Our thanks go to Dr Michael Pritchard for judging our competition, his comments are shown below and the winning image now becomes the header image.
"It’s hard to know where to start. The RPS’s South West region clearly has a very talented group of photographers. The entries for the monthly competition ranged across fine art, contemporary, landscape, natural history, and humour too from Bob Morgan, although it was surprising that portraiture wasn’t represented. Perhaps we are all social distancing a little too much? With an open call the selector’s own interests and prejudices come in to play once a few weaker images are taken out. But even this didn’t help me much, as even those genres which are normally of less interest to me were very strong.
The flower pictures were all very beautiful with their authors’ different approaches from Jenny, Janet, Susannah, Diana and Lynn. Elsewhere the land and seascapes worked well and were a nice reminder of the world beyond lockdown. Rob and Ken’s insects were beautifully photographed. The subjects of the black and white images from Mike, Mick and Chris lent themselves well to monochrome which added atmosphere. It would be very easy to name-check everyone who submitted – so please accept my thanks for your submissions – which brings me to my winner.
As I said at the earlier this is very much choice and if I were selecting for a different type of competition or to a theme then a different winner would probably emerge. On this occasion my personal winner is Sand Fans from Lois Wakeman. We have all seen these pattern made by retreating water on the beach but Lois has captured a particularly distinctive pattern in which I can see a mountain range and forest. It is nicely observed and photographed it just worked for me on a wet Saturday afternoon.
But well done to all – on a different day it could easily have been someone else!"
Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS, Director, Education and Public Affairs at the Royal Photographic Society.
As last month, rules will be as before:
You must be a South West Region member, there is no theme, anything goes, phone photography, cameras or digital art, but it must have been made during the lockdown, ie after 23rd March. You may enter up to 2 images, emailed to:southwestweb@rps.org
They need to be no more than 1000pixels at the longest edge and each image should be titled please, author names will be shown.Please do not watermark your images but please include any distinctions letters in you email.
When received they will be shown on this page and the winner announced in early July.
The closing date will be 28th June, after which it will be judged and the best image, in the opinion of the judge, will be awarded a small prize.
Potential Copyright issues
I have today had confirmation today that it is not possible to show the images with the "credit to author" as shown on the header images. This is something over which we have no control. Therefore, for this months competition, there will be no "click to enlarge" option, the thumbnails as shown will be all that can be seen. Also. when the images are titled they will also show the authors name which will be available for all to see. The Judge will be given the option to view large size images when completing his judging assessment.
I hope this does not discourage entries as it would be a pity to let this spoil what was an excellent entry in May.
Left: Sweet pea, Jenni Cheesman LRPS
Right: Social distancing, Jenni Cheesman LRPS
Left Ladock Wood, Rob Eschle
Right Silver Studded Blues mating, Rob Eschle
Left Lock down, easy, Bob Morgan
Right Columbine, Janet Downes
Left Solar reflection June 2020 Nigel Dutt ARPS
Right Alstromeria Janet Downes
Left Facecovering, Jasmina Goodair
Right Hopeful, Jasmina Goodair
Left Decay Mike Bondartschuk
Right Tracks Mike Bondartschuk
Left Smallacombe Rocks, Dartmoor Joy Medley LRPS
Right Haytor Rock, Dartmoor Joy Medley LRPS
Left Blue Damsel flies mating, Ken Holland ARPS
Right Common Blue Damsel fly, Ken Holland ARPS
Left Butterfly, Mick Medley LRPS
Right Dartmoor view, Mick Medley LRPS
Left Lend a hand, Sue Searle
Right Five potatoes Sue Searle
Left Urban lockdown, Amber Burton
Right Abandonded, Amber Burton
Left Sand Fans, Lois Wakeman
Right Blue, Blue, Lois Wakeman
Right, No trains at Bovey today, Chris Brown
Left, Locked in colour, Anna Stevenson
Right, Sands of time, Anna Stevenson
Left, Sunset, Nigel Dutt ARPS
Right, Summer waters, George Collings ARPS,ADPS,CPAGB
Left, Cyclamen Fractal, George Collings ARPS,ADPS,CPAGB
Right,Holywell, Susannah Hoare LRPS
Left, Mud flats River Yealm, Sue Brown FRPS
Right, Bottles, Susannah Hoare LRPS
Left, Tree shadows on the tennis court, Sue Brown FRPS
Right, Dahlia softly Diana Fifield ARPS
Left, Campanula, Diana Fifield ARPS
Right, Pentire Poppies, Lynn Pascoe
Lower right, Covid social confusion Lynn Pascoe