[Jean:] I want you to think about it during the in cos it does help if you think about this before.... So some time, you know, during the interval or at the end if you could er give them to Heather... and then she'll hand them on to me afterwards. Erm, the social, I've got tickets for the social. So if you see erm
[speaker002:] Right.
[Jean:] during the interval. The dinner. Er, if anybody hasn't booked would they please see Elaine... either this week or next. Erm... I think that brings us to the end of the... announcements. Which brings us to... tonight's big competition number two. And I have pleasure in introducing our judge, Mark from Chelmsford. Would you please welcome Mark.
[speaker002:] [clapping]
[Mark:] Good evening. I've been to your lovely new... really smashing! Really nice.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Erm... you know, I mean er... all the other places are alright, but this is er... I don't know
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] the only one I know of that's with
[George:] Well
[Mark:] with a carpet on the floor.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Can, can we have... can we have some light on? If someone could crawl under the
[George:] No th
[speaker002:] Underneath.
[George:] fo underneath the... you've gotta clo crawl underneath the cupboard.
[Mark:] Oh!
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] You found it. [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Right. Thank you. Okay?
[Jean:] The.
[George:] Right. This one
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] this one is called Ancient Greek.
[Mark:] Ancient Greek?
[George:] Ancient Greek.
[Mark:] Yeah, well there's no doubt about that is there? Certainly er, the er... in fact, some of them have got titles at the front so
[George:] Yeah.
[Mark:] you know. Anyway, Ancient Greek. It's a... a sort of a... a candid portrait I suppose. And the reason I call it a candid portrait is because I don't think that the... he may have seen somebody there with a camera, but he certainly wasn't posing... for the camera. He's... appears to be... erm... not looking at the... the cameraman, photographer. So maybe he didn't know he was going to be photographed. But certainly, his... er location is correct for the costume. He's got this er... I guess he's... could he be a priest? I don't know, I'm not... familiar with that. But it looks as if he could be... an Orthodox... er Jewish Orthodox priest. With the long beard and the... sort of box hat. Erm... the, as I sa already said, the location is correct. Got nice sort of archway here to give a sort of a... bit of interest to the... erm... the... bri the stonework behind him. Erm... doorway there, always a doorways always add interest to a picture. Erm, they're sort of a little bit intriguing, you wonder what's going on there, what sort of place it is, and so on. And there's nobody else in the picture so we're totally concentrating on him.... It does lack a little bit of sharpness this one.
[speaker002:] Yes.
[Mark:] It's not quite as crisp as it ought to be. It's er... but... the actual tones in it are, are ideal. Beautiful! Nothing wrong with that at all. You've got er, all the tones it should have but, the overall crispness, sharpness I'm afraid, is lost. But I'm not quite sure why. It doesn't look like camera shake. It just... appears to be... just a fraction... out of focus maybe, I don't know. Maybe er... could be a camera shake. I it,i it does lack that... crispness we feel ought to have there.
[George:] Have marks out of ten so erm
[Mark:] I like the subject, and I like the composition and so on, but it just loses a bit because of the lack of sharpness so a five for that.
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] This
[George:] Steps.
[Mark:] Step. Yeah, right.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Slowly got that. Certainly... a very simple picture and I believe often that simple pictures are successful pictures. Erm... not always, but I think a lot of pictures or photographs... erm... suffer because people have got too much in them. You know, and, and I... I prefer something to be kept as simple as possible and not to try and... erm... make it too busy. Certainly, the quality of the printing in this one is excellent. Lovely light on the... the wall here. The texture's right everywhere through that photograph, it's got nice texture. Cos even in the... the shadow area... you see there's still nice textures shown on the... fronts of the steps here and on this wall here which is in shadow, it's still got th the texture showing through. And, the way those steps go round the corner, up behind the er... erm... the wall here, I think again, it has a sort of an intriguing effect, you wonder... erm... where they're leading to and so on. And they're very steep steps. I mean, er... you know er, a little bit dodgy. I would think som someone a little unsteady coming down those steps they could be a bit dodgy. But, certainly, I like the shapes, I like the diamond shape of this wall here, the, and I like the tree at the back. Yes, I, I like that one. I think that's an... an excellent... simple... study. It's the sort of picture which... people who are not interested in photography wouldn't even bother with, probably, but see what they're missing? So they've done it, I think... someone er who's walking along the road, see you standing there taking that picture and say, what on earth are they taking a picture of that for? But I, you know, the end result erm... is worth it. Erm... I've had a quick look through so I'm trying to remember... er what we've got coming.
[George:] Mm.
[Mark:] I'm gonna give that one a ten cos I like it.
[speaker002:] [clapping]
[George:] That was Elaine. Skyscape, Loch Linnhe.
[Mark:] I like this one too. I know erm... it's got loads of punch. It's got... er, impact, it's, it appeared relatively small so... you know,to erm... it's a fact of life that small prints... have a, a lot more to do to keep up with big ones, they have to more impact. I mean, they can... er... be lost a bit if they're a bit small. But, I, I'm not, you know, because thi but compared with the one that we've just looked at... this is small, but it's still got plenty of impact. Now,yo you can imagine what this would be like if it was twenty by sixteen. Just a, to, just trying to illustrate the point that size does matter sometimes. I like the erm... lighting throughout this, although it's... fairly dark... there's nowhere... excuse me, on the, on the land which is... in bright light, although the sun is still fairly high, so it could be artificially dark, but, nevertheless, you can see detail everywhere. On the water, the ripples on the water are throughout the picture... and even on this sort of headland here, something like that, there's even some detail there. So even though the whole thing is in... fairly dark tones, there's still plenty of detail. And lovely light on clouds and the water. So, I'm gonna give that one an eight.
[George:] Eight? Heather. Next one is Fascination.
[Mark:] Fascination of watching somebody doing something which you're not familiar with. Probably that's it. Er, that's where the title comes in. Now with... people who are... at work, who are... erm, working... with their hobby, or a job, it's always important that it's clear what's going on. I've seen lots of pictures where... people are obviously doing something that you just don't know what's going on and that, that is a pity because er... er... the idea of a photograph is to illustrate what's happening. Now I think er... it's clear what's going on here, there's er... weaving going on, I'm not quite sure what the material is... er but there's certainly a loom with some kind of er, weaving being demonstrated. And it, er, er, cos I say demonstrated because we've got these two people here, er this man and the little girl there who are obviously, erm... on a visit to this mill... watching what's going on. So i it's a, it's a... a straightforward demonstration. And er... I think that's er, the actual composition with the three people in it... is quite good. It is a little bit weak and it lacks a bit of punch. You know, it's a bit sort of er... washed out. I think a bit more... contrast... added to it would help... it does lack a little bit of contrast. Erm... I just wonder whether it might not have been better... to move round a little bit to the left... so we could have seen the lady's hand and sa... as well er er and... as well as her face, you know, we've gotta get... we can see what she's doing, know what she's doing... but it'd been nice if you could have included... her hands. And er... yes i also, I would think, it's a little unfortunate this chap happened to have his hand up on that er... post there,yo you know, it's a little bit er... ungainly, it's not sort of a very... elegant sort of po I'm not su suggesting he should pose for you, but I think, maybe had you waited until perhaps he moved his hand out of the way, it might have been a better... erm... composition. Erm... a five for that.... And so
[George:] Kathle [LAUGHTER] Sorry.
[Mark:] Sorry.
[George:] Kathleen.
