Just before Christmas, 2011 I sent three images off to Digital Photographer magazine. The competition was for their Digital Photographer of the Year Awards – Monochrome Portraits.

Having shot many urban and sport type portraits over the past couple of years I had several good ones to choose from.

The 3 images I sent had already proved their worth in both National and International exhibitions, having gained gold and silver medals, plus a host of ribbon too. If anything was going to stand a chance of winning it had to be these.

To my amazement all 3 images were short listed for the final round of judging.

Days of Despair (short listed image)

There’s No Going Back (short listed image)

Then, shock! I received further notification that Mud, Sweat and Glee had been chosen as the overall winning image.

Mud, Sweat and Glee – Winner! Digital Photographer of the Year Award for Monochrome Portraits

My prize, a Samsung NX100 with 20-50mm and 20mm f2.8 prime lens.

Having already decided to do more Street Photography in 2012, the NX100 will come in really handy.

Thanks to all at Imagine Publishing Ltd, looking forward to meet up with you all at Focus-on-Imaging next month.

Having gained 10 acceptances and a Honour Certificate from the Guernsey Salon, 4 acceptances from the Bromsgrove National and 2 acceptances from the Bebington Salon of Photography my ABPE score sheet read 16 acceptances with 1 award.

The Southport Photographic Society Open National Exhibition, their 64th, was judged by Keith Suddaby, Peter Rees and Barbie Lindsay.

From the 8 images I submitted the following 4 images were accepted:

Anne; A Brief Encounter .. Awarded Peter Rees Medal

Dogs of War

Muddy Hell

Mr. Tough Guy

This takes my acceptance score for ABPE to 20, with 2 awards.

The digital exhibition is being held at Christ Church and the accepted prints are show in the Wayfarers Arcade, Southport on Saturday 10th March, 2012.

Despite having to contend with scorching temperatures the turn out on Arley Station was surprisingly mild for a 1940′s event.

Anne; A Brief Encounter © John Powell EFIAP DPAGB

I won’t lie! The only reason I chose to go to Arley, instead of usual journey to Kidderminster, was because you don’t get charged to walk on the platform there!

As always the people who turned up in costume were very obliging when asked to pose for the camera.

Evacuation Day © John Powell EFIAP DPAGB

I returned having met some wonderful folks and with two possible competition images.

Contact: dotcomjohnny@gmail.com or why not follow my on Twitter: @dotcomjohnny

Two years ago the GDPU joined the British Photographic Exhibitions (BPE) to further encourage photographers to enter exhibitions and to recognize successful entrants via the Crown Awards distinction scheme.

This scheme enables UK photographers to aggregate their acceptances and upon reaching the accepted aggregate to apply, without charge, for a crown rating.

This year my entry consisted of 12 images, 4 colour, 4 Mono and 4 Nature. Although my nature work isn’t quite up to National standards I occasionally give it a go.

Consequently, none of my nature images were accepted this time round, but I did manage to gain 7 acceptances from my remaining 8 images, including a Commend for Contemplation. A Highly Commend for We Can Make It and a BPE Ribbon for Waiting in Vain.

All Images are Copyright John Powell, 2011

It’s still not too late to visit the exhibition, it will be held at the Tithe Barn Gallery, Brockworth Court in Gloucester, GL3 4QU from Friday 29th July to Sunday 31st July, 2011.

Prints for this years exhibition were selected by:
Jean Brooks EFIAP
Glyn Edmunds PPSA EFIAP/s ARPS and
David Lowe ARPS

They awarded Gold and Silver Medals for each of the six sections, plus individual selector medals for their personal favourite images.

As an avid supporter of this exhibition and of the BPE awards scheme my entry this year consisted of the 10 prints shown here.

Results were sent out on 6th June, 2011. I managed to gain 4 acceptances, including a PAGB Gold Medal for Waiting in Vain (Best Digital Portrait Print)

My other acceptances were; Wychbury Heights, Contemplation & Muddy Hell.

All Images are Copyright John Powell, 2011

Images from last years salon are shown on the groups website: http://cotswold-monochrome.co.uk

The London Salon was founded in 1910, but before that it existed as the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring, a photographic society that was established in 1892. The original Linked Ring members were a breakaway organization from the (Royal) Photographic Society, who at that time placed more emphasis on the science of photography than photography as a form of art.

Days of Despair © 2010  John Powell EFIAP DPAGB BPE4*

Today, like back then, the aim of the London Salon is to exhibit only that class of photographic work in which there is distinct evidence of artistic feeling and execution.

Membership to the London Salon is still by invitation only. However, their annual exhibition is open to all photographers. You can also lend your support in the form of an annual subscription (friend of the London Salon). Friends receive a personal invitation to a private viewing of the exhibition along with a free colour illustrated exhibition catalogue.

Waiting in Vain © 2011  John Powell EFIAP DPAGB BPE4*

I received confirmation today that 2 of my prints have been accepted, these are: Days of Despair and Waiting in Vain.

The exhibition will be showing at two venues. The first at The Mark Mason Hall, 86 St James’s Street London SW1A 1PL on Saturday July 30th (doors open at 2pm). The second venue is a the Old School House, Churchbridge, Oldbury, West Midlands on Saturday August 20th (doors open at 1pm). All accepted images will be on display on the Salon website shortly.

