Photographic Competition

This year's competition was judged by Mr. H. Farmer-McDonald, A.R.P.S., a prominent member of the Wellington Camera Club. His awards and comments are as follows:—

'There were many entries for this competition, but few, unfortunately, showed evidence of serious endeavour at picture making. Many of the prints were of contact size, which does not tend to show them off to best advantage.

'Subjects generally were inclined to be hackneyed and humdrum, even amongst the winners.

'I should like to have seen greater thought put behind the job—careful selection of subject matter; elimination of unnecessary detail; more harmonious arrangement of material and masses.

'My awards are:—

'1st—"Cheesecake", D. A. Dale. A study of a girl in sunlight. Very attractively done under good lighting, and with excellent flesh tones. The foreground is simple, effective, and in tune with the whole idea. The picture could have been improved by the inclusion of a subtle sky pattern which was not obtrusive. The hands of the figure seem to suggest a certain amount of tension.

'2nd—"Midsummer's Day", A. C. Robieson. This is a serious attempt at arranging masses in the picture space. I would have preferred a sky in keeping with the tree shapes—the present one is rather niggly and inconsequential.

'3rd—"Frozen Harmony", by M. Laird. This picture shows good print quality and the figures are nicely placed. Notice how important is the slightly larger gap between the two figures on the left. The weakness of this picture is that the weight is all on the left. It would have been better if the view point could have been altered so as to have the highest peaks on the right hand side.'