April 2009 votes

[Gruditch]

This thread is here to allow you to cast your votes for the April 2009 competition. See entries at gallery's, photo competition, April 2009. Voting closes on the 20TH.

You need to be registered and logged into the forums, where you'll be able to cast your votes for your three favourites. Once you've voted, that's it!

Please note : Any self votes will be removed !.

Gruditch

[Padfield]

That was really difficult. I apologise to all the people I didn't vote for, whose shots made my jaw drop.

Guy

[Dave McCormick]

Actually, I agree with Guy this time, it is difficult to vote. I'll give my thoughts after voting has ended.

[eccles]

I had a short list of twelve! The standard is exceptional this month.

[FISHiEE]

An excellent turnout and record number of entries for this new format of the competition I see and several new faces. Bodes well for the season to come

[Ian Pratt]

I agree. There are some stunning shots and I had a short list of about 10. Well done all who entered!

[Denise]

I also found this month to have some fantastic photos, it was very hard to choose between my short list of 10!
I hope that someone does a critique this month, we could all learn a lot.

[NickB]

One of the best set of entries for a long time. Great work all!
I also had 9 or 10 and found it impossible, or nearly, to decide! So any from that list is a worthy winner!
I think that the advice and tips over the last year (and the Workshop, personally) has helped us all move forward!
Here's to happy shooting over the rest of the season!
N

[Gruditch]

Congratulations to Kipper 1st, Fishiee 2nd, and Mr Eeles & Gsbutterflies = 3rd.

Please don't tell me that the Gs, in Gsbutterflies, stands for Grey Shark, or some other fish, as that would be just too weird.

Gruditch

[Neil Hulme]

Thanks Gruditch,
And congratulations, not just to FISHiEE, Pete and 'GS', but all who entered. There were some absolute beauties that failed to get the points they might have deserved. I'm absolutely delighted to get up amongst some of the photographers that post on here - it's looking at their stuff that has helped me improve beyond my early attempts. Similarly I think that a few other new-starts have shown major steps in the right direction this month. More of that when I get the chance to do the critique. This might be next week now, as I'm bang slap in the middle of helping my parents move house. I haven't even recovered from my own recent house move yet - never, ever again!
Neil

[Gwenhwyfar]

Well done to Neil and the runners-up
One of my votes went to Anthonym, an excellent shot - perhaps it would of had more votes, had you uploaded the image to a larger size?

[Denise]

Congratulations to the worthy winners.
What a competition! The entries were outstanding this month.
My top 10 (in no particular order) were:-
Iac, Pete, Fishiee, Kipper, Antonym, GS, geniculata, Lisa, Polly and Pauline.
Any one of these shots I would have been proud to take, and could have won.
Well done everyone who took part.

Denise

[FISHiEE]

Haha yes this is the start of a fish domination

Congratulations to Neil. Stunning shot and judging by posts this year so far there's plenty more where that came from. THat goes for all the other participants too. There's been stacks of great images on the forums of late so the coming months only bode well for some great competition to push us all to further improve our skills

My votes went to Neil, GsButterflies and Denise but there were plenty of other close contendors.

40 is the most entries for this competition in it's current format. I don't envy having to write a critique for all of those!

[GsButterflies]

Hi All,

Well I only entered the comp on the suggestion of a friend (thank you Paul) so I am delighted anybody else thought my image was worthy of votes. So thank you very much for the vote's, all very encouraging to a new-be. Interestingly the May comp. already looks as if it ill be a corker.

Gruditch, the G is from Graham but I prefer just to use G - simples.

G

[Denise]

OMG
Fishiee voted for me.
Thank you so much John. You have made my day.
I value your opinion as I rate you as one of the top three photographers on this site.
Also, thanks very much to the other three people that voted for me.

Cheers
Denise

[xmilehigh]

Congrats to the winner's, very well done indeed.

[Pete Eeles]

Just to add my congrats. I narrowed my votes to a "top 9" and then spent another 10 minutes narrowing those down. Really difficult - the standard is definitely improving!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Just to let you know that I will get started on the May critique tomorrow evening, and with 40 to do it might take a couple of sessions! I've had a very busy day dealing with press releases and media enquiries about this rather awesome Painted Lady event!
Neil

[Dave McCormick]

I'll post my views at the end of the week. Have a few things on my mind and there is a lot of images here that I need to evaluate, so expect more from me soon.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Many apologies for the long delay in getting this together. My ‘proper’ job requires me to work only sporadically, but when a project comes in it sometimes means literally working around the clock. I’ve also just helped my parents move house – and their idea of ‘decluttering’ was to turn my driveway and gardens into Steptoe & Son’s front yard – God bless em! Anyway, all sorted now and back to butterfly things.

