RHSoc Annual Photo competition 2022 shortlists and winners

This blog post gives an update for Members and Subscribers on where we are in the selection process and to give some feedback on photos that may help if you enter next time around.

For the 2022 entries, which we're judging in 2023, the four categories were:

• 1. Cover photo for the RHSoc Relative Matters Journal 2023 - see photos below:
  Winner: Rob Woodall - Sugar Loaf Summitted
• 2. Light on the Land - View entries on Flickr in a separate tab/window :
  Winner: Tony Deall, Brothers Water and Deepdale from Place Fell
• 3. Island days - View entries on Flickr in a separate tab/window
  Winners: Dave Chapman and Alex Cameron     The Drinking Dragon
• 4. Winter - View entries on Flickr in a separate tab/window
  Winner: Tony Kinghorn, Buachaille Etive Mor

The cover photo for the journal has now been selected and this and the six shortlisted photos are shared below. We used online voting to select the best photo in each category in the spring.

2023 Journal cover photo shortlist

Journal editing is progressing well, the team of Andy Sutton, Graham Illing, Jon Foote, Margaret Squires, Rob Woodall and myself have copyedited the c100 articles, baglogs and halls-of-fame writeups and questionnaires for new entrants and we're now working on the layout.

These are the six shortlisted photos in alphabetical order with the winners marked:

Beinn a'Bheithir - Tony Kinghorn

Beinn Shiantaidh from Corra Bheinn, Isle of Jura - Nigel Morters

Dawn Light, Tryfan - Andy Sutton

Garbh Bheinn in Ardgour - Graham Illing

Sugarloaf summited! Isle of Man - Rob Woodall - WINNER

The Gap - Trefor Beese

Notes on selection

When deciding on the shortlist and the winner, the editorial team used various criteria for scoring the photos. Some of these were practical, i.e. the photo had to balanced when cropped to A5 for the journal and there needed to be sufficient space for the title. Some great photos couldn't be used because an important part of the composition would be truncated. Most important was the visual impact or drama of the photo, did it have the drama, the 'wow' factor to make someone pick up the journal. A balanced composition was also considered; some other photos not included had good composition, but weren't felt to have the drama we were looking for. We also considered past pictures used in the journal, had a similar photo been used before? Recently, there hadn't been any 'human interest' in the photos and this was something I was looking to consider, if the other criteria were met.