On 17th March we hosted professional photographer, photo judge and speaker Cat Humphries (cathumphries.wordpress.com) for a fascinating view on what judges look for when assessing photographs in a competitive environment.

Cat showed a number of her own images and gave her thoughts on what a judge would be looking for. Whether a title would have helped “guide” the assessment to what the photographer was looking to achieve. Suggestions on composition were given and other technical guidance.

The over-riding comment though was that judges are human and how ever hard they try, personal likes cannot help get into the final scores awarded.

After the tea break, Cat arranged a short “competition” where the Society’s members were able to judge some of her pictures. A brave “offer” by a judge. After we had voted Cat then gave a critique of the pictures and some of the history in competition. We did not always agree, but she was very honest about “failings” in her own images.

Summing up for the membership, senior member Bob Scarlett said “you have given us a very informative and entertaining evening and the second half is a first for us here. You raised many points and I am sure that many of us will go away and look at our prints and improve them. It is a shame that other judges have not seen your presentation”.

Photo show Cat Humphries making a point during the evening’s discussions with Don Hart (L) and Sam Segar (R) looking-on.