[Mark:] As opposed to the candid portrait, we've now got a... a formal portrait, obviously taken... er in a studio or erm... with light, well I don't know
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] about pho photographic studio, but certainly lights and a background erm... of some nature being used... to produce this photograph. Now with... photographs of young ladies... you need... a soft light cast shadows. I'm sure a lot of cliches, you hear cliches from judges... er but... you know, some... facts erm... are bound to be repeated with na and with being a photographer you,yo... normal female photography you do need... er soft lighting, you don't want harsh lights and shadows. The they, there are always exceptions to the rule. This one's, certainly, got very soft lighting. Erm, no harsh shadows anywhere... on her face. Nice flaunting of the... er the... erm... the face, her cheeks there. Nice lighting on the hair. And I like the inclusion too, of... just a little bit of jewellery, not too much. This earring here, this pendant earring just... lifts that area up just a little bit, not too much, not too obtrusive, but just enough for sort of a... a highlight catching the pendant earring just to lift it up a little. And particularly I like the background too. I think the... erm... breaking up of the background with his sort of mottled tones,, or whatever it is, whether it's the background, you know th the background... paper or lights, there's lots of ways you can achieve that. And it is important that the background has got some interest, but no so much interest that you've forgotten about the subject. That's a nine for that one.
[George:] Howard. Western Isles, Scotland.
[Mark:] Erm... the... use of the letter box format here, this long, narrow... format is ideal for this... type of landscape. Well for most landscapes to be honest. Er, I think fit into the horizontal format le within the vertical, but, when you've got... long, sort of, gentle slopes like this, and expanses of water I think if you can narrow it down, as you've done here, that helps too. So I like the... the narrow... er... letterbox format. The other good thing about this is the recession through it. The, the way the hills... get lighter as you go through... until we get right to the back and you finish up with a little bit of... erm... very light cloud... beyond the hills in the distance. It's not a great exciting... er, picture. It's not, the light over the water is perhaps a little bit disappointing. Erm... i it doesn't... it's got plenty of ripple on it. I'm surprised that we're not picking up... a bit more... a few more highlights, it's a bit. It hasn't got any sparkle to it. But I think, it looks a, a bit like a ploughed field, you know, but when you, it's obviously, water but it, it doesn't look... wet like water should do. Now the boat there with, with the wash, yeah that's fine. But, [clears throat]... the light, I think, is perhaps, the thing which lets it down, just a little. It's a pity really because... the hills and so on beyond are, I think, fine cos the, I like the way it's presented and very, very nicely mounted. Just lacks a little bit of er... quality lighting. So a seven for that one.
[George:] Sunshine and [clears throat] Sunshine and Shadow.
[Mark:] Sunshine and Shadow. Yeah well... certainly er... it's got the, the title which explains... erm, what the photographer was trying to portray. These er... on... when they look to be the cloisters of a cathedral, although, when you look through... they seem to open out into street, so I'm not quite sure... exactly what sort of building it is. It seems to... turn into a street when you get beyond... you know, those archways. Erm... again, it's not quite as sharp as I would like to see it, it's... a little bit er... unsharp. Erm, another thing too... it's a, just a pity that that... chap there, well both of them actually are standing whe pity they couldn't... be persuaded to move over a little bit because they are, you see this chap in a dark suit, he's right against that very dark archway there. The only real reason you get to know that there's somebody there because you can see the legs and the sort of, sort of head, but yo... it does tend to get a bit lost against the background. So you're not standing in quite the right place. I like the idea of the sort of... archways looking out... to the right... letting light... sort of fall in... and it, and... make a nice pool of light ideal for somebody who's standing, but he's not standing in quite the right place. He's not picking up... the, the light. Which is a shame. Nice archways there. Very interesting shapes in the roof. But it does lack a bit of... erm... quality. A five for that.
[George:] The Closed Door.
[Mark:] Another door. Another very simple... you can er... another [clears throat]... simple picture. Very similar to the steps that we saw
[speaker002:] Mm.
[Mark:] erm... earlier on. This one, I think, is nice. I don't think it's quite as nice as the, the previous one. It's er... erm... a little bit more... straightforward a... we're looking straight onto this wall, looking straight onto the steps, and we're looking straight onto the door, so everything is... looking, sort of... erm... full-faced as it were and I think that makes for a less interesting composition than the previous one. Being sort of at an angle to it and, but i it... first of all it... allows you to see textures in the wall and things rather better, erm... and it makes for... generally speaking, a more interesting composition. You see, these... steps here tend to look as if it's a pile of... beams or something with a door standing on top, but you quite clearly see those steps, but you don't get the depth of the steps so... everything is a bit flat. The whole thing tends to get flat. Certainly, it's a very interesting door, and it's got nice er... positioning of the... of the er... and so on. And I'm sure that there is a... the thing is, it's quite a nice photograph but I'm not too happy with the actual... view. I think it would be better, in my own experience, move over to that er... the left a little bit just to... go for a slightly more interesting... composition. A seven for that one.
[George:] [clears throat]... Eileen.
[Mark:] That's er
[George:] Mm.
[Mark:] the name of the place is it?
[George:] It's a co is that the one with the castle?
[Mark:] It's a castle. Yeah.
[George:] Yeah. That's is Eileen's then.
[Mark:] Oh! Right. Oh sorry, I've got, I've got written here.
[George:] No.
[Mark:] I'm sorry.
[George:] Print number eight. It's got
[Mark:] Oh yes. Yes.
[George:] Yeah.
[Mark:] Mm. Yes it is. Erm, now this a... a castle which... I'm sure has been photographed... thousands and thousands of times. Erm, I can never remember the name of it and I, I, and I forget it by the time I get home, but, the name of the castle that is. But it's erm... often photographed a I've... don't recall seeing it photographed... from this actual point. Er, er it... I think the whole... place is sort of over the other side there's a, sort of a bridge there and possibly, I mean, I'm sure that I've seen a photograph from the other side. Erm... with this... sort of landscape... I always... credit the type of lens which is being used, and I think a wide angle lens has been used here, because... we could see there's been a lot of interest created in the foreground, and this is what a... a wide angle lens... will do for you in, in, in a landscape. It will create interest in the foreground which I think is important and often, especially looking across water... an expanse of water... if you haven't got any interesting detail in the foreground yo you have to go a long way into the picture before it begins to get interesting. So, don't forget the foreground, and the best way to emphasize the foreground is with a... a wi wide angle lens. Something wider than a standard lens. A thirty five millimetre or something that'll be quite... erm... [clears throat]... yeah, I think the... er cloud and sky is nice and the foreground is nice. It's just a pity that the... castle itself is... a little bit indistinct... I mean, when you stand away from it you can't er... you can hardly see the castle there and er, it is an attractive castle, photographed many times but... I would just like to see that... shown up a little more in the picture. And I think possibly you could... er, with a little bit of erm... er... slightly more contrasting in the back maybe. Er, and I think perhaps that castle could be persuaded to show up just a little more than it does. It does tend to get lost in the boundaries.... Erm... another seven for that one there.
[George:] Fingers Crossed.
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER]... Yeah. Fingers crossed for luck.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] ... [clears throat]... Yeah it's a... I would guess that this er... we you know, when they come down... and the strips and they go back up again, it looks as if perhaps that's what's happened here because the... the rope has sort of got this twist in it and one imagines that when they jump down it's not quite er... er... right and so perhaps he's on his way back up again. But er, nevertheless, I think er it's a, obviously a spectac a spectacular thing... to watch. To stand down here and see this idiot who's gonna leap off
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Jean:] there. Erm... er... it's quite a spectacular... thing to watch, I imagine if you're there. As a photographic subject, but yeah, I, it's... simple... and it's, it's a bit sort of small, the actual, I don't know how you could make it any bigger but I do don't know what you could do. Really, the, the real point of interest is the chap who's doing the... person rather, who's the doing the jump. Erm... I suppose having this great exten extended crane there does give a good impression of height, but, the action is here and... i it's a little small in the frame and, but... although I'm sure, you know, there's quite a fe I imagine there's a lot of people standing around watching and so on, but... as a... photograph at the end of the day I'm not sure it has quite enough impact to be... erm... terribly interesting. It's a... an interesting thing to do, I'm sure, er... but erm... maybe you should have the jump... taken the photograph on the way down.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] But er... yeah, it's, it's... I find it loses er, a little bit of interest fairly quickly... erm because it's, the main subject, the chap jumping down, I think the road was nicely shown, but... perhaps if you could have just... had a, a longer lens just to make it a bit more important... in the picture. Er, five for that one.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]... Leica Three C, manufactured nineteen forty nine to nineteen fifty.
