This year’s annual Bedfordshire Invitation Inter-Club Competition was held at Barton Village Hall and hosted by Shillington & District Camera Club. 10 local clubs were competing for the trophy (down from 11 in 2024), with each club submitting 6 PDI plus a reserve image for use in the event of a tiebreaker. The competition was judged by Jonathan Vaines CPAGB. Approximately 50 people attended the event, including 10 from A&DCC, which was fantastic support on behalf of the Club.
Below is a summary of Jonathan’s comments on the A&DCC images together with their respective score:
Lady in Red by Angela Dunn – Score 16. The judge liked how the motion had been captured with the raised arm and the movement of the material but felt that the leg position looked awkward. (Note: this image scored 20 in an external competition earlier this year with the judge particularly praising the positioning of the model which demonstrates how subjective judging can be).
Shape and Form by Paul Tapping – Score 16. The judge liked the reflections and detail in the building together with the sky and the strong curve of the bridge which provided a frame. He felt that the position of the lamp post was important and worked well but that the contrast between the light and dark parts of the image was not so successful.
Look Up by Tim Ford – Score 18. Jonathan enjoyed the wide-angle view giving a distorted view of the world with wonderful converging lines. He likened the main building to a “blue rocket” and felt that the use of colour – blue and yellow – together with composition which didn’t include too much sky, worked particularly well.
We’re Watching You! by Peter Gibbs – Score 16. He liked the good separation of the birds but felt that the strong sky was completing with the main subject matter for his attention. The foreground was considered to be a little too bright and featureless and perhaps the image could have been improved by cropping this or moving closer to the subject.
Gold Girl by Tim Ford – Score 16. The judge appreciated the triangles created by the pose but considered the overall positioning of the model to be a little uncomfortable and unnatural. He also felt that she was not engaged with the photographer, so it didn’t work for him.
Lonely Ride by Ian Gutteridge – Score 17. Whilst the bike itself is not particularly attractive, it does provide a sense of scale and he particularly liked the great colours – yellow, green and a pop of orange – and the super positioning and lighting. “A real photographers’ image”.
Surrounded by Roses by Ben Peet – (this was our tie-breaker image but was not required)
A&DCC’s total score of 99 (the same as in 2024) put us in 7th place with the trophy being won by Stevenage PS with 111 points who beat Harpenden PS (also on 111) by the tie breaker. The final positions were:
Stevenage PS 111*
Harpenden PS 111*
Leighton Buzzard PC 105
Biggleswade & DCC 105
Rushden & DPS 103
Bedford CC 101
Ampthill & DCC 99
Milton Keynes City PS 98
Shillington & DCC 95
Luton & Dunstable PC 95
The overall winning image, with a score of 21, was “A wasp tending it’s nest” by Steve Collins of Harpenden PS.
A&DCC didn’t leave Barton empty handed as we won a total of 6 prizes in the raffle, including some rather nice jelly sweets.
Our next external competition is the Ely Photographic Club Invitation Shield on 12 November and full details are available on our Club website.
