Amersham PS hosted the first round of The Rosebowl for us on Monday (25th October) via Zoom, judged by the Chairman of the CACC himself, Martin Patten. Also drawn in this round were Harpenden PS and Wantage CC so we knew it was going to be tricky.

Martin certainly explained what it was he didn’t like about the images, blue/grey/desaturated tones didn’t do well, unsmiling models were ‘unreadable’ and artistic images didn’t seem to float his boat either although he did give some good tips on cropping in a few images and used a broad range of scores from 14-20.

The images that scored highly and his two stars were ones that resonated with him, a crowded b&w long exposure shot amongst the clock art installation at Canary Wharf is similar to one he has taken and a rugby tackle of Itoje taken from the sidelines, he’s a fan. Other 20’s were A Momentous Day, a fabulous newsstand shot in b&w with poignant ‘Killer Virus, 2 Cases in Britain‘ headlines and a fabulous Mountain Hare in snow.

Ealing’s top score was 19 awarded to Paul Mason’s In Shape, a lovely high key art nude. Kristin Mason scored 18 for Mademoiselle D’Azure as did Shaun Hodge for The Body.

Final placings were

1st Amersham 269
2nd Harpenden 259
=3rd EHHPS 247
=3rd Wantage 247

Round 2 is on 7th Dec, hosted by Imagez and with Leighton Buzzard and Banbury.

Fingers Crossed 🤞

Amanda