Meet the Judges
Robert Millin MFIAP, EFIAP/D1, MPSA, FBPE. - Scott Coe BPE3* - Glyn Edmunds APSA EPSA EFIAP/g ARPS APAGB DPAGB ABIPP AMPA
Glyn Edmunds APSA EPSA EFIAP/g ARPS APAGB DPAGB ABIPP AMPA
“It is always a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to select for a major exhibition.
With Barbie & Rusty and their Team running the show we anticipated a well organized weekend, and so it proved. Very minor technical glitches were swiftly corrected. That always makes the job of a Selector much easier. The timetable ran like clockwork and we were fed and watered and chauffeured here there and everywhere. So “thank you, all”.
There were many excellent images in all 4 Sections, Colour, Mono, Scapes and Nature. However there are always some images which are over processed and others where you simply think, “has this ever been projected before and not just viewed on a monitor ? ”. Mono was the weakest of the four sections.
A controversial proposal, but in the same way there is a ‘W’ box to indicate a genuine Wildlife image, is it time to add a ‘W/S’ box to indicated that the image was made on some form of workshop ?
The Selectors lost count, but I imagine there may have been 20-25% of workshop images in the 5,000 image total.
Workshops have expanded exponentially ever since the bottom dropped out of the Stock Market (images not shares) and professional photographers needed to find a new income stream. They can be very social occasions, instructive and educational.
For any open Exhibition the Selectors want to see top class images produced by enthusiastic photographers. The question increasingly is, “how much photographer input is in this image ?”.
Workshops vary from being taken to a location which would be difficult or expensive to get to on your own. At the other end of the scale there are those where it is, “put your tripod here, use this lens, set this shutter speed and that aperture and press that button on the top of camera”.
An issue to ponder on for the future of national and international exhibitions.”
“It is always a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to select for a major exhibition.
With Barbie & Rusty and their Team running the show we anticipated a well organized weekend, and so it proved. Very minor technical glitches were swiftly corrected. That always makes the job of a Selector much easier. The timetable ran like clockwork and we were fed and watered and chauffeured here there and everywhere. So “thank you, all”.
There were many excellent images in all 4 Sections, Colour, Mono, Scapes and Nature. However there are always some images which are over processed and others where you simply think, “has this ever been projected before and not just viewed on a monitor ? ”. Mono was the weakest of the four sections.
A controversial proposal, but in the same way there is a ‘W’ box to indicate a genuine Wildlife image, is it time to add a ‘W/S’ box to indicated that the image was made on some form of workshop ?
The Selectors lost count, but I imagine there may have been 20-25% of workshop images in the 5,000 image total.
Workshops have expanded exponentially ever since the bottom dropped out of the Stock Market (images not shares) and professional photographers needed to find a new income stream. They can be very social occasions, instructive and educational.
For any open Exhibition the Selectors want to see top class images produced by enthusiastic photographers. The question increasingly is, “how much photographer input is in this image ?”.
Workshops vary from being taken to a location which would be difficult or expensive to get to on your own. At the other end of the scale there are those where it is, “put your tripod here, use this lens, set this shutter speed and that aperture and press that button on the top of camera”.
An issue to ponder on for the future of national and international exhibitions.”
Robert Millin MFIAP, FBPE, EFIAP/p, MPSA, SPSA, DPAGB, GPU HERMES
“Very happy to have been able to help Beyond Group out at short notice and enjoyed a weekend of judging a very good range of images. The award winners are a particularly good set covering a broad range of genres.
The Nature section was strong with a wide range of animals and shooting styles on display from macro to underwater photography. I found that the Mono section was not as strong as the other sections and put this down to over processing as many images suffered from being over sharpened and many were grainy in presentation - however there were also very many enjoyable well processed images.
Interesting to see and identify a strong trend in workshop attendance where the same characters appear in different guises from a range of different authors. This trend was also noticeable in the Nature section too.
Good that photographers who may not otherwise have the opportunity to shoot different genres are finding opportunities to expand their portfolios.
The Beyond Group team worked tirelessly with much humour to ensure the judging was carried out efficiently and I will always smile at remembering the singing of, and pronunciation, of some titles.
Thanks to the Beyond Group team and all of the photographers who entered the exhibition.”
“Very happy to have been able to help Beyond Group out at short notice and enjoyed a weekend of judging a very good range of images. The award winners are a particularly good set covering a broad range of genres.
The Nature section was strong with a wide range of animals and shooting styles on display from macro to underwater photography. I found that the Mono section was not as strong as the other sections and put this down to over processing as many images suffered from being over sharpened and many were grainy in presentation - however there were also very many enjoyable well processed images.
Interesting to see and identify a strong trend in workshop attendance where the same characters appear in different guises from a range of different authors. This trend was also noticeable in the Nature section too.
Good that photographers who may not otherwise have the opportunity to shoot different genres are finding opportunities to expand their portfolios.
The Beyond Group team worked tirelessly with much humour to ensure the judging was carried out efficiently and I will always smile at remembering the singing of, and pronunciation, of some titles.
Thanks to the Beyond Group team and all of the photographers who entered the exhibition.”
Scott Coe BPE3*
“I had the absolute pleasure of being the Beyond Group judge for the 2019 exhibition. After four years of being behind the desk I was in the limelight and sat at the front as one of three judges. I would like to thank Glyn Edmunds and Robert Millin for their support as I made my first voyage into judging an exhibition.
Overall the standard of images was very high but I did feel that we had a higher number of images with technical faults this year, especially within the colour and mono sections.
The colour and mono sections were highly populated with sports and portrait images, especially track and field, cricket and grass track racing. The exhibition will reflect this within the accepted images but a good image is a good image and trying to remember which images have been selected already in a section of 1,500+ images is very difficult.
A similar issue was also noticed in the nature section with a high number of workshop type images of studio macro photography.
It was good to see a number of creative images being entered and to a very high quality.
The Beyond Group acceptance rate is around 16- 17% which means that the exhibition should display the highest quality images entered but unfortunately this also means that a number of good images may of not been accepted.
Please don’t let this put you off, as it is only the opinion of three judges on the day, at another exhibition they may be selected or even win an award.
To close my report I would like to thank the Beyond Group for giving this opportunitie to gain experience and to my fellow judges; Glyn and Robert for their warm welcome to the world of judging.”
“I had the absolute pleasure of being the Beyond Group judge for the 2019 exhibition. After four years of being behind the desk I was in the limelight and sat at the front as one of three judges. I would like to thank Glyn Edmunds and Robert Millin for their support as I made my first voyage into judging an exhibition.
Overall the standard of images was very high but I did feel that we had a higher number of images with technical faults this year, especially within the colour and mono sections.
The colour and mono sections were highly populated with sports and portrait images, especially track and field, cricket and grass track racing. The exhibition will reflect this within the accepted images but a good image is a good image and trying to remember which images have been selected already in a section of 1,500+ images is very difficult.
A similar issue was also noticed in the nature section with a high number of workshop type images of studio macro photography.
It was good to see a number of creative images being entered and to a very high quality.
The Beyond Group acceptance rate is around 16- 17% which means that the exhibition should display the highest quality images entered but unfortunately this also means that a number of good images may of not been accepted.
Please don’t let this put you off, as it is only the opinion of three judges on the day, at another exhibition they may be selected or even win an award.
To close my report I would like to thank the Beyond Group for giving this opportunitie to gain experience and to my fellow judges; Glyn and Robert for their warm welcome to the world of judging.”