Text by Gary Allkins
Tamworth entered the annual MCPF Print and Digital Projected Image (DPI) competition which is
the top Midlands club event of the year. The competitions were staged at Braunstone Civic Centre, Leicester on 4th April and organized by the MCPF, hosted by Leicester Forest Photography Club.
A background to the event is that the competition has two sections: prints and digital images are treated as separate competitions and requires that a maximum of 40 images can be entered. There
are two rounds and a maximum of 15 images can be entered into the first round, if a club comes
within the top 8 places it will automatically go through to the second/final round. The second round consists of no more than 10 images, 5 of which can be from the first round.
There was a maximum score of 5 that each of the three judges could give, with a total number of
31 clubs entered this year as against 24 who entered in 2008. The quality of work was good at
club level although there wasn't an obvious theme that was scoring high, landscapes generally
scored low, nature, environmental portraits and sports have done well in previous years but
received average scores in this outing.
Tamworth did fairly well in the prints coming 11th, which is in the top third, so there is an
improvement that can be made. The digital section was a different story and after the first round Tamworth was well placed at 5th and automatically went through to the second round. The scoring
for Tamworth in the second round was consistent, although the marks were only average, some of
the higher placed clubs like Cannock, Wolverhampton and Lichfield only managed below average
scores. When the competition concluded, we were placed a very respectable third.
Digital images of note were Goldfinch by Phil Satchell that scored 13 in both rounds and Grey Heron
and Concentration by Dave Bowen both scoring a very respectable 13 points in first and second
rounds.
Smethwick and Arden have got some of the top amateur photographers in the country but what we achieved that day was something to be proud of. Tamworth spent many evenings ensuring that our digital images projected well which wasn't the case with a lot of the clubs and to their detriment.
Digital projection is something that has been embraced by a lot of clubs around the country,
replacing slides which are sadly being phased out, and we are now seeing a new genre of projected image competitions becoming more popular, is this the future of club competitions?
Well done to all those that entered and supported the event.
The DPI results and mentioned images are below:
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