Photographers from Dornoch and Portmahomack take top spots in camera club’s motion-themed competition
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The theme of East Sutherland Camera Club’s April competition was ‘motion’, and how that was interpreted was up to the photographer, writes club secretary Andy Kirby.
Entries ranged from freezing motion with a fast shutter speed to creating the sense of movement by using a slow shutter speed to blur the movement.
Depicting slow motion too had its place as well as the technique of ICM – Intentional Camera Movement – where the camera is moved in a controlled way at a slow shutter speed to create an interesting visual result.
The competition was judged by Gordon Allison, well known locally for the photographic business he used to run in Tain.
First and second place in the colour section went to the club’s youngest member, Zara Macdonald from Dornoch.
Like many others, she was out to capture the Red Arrows on their recent training runs. Her About Turn has all the hallmarks of excellent composition, perfect timing and good exposure to bring out the subtleties of the sky.
Her second placed Open Throttle is literally back down to earth, demonstrating careful camera panning to keep the subject sharp but the background blurred.
Alan Butcher, Golspie, demonstrated the same technique with a fast moving racing car in his third placed Knockhill. This technique involves not only keeping the subject sharp but also finding a background that does not distract from the subject.
A very aptly titled Spin Dryer earned Jan Charge from Culrain a fourth place for her charming image of her dog. The image demonstrated a good choice of shutter speed to capture the movement and water drops and benefited from a square crop that framed the subject well.
In the monochrome section first and second places were also scooped by the same person; this time Zoe Gray from Portmahomack.
First-placed A Dodgy Place To Stand certainly gave that impression with the light trails of buses on either side of Edinburgh’s Princes Street in her long shutter speed night time shot.
A similar slow speed shutter technique had been used with her Passing Through. This time a daytime shot, she used camera panning to create varying degrees of blur between the subject and the foreground and background.
Martin Ross from Golspie came third with Catch a Wave which combined strong contrasting diagonal lines of kayak and wave to convey a good sense of motion.
Gordon Sparling from Ardgay, like Zara in the colour section, had caught just the right moment as the planes, not the Red Arrows this time, made their turn. He chose a square crop for Formation Flying which worked well to frame the diagonal emphasis of the smoke trails and the alignment of the planes.
For more details about the club see www.eastsutherlandcc.org.uk and where the winning competition images can be seen.
Winning images:
Colour
1 - About Turn by Zara Macdonald
2 - Open Throttle by Zara Macdonald
3 - Knockhill by Alan Butcher
4 - Spin Dryer by Jan Charge
Monochrome
1 - A Dodgy Place to Stand by Zoe Gray
2 - Passing Through by Zoe Gray
3 - Catch a Wave by Martin Ross
4 - Formation Flying by Gordon Sparling