[Mark:] [clears throat]... Well...
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Well this... to, to photograph anything, this just happens to be a camera and I suppose that would appeal to a lot of camera collectors... to people that I... er er who I work with, people I know, friends and that, they know I'm interested in photography and they always ask me about cameras
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] and I hate it! I
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] and I say well, you know, I'm not really interested in cameras.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Oh! Alright.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] No, I'm interested in photographs but not so much in cameras. I, I'm interested in the cameras which I use and that's it. So, I really know nothing about Leica cameras, I've never used one, I don't particularly know anything about them. Cos this happens to be a camera but it could just as well be... er an electric toaster, or any, any inanimate object... taken... er, in this fashion, and the thing you've got to do if you take a photograph of an inanimate object... er, like this, is to light it correctly, er... it's got to show all the erm, detail finely, and it's got to have good quality in the printing. And I think this one does. I think the lighting on it is excellent. When you look at the... erm... the, all the engraving around the various controls and the nerving on the knobs here, all very nicely... lit. And even, although you can't read it all, it's very hard because it's sort of at a... an oblique angle. Even the engraving and writing on the top... on, on, on the top of the viewfinder here is nicely lit, you can see that it's er... er, the light is catching all the various edges of the engraving on the top. So, very nicely lit. Erm... where... it has lost a little bit of the quality of the lighting... is round the base. You see, especially here, that sort of erm... white metal bit, the er... brushed chrome sort of finish on that tends to get a little bit lost in this white background. It doesn't here, that's fine, it's great here, but, at the bottom... because it, it's not being lit quite so well as the top you're tending to lose a little bit of... quality, especially there. Not so much there, little bit better there, but that... bit so, okay, it's er, you've set yourself a task to do a... sort of a lighting exercise to photograph this camera... er... so,yo you... you know, you must really... control the lights... and the... do the best you can. But I think... you've done very well, with just one little weak area round that but... but it's not easy to do, you've got a very light background... and you've got a very dar presumably black... body of the camera
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] so you... you've got a very contrasting to start with. So, to get the exposure right and get the... the whole thing right throughout is, is not an easy task to do. And this has almost worked, just a slight... there. So, a seven for that one.
[George:] Seven.
[Mark:] Yes.
[George:] Sarah. [clears throat]
[Mark:] Very nice er... nicely presented... er print. Lovely mounting and very clean and crisp. And... I often say that... young ladies who are looking over their shoulder like this, you've gotta be careful... of the neck because when they turn round and look over their shoulder you get creases in the neck, and there is a slight crease in the neck there but most of it has been disguised... by covering it... with her hair, so... look out for that when you... have a young lady, or anybody, looking over their shoulder, particularly with young ladies, when they look over their shoulder like that it does cause creases in the side of the neck... which can be unsightly. Erm... I think you've... been conscious of that and have... made sure the hair... has covered the creases up. Erm... the light on her hair is excellent. Very nice lighting on her hair. Again, that sort of mottled background, I don't know whether it's the same background, but it's very similar... to the one
[speaker002:] [sneeze]
[Mark:] we had earlier. This time we've er included her hand and... because she's got... nail varnish on... er, you've got the sort of highlights coming from the nails which tend to accen accentuate her fingers. However, they're not too obtrusive, they do sort of when you're looking at her shoulder here and her hand wasn't there I could well imagine that you'd get a bright highlight... off her shoulder, so maybe putting hands there it has helped in er, er to, to eliminate that. So, yeah, I quite... er... like the use of the hand in that one. Sometimes hands can be a bit of a problem, but I don't think it is there. Erm... I think it's just a little too much looking over their shoulder because... sh to, to, in order to look at the camera she's having to... keep her eyes over really,yo you know really... over to her... er right, and erm... it tends to be a little bit erm... uncomfortable. I think perhaps not quite so much, you know, bending of the head might have been slightly more comfortable. Nevertheless, I think that's good. Eight, for that one.
[George:] [clears throat] Gordon.... Green Bottles.
[Mark:] Green Bottles ha? I'll take your word for that.
[George:] Hanging on the wall. [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER]... Yes they look like erm... yeah I thought they were gourds when I first saw them. I thought they're good gourds.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]... [LAUGHTER] Good gourd []! [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] And by, Gordon. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. Yeah, they are gourds.
[Mark:] Are they?
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Anyway... yeah, there's three of them which is good er... number to have. Any subject... er... three seems to suit, all odd numbers, funny enough, seem to better... than o even numbers, I dunno why, but erm... maybe I've been told that by so many judges I begin to believe it. Erm, but, yeah, I think three is a good number. The third one up here, the small one, is a little bit sort of lost because... it's against er, this sort of... cavity light here so that one tends to get a little bit lost. These two... are quite erm... clear. Erm... the actual shape of them is er... quite... quite interesting and fairly unusual shapes so that's er, an interesting feature. I don't find the... the... the overall thing terribly interesting. I don't think it's a... er... maybe it's because the background, I think, I'm just trying to... make up my mind why it loses a bit of interest, and I think what happens is, that the background being, having all this foliage which is lots of light pouring on er, all this sort of twiggery round here is... er picking up lots of highlights and that tends to detract from the... fairly plain shapes... and smooth surfaces... of the gourds. So, so, I think the background, I think, as I said earlier on that keep the photograph simple... and I think this one, perhaps, has got too much background. It's one of those where the background tends to overpower the subject. Certainly that one is totally overpowered by the background and these ones are tending to be just a little bit. I think it would have been perhaps better if you, somehow er, maybe er I dunno, you could erm, nothing to do with you so you ri you're not in a position to be able to move them... erm... but if it was possible to put them in a, a different situation I think would have made a more interesting picture. Er, six for that one.
[George:] The Porch Way.
[Mark:] This is a, you know, this is the third one which is er... was similar to others we've had, the steps and we had the other door and... a few steps down, and then, this is all similar types of photographs and all taken from different sort of... angles. Erm, one, the first one, nice... angle to the stairs and the other one looking straight on, and this sort of half and ha half. It falls between the two. I think the composition again is simple, which is, nice light, the simplicity of it. Er... I particularly like the land that it's on there, that adds a bit of interest to it, it's another... view, another sort of... point... to attract your eye. But I think perhaps, that in a way that becomes the main... point is that, although it's called The Porch Way, I mean, you know that's fair enough because you can see it is a porch, it's not clearly defined we we've got this sort of two pillars here, and a little bit of green, so they're losing a bit of shape of the porch... er and this becomes the sort of erm... main... er... point of the picture. I it it's, I think... the porch itself... again is... we're not showing the shape of the porch and the details of the porch in sufficient detail and... it's a pity really because I think that there is a, a nice... photograph to be had there. Er... again, it's all down to... where you're going to stand to take the photograph, and I'm not so sure that you... I think you've gone a little,no you know, I, I criticized the other one a bit, from the same person I think it possibly is because it's the same style, the same sort of mounting. Erm... but I think it's gone a bit too far the other way this time unfortunately. But, it's nice quality, very good printing, erm... another seven for that.
[speaker002:] Ha.
[George:] Ne next one is no title.
