camera club mixed bag

What a weird old night it was at Camera Club tonight...

Firstly, we're divided up into two grades, A Grade (the more experienced photographers, ie those who have gotten six merit scores, 9's or 10's... that's me... I made A Grade after only about six months at the Club) and B Grade (the novice bridage)... and usually the number of entries is pretty even between the two grades... not tonight... we had about a dozen B Grade entries, if that, and like a billion A Grade entries... so weird...

As this is the last competition of the calendar year (and yet the "first" competition of the "Club year" due to last fortnight's AGM... don't ask... it's all very confusing) I don't tend to get too overly excited, plus the judges generally seem to suck beyond the telling of it (more than they usually suck) on this last competition for some unknown reason, so I like to go with stuff that I've already entered, but that hasn't scored as well as I think it could or should (we're allowed to enter anything twice, provided it's score is 7 or under)... so that's what I went with... there was only one image that was "new"... and knowing what I know now, I kind of wish I'd put one of the other images that I didn't expect to do very well in instead.

Anyway... the judging started out pretty average... a couple of my shots had been up and scored 6's... so I wasn't expecting much... then All Yours (top right hand corner) got put up for judging... the judge started out with something along the lines of "I was looking at this on the board earlier, and I find it to be a really disturbing image..." and I'm thinking... oh great... I suck... he's going to give it like a 4 or something... and he kept talking and seemed to be pretty much pointing out all the things he thought were flaws (I'm claiming they're all on purpose... and that it's all "style"... most of the things he mentioned WERE on purpose actually... and it's part of why I like the shot)... then he said something about "It's disturbing, but I like it..." and I'm still thinking, yeah, you like it, just give it it's 4 and lets move on.

Then he went... 10.

I pretty much fell out of my chair! Never in a billion years would I have expected to get the maximum possible score for that particular piece... a 10... not only a 10, but the ONLY 10 of the night...

Colour me pretty damn happy... having said that, out of 6 images I got the 10... an 8 (Caged Heat, bottom center, previous scored at 6), three 6's (Flinders Street Domes, bottom left, the only new shot... Sam, bottom left, which got a 6 last time too... and Brad, top center, dropping down from a previous 7)... and a 5 (Striped Rear, top left, also dropping down from a 7 in the Zoo competition earlier in the year).

A mixed bag all up, but the 10 kind of makes up for the rest...

Current Mood: