Morpeth Camera Club: John Thompson wins Members A4 Print Competition

Entries could be on any subject, in monochrome or colour, and could not exceed A4 size. The 66 entries were placed on temporary mounts and exhibited on the club’s display boards, and members were invited to judge and score each print out of five.

While the marks were being counted by a team led by Glyn Trueman, club vice chairman Peter Downs selected prints at random to discuss and make observations. This was an anonymous competition so it was interesting to see, after a print had been critiqued, who raised their hand to reveal themselves as the author.

This was a good opportunity to look at the prints from a judge’s point of view and also to receive feedback from other members via a points system. This was particularly important for new members who had never shown their work before.

As is usual in an open competition, the content was very varied – seascapes, portraits, sport, woodland scenes, abstracts and flora – and Peter said that the standard and number of prints entered this year was much higher than before.

There had been no bad prints presented in the competition, he added, but for the less experienced printers it was just a matter of paper choice which could have impacted on the points awarded.

The results then followed and it emerged that the scores were tightly grouped with a cluster of entries gaining 74 or more and the winning print, entitled ‘Barn Owl’ by John Thompson attained 80 marks.

Second place went to ‘Dark Waters’ by Carl Harper and third to ‘Harris’ by Stephanie Robson.

Co-chair Roseanne Robinson thanked everyone who took part in an enjoyable evening.