SLIDE TIME BY SUZY, GRADE MERIT

Everyone will love this because of the childs expression, pure joy! However in compeition photography the judges are wanting more. Dramatic lighting is a great help then you would have a winner. Try cropping in to remove distracting background elements too.

WAVE ACTION BY SUZY, GRADE NOT ACCEPTED

I feel you havent really told me any story here. Try and increase your depth of field and your fs top to f8 maybe . The foreground is not sharp nor is the breaking wave. I think you have attempted something clever but it hasn’t quite worked for me this time.

LICHEN FENCE BY SUZY GRADE; ACCEPTED

The roses themselves give a nice diagonal flow for the eye to travel along. I would like to have seen a stronger single focal point as it stands my eye wanders all over the Image and I am left wondering what it was the author wanted me to focus on, was it the lichen fence or was it the roses.

MAKING DUST BY SUZY GRADE; ACCEPTED

Good subject matter, Always try and position yourself in front of the rider so you get the added bonus of the horse and riders expressions which can lift an Image considerably.

ANCIENT ARCHES by SUZIE WALKER

GRADE - MERIT Lovely rich earthy colours. You choice of a good depth of field has meant that the distant aches are in focus. I like the way you have chosen to stand off centre, and the left hand side shows more of the pillars while the right side just a little of each pillar. Crop a little off the right hand side of your photo to continue that theme. If you had more on the left it would also help with the off centre position. Perhaps more room at the top of the first arch to keep the scale of receding arches. It is better to take the photograph with more room and play around with various crops at a later date.

TOBINS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE : ACCEPTANCE

FREE RIDER by SUZY WALKER

GRADE : ACCEPTANCE

UP AND AWAY by SUZY WALKER

GRADE : MERIT The balloons with their well caught reflections are the subjects with the landscape as a background. Try cropping in from the right to bring the red balloons into the centre and then take a little off the sky, nearly to the top of the peaks. This strengths the position of the balloons in the image. Before submitting images, check carefully for distractions. It is such a pity that the road on the hill is being caught by the light and therefore standing out like a wire holding the top balloon. We suggest experimenting with options for reducing its impact such as removing it or darkening it so it isn’t so noticeable.

HIGH FLYER by SUZY WALKER

GRADE : ACCEPTANCE The action has been frozen although it is a bit difficult to see just what the rider is doing. In order to capture the image you have had to use a very high ISO but this has resulted in a lot of digital noise especially in the background. You could reduce this in post processing but do be careful because it works by blurring the image - this isn’t a problem in the background of this image but you do want to keep your subject as sharp as possible. A colourful image and we can imagine the adrenalin rush that would accompany this action.

NASEBY PIER by SUZY WALKER

GRADE : ACCEPTANCE The horizontal format works well for this landscape. There is a feeling of a misty morning and possibly a chill in the air. The image would be improved if the author had taken it from a slightly lower angle. This would have the effect of increasing perspective. I also feel that the symmetrical shape of the pier would be enhanced if a crop was made down the right hand side of the image, thus equalising the two nearest pair supports. I good idea, do try this again.

TIME FOR WORK by SUZY WALKER

GRADE : MERIT The image suggests information about the model. The setting, clothes and wellies suggest the woman is a keen gardener. The slight vignetting is good and helps draw attention to the main subject. The pose and expression are relaxed and appear natural. I suggested that you try to tone down the two bright patches of green foliage which I find are a little distracting. A good effort.

SEEN BETTER DAYS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTED The care with which this image has been composed is evident and it is just unfortunate that there is such brightness in the background that the eye is drawn past the foreground subject. While you can darken the highlights and even increase the mid-tone contrast, the best solution is to re-take it on an overcast day when the contrast is more manageable.