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] Well you couldn't really get much more simple than that. Just this post on a pebbly beach somewhere, er with some very nice clouds in the... in the sky. And I think er... the quality of the printing is again very good. The clouds are nicely shown, the pebbles are nicely shown. And, as this post here, with, whatever it is, it looks as if it's got some paddings on the ground, maybe a, a boat sometimes gets moored up to it and that's just to stop the boat... er banging up agai maybe the tide comes in that far, I don't know. Erm... the actual post I liked, I'm glad it's standing up above the horizon because at least that way, you know,i it does... it's given some dominance in the picture. But once you get down below the horizon you get to look round this area here where there's some rope tangled round, some kind of padding, it does tend to get a little bit lost amongst all the pebbles. So maybe, it would have been better if you could have even got down a bit lower... and to, to, to... get more of it from the horizon. I think the idea of using this in the foreground er, as I was saying, with landscapes, and the same thing applies to seascapes as well, it's nice to have a bit of detail lower down, but I don't think that the... the background, the sort of, main part of the photograph is... terribly strong. I think it really needs to be... the whole photograph needs to be given more strength on making more of this post here. I think the bit that stands up above the horizon is fine, I mean I think that gives you a good idea... of what it would have been like had you been able to get the whole, or not perhaps the whole of it, but a lot more of the post up above the horizon simply by getting down lower. So six and a half for that one.
[George:] Six and a half?
[Mark:] Yes.
[George:] Thank you.... Next one is The Shrimper.
[Mark:] I think this is a chap
[George:] Yep.
[Mark:] wading out there... with a shrimp net. Erm... well perhaps. And again, we've got three... boats. Er... three, a nice number to have of any subject. And they're... nicely separated. But often boats moored up on the river... tend to blend into one another, but these three boats are completely separate, separated, they don't overlap... each other at all. Erm... although we can, if you look closely you can see that this chap has got a shrimp... net in his hand, er... so... you get a fair idea of what's going on. There's a... someone here with a couple of dogs. Erm... but, [sigh] he's a bit sort of lost in it, he's, he doesn't have any dominance really. I think he's overpowered by the three white blobs of the boats. It tends to... it tends to be a bit lost... in the earthiness of the mud and the water. Er, you can see that this is a... I don't know whether, it appears to be darker at the centre than it is round the edges, I don't know whether... you... tried to burn it in just a little bit in the middle, holding back the edges, but it's, it's got sort of a darkish patch... i in the centre. Erm... yeah I, I, it's... the idea's there but I think it does lack a little bit of impact. Th the boats are fine but the... the main... human interest in it does tend to be, in fact, the... personally, the two dogs has... has more prominence in the picture than this chap, which is a pity. I think possibly a long lens, just the having... sort of, the two boats, again, that might have been... better. And a five for that one.
[George:] Dusk on Derwentwater.
[Mark:] Yeah. Nice... lighting on the hills beyond
[George:] [sniff]
[Mark:] this is a very good example of er... putting interesting detail... in the foreground in the way that tall bit of... wood there... is really making quite a... a, an interesting subject in itself... in the foreground. Also, the fence which runs out into the... the lake... er... just breaks up the... the distance between the... the piece of wood and the bank. Because the water in itself er, I'm sure that when you're there it's erm... it's a beautiful place to be, but the water in itself in this photograph... has not got the best of light on it. You don't get the good, really good light until you get across the water and out onto these hills and that's where the... the good light is in that erm... top i third of the picture I think is where the real quality is. Erm, the bottom of the picture, perhaps not quite such good quality, but certainly it's got... er, interesting detail.... Lovely clouds. That, sort of, it's got the, it's one of those sort of days I think... when you've got lots of cloud about... broken clouds, so every now and again the sun will come through and light up different areas of the picture. Er, and that's, that's the sort of light you do need for... landscapes, and that's happening over here. Just not quite such lowish light on that... er, foreground, but certainly interesting detail there. An eight for that one. Mm.
[George:] No title for the last one.
[Mark:] You see this post standing up here... now we've got down a lot lower this time, in fact, I think, it's the same post.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] The erm... much, given much more... dominance in the picture by... making it stand right up above the horizon. And I think this one is... better... for several reasons, I think you can quite clearly see now once you've had a chance to look at this, the other one we saw, we, we eliminated this boat, we eliminate that post and this boat, or rather we just have this post and the sea beyond. Now, same sky
[speaker002:] It's the same.
[Mark:] but I think now you've included this little foreground it really brings the whole picture to life. And a very good example, if you put these two together just to see what you can do by moving round to a different viewpoint. Er, don't always take the first one... and that you take loads of picture around, if you see an interesting subject, make sure you move around and take loads of pictures, and then select the one for printing. And I think this is a very good... erm... er... illustration of that fact. All you had to do here was to move back a few steps and you've made it much more interesting... in the foreground. So a much more satisfying picture... erm... yeah I think that one works... much better. So, and eight and a half for that one.
[George:] Gordon.
[Mark:] Okay, so we start judging?
[George:] Well yo yes you can do Mark. Let's get... three of copies and... if you do three of the colour you'll be half way.
[Mark:] Yeah. We should be.
[George:] Alright.
[Mark:] Right. Okay er
[George:] That's called It's My Teddy. [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Yeah, and I think the way she's cuddling the teddy bear and that expression on her face seems to, to, to suit the title. And also, the use of the yellow background, I don't know, erm... whether it was deliberately chosen or whether she just happened to be standing there, but the yellow background makes it stand out. Erm, you know, it's the sort of picture which captures your eye, and this is... one thing you should try and do with your photography is to capture the onlooker's eye or eye, and having the yellow background, it does. I like the er, you know, the nice little grin on her face, and the way she's cuddling the teddy, erm... teddy that happens to be a rabbit, it leaves us
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] the teddy is a rabbit you could say.
[speaker002:] Mm mm.
[Mark:] Er... yeah, I think that one's... quite a nice family... album... er portrait. It's not a great competition-winning portrait, but er certainly, it's fine, sort of family album stuff and the sort of thing which'll be in the family for many, many years to come. When she's... sort of, twenty five or thirty, someone will drag this out and say, oh no! Not that again. But er... nevertheless, it would be kept... er for many, many years and quite deservedly so. Erm... a seven for that.
[George:] Seven.
[Mark:] Now
[George:] Dusk at Finchingfield Mill.
[Mark:] I think the er... one of the things which helps this... one, is the way it's been mounted. I think this large mount, tends, somehow tends to accentuate the er... the windmill... certainly the colour, the... sort of creamy colour of the mount, and the creamy colour of the windmill go nicely together, as do the sort of more subtle colours in the sky. And er, it's difficult to... know quite how to photograph windmills. Er, you know, do you include all the... four sails? Or do you... move around and just... erm... concentrate on one or more of them? Do you have them going right to the edge? You've gotta... make up your mind how you're going to photograph them. And I think this one... is reasonably successful. I often think that perhaps putting the hub of the sails in, more or less in the centre of the picture perhaps, not the best place, but I think because in this case, we've got a lot of trees down to the bottom here. Although the, the hub of the sails is more or less in the centre of this photograph... it's not in sent not in the sense of, of the area of vision because you've got a lot of dark area here so that tends to move the centre of vision so it becomes... this bit, if you like, and... so that's not in the centre there. So, it doesn't really matter so much in this particular case.... A seven for that picture.
[George:] This one is called Nonnie.
[Mark:] Nonnie, Nonnie, Nonnie.
[George:] Nonnie, Nonnie.
