bunny's Birthday Party | 1 | Christine Anderson | I like this image. It gives me good memories of the times toys were integrated with play acting, children being children, playing with real toys and objects. The strong brown area is sitting on the third and sort of frames the brown toy. As this is a setting, do watch for areas such as bits of the table leg showing and the strong black shape on the bottom because the table cloth did not cover the leg of the table. The black shape is a bit of a distraction for this scene. When doing a setup, we have full control. |
| A Knight's Day | 1 | Barbara Herman | This is a digitally composed image. The blurry dark background used is effective for the two subjects. I would suggest working a little on the shadows for the horse so that it doesn't look as if it is floating. Maybe the objects resolution could be better, still a good attempt. |
| Thish Ish All Mine | 5 | Barbara Herman | What a cool humorous image. The blue label on the bottle, with a contrasting orange Garfield looking as if he had a good time drinking that. The simple effective background works for this image. The image is clear and playful. |
| Fire In The Hole | 3 | Stacey Townsend | There is a story here. The play using a triangle composition and the blur background creates a bit of a mystery for the viewer. The colour palette of this image fits what's at play here. The setting fits the story. |
| Lunch | 1 | Stacey Townsend | Effective use of negative space. Black and White for a graphical look and the fishes following the diagonal path ties the image together. A little more details on the penguin would be good. As I do not have any rules to this subject to refer to, in terms of what is allowed or not allowed, I have accepted this image |
| Potted Lamb | 1 | Michael Sullivan | Warm and homely feel to this image. I would suggest spot processing this image with a little more brightness and contrast around the lamb and the pot. Some minor adjustments can add to the image. |
| The Birdhouse | 1 | Michael Sullivan | What a beautiful birdhouse. So intricate and the gentle warm lighting used in the house gives it a lovely traditional feel. The little blue bird are well positioned. This image is cropped quite tight. My suggestion is to give more space around all around the bird house. This will allow the eyes space to explore a little more on such a grand birdhouse |
| From the jurassic age | 3 | Ruth Mooney | Kudos for the jurassic looking setting. This scene is believable. The depth used and shown makes this image also like a cinematographic scene. |
| My Love come to me | 7 | Ruth Mooney | Another well done scene that is rather lovable. How do you all do it so well? From what I have seen so far, it looks like Whangarei could be the next spot for a block buster movie to be made. It is not easy to work with tiny little objects and use the correct depth of field as well for this scene |
| Breaking Out Of The Camera | 3 | Jack Horlock | Clever concept and idea. It is never easy to photograph another LCD screen without any distortion. How you find the right toy for this concept is quite amazing. I wish I have toys like that. Good job. |
| Dale Really Digs Nuts | 7 | Jack Horlock | Everything about this image is delightful. The cheeky chipmunk and the nuts all set against a light blue background is perfect. This image is clean, clear and it is a well-executed setup. |
| Lets Go For A Spin | 1 | Noel Herman | That's a cool car. Unfortunately the front of the car is quite blurry. This could be controlled with aperture or image stacking. The strong blue patch in the background is somewhat a distraction. |
| Teddy Bear Picnic | 3 | Noel Herman | Another precious little scene using out great outdoors little treasures as a prop. Again, I would suggest a slightly less tight crop for especially for the top of the image. |
| My Kind Of Toy | 7 | Margaret Hooper | Skilfully executed high contrast image. The colour choice of the frame works magically for the image. The use of 5 white dices and 3 red ones all shows how much thought has been put in the setting of this image. The one white dice sitting on the lap is subtle but ties all the dices and this scene together. |
| She Will Be Right Mate | 1 | Karen Newton | Clever, a little bit funny and almost delicate. It would be good if the figure on the right was clear with a minor depth of field control. |
| Awakening | 5 | Karen Newton | Good title for this image. Quite absorbing looking at this image. Almost animated. The use of B&W is a good choice |
| Just Hanging Around | 7 | Julie Horlock | If I could judge with an emoji, I would have a big laughing emoji for this image. Clever and witty |
| George Catches A Wave | 7 | Julie Horlock | It's mind boggling how you are all so creative and have come up with such amazing images. This one is simply delicious. Where and how you found George is truly amazing |
| s52i_UnhappyDogs | 1 | Craig McCormick | Humourous. Deep and an extraordinary story. The image is quite grainy and needs to be just a little sharper. |
| s52i_BattleIsOver | 1 | Craig McCormick | Neat battle machines. I might move the object on the bottom left away from the edge or adjust the crop of the image as it is cropped quite tight. |
| Grandads new toy | 7 | Pamela Stephen | This is an Honours for several reasons. The pose of granddad with a red towel as a superhero cape, his toy and quality of lighting used for this shot shows technical knowledge applied. The cheeky face of granddad adds to the image. Super epic. This is my selection for top image for the competition. |
| Problem in the sandpit | 7 | Pamela Stephen | This is almost a documentary shot of someone mitigating a disaster of his expensive toy. There is drama and the image is well composed. |
| Skateboarding | 1 | Rose Tantau | Charming little doggie. Not sure about the setting used but the way the dog is looking up into the camera works. |
| Trendy Toy | 3 | Rose Tantau | The only action shot in this competition. Good sharp, well exposed image. Even though the object looks like it is in the centre of the image, the way it is tilted slightly have put it in the correct position of being off centre. Perhaps a crop to remove the blur area at the bottom of the image might enhance the image. |
