A triptych is a group of three pictures originally of a religious nature.  In the photographic age the format is widely seen in a variety of formats either with one image processed in different ways or three images on a theme.

In the days of projected slides we had a competition (The Douglas Best Trophy) where three pictures were projected separately and then all at once to show that they “hung-together” as a set.  This style was carried in to the digital age with some slight modifications.  Each member was able to enter just one set of images.  Last year, former President, Fiona Adamson, suggested that we modify the competition so that only the final set of three pictures was entered but each member could produce up to three tryptics.  This was recently tried and was successful with over 50 entries.

By co-incidence, Fiona won the inaugural running of this format (the judge was Julie Hutson, an independent person from outside the Society).  Of her composite called, “Nuts and bolts” she said “[this] was pieced together as a Triptych from a large number of images I took of a water tank at Brands Hatch. It proved to be much more interesting than taking pictures of the BSB racing and bikes I had gone to watch. It was the colours really that drew my eye and the arrangement of the nuts and bolts!”

Second place was Bob Scarlett with his set “Bomber Command Memorial”.  Bob gave the story behind the pictures “While I was visiting the Memorial an elderly lady wandered in and slowly walked around it several times carefully examining all the detail. She then stopped opened her bag and took out this small wooden cross with a red poppy, reached up and carefully placed into the top of figure’s boot. She stepped back bowed her head for a few seconds and walked away. This pale wooden cross with the splash of red was almost overwhelmed by dark bronze colour and size of the larger than life sculptures. It was the ideal subject for this competition.”

In third place was Manjari Shah’s set called “Living life in full bloom”.  She explained the plan behind the panel “All three images were taken in my garden. I wanted to emphasise each flower’s unique shape. This is why I kept the images simple, and the dark background also helped to accentuate the whiteness of the flowers. I took the one of the daisy with an upturned petal to show that beauty can be found in nature’s imperfections.”

Potters Bar & District Photographic Society meets on most Monday evenings from September to early July at the Alexander Wilding Suite at Wyllyotts Theatre, Darkes Lane, Potters Bar.  Full details can be found here or on Facebook.

Nuts and bolts by Fiona Adamson

Bomber Command Memorial by Bob Scarlett

Living life in full bloom by Manjari Shah