25 March 2026: March Competition

Last night’s meeting was our March competition. The theme was ‘Urban Mono’ and, as always, the Open section. Our judge for the evening was Simon Caplan who not only gave a thorough and helpful critique to every image but kept us all laughing with his innate sense of humour.

Simon explained the way he judges images, looking first at whether the subject matter fits the theme and then at the various aspects of the image itself. There were as usual a variety of subjects and styles portrayed. Some abstract looks at buildings, some 'people  watching' images and some architectural images for example. The results were as follows:

Themed

1st Chris Mowthorpe – Two Up One Down

2nd Nick Farnham – All Lit Up

3rd Nick Farnham – Easy Rider

HC Chris Mowthorpe – Quiet Contemplation

HC Mark Bowerbank – The Invisible Man

TT Peter Elliston – A day out in London

TT Ovi Fabian – Contemplating Life – of a Sandwich

TT Lynne Thomas – Please Take a Seat

TT Peter Elliston – The Car Wash Boys

TT Lynne Thomas – Visiting Grandma

Simon elected to nominate some pictures as worthy of the Judges Honourable Mention. These were pictures that did not quite make it to the Held Back group but that he felt had real merit and were worthy of note. The themed section produced 4 such images:

JHM Peter Elliston – A Few Planks Short of a Job

JHM Huw Thomas – All Talked Out

JHM Matt Jenkins – Busker at Taunton Independent Market

JHM Polly Knowles – Sicilian Cat Alley

The Open section also included pictures from differing genre: Wildlife featured quite significantly with more than a quarter of the images submitted falling into this category. But there were also other nature pictures as well as landscape and still life amongst others

Open  22 -

1st Mark Bowerbank – Sunset at the Edge of Empire

2nd James McKee – The Proposal

3rd Winter Flowers – Polly Knowles

HC Rachel Carter – Either Brave or Bonkers

HC Martin Cumper - Goldfinch

TT Martin Cumper – Ciaran

TT Martin Barber – Engineering

TT Nick Farnham – Hot Stuff

TT Rachel Carter – Just Put Your Lips Together and Blow

TT Huw Thomas – Saul Leiter Does Baker Street

The Judges Honourable Mention in this category went to the following:

JHM Lynne Thomas – Bird on a Stick

JHM Diane Rowe – Old Bones Skeletonised Leaf

JHM Polly Knowles – Standing Tall

JHM Wendy Jennings – The Old Barn

JHM Chris Mowthorpe – Gateway to the Moor

JHM Rachel Carter – Moonlit Stroll

Next week's meeting is a Zoom meeting but unfortunately our planned speaker has been taken ill and is unable to join us. Efforts are being made to find a replacement speaker and there is already a possibility in mind. If there is any further information on this I will let you know.