[Mark:] Erm... the idea of, sort of, close cropping as you've done here and, you know, that's quite a... an acceptable and... well-known method of showing facial portraits. And I think it does... work nicely because it,th most of the frame is filled with the girl's hair and she's got nice blonde hair, nicely lit, that erm... is a good way of showing off her head. The light on the hair is fine. Where it's not quite so good I feel... is on her face. You got this, sort of shiny nose and quite vast shadow... there and then quite... bright highlight on her bottom lip. So the light on her face is just a little bit too harsh. I don't know whether... a reflector or a, an umbrella was used, but it does need... something, er, some form of lighting which is a little less harsh. I find that... there's, you know... a lot of shade on her face... er... which is a shame. I like the use of the... pe the pearls have made, I think that's good. And the earring does a very nice job... there. Tt. Just a, I find that... she almost looks as if she's been out in the sun and that it sort of looks like very strong sunlight on her face which is a shame really. Needs to be softer, needs to be softer and that can be done by using a... a diffuser over the light, using an umbrella, any way that you can... soften, like using a reflector, all kinds of things to do. Erm... yeah it's a pity really. Er, a seven er for that one.
[George:] Next one, Two's a Pair.
[Mark:] And... although these are obviously er... at some kind of show because if you look beyond the horses you can see there are marquees... and so on in the background. So it's presumably er... a competition... or a... or er... demonstrating the old fashioned agricultural machinery. It's obviously a show, and I mean... you could well imagine that in the old days you need... horses were really used to do... a full day's work, they didn't have quite such... er... nice clean tack a as these... ones. Certainly they are magnificent animals. And they are, and they're... magnificently photographed. The two... erm handlers here, I don't know whether there's one who's handling and the other one's just... sort of having a chat... with him about... but, you know, they... they're important in the picture but they're not er... you know, the horses completely dominate the, the two people in the picture. And it's nice, I think, to include... this... plough, if that's what it is. No it's, yeah it is a plough. Er, this is a harrow plough. Er, so it's a nice to include that lovely bit of old machinery as well. Very handsome pair of... horses, nicely photographed.... It's not got the creative thing, which, I mean, competition, to get a... a ten, or a nine, you've gotta really have... some creative element in it, this hasn't quite got that, but it is a very strong picture and, and very nicely photographed so I'll give this one, eight.
[George:] Eight. Nigel.
[Mark:] I don't know if I saw, or that one. Yeah.
[George:] If you'd like to do this one Mark then... you can have a break
[Mark:] Yeah.
[George:] and tha you're, you're
[Mark:] Okay.
[George:] just over half way.
[Mark:] Alright. Erm... well he's certainly... you know, he would go ideally with the horses, I don't know whether this one is
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] at the same show... er
[George:] Ha.
[Mark:] show or whatever, I,
[George:] Mm.
[Mark:] I could well, could well be the same... event as that because he certainly... looks to be the right sort of character. Got a lovely... erm... weather-beaten face and the way he's... wearing his hat. I dunno, I dunno whether he's erm... he really could be, I mean... he could be... the thing is he could be... compared to... a hobo. But erm... certainly with this style of hat was commonly worn I suppose to his... and by the people who work on the land, certainly in this part of the world. But he has got the continental grammar sort of Italians, you know what they're like.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Erm, but certainly... erm... but er... he's certainly got an interesting face. And it's nicely lit. Er we, we... this time we don't mind that we've got... fairly harsh lighting because he's a, someone who's used to being out in the erm... all weathers... whether it's... cold or... sunny, I have a feeling mostly sunny. Erm... so that's fine, to have a harsher lighting on his face is fine cos it does tend to show up the... er the wrinkles in his forehead, under his eyes and his whiskers which is fine because... when erm... my old portraits of this nature, that's the sort of thing you're trying to emphasize. And I like, I like the way he's got his hat on. Erm... if he was local, if he was from... Chelmsford we would say he was wearing his hat in the Hollywood fashion, I don't know whether
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] whether that means anything to people who live in Bishop's Stortford but... I've always lived in Chelmsford and people who wore their hat sort of at a... flaunty angle on the back of their heads were always... seem to wearing their hats in the Hollywood fashion. Erm
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] but er... then I suppose it doesn't matter where they come from because it's er... yeah, very nice. I like that. Right a nine for that one.
[George:] Gerald.
[Mark:] Right. Okay. Yes. But er... this is a sort of a... you know, jigsaw puzzle, chocolate box that type of thing. Erm, nothing... derogatory meant... er by that because the reason... photographs are used for chocolate boxes and biscuits and things and jigsaw puzzles is cos they're good photographs and they, they're... subjects which people like. This is a... very nicely lit cottage. You can see that the er... erm... the texture in the plasterwork, certainly on the front here is nicely shown. And er, I like... the fact that we've got... similar cottages down here, we've got this one here, but... similar ones there so there's nothing in the picture which sort of erm... detracts from that... er very pretty, that little cottage. Nice sky. And just a hint of sea... in the background. Now we, we, the title tells us that's in Cornwall, it doesn't really matter where it is... but erm... just a hint of the sea, a, a super place to live I should think there. Erm, you know, there's a very nice cottage and just a short walk down the road... you're at the se at the... sea. And, also I think it's very fortunate that er... the two cars that are in the picture have been very nicely disguised by the sort of containers, these brick... erm this, this appears to be sort of a stone or a brick wall there... with sort of flowers growing... in them, which has very nicely... dis disguised those two cars... that are parked there. So, that's good. There's nothing in the picture... I don't, there's not even a television aerial or
[George:] Mm.
[Mark:] anything, there's nothing in there... which does, just a few... er telephone lines er, going across the skyline there but they're very faint, you can hardly see them, you've gotta look very closely to see them. Yeah, I, I... kinda like that one. It sort of grows on you and it, it's er... very good quality, er... nice colours. A nine for that one.
[George:] Gordon.... Breaking Waves.
[speaker002:] Yeah. [whispering] I thought he said er breaking
[Mark:] Now,
[speaker002:] waves [].
[Mark:] remember I said earlier on in one of the black and white ones that we haven't, we've got some water there which hasn't got nice lines on, well this, this water certainly has. Look at the way those,tha... beyond the waves there, that piece of water, a lovely light... on it. All the ripples in the waves nicely shown. A very simple picture, again, it's er... you couldn't have anything much more simple than this, just two waves coming in onto the... shingle beach... and er... you can almost hear the... the... the waves rushing u running across the shingle. Erm... I think the, the thing about it, which I... th the good points about it th are the light on it, the light on the... water here, the light on the waves here, and even on this one... and also, I think, the choice of mount is very good, that... you know, to choose the blue, it may be a bit obvious but I mean I, you'd be surprised what... some people do with their mounts. Erm... you can, something like this on a red mount or something, you can imagine it would be absolutely hopeless. But to, to, to make it all a very nice... gentle sort of... colours throughout, including the mount is the right sort of thing to do. I think possibly it needs something just to break up this, sort of, the lines, you just got those bands of waves going across there. Er, would have been nice if there'd been a rock or something for one of them to break over. It's just a little bit sort of er... the waves themselves are nice but I think they do need something else in it just to... erm... break up the linearity of the... er er, of the... composition.... A seven and a half.
[speaker002:] [whistling]
[George:] Tied up. I think. Yes. Yep.
[Mark:] Well I'll be... nice little er, a very small boat there but because it's, of the colour it has a lot of impact. It's only a tiny little dinghy, two people in there is about as much as you could... manage. Erm... but it's got impact because of the colour... even the... the trolley that it's standing on... erm, has got er... red wheels, and this... yellow sort of er towing bar there. No, beg your pardon! It's not a towing bar... it's another boat. I thought it was a... towing bar for that, but it's another boat... sort of down in the... in the se se... harbour.
[George:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] And that's the... colour of the boat. Erm... so it's got a, erm... a little bit of impact because of the colouring to start with. Erm... yeah, it's reasonable quality. It's er... good colours on the... this stone bollard here. Quite nice colours... the lichen and what have you that's growing on there. Erm... maybe the... the composition, having the boat sort of, the bow of the boat just hidden behind there is perhaps... er... not be better. Yeah I know if you'd have moved round to the other side that would have been in the shadow so you wouldn't have got those nice bright colours. Er... bit of a problem with the contrast too, I think the fact that the boat is white on the inside... and the rest of it er fairly dark, I mean
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] this, this is obviously where... the brightest area is and that is becoming a bit burned out because erm... if it was an automatic camera that was used... it's exposed for this... consequently over-exposing on the inside of the boat.
