Seeing red

Since joining Dublin Camera Club 18 months ago I’ve particularly enjoyed participating in photo competitions run by the club.  As well as the summer competition and the monthly winter league, the club has recently been running theme competitions.  Last night another of these was held, with two themes being judged: “One egg” and “Red”.  I was stumped for ideas for the “one egg” theme, but while wandering in the vicinity of the Samuel Beckett Bridge on Sunday morning I began to  identify possible photographs that would fit with the “red” theme.

A competition like this can be a great motivator to go out and take some pictures, but when the theme is as open as these two themes were, you might find yourself needing inspiration.  In my talk to the club last Tuesday on photography and the internet I spoke about using the internet for inspiration and specifically included searches of flickr, Google and other sites for “one egg” and “red” to show the types of image you can quickly and easily find online.

As it turned out there was no shortage of inspiring photographs in the two theme competitions last night, and I doubt the winning photographers had sought inspiration for their shots online.  The “one egg” winner was a very clever shot of an egg in a frying pan, with the yoke in tact and the white of the egg digitally manipulated to mimic the shape of Ireland.  I saw that shot on pix.ie in advance of the competition and flagged it as the winner as soon as I saw it.  The majority of the room last night agreed.

The winning image for the “red” theme was in some ways a more subtle interpretation, but also a very graphic and powerful shot, full of dark humour.  The scene was the boot of a car, with a shovel resting against the bumper, a pair of wellies on the ground and a bloody hand visible hanging out of the boot.  Macabre, but it got a strong reaction from the room and was clearly going to win as soon as it was displayed.

My interpretation of the red theme was less subtle, and less interesting, and probably scored 0 votes.  I didn’t even vote for either of my shots myself.  The photo above was spotted alongside the bridge on Sunday morning, and I liked how the sticker on the life saver added a little interest to the lifesaver that dominates the frame.  I used the rule of thirds to create a dividing line between the subject and the background, and chose a composition that added enough information in the background, albeit out of focus, to allow the viewer identify where the shot was taken.  My other entry in the red competition was probably even less interesting if that is possible, but you never know – it might make the blog one day.