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After having a break from competition in December, the Saint Paul Camera Club held its next salon in January.

Digital competition: Animals

With “animals” as the theme for the month’s competition, I went back to my 2005 safari in Botswana.

The judge liked my cheetah family, but didn’t think I had sharpened it enough, so only gave me an 8 on it. Still, that was enough to qualify as an award winner.

Because it got an “award” level score at the local salon, it was also eligible to compete in the North Central Camera Club Council’s regional competition. It got an honorable mention there. It’s my first regional award, so I’m thrilled.

My other image didn’t score as well, although the judge seemed to generally like it. The concern was that I could have brought more detail out of the dark areas. Unfortunately, the original file was pretty small, so I think I’ve pretty well maxed out what’s there!

 

Color print competition

I had a hard time deciding what to enter this month after spending a lot of time working on a couple of images that ended up not really liking that well.

I knew I wanted to enter my picture of canoes piled along the shore of Emerald Lake in Canada’s Yoho National Park and worked really hard to get the perfect print.

The judge gave me an 8 on it, again enough to qualify as an “award,” but still a little disappointing. He seemed to like the digital version a lot better than the print, but didn’t say what he didn’t like about the print. Oh well.

I couldn’t even remember what my second print submission was until it came up on the screen. This was an image I had printed up for a friend who decided he wanted it on canvas instead, leaving me we an extra copy of the print. I liked how it had turned out and, since it was handy, I decided at the last minute to submit it.

It was a good call, as the judge liked it enough to give it a 10!

 

So after my rather depressing start this year, I’m feeling a bit better about things. . . . although I have yet to see the results from the February salon, so we’ll see how I’m feeling after that!