Do take a look at our Virtual Exhibition on YouTube put together for us by Alan Colegrave. Just click on the link and enjoy!
Many thanks to Michael Lurie for braving the cold to come and judge our prints last night.
The Open section was son by YC Wei with ‘London Tube’ and his ‘Red Canoe’ was second; Barry Sampson’s Suffolk Wrecks 1 was third. Highly commended were ‘A World of His Own’ by Peter Polkinghorne and Avril Candler’s ‘Person of Interest’. ‘Gazing from the Bridge’ by Mark Buckley-Sharp and ‘Man at Chora 2’ by Judy Buckley-Sharp were commended. Congratulations all.
Open Print Winner by YC Wei
The Nature section was definitely Judith Gimber’s tonight with a first, second and third place for ‘Feeding Frenzy’, ‘Painted Lady Drinking Nectar’ and ‘Trio of Chatty Puffins’ respectively. Avril’s ‘Annas Hummingbird Turning’ and YC’s ‘Lion were highly commended. YC’s ‘Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw’ was commended. Well done to Judith and thanks to everyone who entered.
Winning Nature Print by Judith Gimber
Thanks again to Michael for his judging and for taking part in the after-discussions which made for a very informative and enjoyable evening.
Next week we are back on Zoom for Projected Open and Triptych competitions which will be judged by Caroline Colegate ARPS APAGB.
In the meantime have a good week and stay warm!
Very many thanks to Mariam and Avril for a an excellent evening venturing into the world of AI and its application in competitive photography.
Mariam highlighted a number of burgeoning generative AI platforms showing a number of ‘text to image’ applications including Adobe Firefly. The latter is an integral part of Adobe Photoshop which Avril demonstrated in the second half of the evening. Mariam showed us how her young students (9-12 years) are developing their text to image skills. Mariam put us through a quiz to spot the AI generated images vs the originals. We weren’t that bad at it either! Try for yourself – just click the links below.
Avril’s presentation looked at the ‘legitimate’ use of Generative AI in competitive photography such as ‘Generative Fill’ to remove unwanted artefacts and ‘Generative Expand’ to enhance the composition (we’ve all heard that dreaded phrase ‘x is too tight in the frame’!). Following those examples she highlighted the unacceptable AI use (within the competitive photographic world) of ‘text to image’ – great for illustrative purposes such as birthday/anniversary/Christmas cards………..and even Halloween cards with witches on rooftops…….you had to be there to see it!
The evening was rounded off with a general discussion and Mark Buckley-Sharp explained the PAGB stance on the use of AI.
A very topical, fascinating and excellent evening with grateful thanks to Mariam and Avril for their informative, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable presentations.
Next week we are back on Zoom for a talk by Harry Kingman ‘Antarctica’.
Last night we were delighted to welcome Erica Oram from Sheffield Photographic Society to judge our competitions. Erica’s judging was erudite, helpful and informative which made for a very interesting and entertaining evening.
Congratulations to John Draper for his winning image ‘The Resting Place’ in the Open section. Dave Martin’s ‘Crocus’ was second and Judith Gimber’s ‘Feeding Frenzy’ third. Highly commended were Judith’s ‘Doorstop Duo’ and John’s ‘Hang on Tight’; commended were Trevor Alexander’s ‘Merchant Square Paddington’ and Avril Candler’s ‘Safe’.
Open Winner by John Draper
The Landscape section was won by Dave Martin with ‘Bamburgh Castle and Poppies at Sunset’, Peter Keeble’s ‘Cambodian Desolation’ was second and Avril Candler’s ‘Vesuvius Cloud at Dawn’ third. Dave’s ‘Baldock Landscape was highly commended and YC Wei’s ‘Morning on the Masai Mara commended. Congratulations to Dave who had a really good night.
Winning Landscape by Dave Martin
Many thanks to everyone who entered and very special thanks to Erica for expert judging.
All the images may be viewed on Facebook.
Next week we are back at Century for a workshop session. Mariam Mathew will be leading the discussion on “What is Photography in the age of AI? and Avril Candler will present the practical use of Generative AI in photo editing. We hope you will come along and join the debate!
