We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for January 2024 has been chosen. Congratulations to Harry Corden-Lloyds with his photo "Breaking the Surface".
Harry wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the January participants here.
If you would like a chance to win, simply register on our website and upload your photos from our competition page. Each day we choose a 'photo of the day' from the selection of entries. Anyone can register on our website and vote on photos entered into the competition. At the end of the month our Photo Pro and photography workshop leader, Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield, looks at the votes and chooses a winner from the highest scoring photos. Full terms and conditions and prize details are available here.
Congratulations again to Harry, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
What a great start to 2024 with a selection of photos for January’s competition that once again caused me problems but in a good way. When I open the entries for the month they don’t appear in any particular order but appear in my browser window one by one. And often, purely by chance, I get a very noteworthy shot in the first couple of mouse clicks.
This is exactly what happened this time but what then followed were two more equally good images immediately after. I’m not sure in this cold wet and uninspiring early start to February I can cope with so much excitement. Ok, I might be going a bit over the top but you’ve got to grab with both hands any glamorous glimmer of the Red Sea where you can, in a grey and storm battered North Yorkshire in the depths of the winter.
So after clicking back and forth through the shots, I keep coming back to the same three, which I’ll talk about soon.
This is not to say we’ve not got some lovely also rans, Ruth Wangers delicate shrimp, Ahmed Dakrourys lovely snooted (and edited) Moray, and Sandor Balovics Coral Goby packed with personality, are definitely worth a mention.
So the three I have settled upon, which coincidentally I clicked upon initially, are the really well framed school of Mackerel by Woody New.
Harry Corden-Lloyds cool split shot. And Tom Bolle’s 'Perch in a Cave’ All three have their significant merits.
Woody has managed to get a different angle on the ‘Makkers’ and lit the foreground well and managed to not blow out the sunball
Tom’s perch I really love the minimalism and the strong colour, sometimes simple is the best route when it comes to composition and colour. Eventually though I’ve chosen as my winner this month, Harry’s outstanding split shot.
It’s no secret that I personally love a split shot, but they're often spoilt IMHO by not carefully thinking about all the elements that make up the image. And just because you've pulled off a split isn't enough to make it work, or win. You’ve also got to have something in both halves of the picture to raise the game. Which I think Harry has done with this one, he's mastered the technical aspects of the shot, cleverly lighting the Heron with some strobe light, whilst keeping the exposure of the sky tamed, not always an easy technical balance.
He’s also managed to get some interest in the often drab lower half, by having a school of baitfish, also illuminated, balancing the picture and telling the story of why the Heron is there in the first place, eyeing up some potential snacks.
Telling a story in one shot is no mean feat, and Harry has done so with aplomb, ticking all the boxes, of technique, composition and proving he’s got a keen observational eye for the natural world around him. Awesome stuff, one of my favourite pics recently. Let’s hope that this sets the bar suitably high for the year ahead.
Speaking of the year ahead, I will be at Marsa Nakari this year running a five day workshop in June.
Details of which can be found here, but in summary all are welcome and we’ll be concentrating on how to make great pictures with whatever type of camera you own. The entire picture pipeline will be covered, from finding subjects ,shooting them, composition and then workflow and editing of your shots post dive. It’ll be lovely to have you along in the chilled out vibe of Marsa Nakari
