The Travel Group is very grateful that Dr. Hazel Frost FRPS, Chair of the Travel Assessment Panel and of Licentiate panels accepted the invitation to judge this year's competition.
Introducing her decisions, Hazel said:
Thank you very much for asking me to judge this year’s Image of the Year competition. It was a pleasure to be able to look at so many images from different parts of the world- close to our homes and distant lands. It was a challenging task that took time to look at each of the 158 individual images. I reviewed them all several times before deciding on what I felt were my favoured images and then from there gradually making my decision. It was difficult as there were so many strong visually and technically excellent images all of which gave that “sense of place” I was very impressed by the diversity and strength of the images
The Travel category is broad and open to all sorts of interpretation which makes it so exciting. My aim was to look at the images within remit of “sense of place” but then to look further at images which had that photographer’s individual vision- something different, perhaps communicating more of the unexpected. Visual storytelling, catching a decisive moment, or using a different composition or crop added to the image.
Travel can mean all sorts of different things to different people and at these times it can mean a dream of something past, the place one finds oneself at in the here and now, or ideas for the future. All sorts of emotions can be evoked particularly during these challenging times when photography has been so important for people.
A Travel Image is different from a Travel panel. In a panel of 15 or 20/21 images one is looking at the images as a whole body of work, with an individual image one has to show intent in a single frame which leads to a different approach from the photographer and the viewer
Beyond communication and understanding of the subject I then looked at each in terms of technical merit- use of composition, a decisive moment, use of light and appropriate depth of field, exposure and shutter speed.
Once I had reduced the images to those I felt were worthy winners I then revisited them on several occasions on different days to come up with those I felt were worthy of awards and commendation.
