This page contains a collection of reviews as shown in the list below:
Our judge for the evening was Gareth Jones. Gareth specialises in corporate photography including company annual reports, executive portraits, public relations events and conferences.
A selection of some of Gareth's comments on members' entries is given below.
Flowers by David Ensor led the scores with 18 for its strong composition and visual impact.
Sale by Charles Slater was highly commended for its originality. The image was taken from the bottom of a wide flight of stairs with sale advertisements on each step. The judge suggested cropping off the (bottom/top) part of the picture to remove a bright and distracting sign, but considered this a strong shot otherwise and gave it 17.
Vegetable Stall by Paul Jackson was a more typical HK market shot with reasonable lighting, a mass of neatly arranged vegetables and a stallholder. The judge felt that there was too much happening in the shot. A closer crop on the vegetables - excluding the stallholder - would work better. Score 17.
Fish by Melissa Cole was almost black and white. With the near-regular arrangement of fish, one's attention was drawn to their faces. The numbered price tag was distracting and the judge felt that a tighter crop on the fish heads was needed. Score 16.
Balustrade by Charles Slater was awarded the maximum possible score of 20 for lovely lighting, great composition and good depth of field. The image was of a balustrade in the stairs leading up to a temple with warm orange / golden lighting. Excellent work Charles!
Hat Trick by David Ensor was a terrific shot of a dense pack of Vietnamese conical hats. Brighter lighting would have improved the shot, which scored 19.
Red by Ann Law was a strong, graphic image, well balanced all round with rich red tone. Score 18.
Moon River by Irene So was a romantic shot of a couple on Victoria Peak under the moon taken at sunset. It had a pleasant oriental feel but needed to be more intimate with less sky, with a closer shot or a longer lens. Score 17.
Moving as One by Melissa Cole was a good photographic image, taken on safari, of a group of three zebras. The print was black and white and grainy and scored 18.
Alone by David Ensor was a strong silhouette image which could work well for the "Markets" theme (if the background was a market). The light bounced off the floor produced an interesting effect. Score 18.
The Room Outside the Meeting Room by Judy Chan was really liked by the judge for its good colours and soft focus effect. Score 17.
Sweetie by Billy Leung was commended for catching the expression on a young girl's face as she was playing in a playground. However, while her head was well framed by bars, the bars over her body were distracting because they apparently cut her (body) in two. Score 17.
HK University of Science and Technology by Charles Slater looked like it was taken with a medium format camera. It was considered a good "record" architectural shot with good composition. Score 17.
As you can see above, our competitions are scored out of 20 marks with the maximum mark. The results of last year's (2000) competitions are shown on this page.
Our judge for the evening was Guy Nowell, who is well known to our club and has kindly judged many of our competitions over the years.
Notable entries included the following.
Untitled - The photographer was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time to capture this picture. Well done Judy Chan (score 19).
Indian Origin - There was just enough light in the background to lighten up the pattern on the coloured cloth. A grand picture by Billy Leung (score 18).
A Thing of Beauty - A very good monochrome picture by David Ensor (score 17).
Cleaning the Nets - A fast shutter froze the movement of the nets coming out of the water against the backlit background of water, making it a beautiful picture. Well done Melissa Cole (score 17).
Space Mission - A spectacular shot by Billy Leung (score 17).
Intermission - A wonderful colour abstract shot by Judy Chan (score 18). The judge suggested leaving this photo untitled to let the viewers guess what it was about.
Road House - A nicely composed photo by David Ensor (score 17).
Peak Experience - Good technique and patience for the right moment were required for this photo. Well done David Ensor (score 17).
White Shirts and Other Shirts - This is one occasions where a slightly out of focus photo works. Congratulations to Judy Chan (score 17).
Madeline Slavick returned to judge for the club yet again on the 24th of May. She is renowned in the club for her judging style, and always provokes discussion. This time was no exception.
