At last 😉 and sorry for the delay, here are the results for the 2010 photo competition!
It was harder than ever to judge this year, more entries than ever and a higher standard year on year.
1ST PLACE - EDDMoel Fferna Bridge - the outright winner and cited for lighting, composition and for having a depth of field and an 'edge' that lots of photos of this bridge lack. People often comment that in the era of super-bright LED lamps a lot of shots could have been taken above ground - this shot is definitely down below and shows the full horror of this old bridge :)
Edd wins the StenLight S7+
🔗Moel-Fferna-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-55215[linkphoto]Moel-Fferna-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-55215[/linkphoto][/link]
2ND PLACE - BARTCapelcleugh deep water - a nicely lit, very sharp, photo taken in (as anybody who has tried taking shots in chest deep water will agree...) difficult conditions. It was felt this photo very well summed up mine exploration :)
Bart wins the Retro 2 Lamp Upgrade courtesy of Mr Mike
🔗Capelcleugh-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-56687[linkphoto]Capelcleugh-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-56687[/linkphoto][/link]
3RD PLACE - MORISSEYBarons Sump (Smallcleugh) - a really well composed shot - with explorer to give an idea of the scale - of something that is extraordinarily difficult to take a good photograph of. And requires a few flat out shale crawls to reach ;)
🔗Personal-Album-4335-Image-56922[linkphoto]Personal-Album-4335-Image-56922[/linkphoto][/link]
Morissey wins the Mike Moore prize of £40 worth of mining / speleological books
RUNNERS UPThese runners up are in no particular order, but all were felt to be great photographs, true to the subject matter of mine exploration; either capturing what it's all about, or with a slightly different take on it.
MartinM - Slate mine, Czech Republic🔗Personal-Album-6768-Image-55133[linkphoto]Personal-Album-6768-Image-55133[/linkphoto][/link]
NewStuff - Cambrian🔗Personal-Album-6264-Image-56916[linkphoto]Personal-Album-6264-Image-56916[/linkphoto][/link]
RJV Hopper Descent, Co. Durham🔗Personal-Album-988-Image-54866[linkphoto]Personal-Album-988-Image-54866[/linkphoto][/link]
Maggot - My Dog looking at the crane in Swan Mine, Wilts🔗Personal-Album-5648-Image-54886[linkphoto]Personal-Album-5648-Image-54886[/linkphoto][/link]
All runners up (there were supposed to be 3 but we couldn't narrow it down any more) win a framed print.
Congratulations everybody and thank you for entering!--
Notes on judging - for anybody who really wants to read it...
To explain the judging; 5 people in total picked their 1st, 2nd and 3rd, awarding 3, 2 and 1 points respectively. Totting this up and giving 1st place to the photo with the most points, 2nd to the next and so on. In the event of two photos tying for a place then the highest award went to the photo with the single highest placing. After doing this for a few years this seems a fair way of judging that takes into account different ideas of what makes a good photo ;)
It's never been about out and out photographic merit, photos are always judged on this and how they meet the subject matter, and a whole host of other factors such as does the location take 3 hours of freezing misery to reach. We try to factor all these in!
Mostly the competition is intended as a bit of fun and a good natured content - so again thanks to all who entered :flowers:
my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by