Many thanks to all those who voted for me – I was absolutely over-the-moon to get a first place amongst the stiff competition that will always be a feature of the UKB competitions. For the second time I’ve been in a close race with the mighty FISHiEE, which goes to show that ‘there’s more than one way of skinning a cat’ in terms of approach. Only one thing is ultimately important – to try and create a pleasing image, celebrating the beauty of our butterflies – and everyone on here is capable of doing that. I’ve never got involved in the compact versus DSLR debate – mainly because I don’t believe there is one! It would be like arguing whether painting in oils is better than painting in watercolours. Different tools – different effects, with both having their own set of advantages and disadvantages. I say ‘vive la difference’ and love looking at both.

Before reading my critique, please remember two things. 1) I know diddly squat about the technical aspects of photography, so don’t expect any advice on fs or ISOs (what?). 2) Appreciation of individual images is highly subjective – these are just my own views which will differ widely from others, so please feel free to disagree and ignore (what does he know?!). The one thing I have been is entirely honest; otherwise the exercise would be a complete waste of time.

JKT: Very nice study of a Green Hairstreak and to shoot one against a contrasting brown background is an achievement in itself. The OOF twig in the lower foreground detracts only slightly. Anything OOF nearside of the subject is always going to look a little awkward.

johnb: Cropped too tightly for my liking. If going in this close I think it’s important to get the entire butterfly in focus and the back-end is a bit ‘soft’. For close-up studies it’s also important to get a perfect specimen and the well-hammered naughty bits detract slightly. The front-end is great!

IAC: Beautiful image. I love this one and the muted green under-wing and soft lilac of the bluebells work well. Deservedly got a good number of votes.

Pete Eeles: Got one of my votes. The best of a number of beautiful Orange Tip images this month. I remember the difficulties we had trying to pick a good OT for the 2009 calendar, but this year the species has been nailed by quite a few photographers. I prefer a suggestion/hint of background myself (I feel it gives context), so this one hits the nail on the head for me. The lovely structure of the in-focus foliage adds to the overall composition.

Henry.Kemm: A very interesting shot. Remarkable capture and a triumph to get the wings in focus. However, to have had a chance, it would have needed to capture the body-parts in focus, at the expense of the wings.

Keith Woonton: Plenty I like here, including the colours, but heads/eyes must be sharp!

FISHiEE: Got one of my votes. Won’t go into too much detail as we all know how good John is. Simply stunning!

jackharr: I like the pose but overall it’s just a little too dark for my liking. I would have used a bit of soft flash just to illuminate a little more detail.

Markulous: Markulous has entered some great stuff in the past, so I thought that this one was far from his best. The SW is just too ‘soft’ all over and I didn’t find the composition over-inspiring. Clearly capable of much greater things!

Bill S: Nice study of a Grizzled Skipper but the blade of grass appearing from behind its head detracts, and the subject is too centralised – would benefit from being pushed to the left.

birdy43: This one demonstrates the difficulties of photography with compacts. The image of the GH is ‘lost’ in an over-busy background of grass stems. A closer crop with the subject pushed to the left would benefit the image greatly (currently too centralised).

xmilehigh: Very nice image but would probably do better in the ‘behaviour’ category this winter. Just a little too ‘soft’ to really ‘do it’ for me.

Susie: PBF ‘facials’ are always appealing due to the lovely, blue ‘golf-ball’ eyes. With shallow DOF this angle will always give problems (for me) with OOF wings both near and far side, which I find off-putting.

Rogerdodge: Nearly, but not quite! Roger is definitely one of the better photographers on UKB and, much as I love the subject, I reckon he’s posted far better. A combination of little things make it a ‘nearly’. It’s a little ‘soft’ where it really counts; I think the use of flash is a little strong – which slightly masks the lovely texture of the Duke’s under-wing ‘pearls’; and the odd grass blade has been a pain in the abdomen! That said – show this to a non-UKB photographer and they’ll go ‘WOW!’

smujsmith: This Orange Tip just looks a bit angry to me. He’s saying ‘don’t stick that thing in my face’. In this pose the (angry) face needs to be pin-sharp. I would say that OTs are best shot from a different angle to do them justice.

Oy: Good capture of this mating pair, but I’m not overly keen on the fabric of the wood they’re sitting on. As with most ‘mating pair’ shots, the male shows a bit of wear and tear, having been around for a week before the females usually emerge. Good one for the ‘behaviour’ category and certainly better than any GH shot I’ve ever taken.

Dave McCormick: Best one I’ve seen from Dave. Beautifully exposed. Topside shots of the White species are notoriously difficult, but this one succeeds. A little bit centralised – I would shave a bit of space off the right hand side, getting rid of all but the tip of the dandelion top right.

