Members of the Isle of Man Photographic Society faced a set subject for this week’s assignment competition of ‘squares’ – the exact interpretation then being left to the photographer.
So a plethora of images of scrabble boards, chess boards, town squares, and crossword puzzles faced our judge, Brian Goldie from the Southern Photographic Society.
The set subject caused little problem other than that the popularity of scrabble and chess images inevitably meant that many images were effectively competing in a class of their own – and only the best would then feature in competition with the rest!
Several images deserve special mention – an image by Nessie Gillen of slices of Battenberg cake very artistically arranged end on to show the multi-coloured squares of cake, for example, whilst a tiered hotel in Malta featuring a very middle eastern style of ‘block’ architecture gave Mark Thorsby a win in the Standard Digital section.
The overall best print entry was judged to be ‘Rainbow Candy Squares’ in the Standard Group.
This was an entry by Sue Blythe which showed a line of sugar cubes which had been soaked in different coloured food dyes to make a simple yet most attractive image, and which demonstrated great thought and initiative in responding to the set subject – a well-deserved winning image!
In the digital competition, the best image award went to Nigel Owen from the Advanced Section with an entry showing a newspaper crossword page (lots of little squares !) with a pair of glasses, and the word ‘squares’ answering one of the clues…. Again, a very considered entry for the assignment.
Results – Open Prints : Standard Group – Mono : Mike Trout (1), Sue Leeming (2), Sue Blythe (3 and 6), Steve Meadows (4 and 5). Colour : Sue Blythe (1 and 6), Sue Leeming (2 and 5), Mike Trout (3), Steve Meadows (4). Intermediate Group – Mono : Annette Slater (1), Nessie Gillen (2 & 3). Colour : Nessie Gillen (1), Annette Slater (2), Shirley Lotfy (3), Phyllis Christian (4), Beryl Quayle (5 & 6).
Advanced Group – Mono : Ron Shimmin (1 and 3), Sue Jones (2 & 4), Bob Servante (5 7 6). Colour : Sue Jones (1 and 3), Ron Shimmin (2 and 5), Bob Servante (4), Chris Blyth (6).
Overall Best Print in Competition – Sue Blythe with ‘Rainbow Candy Squares’.
Open Digital Images : Standard Group - Mark Thorsby (1), Sue Blythe (2 and 3), Mike Trout (4 and 6), Karen Norton (5), Peter Keena (C).
Intermediate Group – Nessie Gillen (1), Hazel Walsh (2), Beryl Quayle (3), Jenny Shanley (4), Shirley Lotfy (5), Richard Shafto (6). Advanced Group – Nigel Owen (1 and 4), Sue Jones (2), Chris Blyth (3), Claire Stringer (5), Chris Nicholls (6). Overall Best Digital Entry – Nigel Owen with ‘Mind Games’.
Chris Blyth