WHY NOT SHARE YOU BEST PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFORTS WITH EVERYONE VISITING THE MEETING PLACE NORTH?

Throughout the year, THE MEETING PLACE NORTH holds various photographic competitions. These are open to everyone and you can submit a maximum of three photographs.

This year, the entries have been really excellent  BUT WE HAVE HAD A COMPLETE RETHINK!

As we move into 2010 with The Meeting Place North, we have begun with a new approach to our Photographic competitions.

We have taken on three semi-professional, talented photographers to assess the submitted photographs. This means that as well as YOUR assessment of the submitted photographs, we will also have an input from photographers who can make more objective judgements.

We do know that EVERYONE at some time has taken really good photos; one’s that you are really proud of.

These days by using digital cameras we can take loads of photos just to get one good one. We don’t waste film or money and it is a way to learn. The majority no doubt will be deleted and the best kept in your online albums. Picasa and Flickr are two pieces of free software that store our pictures safely for us. On these sites you can see a wide selection of photos, some really great, some not so great and plenty of good ones too.

There is also a tremendous amount of software and supportive help to allow you to edit your photographs to enhance them in every way possible. Editing nevertheless requires a creative eye and judgement to ensure the editing experience does not detract from what the photographer initially had in mind. I have seen many a good photo spoiled by this process.

Photographs, like all forms of art, produce different emotions and feelings in everyone who sees them. Of course our own judgement of other people’s work is highly subjective. Each one of us KNOWS what we like!

So The Meeting Place North Team are trying to achieve a balanced view of  ‘what makes a good photograph’.

We are doing this with the prospect of having a biannual competition with a different themes.

We will be giving away a significant prize for each competition, where all the preceding six months’ entries will be considered. Although your votes will be also taken into consideration, the photographs will be assessed independently by three professional photographers.

Out Winter2012 Category is “BUILDINGS” … an easy, simple theme you may think! But what we are really looking for are photographs that are not only technically and compositionally good, but ones that tell us something about the character of the building.

For example, you can take a picture of a shed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

But then how about these pictures …… still sheds but they do speak about the character of that shed ……………

 

 

 

 

 

 

There will be a post specifically about photographing buildings on the site in early January.