Dublin Beginners Photography - Results of 1st May Photography Competition
Hi All,
Another week over in no time and another week of excellent submissions from you all. Thanks to everyone for participating in this week’s photo competition. Thank you to all who submitted photographs and for those watching and supporting other photographers. I hope that you find this photography competition entertaining and useful as a learning tool to improve your photography even during lockdown. I spend a considerable amount of time going through these images to construct positive and constructive criticism to help me and you become a better photographer and I hope you all are taking the time to review everyone’s picture and learn from them.
I was hoping that last week’s theme might drum up more submissions as it is a broader subject and was allowing more people to participate, but it seems to have done the opposite.
My aim was to help you kick in the high gear and shoot whatever you wanted. If it was composed within the rules of thirds you were good to go and everyone’s submissions this week were well within the rules of thirds and got the green point towards the subject.
Congratulations to all for learning the rules of thirds and following it. I hope this exercise will help you become a better photographer and apply it in your day to day practice.
I know when I started photography, I mostly took everything straight on. I never tried to position items on the side or looked for paths, curves, or leading lines. Subject of composition is a broad & complex subject, and I do not think anyone can ever say that one rule, is the rule that everyone should use.
Rules are made to be broken, rules of thirds can be broken and ignored, if you maintain a balance in your image.
When I refer to balance, it means that when you are composing your picture, your subject stands out like a nail on a board. It must be composed to give the subject clear definition and surrounding objects must complement the subject and not distract from it. Or in some cases, the subject is what leads to other interesting objects within the subject and creates a story.
As per previous competition, I have divided all submissions into Tier 1, 2 and 3. Tier 1 represents the best photographic submissions followed by Tier 2 and 3.
This week I had to add in Tier 4 unfortunately as some submissions did not meet the date guidelines. Tier 4 represents submissions I deem worthy of posting; however, they will not take the top spot or be featured.
On a little side note to ensure we are clear. If you are viewing these photos on your mobile phone, the description of each image and the artists name is underneath each image.
If you are on an iPad or PC, description is either left or right of the image.
As usual, always remember, that these photo submissions are my opinion, that does not necessarily make my judgment & critique right or wrong. I simply judge them based on the rules outlined in the rules of the competition.
Hopefully, some feedback will help you learn something new and make you excel in your future photography.
Without further delays, enjoy these beautiful photos and people at its best.
Winning Submission & Tier 1 Entry
Congratulations to Sainath Bavugi for winning this week’s competition with this beautiful portrait.
Sainath Bavugi
You have followed the rule of thirds correctly and composed a beautiful picture of yourself and created a story anyone could understand.
The picture is nicely composed focusing on the subject and the story. While I appreciate some background objectors to give the picture a bit more story, I would prefer if they were a little bit blurrier. Try using a lower aperture, zooming in further with your lens or putting more distance between yourself and the background to create better subject and background separation.
Tier 2 - Rules of Thirds
Closely followed by Tier 2 Submissions.
Gavin Doyle
With Summer in the air, it’s hard not to catch these little guys around the place. It is a beautiful and sharp image. The image is composed in the centre, in a way, it breaks and follows the rule of thirds.
One rule of composition balance I follow, is that the only time I centre an object, is it when it covers the full image frame, or I have more than 1 subject (e.g. a couple portrait). It is not something you have to follow, but I feel it gives the image more balance.
On a second note. I always try to leave more dead space in the direction that the subject is facing.
In the case of your submission. I would have done a heavier crop and place the birdy on the middle left hand side of the picture and let the viewer see that he is looking to his right-hand side. This gives the image a little less distraction and a lot more of a story to focus on the important aspect of the photo. All we need is a cat on the right-hand side and we are golden 😊
Marilyn Lawless
A very interesting concept Marilyn, I can always trust you to push the boundaries of creativity a little further and I look forward every week to something new and interesting from you. My only little picking with this image would be the label on the bulb.
If I were to re-do this, I would try to mask out the label of the bulb, even with a little bit of colour could create a very interesting effect. It would also make it interesting if the bulb were lit and shining some light on the dark background. That is something that can be done with a little bit of messing around with photoshop that would create an interesting picture. Maybe it is a project for another weekend.
Bried Collins
Thank you for the lovely submission of the flowers. It can be something a bit hard to find interesting subjects during lock down, but I think flowers is one thing you can never get bored of shooting.
Well done on exposing the image and the use of direct sunlight. It is not easy to light up the subject and the bright blue sky at the same time, but you have done it nicely. Do not be afraid to incorporate yourself, your family or even a friend in your pictures. A simple touch of a human holding, smelling, or picking the flowers can give the image such a strong message of emotion and appreciation for nature.
Deborah O'Loughlin
Thanks, Deborah, for your submission of this beautiful picture. It is hard to come across them and they are so beautiful to appreciate.
Your image is correctly exposed and composed, but a little soft and hard to make out the details of the bird. It is most likely a limitation of your phone, as the bird seems out of focus. I also feel that the leaves in front of the bird are too bright and vivid, giving it very heavy focal point of contrast. I know it may be difficult with wildlife, but try to think of the colour balance in the image, does the subjects surrounding complement the image or do they subtract?
Tier 3
Followed by the last Tier in our photo competition. Thanks so much for participating.
Teresa Vanin
A great submissions of the wild house cat 😊 you have composed it very well and it would have been a few spaces up higher if the critters face would have been in focus. Number one rule in photography is to ensure that your subject is in focus, in this case it is not, and we have managed to focus on the rear end of the cat as opposed to the front.
Adrian Furlong
Thanks Adrian, for your submission. I hope you are enjoying your walks. Well done on following this week’s theme and composing your image to the rule of thirds. Try to incorporate your dog into the picture, play with it, chase it, and give it a story of movement and motion, this will create fun memories and some more interest in the photo.
Tier 4
According to the image metadata the images below were not taken in May 2020.
As I like these images and I think they are worth sharing. I am including them in the disqualified section.
Miguel Rueda Lopez
A beautiful photo. Thanks for the submission.
Donal Ring
A beautiful photo. Thanks for the submission.
Thank you all so much for participating. It’s great so see such enthusiasm.
Regards
Evan