Useful links relating to this post: The London Salon | Brotherhood of the Linked Ring | Photo-Secession | Royal Photographic Society

Images © John Powell, 2011 All Rights Reserved.

This exhibition has been accorded patronage by Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) and is a member of the British Photographic Exhibition circuit (BPE).

Urban Existence – Highly Commended Monochrome Print

Acceptances gained in this exhibition count towards BPE Crown Awards whereby the exhibitors are invited to aggregate their acceptances in affiliate exhibitions and apply, without charge, for a crown award.

Monty – Commended Monochrome Print

This years selectors were, Pictorial Sections:
Chris Forster EFIAP FBPE
Hilary Roberts FRPS MFIAP
Bill Hall AFIAP DPAGB.
Nature Sections were judged by:
John Chamberlin FRPS MFIAP FBPE
Anthony Pioli ARPS ABPE
Tony Wharton FRPS AFIAP

I managed to enter 4 out of the 7 sections; Colour and Monochrome print and Colour and Monochrome digital, a total of 16 images, from which I gained 11 acceptances,including 3 awards – bringing my aggregated total to 260.

There’s No Going Back – Commended Colour Print

The exhibition takes place at the Old School House, Churchbridge, Oldbury, West Midlands on Saturday June 18th, 2011. Doors open at 2.00pm, presentation of awards at 3.00pm followed by a Lecture from renowned photographer Barbie Lindsey EFIAP MPAGB FBPE.

Admission costs just £4 (Medal and Certificate winners free).

The statistics didn’t make very good reading. Out of a total of 3613 entries, only 518 made it into the final exhibition, just 14.3%, which for a digital only exhibition is a bit on the mean side, but that’s just my opinion!

Judges for this exhibition were:
General & Creative
Les Nixon DPAGB
Malcolm Ranieri FRPS MPAGB
David Steel

Nature & Monochrome
John Lacy ARPS CPAGB
Barbara Lawson FRPS DPAGB
Tony Wharton FRPS AFIAP

My entry consisted of 4 colour images (general section) and 4 monochrome. The score given by the judges are in brackets.

Living in the Past (10)
Muddy Hell! (11) accepted
Muddy Water Blues (11) accepted
There’s No Going Back (11) accepted

A Time Gone By (12) accepted
Contemplation (10)
Foot Loose (9)
Monty (9)

The exhibition is being held in the village hall at Irchester, Wellingborough on Sat, 7th May, 2011 at 6pm and can be seen at the following venues through out May, June and September.

Peterborough PS – 3rd May
Desborough & Rothwell PS – 13th May
New City PS – 26th May
Kettering & Dist. PS – 20th June
Burton Latimer & Dist. PS – 14th Sept, 2011

Damson Blossom, originally uploaded by dotcomjohnny.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The damson or damson plum (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia, or sometimes Prunus insititia) is an edible drupaceous fruit, a subspecies of the plum tree. Sometimes called the Damask plum, damsons are commonly used in the preparation of jams and jellies. The plum spirit slivovitz is made from fermented damson fruit. The tree blossoms with small, white flowers in early April in the Northern hemisphere and fruit is harvested in late August or early September.

The name damson derives from the Latin prunum damascenum, “plum of Damascus”. Damsons were first cultivated in antiquity in the area around the ancient city of Damascus, capital of modern-day Syria, and were introduced into England by the Romans. Remnants of damsons are often found during archaeological digs of ancient Roman camps across England, and ancient writings describe the use of damson skins in the manufacture of purple dye. Prugne damaschine figure in the long list of comestibles enjoyed by the Milanese given by Bonvesin de la Riva in his Marvels of Milan (1288).

The damson was introduced into the American colonies by English settlers before the American Revolution and are regarded as thriving better in the eastern United States than other European plum varieties.

The term “damson” is often used to describe red wines with rich yet acidic plummy flavors.

Nikon D2Hs/Tamron 70-150mm f2.8 (varisoft) lens @ 1/640 sec – f4.0

Tamron’s fast 70-150 F/2.8 constant aperture zoom lens was specifically designed for portrait photography, and was the first compact telephoto zoom lens ever produced by any manufacturer which featured a built-in softness control. This lens is extremely sharp at all focal lengths when not using the softness control since a total of six lens elements are used in the variator and compensator groups to reduce zoom dependent aberrations to their absolute minimum. Although the optical performance is somewhat optimized for 105mm (the ideal portrait focal length), this lens’s optical performance nevertheless is very good throughout the entire zoom range.

For those of you who are reading this an EFIAP is the second distinction awarded by the International Federation for Photographic Art for “Excellence”, their first distinction being an A (Artist), which I gained in March, 2010.

The minimum requirements for EFIAP, set by FIAP , is as follows:
The candidate must have held a AFIAP distinction for a minimum of 12 months and to have gained a minimum of 150 acceptances in at least 30 FIAP approved exhibitions, using no fewer than 50 different images, in 15 or more countries.

FIAP also require a portfolio of prints, minimum of 5, maximum 10, for their archive in Belgium.

My EFIAP distinction was granted on 14th March, 2011, having gained a total of 206 acceptances, using 53 different images, in 57 salons across 19 different countries. I also gained a total of 22 International awards, including 2 FIAP Gold Medals in Scotland and Argentina.

Applications for any FIAP distinction must be made through your countries FIAP Liaison Officer.

Useful Links: FIAP | PAGB | PSA |