GNARLY OLD PINE by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - NOT ACCEPTED An interesting angle and the texture and colour of the bark show to good effect. However, it could have been stronger with a dark sky behind so that the eye is not attracted beyond the subject. A vignette to darken most of the sky area would help/

LAYERED PETALS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTED The area of focus in this image is the centre of the flower with the focus fading off towards the petals and base of the flower. It is a shame that you have missed the bottom of the flower, but I understand that sometimes you so focused on the subject that you may forget to look around the edge of the viewfinder to check the edges. I call that 'border control' - checking if there is anything distracting on the edge of the frame and Making sure the entire subject is there. The background is nicely out of focus but still there enough for me to see that it was taken in a garden with other flowers in the background. Well done

COURIOUS COWS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTED. The first thing that struck me was the way the cows heads are all on different levels. It is said that you should have an odd number of subjects in your frame. Some rules are meant to be broken, but I feel that 4 cows in this image doesn't quite work for me. I love the way you have gained their attention before you have taken your photograph. The ear on the right hand cow is mis-shapen which in my opinion adds interest to the image. The black/brown cows are a little dark and the one on the left has lost a bit of detail. Ask one of your A grade members to show you how to lighten your image. Great concept.

SUMMER SALAD by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT A good attempt at a still life food image. I’m glad to see that you have concentrated on the salad itself and have not included too much of the surrounds. I think that for a still life of this kind the subject needs to be in sharp focus, so I’d recommend that you use a smaller aperture and if necessary a tripod.

HOLDING ON TIGHT by SUZY WAKLKER

GRADE - MERIT This is a great action shot. You have captured the atmosphere of chaos and commotion with dust and grit flying everywhere. I especially like the expression of grim determination on the face of the man. I think that your use of monochrome has really added to this image by removing any of the distractions that colour can bring. The image is a little underexposed and could do with a little more contrast and the face of the man could be a bit lighter. The black patches on the head of the steer are very dark with no detail evident, and more important, the beast’s eyes are not visible. Nevertheless the image depicts great action.

TAYLOR by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT A very attractive and natural smile. However the image is overall slightly soft. Exposure good and nice subdued and unobtrusive background.

BUMPY FUNGI by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE An interesting subject with strong patterns. The patterns have been cut off the R/H side which is detracting from an otherwise very good image. It is very sharp and nicely exposed.

OFF FOR A DRIVE by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE Another good attempt here. I like the way the road meanders from the bottom around toward the left. I would crop the top off to just above the lighter bush at the left as the rest doesn’t add anything to the image really. Exposure is good however I always suggest clicking on the auto button in the develop module in whatever programme you use to process your images. (Exp =15-20%, Contrast =15-20%, Highlights -30-25%, Whites +10-15%, Blacks –around 5%)

PEACE BRIDGE by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT Composition is great. All I would do is crop the right slightly. The shadow leads from the bottom left into the image which is great. I would increase the contrast by about 50% and increase the saturation of the red by 30-35%. Well Done!

ARCHIE by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE Cute expression on the childs face, Just found the tartan blanket behind attracting too much of my attention.

MAKING A SPLASH by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE A very well captured moment, Would like to have seen the dolphin a touch more side on or front on to see its face that could have lifted it to a higher grade for me.

STREET ENTERTAINMENT by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT An interesting and colourful image. It tells a great story. I would have like to have seen you get a bit lower down so that you are not looking down on the entertainer.

RIDDEN INTO THE GROUND by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT What a good find. Although the image is technically good the creative side is not quite there. Try something like lying down close to the pedal and create an angle going through the image from the pedal to the handlebars. Don’t be afraid to twist your camera around.

EVENING BLISS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE The saturation of the sunset in this image gives me a feeling more of danger than bliss. I think that is accentuated by the crowding of the boats – I can imagine them jostling for their place in life. That said, the limited colour pallete is harmonious to my eye and I appreciate the crop that has left all the masts intact. I suggest that toning down that very bright – potentially burnt out - sun would allow the viewer to spend more time exploring the craft rather than being drawn inexorably back to such an overwhelmingly bright point.

AFTER THE RAIN by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - HONOURS Simple, stark, to my eye well light to provide texture and accentuate the structure of the rose. I think this is an interesting (typically colourful) subject for monochrome treatment.