Opening with a brief explanation of how she was going to judge images, Madeline laid out three criteria. For composition, she would award up to seven marks, for creativity and vision, seven marks and for technical aspects, six marks. She also said that as she was a poet, she would take into account the harmony of the image with its title. More controversially, she added that she'd been in Asia for quite some time and noted that there were several distinctive types of images which kept coming up. She commented that there were very few pictures of monks and temples which she would consider original.
The night's images kicked off with the Open Slide Competition. Notable mentions go to "A Killing View" by Kenneth Young and "Water Hose" by Judy Chan which both scored 20. Sterling efforts from two very new members. "Morning" by club veteran David Ensor scored 19 with "excellent separation between horizon and mountain". Some pictures were marked down with "seen this before" as the main comment.
Next up was the special competition. The night's topic was traffic and, as is usual at these events, was subject to many and varied interpretations.
The scoring was higher than usual with no less than four perfect 20's: "Air" by David Ensor, "HK Airport" by Judy Chan and a double header from Thomas Dunn with "Evening Commute" and "Speed Trap". "Perfect Timing" was the judge's comment on that last image. Three 19's were awarded: "One Way" by Irene So, "Please Wait" by Billy Leung and "Western Harbour Tunnel" by Judy Chan.
And so to the prints. The scoring on the prints didn't quite reach the exalted heights of the special competition. Two 20's were awarded: "Osaka 1948" and "Hong Kong Airport" by Judy Chan. 19 was awarded to "Masks" by Iain Masterton.
Overall, a very high scoring evening, with much debate provoked by some of the judges comments. A special mention must be made of Judy Chan and her remarkable achievement in scoring four 20's in one evening. Thomas Dunn, with two 20's in the Special subject also deserves a mention.
Our judge for the evening was Chester Ong, who is a local professional photographer with a particular specialisation in the field of food photography. He is in constant demand by the leading hotels in Hong Kong to photograph their artistic culinary delights and was therefore in an excellent position to pass critical and knowledgeable judgement on the entries in the Special competition.
Chester confessed to being a Black & White enthusiast and loves to take photographs of everyday life on the streets.
In the special competition, which had a very high standard of images, Chester awarded perfect 20s to Ulana Switucha and Billy Leung for their slides "Temple Street Calamari" and "The Garden" respectively. Ulana's image was liked for its contrasty, graphic impact and vibrant colours and Chester noted that it would make a good cover image for a magazine. Billy's slide was well composed and colourful, as was his other entry "Too Hot to Handle", which scored 19 points.
The open competition was also of a high standard and the top mark went to Ulana again for her stunning shot of a Lombok fisherman casting his net. Chester liked the composition and the play of light between warm evening light and cool tones of the sea. David Ensor and Ulana displayed two excellent examples of portraiture. David's beautiful image of an elderly Chinese lady was perfectly exposed and pin sharp (although a white reflector card would have improved highlights in the eyes) and Ulana's portrait of a Muslim girl was taken in wonderful, muted light.
Rounding off a rather successful evening, Ulana scored a couple of 20s in the print competition with two black & white images. Her "Matheson Lake" was printed very well and displayed a great variety of tones in the trees and foliage within the landscape, whilst another image captured in Lombok, "Father & Child" was taken in lovely light and captured a special moment.
Chester proved to be very good judge indeed and entertained and educated his audience with his informative and incisive comments from both a technical and artistic viewpoint. Hopefully we can persuade him to return later in the year to talk to us on one of his passions, whether it be Black & White photography, street photography or just on how to take the perfect picture of a slice of cheesecake.
Our judge for the evening, Josephine Thom is an art teacher at KGV School and is also a trained sculptor. She explained that she wanted to concentrate on the compositional qualities of the photographs and not on the technical details such as exposure etc.
