Category Archives: Competitions

Four-Way Battle 2019

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Although it was my first time organising such a thing and I was therefore quite nervous, it was a pleasure for PPS to host this year’s fourway competition – the “Fourway Battle” – and to welcome our friends from St Andrews, Glenrothes and Dundee to an evening of friendly competition, excellent photography, fab food and instructive & constructive adjudication from our guest judge, Ian Tully ARPS, CPAGB.

The overall scores were:

  • St Andrews 347
  • Dundee 345
  • Perth 325
  • Glenrothes 307

St Andrews Photographic Society are to be congratulated for a well-deserved win and for retaining the title of winner. Perhaps we should discuss with the other clubs the notion of creating an actual trophy!

The standard of all of the clubs’ entries was high, with only two marks between the winners and the runners up, Dundee Photographic Society.

Ian Tully’s informed and constructive comments exceeded our hopes. His perceptive remarks encompassed not only the technical aspects of the photographs, but their composition, form, structure, light – especially light – and the opportunity presented to us all as photographers to tell a story as well as creating pleasing images.

Graham Robb, External Competition Secretary

Photos of the evening (thanks to David Stanghon):

Some of PPS’s entries for the competition:

  • Common Blue, by Connor McLaren, 2nd
  • Sunflowers, by Vicky McNamara, 1st
  • R34 Skyline GTR, by Connor McLaren, 2nd
  • Bush Tit, by Connor McLaren, 2nd
  • Sunset on Central Pier, Blackpool, by Vicky McNamara, 1st

Colour Rosebowl Competition

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Last night was the Colour Rosebowl competition. Our judge was Ben Harman from Stills Gallery in Edinburgh. We were truly, genuinely impressed by the standard of the entries. Great picture after great picture kept coming out of that black box. The judge said he had a hard time making a decision, but in the end he made his choice .
First place was Stewart Riddick with one of his carefully observed pictures of a  character in a Greek village strolling past a wall with three pained birds on it. Well done Stewart!!
Second was Mike Bell with a lovely landscape showing a massive rain cloud over Knoydart.
Third was Raymond Leinster with one of his masterfully executed portraits of a red squirrel with a snowflake on his nose.
Highly Commended was David Hay’s “Lone Seagull”. At first – you just see a blue iceberg – but then your eye finds its way to the tiny seagull in flight. Nice.
And Commended went to Jimmy Herd’s remarkable picture of a golf professional from, I believe, the Dominican Republic (?) who has lost a leg and now plays standing on one leg. Amazing.
To finish off the evening Ivy-May and David Hay gave a short summary of our club performance in the recent SPF Print competition. And we did very well indeed!! Both Ivy-May and Richard Hunter scored 14 points with their B&W images – and Richard’s was awarded a “Highly Commended”. Raymond’s pictures also did very well in the Wildlife category. I understand we came 4th in the B&W and 9th overall. That is quite an accomplishment for our relatively small club.
Next week should be an interesting talk. Duncan McEwan will talk about “The Games” – his experiences as a professional photographer covering the last three Commonwealth Games.