BEST FRIENDS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT This is a well taken portrait. The horse seems content, whilst the woman appears to be very comfortable around horses. In post- production, you might be able to reduce the highlights on the girl's fingers. I feel the portrait would also be improved if the woman's face was just lightened a little. The overall composition is pleasing.

EARLY MORNING REFLECTION by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE You have certainly found a peaceful subject to photograph. The refections in the water are quite beautiful and I like the fact that you have retained a view of some of the pebbles in the bottom right hand corner. Sadly the trees on dry land are not sharp, although they are well selected from a compositional view point. In this instance I feel that by loosing some of the soft focus parts of the image would concentrate the viewer’s eye towards the reflection which is the real story here. I recommend a crop from the top down to a point just above the the righthand tree. In the present format, I feel that you need to consider the use of a tripod with a smaller aperture. You certainly have the eye of a landscape photographer.

QUIET SUNDAY MORNING by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE Good use of movement during exposure, however I would have liked to see even more movement. The use of the word 'quiet' in the title is, in my view, in contrast to the busyness of the scene created by the short length of movement which is accentuated in all the lighter tones. A longer exposure time may have softened this effect. The cyclist is a nice touch.

HARVEY by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - NOT ACCEPTED The placement of Harvey within the frame is good and his expression captures the viewer, however the image lacks sharpness to make it pop. The brown tone is pleasing and suits a portrait.

BARREL RACING by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - HONOURS Barrel racing is about acceleration and cornering. This has captured the cornering bit as well as the beauty and strength of the horse as it pushes to the limit. A viewpoint that showed the face of either horse or rider would have been great, but not possible here. In spite of that, what you have caught gets an Honours.

PLAYGROUND SHADOWS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - HONOURS Top marks for a creative idea. The strong blue dominates, so the rest appears almost monochromatic. It would be worth looking at suppressing all the colours other than blue, which would de-emphasise the pattern of the ground covering.

ANZAC DAY by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT A simple image that tells a story of a very important day. The use of an old helmet to hold the poppies is a nice touch. To keep the viewers attention on the poppies you might consider darkening the edges which are distracting due to their brightness.

COLD MORNING by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT Hugging a hot cup of coffee in the morning to get warmed up, we have all done it. As photographers we are story so it would have been nice if the picture could tell the story by having some steamy liquid, like coffee in the cup.

DORIS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE You have done well taking this portrait of Doris. She is happy to be having her photo taken, and It is well cropped. I would like to have seen more lighting on her face,

FEEDING TIME by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE I love seeing the waxeyes eating apples, which you have seen here. Its eye is well focused which is the most important part of any bird/animal to photograph. What lets this down is the lighting, An overcast day is the best to take bird photos so you don’t have shadows on or around your subject. I prefer for you to title your image as Waxeyes or its Latin name instead of using a description title for a NH competition.

STANDING PROUD ON A FOGGY MORNING by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT The "C" like leading line is very effective here. I like the silhouette of the tree. I wish there was a bit more space above the tree. You manage to capture the feeling of the cold morning. Nice work!

ICY ANGLES by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - MERIT This image have a potential of being a great abstract. Lots of different lines, Strong light that highlight translucent nature of ice. I feel that the composition is a bit too busy and lucks the focal point. I would simplify it by cropping it from the right (see attached)

3 LITTLE PIGS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE Oh man, you are all challenging me today. Three cute little pigs lined up for the slaughter, now or later. I get the feeling on inevitability. The metal bar behind them is what give me the discomfort. Where are they? They not free in a field but incarcerated somehow. My biases are really coming to the fore. I am a vegetarian but will eat wild meat hunted properly or free range meat that is killed in situ. This image plays to one of my big sensitivities and I react strongly to it. Good perspective and good selective cropping to tell this story.

