AV Competition Night

Pretty hacked off this morning, our camera club had its first AV comp last night and I had hoped to do quite well in it. My shows tends to have some unusual slide compositions which I think makes for a more interesting viewing than slides continually come up on screen dead centre. However the judge was obviously more in the “less is more” camp and didn’t really appreciate my efforts along with the techniques I had used also on some of the slides, painterly effects which makes a change from a straight shot. Although the club is all about photography I’m not sure that AV’s come strictly under that category, to me they are more about being entertaining. Anyway the one that won it I have to say did nothing to float my boat at all, just lots of photos of these groups of monk statues from about a zillion different angles. Then having told us what makes a good AV, the judge shows off one of his that broke all the things he said we should do! It will make me think twice about entering again, do I produce something with I find aesthetically pleasing and accept the fact that it wont get more than a public viewing or do I produce something that will please the judge but that goes against the grain of my creativity??? I think several of the members enjoyed what I produced and maybe that’s the whole point, pleasing judges can be a futile exercise as they all have differing views about what is good, you are in a lose-lose situation from the start.