Viewfinders hold the first assessment of the year

The most popular evenings at Viewfinders’ of Romsey Camera Club continue to be the Assessment evenings, where a judge comes along to give his views on members’ prints, slides and digital images.

The first Assessment of the year had a very high entry, with judge Alan Cooke doing stirling work commenting on 85 images during the evening. Although he had to keep his comments brief to cover the number of entries, Alan’s enthusiasm for his photography was evident and his comments were always helpful. Chairman Jack Whitemore felt that it had been an excellent and refreshing evening, with the quality of the prints being particularly pleasing.

In the primary class of the prints section, Brian Lovelock’s “Red Arrows Display” scored a maximum 10 marks, with Alan being particularly attracted to its simplicity. There were five perfect 10s in the much larger advanced section. Alan was attracted to two natural history shots for their technical merit - Terry Jamieson’s “Red Kite” and Tony Rackham’s “Tortoiseshell in Silver”. He felt Peter Read’s monochrome presentation of “St Martin’s Churchyard” really suited the subject, and enjoyed the light in Brian Woodruffe’s landscape - “Stormy Night at St Veran”. Alan considered Bob Eaton’s “Sambuca” to be ‘a cracking shot’, that he felt was very well executed.

In the fast –growing digital image section, Alan awarded 4 tens. He was attracted to the light on Peter Read’s “Dusk Curves” and loved the reflections on Tony Rackham’s “Riders at Sunset”. New member Giles Smith must also be congratulated for scoring no less than two tens in his first competition, for his very original approach in “Digger Action” and “Gin,Tonic and a Splash of Ice”. In the advanced section, a single 10 was awarded to Basil Hopkins for his atmospheric harbour scene “Scottish Trawler”.

Slides continue to decline in popularity, but Alan awarded two 10s, both to George Marsh for his superb natural history photographs – “Sandwich Tern and Young” and “Bluetailed Damselfly”.

Margaret Kirby