Antonym: Image too small! It looks very good to me, but hard to judge from this distance!

petergat: I like this one, particularly the colouring. A tiny bit ‘soft’ around the critical eye area, but not much wrong here. It really captures the understated beauty of the species.

Art Frames: One for the ‘behaviour’ section. Great capture but without the bestest gear in the whole wide world (and even with it!), sharpness is going to be an issue. The male has no chance! This is rejection behaviour by an already-mated female (I know it well).

web4160: Just a bit too ‘soft’ all over and awkwardly obscured by one of the flowers. Another ‘nearly’ – when a few millimetres and/or milliseconds might have made all the difference.

GsButterflies: Beautiful shot. I love the similarity between the texture of the seed-head and the skipper. A well-deserved 10-pointer and it was on my short-list – certainly a contender.

Shirley Roulston: Probably the best shot I’ve seen from Shirley who, like several other of us ‘newcomers’, has really started to improve. Don’t be discouraged by the lack of votes!

NickB: Very nice study of a Green Hairstreak. I think I would have knocked the exposure right back (I always do for GH). The dark, serrated foliage right behind it is a bit distracting. This species always looks better against anything other than a similarly green background.

The Gatekeeper: A fraction over-exposed in such strong, direct sunlight. The eyes/head are slightly OOF, at the expense of the flower. I always try to photograph Brimstones on flowers of any OTHER colour. Too much yellow is a bit harsh on the old eyeball!

Deano: For the third time…… The best shot I’ve seen from the photographer. Love it Deano. Well exposed, which is critical for an OT (showing both top and underside) on white flowers. Great composition and worthy of far more than a single vote.

Paul: Definitely another for the ‘behaviour’ category, whether for ‘mating’ or ‘camouflage’ – the latter being the drawback for a general competition. They’re just too well camouflaged!

Charles Nicol: Exactly the same comments as for NickB! It’s also a tad ‘soft’.

geniculata: Another cracking Orange tip image. Unfortunate only in that Pete got a very similar, slightly better one!

Gwenhwyfar: Only 4 votes?! One was mine and to me, the winner by a mile! With reference to earlier comments about backgrounds (see Pete Eeles), this is the effect I would hope to achieve, were I a DSLR user. I could write an essay on why this is so good, but this critique is taking long enough as it is. What it does illustrate (IMO), is that even with top-of-the-range gear and the technical know-how to use it, there will always be an additional element required in producing the very best shots – and Lisa has it. ‘Seeing the shot’ would be a simplistic way of putting it. In the same way you can teach someone the basics of how to paint in watercolour, but you can’t teach someone how to become a good artist. Only 4 votes?!

Polly: Very nice. Beautiful, delicate, pastel colours. Just to be picky, I would say that the composition would be improved by cropping less tightly. More room and more flower please.

Paul Brock: Dukes, lovely Dukes! Not much to be critical of, except to say that the composition is quite ‘standard’. I’ve seen (and taken!) an awful lot of Duke shots that look just like this one. Needs to be in mint condition, but suffering from a bald spot. Perhaps a tiny bit over-exposed.

Pauline: Yet another improver! Given the relatively modest nature of Pauline’s camera, a shot like this is quite an achievement. Great composition.

eccles: One of our ‘master technicians’ and, unsurprisingly, technically excellent. I love the continuity between the fine hairs along the leaf and butterfly’s hind wing margins.

padfield: One of the very best compact users. For me, the biggest hurdle of trying to get a slightly OOF, uncluttered background doesn’t really apply in this case. I like the contrast between the Scarce Swallowtail’s stripes and the ‘blobby’ foliage. Stunning subject.

mberwick: As for all of us, some room for improvement here. Even with a hand-held compact camera of modest capabilities, you will be able to get a sharper image than this. It just takes practice. The great thing about digital is that you can just keep pressing that button. Make sure that the head and thorax are at the very centre (focussing point) of the viewfinder/screen, hold steady and keep clicking. When cropping the image later, avoid leaving the butterfly dead centre. Leave more space to the right in this case.

Ian Pratt: Lovely shot of a very-difficult-to-photograph species. They never open up flat, so as Ian has done here, shoot ‘across’ the SC, getting one set of wings in focus.

Gruditch: One of our very best photographers and a deserved, multi-winner in the past. This time I think Gary got the composition wrong though. One of the many beautiful things about butterflies is their wing-shape. But at this angle they look a bit awkward and cumbersome. That said, I love the colours and fabric of the skipper’s perch, which would have worked nicely with some GS topside.

Denise: Beautiful shot. Photographically ‘spot on’. Only the condition of the Peacock specimen detracts from the image – inevitable with a post-hibernation example.

Good luck to all with next month’s competition – they just keep getting better and better!

Neil