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] Especially painted white and it is reflecting an awful lot of light. A seven for that one.
[George:] In Pastures Green. Mm.
[Mark:] Couple of very nice... horses.
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] It's er... good composition having the two separated like that. You know, often horses do stand close together and they, sometimes you get them overlapping and that is not the best thing to do, it's nice to have them separated if you possibly can. So when you see a pair of horses... move round... and so that you do get them separated as they are, or any animal, not just horses, any animals really, get them separated, er or any, any object really, it's better to have a little bit of separation. Erm
[George:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] yeah, I think it's a very pleasant picture. It's not... it doesn't, it's not got a lot of er... excitement about it, it's very pleasant, you can't criticize it for erm... exposure, colours are good. So I'm very, it's not a picture which... unless you are sort of mad keen on horses that i it's perhaps not a picture which... erm... will hold your interest for too long. You know, nothing... a very pleasant picture er o of a couple of horses, very attractive horses, but... if you're not a... a horse enthusiast perhaps it hasn't got quite the same impact, er, as it otherwise would have.
[George:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] The er... pleasant background, nice light on the horses, but I find the, the subject matter, you know, okay, it's okay but it's not a great competition... winning er, picture. A six for that one.... Here's somebody... having a go at something a little creative.
[George:] Altered States.
[Mark:] Altered State. Yeah, certainly is an altered state. Erm, er... you know, I don't, I wouldn't even begin to suggest how this particular effect was achieved. I mean, it er... portrait... really is the right sort of subject to, to try out this kind of technique... because er, it doesn't have impact, and here... because the green and the... erm... er, this,th... for want of a better colour, it's really red, it's a sort of purply colour, they're very dark and th the, the actual head doesn't really stand out very much from the... from the background, I think the background
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] colour and th they're, they're too much... they're too dark and er... they need to be, have more contrast. And I'm not so sure that portrait is the best possible... erm... medium to use, or the best possible photograph to use for this type of... er trick. I think that... erm... modern structure and that sort of thing, this type of treatment
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] tends to work better, I'm not so sure portrait is the right thing to do. Erm... er a... it's, it's almost an abstract, it's... a, you know, if, if... one would accept that as an abstract and forget that it's a portrait then it's... perhaps works a little better. The two colours don't go too badly together but er I'm not so sure that I would really want that hanging on the wall, I, it doesn't really appeal to me very much. Sorry about that. But another judge will come along and give it a fine mark, but
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] I'm gonna give it a five.
[George:] The Dordogne.
[Mark:] The Dordogne.
[George:] Mhm.
[Mark:] Yeah, I... guessed it was certainly vineyards, I'm... you know, quick like that, you know.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] [clears throat]... Erm... yes, well the high viewpoint obviously is er... er... [clears throat] a thing which... I think makes the picture. It... now whether you're taking a portrait or... anything at all it's always more interesting I think, if you can... take a... a slightly different viewpoint, a di whether it's up high or down below, or whatever... er i that always adds interest to it. We're looking down here, obviously standing on a hill... because here we've got some plants which are... on the hillside... and there's a river here so we're on sort of a... fairly steep slope, I would imagine, down to the river, looking over across these vineyards. Erm... nice lighting... very good sort of er... gentle lighting across the countryside there, nothing very dramatic. Erm, not much drama in the sky. It's a very pleasant picture. Not a great competition-winning shot but er, at the same time it's a, it's a nice enough shot of this particular... area. A very beautiful part of France. Erm... being that I, one of the bits which I think catches your eye is this little house here, although there's lots of them about, because this one tends to be in a slightly darker area, and for some reason that, the light on there is sort of picking that one out rather more than all the others, and I think that's quite a nice... little feature. A seven for that one.... That
[George:] Le Tower D'Eiffel.
[Mark:] Ooh! Yeah. Oh! Dear oh dear! I like your French accent.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] He didn't know he's... [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER]... Yes. Well... yeah, as I say... very recognizable subject isn't it? I
[George:] Mhm.
[Mark:] I I haven't been to Paris since er... ooh a long time a whe... last time I went there I was on honeymoon so that's a few... years ago.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Erm
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Did you see the Eiffel Tower []?
[Mark:] and er so... there's a landmark now, I don't think tha that was there when I was there. My wife's been a couple of times si since then but not me. Erm... yeah it's a, again, a very... straightforward shot of a... very well internationally known landmark... erm but I think to stand sort of at an angle to this bridge, sort of, so you're, the bridge leads you up to the... archway underneath the tower is a nice viewpoint. So you... obviously thought about where you were going to stand. It might, you might be tempted to walk along the embankment a little further and, and look... along the bridge, and er, sort of straight at the tower. And I don't think that would be anywhere nearly so effective. Much more... effective to... to get the very attractive bridge in as well. And the... the boat going underneath just er at the right sort of time. Yeah, I think that's good. It's not a... erm... you know, it's, it's, it's not a... a sort of print which is going to be exhibited on exhibition walls er er to that extent, but it's a very pleasant erm... shot. It's a very competent shot. Not a, pity there's not a, one or two clouds in the sky. An eight for that one.
[George:] Nigel.... Seljuk Peasant... Turkey.
[Mark:] I do wondered how you were gonna say that George, that, you know that
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Yeah, I like this one. I think it's a super... erm
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] portrait... and erm... you can see that she's knitting. Er, lovely light on her hands and on her face, and er... this lovely quality, nice colours... and I think that is a... super... portrait. Erm... the background, can't, having the tree in the background just to fill up the... erm... the bare sky is ideal. She almost has a three D... effect, I er, you know her face really stands out from that background. I, I get a very strong... three D impression from her head. She's stan really sa of stands out from the... the background. I like that one. Erm... be careful with your titles... cos it's not easy to title them. That title is... perhaps a... not quite as straight as it might be, it's got a little bit of a kink in it. Though, using Letraset to title them is not easy to do, you know it's very difficult to keep them on a straight line.
[speaker002:] Mm mm.
[Mark:] Erm but... nevertheless I do think that is a... a super portrait. I can't really criticize it all really. I'm gonna give that one a ten.
[speaker002:] [clapping]
[George:] Gerald.... Over the stile.
[Mark:] I think the strong point of this... is the light. I mean the lovely... golden light on the... the grass... very late... afternoon light I would suggest... and it's got this lovely warm... colour on the grass. And on this hillside over here. And having someone just climbing over the stile is a good idea with the signpost pointing. It doesn't really matter which way it's going. And er... yo you get the impression that... it's late in the day, the sky's a bit stormy... and maybe... it's time to be thinking about... er getting home and er... I get the impression that that person climbing over the stile... is sort of on his way home after having a super day out walking in the... the Yorkshire Dales or somewhere like that.
[speaker002:] And er, the pubs are open. [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah, well it could be [].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Yeah, that's very, very nice. Lovely colours... and er... a very nice light in the, in the sky and on the grass here. Perhaps again, it lacks just a little bit of sharpness which you've lost. The colours, the quality and the colours are fine. The actual quality in the, in the er... print... the sharpness, er that sort of thing, is perhaps not quite as good as it should be but I still, an eight for that one.
[George:] Eight? Gordon. Knossos, Crete.
[Mark:] Knossos.
[George:] Knossos. Ka nossos.
