Forum Competition #137 "Up Close & Personal"

[Stbourne]

Deadline is now closed.

I will review and post my comments & winner later.

Thanks to all who entered.

Regards

[Stbourne]

Well here goes, sorry for the delay. I never said I was any good at this judging malarcky so hope no one is offended by any comments.


Janice - The Lioness, great opening photograph complete with battle scars and
lovely texture of the fur and whiskers. What bit of background is nicely
unobtrusive. I am presuming this is a tight crop to hide "zoo" habitat. There
are a coouple of areas that seem a bit "misty", near the right eye and the open
mouth and again am presuming this could be through glass shot? I'm sure you will
correct me if I'm wrong.

Eric - Street Artist & Dog, Nice candid shot of a guy who seems to be worse for
wear pity theres no interaction with you, what interested me most was the pose of
his dog it's face seems to tell the whole story.

Barbara - Butterfly, Lovely shot with the flower on a nice diagonal and
beautiful butterfly all in focus. Really like this image.

Tracey - Ladybird, Great saturation of colours in this with lots of detail on
the branch & yellow fungussy stuff. I like the red on yellow it catches the eye
but personally would have removed the white sun spot on its back.

Gill - Monkeys, An image i've really enjoyed looking at and lingered on whenever
I've nipped on to see if there were any new entries, lovely textures from the
animals and logs and a great "story" in the frame.

Bazzasmeg - Old & New, the image really doesn't need me to comment, nice record shot
of coins.

John - Venus fly trap, I love these plants, nice image with again great textures
and shades of the plant, but I'm distracted by the out of focus right hand
corner. Maybe a trapped fly would have given it a more macabre interest.

Bydo - Fairy Inkcap, Very nice nature picture, I have no idea what actaul size these grown but they remind me of lamp shades. Great shot and nice flowing shape, I like that the top right one is damaged and gives an insight to the internal structure.

Alisdair - Wild flowers, Beautiful coloured wild flowers contrasted great on the green background. The image seems out of focus which gives it an almost "painted" quality. I personally think the image a little large for the flower subject and might benefit a little cropping.

Tony Lee - Funny Face, unfortunately I can't see the image.
Only joking A Very well caught amusing and detailed shot of a dragonfly?
Love the colours and the expression. Hard to get the whole beasties in focus, well caught.

Thanks to you all for entering.

The Results are

3rd Barbara
2nd Gill
1st Tony (the amusement factor just tipped it from Gill)

over to you Tony well done.

[John]

Thanks Shaun, you did just fine!

Looking forward to Tony's new competition subject, I wonder what it will be?

[Janice Freeman]

Nicely Judged Shaun and some great images. The lioness was actually shot through a wire fence so you were more or less spot on. Unfortunately could not get the camera lens any closer and hence the misty effect. Well done to Barbara Shirley for coming third in her first ever comp. I am sure she will benefit from the constructive feedback which is always given. Congrats to Tony for winning this, now looking forward to your choice.

[Barbara Shirley]

Totally shocked to have been placed 3rd in my first ever competition, but really chuffed !

[melbarnes]

But very well deserved, Barbara - you're the one to watch now!!