SWEET NECTAR by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - NOT ACCEPTED Unfortunately this image was provided as a very small thumbnail of 300x225 pixels, which is far too small for me to evaluate effectively but I will give it my best try. I enjoy that you have caught that moment when a butterfly feeds. I think I can see the proboscis probing for nectar in the hibiscus flower. You have positioned the butterfly well so it does grab a lot of the attention within the image space. The lighting you have had to work with is hard and has resulted in all the areas of lower interest grabbing the limelight – the leaf at the back, for example, is much brighter than the butterfly and competes strongly for attention but it is not the main show in town, likewise the highlight on the flower. I think you have done well with your exposure under the circumstances. For this image to really jump out for me, the light really does need to fall on the butterfly, either directly ot you could have used a reflector to push some light back onto the butterfly. I know this is not necessarily a practical suggestion given the nature of a butterfly flitting from flower to flower but it illustrates my point. Keep going back as these images can be cracking.

UNDER THE FERN by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - ACCEPTANCE The fern has been captured with good lighting showing tone and detail in the hairs on the stalks. The author has used a shallow depth of field to blur out the busy background. The fern is very central in the image and would make a stronger image placed on the third. To make the image even stronger the author could consider choosing to capture the fern in a different perspective putting the camera really low and looking up into the it. The dead fern leaf is slightly distracting especially as it is on the edge of the frame. Good image by the author.

HELLEBORUS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE - HONOURS The composition draws my eye straight to the centre of the flower which has been placed on the third and is pin sharp. The author has captured good detail in the petals and used a wide aperture to achieve a good depth of field so the background is not distracting. To make this image really pop I think the author could have used a reflector just to bounce a little more light on the subject. Congratulations to the author well done lovely image.

IRIS by SUZY WALKER

GRADE: MERIT For me, the iris is clear and sharp with good depth of field to create the blurred background showing bokeh. I feel that this image is too close to the top and maybe some cropping of the bottom would give it more balance. It is customary to have more room at the top than the bottom of an image with a subject such as a flower. The two spots of yellow are, in my view, competing for attention so maybe if one was darkened or had slightly less saturation this would give the image flow. The blue and yellow complement each other.

NATURE AT ITS BEST

ACCEPTED - It’s hard to find these koru ferns up here. My only suggestion for this image is to crop the image a little tighter. There are many line elements in this image – horizontal lines from the leaves in the background, the strong diagonal line created by the fern and unfortunately another line from the spider web going downwards. Because it is also in focus, it is fighting for attention albeit a much tinnier line. Try cropping the spider web away and see if that might work better.

ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE

MERIT - Another good example of a coloured street photo that truly shows the whole ambience of the place. The composition is good with the placement of those structures off center.

LINED UP READY TO PADDLE

ACCEPTED - What a shame it was such a dull day when you took this – a little bit of cross-lighting would improve it immensely – I’m not sure why you left all that background at the top, as it’s not adding anything to the image, in fact it tends to distract from the paddles and would be a much stronger composition without it – I think I know why you decided to take it straight on, because of the set subject, but you could also have approached it from the side, creating diagonals and power.

IT'S BEEN A LONG DAY

ACCEPTED - I do hope that is Lemon and Paeroa, otherwise you’ll end up with a very sloshed wee boy – nice skin tones, but there are no catchlights in his eyes – you could have taken a bit more care with posing him – maybe move in and simplify it a bit – possibly crop the base almost up to his elbows, which make it a square format - the background is nicely muted and there are no deep shadows or burnt out areas.

COTTAGE GARDEN

NOT ACCEPTED - What a delightful spot! Unfortunately the image is largely out of focus. There are also some extreme artefacts around some of the edges such as the where the roof meets the sky. I wonder if the photographer has had time to closely examine this image before submitting it.

END OF THE ROAD

MERIT - The photographer has managed to present the truck with its dignity intact! I feel that truck will soon drive off with its load of hay. My eye is drawn to the curve of the near mud guard and then to the beautifully rendered cabin. There is a nice amount of context in an unobtrusive background. I wonder if the photographer would consider using a closer shot of the truck say from the front near light and guard. A wide angle lens would allow a good depth of field and room for context while bringing a little more creativity to the image. More of the rough detail may also be apparent. A nice record shot with plenty of possibility.