[Mark:] Ka nossos. Yes, it's a... a typical sort of... Mediterranean er lighting, or Aegean I suppose is it? Erm... if you wanna be really... accurate. Er, it's got... a very lo strong clear sunlight which er... is quite attractive for the type of scene. Not attractive for every subject but for the... where you get these old... erm... broken... walls or summat like that, it's ideal for showing up... er... textures and so on, this type of lighting. This is often why it works, I think, in er, in the Mediterranean er and places... in that area. Er... just a little bit of cloud in the sky which is good. I suppose
[George:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] you've got to have the tourist there, it's a... I find, tourists, they always wear the wrong sort of clothes.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] I feel a little guilty, but they've always got shorts and T-shirts, which, really, often, to my mind,
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] spoil photographs of... places such as this. Erm
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] you know, we would li I don't mind people being in it, but I'd rather, you know, can you imagine that er... the Greek priest we had in the very first print
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] I mean he would fit into this... er in a, in, in a superb way. Erm... so we just have to accept that tourists don't dress in... those sort of clothes. Yeah, I think that's a... got nice lighting, nice quality... in it. Er
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] a seven and a half for that.
[George:] [clears throat]... Brooding Skyline.
[Mark:] Yeah I think the, the drama in the sky is the thing which makes this, and the little lighthouse right on the edge of the cliff there... showing up quite nicely. You can imagine that er... on some occasions with a li just a little more sunlight that er... lighthouse would really stand out. Yeah, it stands out reasonably well in this one, but I can imagine it standing out even more under other conditions. Erm... the darkening of the edges, I suppose that's been done to create a little more atmosphere in the picture, and I think it possibly does. And there are some people actually on the beach as well, which I think is important because we've got a lot of... empty area here, fairly featureless... area, but it's nice to have these... two or three people... er... dotted around on the beach. Very nice light on these cliffs over here.... Yeah, I think that one works quite well. An eight for that one.
[George:] Heather.
[Mark:] Another studio... portrait.
[George:] Nadine.
[Mark:] Nadine.
[George:] Nadine.... [clears throat]
[Mark:] She really looks like... Sandy Shaw. But er
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] she's got her shoes on there. Shows your age if you can remember. Some of you might do as well.
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Erm... I suppose to most of us here Sandy, Sandy Shaw was.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Yeah it's... [LAUGHTER]
[George:] Ha.
[Mark:] erm... the thing about this title portrait which I always er... like to emphasize and... is that when you're using props like these stools... or any other props at all in this sort of... glamour photography... then they must be in absolutely pristine condition, and they are here. I just mentioned that so that when you, if you do this type of photography always remember that your props, whatever they might be, must be absolutely in pristine condition. We don't want any chipped paint, or rusty legs on the stools or anything like that. They've gotta be really good... er... good things. Otherwise it tends to make the whole picture, like, I went to er... er one club once and there was a very nice portrait, not unlike this, there was a girl sitting on a stool, rather less clothes on than this girl has got... and it was very nicely done except she was sitting on a painted stool and all the paint was chipped and that to me looked really tacky! And I thought ah, you know
[George:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] they're, went to all that trouble to produce a good photograph, and absolutely ruined it with the stool. So, make sure that everything is in good nick.
[speaker002:] Yes. [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Erm... yeah, I think the pose is quite nice. I think, possibly erm... having the two different stools is a little bit er... unfortunate. Erm... I don't know... I don't yo I, I think possibly... having that foot up on the stool was perhaps a mistake.
[speaker002:] Mm.
[Mark:] I think perhaps if you could have arranged her so that er... this foot somehow was resting down here, well it might have been better.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] It looks a little uncomfortable... er... like that. And it looks a little bit sort of set up having that totally different stool brought into the picture. Erm
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] I just wonder whether... erm... I think that stool there might have been better to have her sitting on that one, not quite so high up and she could have adopted a more comfortable pose and she wouldn't have needed another prop for her foot. So I think perhaps, that's where... the picture is not quite right in the, the composition, and also the fact that this stool is sort of
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] being er... chopped off... along the side as well as the leg. So, I think possibly... a little more thought in the actual, I think the actual shape of the girl there, the way she's actually sitting is fine, but er... it, it looks as if she's been propped up with, you know, you better put this stool under your foot to hold that up and... put this crutch under your arm to hold that up and
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] and so on. It looks as if she's had these things put there to support her rather than actually casually sitting on them. But certainly the lighting's quite nice and I think, very pretty girl and... could be better with the better composition. Erm, six and a half for that one.
[George:] Feeding Quietly.
[Mark:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Feeding?
[George:] Feeding.
[Mark:] Ya.
[George:] Eating. Feeding.
[Mark:] It would be, yeah. [clears throat]... Well it
[speaker002:] Quite, quite.
[Mark:] I think erm, often when... judges, I don't know whether George... or any other judges that might be here tonight, one of the things which I as a judge often dread is photographs of babies coming up in competition.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Not that I've got anything against babies.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] But, it's often difficult because quite often they come up and to be absolutely honest... they're not that good. So, you start to criticize them and you think oh my God! This is someone's baby in the audience that we're, we're having a go at. But that's not the problem here because I think this one... is excellent. I think the light on er the baby's face, I, I dunno whether it's a little boy or a little girl, but it doesn't matter, the light on the baby's face
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] is super. And I certainly love the way that both eyes are catching those lovely highlights! Great big brown eyes. very appealing. Nice light on that sort of, the curls over the forehead. So we've got lovely soft lighting... throughout. Erm... brighter on the side which is furthest away from us, and the fact that he's er, he or she, is eating a, you know a piece of fruit or something... is quite appealing. I like that one. Not quite a ten because I think it's er... you know, this hand here perhaps a little bit er... obtrusive... but certainly I think that one's worth a nine.
[George:] Elaine.... Restored to former Glory.
[Mark:] Yeah I can remember when I was about er... seven or eight years old I had a... a Hornby... train which is almost identical, except it was red, I go I think some other people had one as well. Hornby loco we had those... things you used to pull out of the cabs and they could go
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] forwards and backwards.
[speaker002:] Oh lovely!
[Mark:] Erm... and it was almost identical to that. Very nice quality print. Er lovely... I mean,re re restored in absolute pristine condition. Magnificently restored locomotive.
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] And it's standing in the right sort of location in this old station. Erm... a little bit of steam around so you do get an impression that it's erm... you know, it's alive and working... obviously not doing a day's work, but certainly being restored back to working condition. And for anybody who's a, a rail enthusiast would be... er, very pleased with this... shot. And I think possibly that maybe the little bit of a problem with it, it's a little bit too specialized. It's very good... quality, erm... yeah, I think it's, it's... it's, the quality of it is good enough to put it up for,i in the sort of higher echelon of marks. So I shall er... I give that one an eight... for the quality.
[George:] Peter.... [clears throat]... Blaze
[Mark:] What
[George:] Away.
[Mark:] Ah! That's an apt title. Blazing the gun away, Blaze Away. Yeah. A little bit of
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] er... thought given to the title of that. I was quite surprised, er during the summer I went to my grandson's school fete... and... they had a hot air balloon... demonstration there and this er, this car turned up with a trailer on the back with, I dunno, probably some name, hot air balloon name on the trailer, I thought oh yes he's... gonna show us how to inflate it and... i I was quite amazed from the time he unpacked the balloon... to the time it actually took off was only ten minutes. I was really quite impressed! I didn't realize that they could be... got ready in such a short... space of time. But anyway, very dramatic shot looking up into the mouth of the balloon with this huge flame going up. I guess th that you must have be actually been in the basket. We don't get the impression erm... of whether you were airborne at that stage. I would think if you weren't, you must have been very nearly. Perhaps... yeah I think you must have been airborne at that stage to be... er, had such a enormous flame going up... into the balloon. Very, sort of, eye-catching because of the nature of it. And I think... it's quite nicely exposed... er... to show the detail in the... erm... the burner. You can see the gas burner here th quite a lot of detail, a hand rail or something around it there, and all the, the details in that burner are quite nicely shown. But most of all obviously the, the great roar y you know, the tremendous noise that they make. Or I believe they have got some quieter ones now. Erm... a seven for that one.