The standard of entries in the Open Slide competition was very good and the top mark of 19.5 went to Thomas Dunn and David Ensor. Thomas's picture "Morning Chant" was praised for its composition, which drew the viewer into the image. The colours and lighting were very attractive which made this an especially evocative image. David Ensor's picture "Bricked up" was also praised for it's excellent composition, which was well balanced. The colours and shadow details also helped to make this shot work very well. Also scoring well were new members Denise who received a 19 for her "Snake" which Josephine described as "Brilliant. Especially good were the vibrant colours and sharpness and the amazing shadows cast by the snake. Another new member, Judy Chan, got an 18 for "Toilet" which was described as being kitsch and an excellent tapestry of colour. It was certainly an unusual image.
The Special Slide competition's subject was "Wanchai" and it produced many good images. The highest mark of 19.5 went to Iain Masterton with a shot of the Dragon Club. This was taken from hip level with high-speed film and a very wide angle lens to obtain a good composition whilst minimizing danger to the photographer. Barbara Baker scored a 19 for her shot "Red Light District" - a very candid shot of a bargirl's legs. This captured the essence of the area very well and told a story of what goes on inside some of the bars in Wanchai.
The Print competition was again of an exceptionally high standard. Top marks went to Robin Baker, David Ensor and Ulana Switucha - who each scored 19. The Judge loved Robin Baker's image of the Lippo Building. She thought the composition was fantastic and dynamic and displayed a rich patchwork of texture and tones. Ulana's Black & White picture "Mother and Child" was described as being beautiful and soft with the lines working well to convey a warm feeling. David Ensor's colour print ""Hands", was also extremely beautiful and displayed rich warm colours and shadows which brought the image to life. New member Sam Hilton got a good mark for her first entry "Carnivale" - she scored 17 for an image that the judge described as having a lot of potential.
Andy Adams was created in 1997 as a means of showing how a judge's comments and marks would vary to the same photograph. Andy submitted the same two photographs every month in the open slide competition unbeknownst to the judges. His marks varied from 15 to 18 with an average of about 16 Some judges raved about these two photos others gave lukewarm comments. Bear that in mind the next time you feel slighted by a judge's review.
A few months ago Andy Adams was resurrected to inject a little humour into the competitions. Using Andy's name, certain members have submitted photos of other members 'in action'. The irony is that some of these slides have been taken quite seriously and have scored rather well. If any members have a slide or print that was taken on a club field trip or outing feel free to show us all.
The perfect photographic judge should be able to combine photographic knowledge, creative flair and a good sense of humour and our judge for the evening, Richard Abrahall, possessed all three. It was therefore, no surprise that the evening was enjoyable despite a rather poor entry for the (difficult) special subject slide competition of "School Days" and also the open slide competition.
Richard, who is an art and photography teacher at Island School, said that he felt he was not qualified to judge colour slides as he was "chromatically challenged" and only ever takes Black & White pictures. He would resist the temptation to turn the colour pictures into shades of grey, however.
Thomas Dunn took the Special Slide competition with his fun picture of a school outing. Richard Abrahall liked the disorganised look of the children and felt that Thomas had caught the moment.
In the open slides, Ann Law's "Posing on the Bus" was well received for its good cropping and composition and Ulana Switucha's "Morning Paper" was liked for it's lovely lighting.
Ulana Switucha who gained a perfect 20 and two 19s, dominated the prints. Her perfect print, " To Market" was a powerful and dynamic image of Vietnamese women rowing a laden boat downstream to market. Another of her prints, "Dusk" was a beautiful an atmospheric, almost monochrome blue, image taken across a bay in Vancouver. The extremely long exposure produced a soft and Wispy quality to the sea. Well done Ulana and it looks like you might be the one to beat in the print competition this year.
Our judge for the first competition of the year was Gareth Jones, a well locally based professional photographer and a man well known to the Club from previous visits as a judge and speaker.
The Special Subject for this competition was "Yellow" and the standard and relevance of the entries was very good.
Gareth provided very concise and detailed critique and constructive criticism of all entries. He focused on the strength and relevance of the pictures.
