[Leica] comments from one of the judges

[walt at waltjohnson.com (Walt Johnson)]

It seems many of our winners fit into the same category on a monthly 
basis. Heavy on graphics and generally light on content. I'd prefer to 
see judging based upon capturing those moments Leicas were made for. 
/*Kristy Prep, */I think is an excellent example and would have put it 
as #1. Although agreeing with the judge who thinks it's the best I can't 
go along with his/her criticism. Dead space is something one deals with 
with filling newspapers with images. What it generally means is we need 
more space for ads, let's crop the hell out of everything. Sometimes, I 
think, the eye needs a place to rest on an image. /*Kristy*/ can be 
cropped but it loses an overall balance. Make it tight enough and the 
hands seem to emerge from some dark place in a not too comfortable 
manner. Ofter talking too much about an image does seem to detract. When 
we can simply look and absorb. Unlike our judge, the hands don't MAKE it 
for me. It is Kristy's acquiescences to the routine I find  has me 
involved. 

/*Hot Lips*/, on the other hand could sure use a bit of tightening up. 
Nice image, great expression, but too loose. Steve's other image,/*White 
Crosses*/, should have been a winner. Content, which fits the contest 
criteria. Not that a monthly category should be limiting, but sometimes 
a category does add a bit of discipline.

Mad's  /*Aros*/. to me, is more interesting than what placed first. 
Graphic, mysterious and intriguing. Neal's /*Boom*,/ has great timing  
and color. Degree of difficulty on that shot should count for something. 
William's /*Colameter */and Neal's /*Barnflag */jumped out at me as well.

One other thing. Steve's self-portrait with the red hat. how the heck 
did he do that?

Walt
 
Brian Reid wrote:
> I was pleased to see that 81 images had been submitted in April, the 
> highest number ever. However, I found the overall quality of the 
> images in the April contest below the level of previous months. In 
> going through the images, I could only award one or two stars to most 
> images, with just a few getting 3 stars. In contrast, in previous 
> months I have often given out 4 or 5 stars to the images I liked best.
>
> I think that the theme "red" was interpreted too literally by many 
> contestants. As a result, there are many mediocre images that I think 
> were entered only because there was something red in them. I would 
> encourage people to interpret the theme more broadly in the future, 
> especially since Brian has instructed the judges to simply rate the 
> images on their photographic merits and not on how closely they follow 
> the theme.
>
> On the positive side: the images that appear among the winners and 
> honorable mentions were also my favorites, so I guess I was in synch 
> with the other judges (and I do not know who they are). The winning 
> image is a beautiful abstract, well lit and well composed, although 
> the title seems a bit out of place, given the connotations of the 
> phrase. I also gave 3 stars to "Hot Lips"--just a fun portrait, well 
> photographed.
>
> My overall favorite image of the contest, though, was the third-place 
> image, "Kristy Prep". I like the light, the way the woman's face 
> stands out, and one can interpret the image on many levels: is she an 
> object being prepared for exhibition? The hands applying the make-up 
> greatly add to the image, indeed they MAKE the image, for me at least. 
> Personally, I would crop the image a bit tighter; there is a lot of 
> dead space on the top and left sides of the image which detracts from 
> the composition.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>