[George:] Seven.... Ferry... Zy de Zi
[speaker002:] [whispering] That's nice [].
[George:] Looks like a mini Battersea Power Station.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] [whispering], I dunno [].
[Mark:] Erm
[speaker002:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] yeah I think those three chimneys there... are from a, I dunno, is it, looks as if it could be a... kiln or something, you know. Er, it could be, be a pottery, I don't know. It, they, they certainly look as if they are sort of intended... er to heat things up. That's obviously a furnace
[speaker002:] Kiln.
[Mark:] at the bottom of each one of those. But nice light on the chimneys and on the sky, and throughout the picture really. I think that's quite intere find a, a nice... composition. And the thing which really makes it are the three chimneys, without those, I think the rest of it would be okay, but not terribly exciting. I think the three chimneys are... vital to the er... the strength of the picture. Quite nice natural colours.... Yeah I think that is er... it's not a great... competition- winning shot, but I still think a seven and a half for that one.
[George:] Seven and a half. [clears throat]... The next one is no title.
[Mark:] Well it doesn't really need a title, it's a... er... it could be anywhere it's, it, it, sort of got that hint of west country, but it doesn't really matter it's, we're not interested in where it is, we're interested in the... the final image. And er... I think the... that's quite good. Although there's some, but these sort of pictures they always look darker than they actually are because you can see the sun is still pretty high up, so, I imagine that the surrounding... scene was still in quite sunlight, but, looking straight into the sun, as we are here, albeit behind the clouds
[speaker002:] [cough]
[Mark:] it does have the effect... of darkening everything down. Th the strong highlight on the reflection on the water obviously is a thing which... makes the picture as, and also the, the sort of rays of sun coming down through the cloud. Just enough light around to make out the... that tree there, and a little bit of detail in the... in the foreshore and obviously the headland. But erm... yeah, it's, it's... er good for what it is, but I think this has been done many times before... and er... I sh would think that everybody's seen some just slightly better than this, but it's quite a nice... er sunset. A nice reflection on the water. Er, a six for that one.
[George:] Olive Trees.
[Mark:] Ah! A pity there, I was gonna... sort of le air my knowledge and say a and say look at these olive trees.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Yes, well, obviously I think, you know they, quite obvious what they are. Erm
[George:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] I think again, the choice of the mount is good bu you know we tend to associate olive trees growing in hot... erm... erm... fairly dry areas, and I think the choice of the... mount colour accentuates that. Erm... I think possibly just the trees themselves are we you know,th okay they're olive trees, so they're a little bit unusual, we don't... get too many olive trees growing in this country, but... I'm not so sure that they're as... er... that attractive to make... a, a photograph solely out of the olive trees. I think, er you know, they're just a, you know, if, if they were... erm... elm trees or something like that, or... you know blackthorn trees here and you'd taken them in this country, you'd say, oh there's a couple of blackthorn trees! And... here we've got a couple that happen to be olive trees, and I, I'm not so sure that just the fact that they're olive trees... really is... that important. And I think perhaps it's... it lacks a bit of importance, you know, it hasn't got the strength... erm... to stand up on its own. It really needs something else. We need a donkey in it or something like that, you know just to
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] erm... be in keeping with the situation, a donkey there would be, would be nice. But the trees on their own, it's like a scene waiting for something happen. It, it's a bit empty. So a six for that one please.
[George:] Deserted
[Mark:] Well
[George:] Shore. The last one.
[Mark:] well guess what?
[George:] Deserted Shore.
[Mark:] That's right. I think you said that.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] [LAUGHTER] Someone sent the boat over []!
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] You know the
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] You couldn't move around a lot. Move around a bit more
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] a bit more
[George:] Tip the boat over.
[Mark:] the camera. And you've got a third photograph.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Mark:] Yeah, I, I think again, this er deserves a good, it's a good exercise to do this sort of thing, taking colour and black and white because you can then decide whe... whether one medium has got an advantage over the other or not. And you can, you know you can argue about it, it's a good talking point, good discussion point, and I think you... you will get different opinions er to, whoever you speak to. But certainly the fact that this is being in colour, you know, that boat which is lying there becomes much more important. The red sort of er... erm bit round the top of the boat
[George:] [clears throat]
[Mark:] is er... becomes important, as does the colour in the sky. So it, this has... some things in the picture gain importance, although I still the black and white ones. Er, now you've chosen this time to eliminate the other boat, we know there's another boat around about here somewhere, and we know there's another post here, so erm... but... if this was shown in isolation we wouldn't have known that. And I think this one stands up quite nicely on its own. Very nice quality. Lovely sky. I, I particularly like the sky in that one. Erm, I think possibly again, if you'd got down a bit lower this sort of little rise in the ground there, that er... that's a, it's erm... what do you call it? A... breakwater... would have just risen up above the horizon and come, become slightly more important. But still, I still think that's quite good. I'll give that one an eight as well.
[George:] Heather. I must er
[Jean:] Thank you Mark.
[George:] That was the last one.
[Jean:] Could we have the lights please.... While George is er... doing the marks, I might call on Gerald please to give the vote of thanks.
[speaker002:] [speaking very quietly] Evening everybody. Can you hear, hear me over there? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yeah? Once again, Mr has done us proud. I've heard hundreds of judges in the last few years and Mr is one of the very few... who, in, in every picture delivers a very picture. He comes up with a little piece of advice on how to... make that picture, or the colouring, or the mounting better. And you don't often see the... every picture he tells something, something nice about it. [LAUGHTER] And compared with mine as well you see. [LAUGHTER] About this time last year... I think it was the same week... he came there were five judges that he picked every year... for fifteen years. Oh! And despite, you know, managed, he somehow he'd get them through and get. But we've had a very good evening and we must thank Mr for it. So, in our usual way, a vote of thanks. [clapping]
[George:] Thanks very much Mark, you've given me the hardest part.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] Anyway, erm... on the night monochrome prints... Elaine and Alf tied with twenty four. Gordon had twenty three and a half. Heather had twenty one and a half. And Gloria had sixteen. So aggregation then with number one, we have Gordon leading the way with fifty and a half.
[speaker002:] [clapping]
[George:] [clears throat]... But Alfie was second with forty nine and a half.
[Jean:] Oh!
[George:] So there's not a lot, lot in that. Heather is forty six, she's third. Elaine is fourth with forty four. And technicolour, on the night... er top of the shop tonight was Gerald who gave the vote of thanks, who got twenty six and a half.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[George:] [LAUGHTER] And []... but, we have... Nigel, Gordon, and Heather
[Jean:] Tt!
[George:] all with twenty three. Vince has twenty two. Bill and Elaine have twenty one each.
[Mark:] [cough]
[George:] Erm... aggregating again with number one... Gerald is leading the way with fifty two and a half.
[speaker002:] [clapping]
[George:] And then we have erm... Nigel with forty nine. And then, Gordon and Heather both with forty six. Elaine with forty five is fourth. And Peter forty four and a half is fifth.
[Jean:] Thank you George.
[speaker002:] Well done George.
[Jean:] Thanks. Right, well next week is the auction. Er... we have got some, one or two expensive items so... bring your
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[Jean:] money bags along. Er, if anybody's got any items that they haven't told me about tonight and they go before perhaps you'd be kind enough to give me a phone call. And if you could get here by half past seven those of you who have got items, it'll be much appreciated cos it takes quite a time to... to set them out. Er, the coffee next week is going to made by Jane and Peter. Er, next week will be the last week for selling tickets for the social... so if... you'd like to come... tickets next week. And if you haven't made arrangements about your dinner... after Christmas, would you please do that now. I'll leave you to say goodnight, thank you for coming.