Loyalist Photo Contest 2008/2009: JANUARY CONTEST

Thank you to Brian Kerrigan - Photo Editor of the National ( and Canuck - former
Globe and Mail), Kevin Larkin - Assistant Photo Editor (Foreign) (Yankee - ex New York
Times) and Robert Evans - Assistant Photo Editor (Review and Arts) (Brit - ex Press Association)
for judging our January contest.

News:
Three jumped out
1st - Emergency Officials watch funeral procession - strong
composition, good lens choice and being in the right place
2. Israel / Palestinian protest - well cropped and composed
3. Fire fighters lower an injured person off of roof.

Feature:
1st - Ice fishing kid. Clearly there was a light / strobe set up here
but still it works and has a good look / feel to it that takes you out
on the ice.
2nd - gent with a butterfly on his nose. I only wish this had been
cropped a bit better - it's a big square and doesn't need to be.
3rd - kids at museum - well composed and simple. Kids expressions were
ok but not crazy.
HM - train / plane photo - quiet moment but good to see the photog was
looking to make an image.

Multi:
1st - Horses - good use of light, composition, technical ability to
put together a varied batch of pictures that tell a story.
There were two others entered but they left us all feeling there were
more missed opportunities than good moments so we only awarded a 1st.

It was clear in one of the other entries that the photographer had
shot all but one photo within a five foot radius of a red truck - it
appeared in every frame but one. So one winner only.

Portrait:
1st - Smoking woman knocked our socks off. It's simple composition
works very effectively - and that finger isn't coloured with henna.
You can easily see this as a lead photo of a story in a magazine.
2. Old woman with old woman dolls - there seemed to be a series of
pictures of people that look like their stuff. This was the most
effective of those and had us talking a bit. When finding the
juxtaposition between people to items for similarity, composition is
everything - a few others were a little let down by composition.
3. Fox woman - a striking image but discussion was that it might have
been worked more and a slightly better angle / crop would have
elevated it.

Sport:
1st - SP Lablans - dog sled dogs with longest tongue in the world.
This picture was running so far out in front (pun intended) that the
rest left us feeling disappointed. This dogsled pic is fantastic -
great moment captured perfectly - right lens, right angle, right
exposure, right moment. The hockey had a series of ill cropped
composed "after" or "before" peak action moments, and worse - stuff
shot from up high. Having just had the Arabian Cup of Ice Hockey here
(and thus had to teach some of my Photojournalism students at Zayed
University how to shoot hockey) the key is ice level action. Find a
bit of glass that is clean enough to shoot through in the corners and
let the action come your way. The high angle sucks the life out of a
very fast paced game. And if anyone wants tips on shooting Cricket I
can give you that too. So first place only here.

Hope we weren't too harsh but better to get this feedback now then
when you're expecting a pay cheque for the same photos!

All the best and keep working hard to make great images- it pays off
in the end.

NEWS

1st. - John Hanley