Our fourth and final competition contributing towards the Mayor’s Cup trophy was held on Zoom and judged by Derek Stratton from Okehampton Photography Group, which is a similar sized club to our own and facing similar challenges.

Firstly Derek progressed through all the images submitted and gave a critique of each image but focussing on those that did not make his final shortlist of 8 images. His comments were candid and constructive and included many suggestions how the photographer could have made more of the image. In particular, Derek looked for those images in which there was significant input and forethought by the photographer as opposed to merely a record shot, however pleasing that might have been. He admitted that he didn’t pay too much attention to the image title as the image should visually communicate its meaning and “speak for itself”.

After a brief break, the shortlisted 8 images were then critiqued in detail and placings finally awarded. The overall winning image was a still life entitled “Studio beach” by Jim Bullock, who like many others had used the additional time afforded during the lockdown period to experiment with their photography.