Tonight is my first foray into officially and formally judging a camera club competition. I was asked by a photography acquaintance if would judge one of their monthly camera club competitions and despite my pleading ignorance I was (easily) talked into it. What have I let myself in for!

The victims recipients of my thoughts are a pretty good club based in the north of England and have provided me with a high quality set of images across many genres – from traditional landscapes through to well constructed composite images and everything in between. I have attempted to assess each one based on it’s narrative and aesthetic value rather than whether or not it is technically good.

I have to admit to pouring over the images for quite a few hours leading up to tonight’s event and have made mental notes on the strengths of each image along with some suggestions for improvement where I think it’s worth re-visiting them. Interestingly, I have changed my views on a few of the images, even changing my mind on the winning image a couple of times. If I have managed to get the ‘better competition images‘ towards the top of the scoring and the ‘weaker competition images‘ towards the bottom then I will be satisfied – hopefully the recipient club members will be too. Tonight’s the night when I find out whether it’s more nerve wracking being the individual being assessed or being the assessor!

Well, mission accomplished and enjoyable for me at least. The competition was held, I didn’t majorly mess it up and got some positive feedback and some requested opportunities for improvement. Will I do it again – maybe, but probably not too often.