RHSoc Annual Photo competition 2022 shortlists

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
• 2. Light on the Land
• 3. Island days
• 4. Winter

The cover photo for the journal has now been selected and here we'll share the six shortlisted photos. You'll find out the winner when the journal arrives on your doormats at some point in April!

We're selecting photos for the shortlists for the three other categories at the moment and we are going to use online voting to select the best photo in each category in the spring. Please get involved with voting when we send out an email to invite you to vote.

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:

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

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.