Here are the results for the club's Photo of the Month competition for August.
After being let down by 2 judges this month, the task of judging this month has fallen to our current chair, David Brennan, with his submissions being removed (hardly fair to judge your own photos). David's comments are below each image.
1st Place - "Time to Read" by Alexander McNair
"To be fair either this or the 2nd placed image could have easily been placed first. This one won purely because of my inner geek. I'm guessing that this is a part of the Dr Who exhibition, if not then someone is a bigger geek than I am to have built this up.
The lighting is very evocative of the more recent TV series with a dark look to the walls and console, but the photographer has told everyone exactly what the photo is about by placing the main subject of the book and pot of sonic screwdrivers bang on 'a third'. It could be argued that the red console light is a bit eye catching, but then if it wasn't lit the whole of the lower third would look dead and there are plenty of little details to ponder over there."
2nd Place - "Burning Incense Spirals in Buddhist Temple" by Alexander NcNair
"Having done a whole series of imagesin the past involving smoke from insense sticks, this photo struck a chord with me right away. I love the way the photographer has used 2 techniques to force the viewer's attention right where they want it, firstly by been placing the red label on 'a third' and by using a narrow depth of field, concentrating the viewer's attention on the sharpest point. If there is one thing that lets this down a touch is the red highlight just below the label on the right. Chances are it is the bottom of another label, but as it is in the darkest area of the image it catches the eye and drags the attention down to it.
3rd Place - "Just Sitting" by Derek Rootham
"I have never taken a photo of a dragonfly at rest, so I'm always impressed when some manages to get a sharp, detailed image. With this one you can make out every detail of delicate pattern of the wings. The image is let down a bit for me by the lack of front lighting, meaning that the head and body is in shadow. That is likely to be the camera being fooled into underexposing by the bright sky behind the subject. However it is still an image I'd like to be able to get one day."
We'd like to thank David for stepping in and taking the time to judge this month.