2022-23 Panel Competition Winners
A selection of the panels entered for the 2022-23 Panel Competition that our competition judge liked the most.
You can also view the panels as a slideshow here.
Liz Tarren - Puffins (Bucket List #4)
Images
Taking Puffins has been on my bucket list for some time, I finally went last June on a 2 ½ day trip with Yorkshire Coast Nature, which included going out to Staple island in the mornings and Inner Farne Island in the afternoons. We were lucky to have clear skies and calm waters. I do not have a fast wildlife lens, which means most of my shots have busy background, all these images have been processed in photoshop adding colour filled layers with gradient masks to create clean backgrounds.
Layout
There was some discussion on the night as to the order I placed the images, whereas I agree that certain images could be placed differently, if moved, I think one or two images would need to be changed for the panel to stay balanced.
I chose the two head shots to be the “Book ends” as they are bold statement images, they are aligned so the eyes are level. Image 2 looking to the right was the next choice in the sequence, it was then necessary to include an image to match as it was of a different scale to the head shots. I chose the 4th image as it complimented the 2nd image with wings out and a similar perspective. It also showed a different view, avoiding having two very similar images. The middle image was chosen because the prominent eye could be placed centrally and is looking down whilst the other images look inwards. With 2 & 5 matching side on views and 1 & 4 matching with a slight angle of the head inwards I felt the set was balanced.
Note: the eyes in images 2,3 & 4 are also aligned and although its coincidental, the base of the wings in 2 & 4 are on the eye line of 1 & 5 which strengthens the visual continuity of the sequence.
Finally, I feel the order shows symmetry with the top of the heads rising to the middle from the ends.
Presentation
As an experiment I used 5 black pin board 30cmx30cm tiles and silver clip pins from Amazon as mounts. The images were printed on Daler Rowney Simply A4 watercolour paper, with a thin black border around the images and an approx. 2cm white margin. Printed from photoshop to a Canon G600 series printer using Media Type: “Premium Fine Art, Rough.
The resulting prints had a softening effect without losing the detail and quality of the photographs.
Diana Moss: The Wasa (Vasa). Recovered from the Deep
This panel shows parts of a well known Swedish 17th century warship which has been restored and is kept in a purpose built museum in the Royal National City Park on the waterfront in Stockholm.
So much has been written about it, but it is known as having sailed for only 20 minutes and a distance of 1000m before it keeled over and sank with loss of 500+ lives.
The reasons for the disaster are many and varied, but it is thought that as a result of pressure from the King it lacked stability and seaworthiness in exchange for elegance and firepower.
It was very well preserved when salvaged, largely down to the cold Baltic Sea waters preventing the growth of microbes which might have destroyed it, being unable to survive in the oxygen depleted polluted water.
The images were taken on a phone camera even though I had the micro four thirds with me as the phone camera gave me a much better distribution of light in an otherwise dark space.
Barrie Moss: Art Underground
Much of the Stockholm Tunnelbana network is decorated with artwork.
The five images chosen focus on its rock art – tunnelling through rock being an area of particular Swedish expertise - but the art takes many forms embracing sculpture, mosaics, graffiti and text (including the UN Declaration of Human Rights) – all very Swedish!
James Cole: Beaches of Zanzibar
