Intimate Scapes Competition: Amanda Wright Reports
/Last night (27 February) we skipped a club night in person in order to attend the penultimate Intimate Landscapes Competition '25 hosted once again on Zoom by Tring Photographic Society and organised by Peter Cox.
13 clubs re-entered as per last year and there was one new entry - Hemel Hempstead PS. The evening was very well attended and indeed reached it's max capacity of 100 viewers, with some people unable to get in. I think I spotted 9 other EHHPS members (and a couple of them were there to represent our fellow Northfields CC as well),
The two judges were both from the Southern Federation, Maria Leekblade who lives in the New Forest, a judge we have come across a few times before and Tony Oliver from Salisbury PC. Tony had a very good analogy I thought to aid those struggling to understand the genre and thought process behind what makes an Intimate Landscape image and that was to think of a vista as a jigsaw puzzle, removing a couple of the pieces from that jigsaw puzzle but still achieving an interesting and engaging image.
All clubs are requested to submit 5 images each by a different author so 70 images in total and the standard was incredibly high. The judges had been poring over the images at length before the competition and also with a 3 hour meeting with Peter Cox too to agree final decisions. Images were scored between 12-20
Our club entries were:
Birchwood by Jenny Fenton - a classic Jenny Fenton multiple exposure shot with fabulous colours and excellent composition. The judges initially seemed to agree saying it was a lovely viewpoint and subject matter, very creative and with a lot of work having gone in to create the image, however Tony felt it was 'jarring' and 'visually grating' as there were faint and distant trees in the background that he couldn't account for which for me seemed to contradict his initial comments.
Score 15Cold Cabin by Kris Mason - the judges felt it was interesting to see the human element within the landscape, the snow was well handled and the colours worked well. He also said it had a dark, sinister and foreboding feel as the snowy environment seemed hostile and the door to the cabin was barred, again highlighting the sinister feel. (At this point I decided he'd clearly been watching too many horror movies)
Score 17Forest Light by Jacqui Sinnatt - They really appreciated the beautiful light in this image with fabulous textures particularly in the moss and that it did have an intimate feel with the suggestion of enclosure creating a lovely atmosphere and mood.
Our highest scoring image 18Fairytale Rocks by Jane Arnold-Forster - The judges really enjoyed the feeling of elves, pixies and gnomes this image gave having a very Tolkeinesque quality. They suggested it could do with having a greater tonal range, needing a little more contrast to really make the rocks stand out and that a large portion of the base could be cropped to give the background rocks more impact.
Score 16Little Shed by The River by Dennis Durack - Comments on this image were that it had lovely detail and information throughout of all the different textures, with good information in the shadows and that the colouration was spot on. They enjoyed travelling through the image and particularly liked the fronds that stood out against the window of the shed.
Score 17
Our total score on the night was 83 putting us in joint 5th place with our lovely friends at Northfields CC
The winning club was Maidenhead (I think their total was 89)
(Amanda Wright)
All images can be seen on the Intimate-landscape website.
For those unable to access the zoom stream on the night, a recording was made, and the relevant link will be made available in the next EHHPS newsletter.
