The club phase of the NIPA round 2 competition was last night, and as anyone who's read anything here over the past few weeks will know, the theme was "Water".

I ended up submitting 7 entries, 3 in the beginners mono section and 4 in the beginners colour. I thought I'd post, showing you the final choices and the comments they received.

But first...

The entries to the competition where quite varied, ranging from some lovely waterfall shots through to droplets similar to pictures I'd been trying. There were a few "loose" interpretations on the theme, but all in all I thought the pictures were pretty impressive. I counted around 20 mono and 30 - 40 colour prints.

Within the club, points are awarded to the top 4 colour and top 4 mono pictures. The best 3 expert photos and best beginner photo in each section go through to the NIPA inter-club phase.

The judge on the night was very thorough, giving a critique of every shot. I felt he was maybe a little critical at times and tended to concentrate on the problems in each picture, but as I said to one of the members - "I wasn't putting photos in to have people blow bubbles up my bum" (No, I'm not sure what I meant either).

During judging he reiterated a few points

• The majority of the picture needed to be water
• Still water was lifeless and bland unless reflections or some such set it off
• Horizons really needed to be straight
• The context needed to be clear
• Division of interest - there being multiple subjects in the same show

I was going to be in for a rough night...

The Mono Pictures

The three mono pictures I ended up submitting were:

 Dripping Tap. (Names are such transient things!)

Droplet

Ice

I know these shots have issues, and after printing the strongest was the "Dripping Tap" photograph. I'm not going to try and quote the judge here, but in essence.

• Dripping Tap - Possibly a little tighter drop to remove the dead area to the right of the tap.
• Droplet - The judge wasn't sure what this was, wondering aloud if it was the ripples of a sinks drain or something similar.
• My Little Iceberg -Recognised as ice, he summed it up along the lings of "it's just a photo of ice on a plate"

The Colour Pictures

Splash on Silk

Droplet on a Leaf

 My Little Iceberg

 Lake in the Mournes

Again, without trying to quote the judge.

• Splash on Silk - He wasn't sure what this was and wasn't keen on the colour, saying he felt water pictures should be water coloured
• Droplet on a leaf - Whilst there was water in the picture, there wasn't enough of it and it wasn't the main subject
• My Little Iceberg - (I'm not even getting into it. I shouldn't have submitted this...)
• Lake in the Mournes - Almost monochrome landscape, quite dull and lifeless

My Thoughts

I've heard it said a few times now that you can't read a judge before the night. There's always an element of luck to it. But having seen the winning pictures in each round, they deserved to win and the  judge did get it right.

I don't necessarily agree with some of his comments in regard to "Splash on Silk" and "Droplet on a Leaf", but given he doesn't read this blog he might have been right. I'd be keen on other peoples thoughts.

All in all I'm happy with the night and the round. I learned a little more and saw some brilliant examples of thematic photography. I also managed to achieve 4th overall in the mono section with the "Dripping Tap" and the "Droplets on Silk" picture was picked as the best beginner colour photograph. Both go through to the inter-club round.