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Shutter Release March 2012

Message from the PresidentJames Hall

Greetings! Well, it seems spring is here, and a little earlier than usual. I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather and taking advantage of the sun!

The past few months have seen some changes to our club competitions. At our January Executive meeting, the Operations Manual was updated with new definitions for the annual Portrait Competition. These changes were made due to a large number of comments from members who were concerned about the lack of latitude in the former rules. The executive discussed the matter at great length and reviewed Portrait definitions used by other community camera clubs and national and international portrait competitions. The new definitions/rules are strongly based on the definition used by CAPA (Canadian Association of Photographic Arts) for their competitions. The executive felt the CAPA definition contained the right balance of classical portraiture and creative freedom. In an effort to remove some of the confusion regarding "formal" and "candid" portraits, and to provide a venue for even further creative freedom, the executive changed the Candid Portrait category (which was in place of an open category in this competition) to "Open", but put in place the restriction that images entered in the Open portion of the Portrait competition must still be "people pictures", i.e. where people are the main subjects of the photo. (Continues on page 10)

My trip to Indiaby Bob Young

Let me say at right away that nothing prepares you for India. It’s dirty, noisy, crowded, but it’s also fascinating and beautiful. I hope you enjoy reading my exploits in this wonderful country.

The flight from Ottawa to Delhi was uneventful and I arrived in the middle of the night. I was supposed to be met a representative from my hotel. He was nowhere to be seen among the multitude of other hotel reps that stand waiting at the exit inside the airport. I went outside where there were more. Not there. I tried to go back in, but the security guard said I couldn’t because I didn’t have a valid airline ticket for that day. I had no Indian currency so was in a bit of a spot. I finally managed to convince another security guard to let me in and after getting some money, I phoned the hotel. It turned out that the rep was waiting very close to the phone service area (nowhere near the other reps). We headed outside to find our driver.

ContentMessage from the President pages 1-10

My trip to India by Bob Young pages 1-9Inter Club competition

How sharp is tack sharp pages 2-5AEs winning pictures pages 3-4-7Outings page 6Exhibition opportunities page 3

The first thing that hit me was the smell and haze. The smell is acrid and is the result of burning charcoal and various other heat sources that are used to keep street people warm. Although the days are quite comfortable, the nights during January and February are very cold. After a bit of a wait, our driver showed up and we headed into New Delhi and a nice warm bed.

The hotel I had booked was in a rather run-down area and in an alley. I was a little leery. However the owners were very friendly and the room was very comfortable with a clean, functioning shower, cable T.V and a large, comfortable bed. After a brief nap, I went up to the restaurant for a bite and a beer and then back to bed for the night. I couldn’t believe how cold it got as the night

wore on. The blanket helped, but my legs were freezing.

There are probably several thousand dogs in Delhi and each night they have a barking contest. Unfortunately, two of them were right outside my window. Earplugs helped drown out the noise and I got a good night’s sleep.

The next day I woke up and had a nice cold shower. Not my choice. Apparently I was turning the taps the wrong way plus it was necessary to wait some time to allow the hot water to reach my room. This is quite common in cheaper hotels.

Taj Mahal

The first thing that hit me was the smell and haze. The smell is acrid and is the result of burning charcoal and various other heat sources that are used to keep street people warm. Although the days are quite comfortable, the nights during January and February are very cold. After a bit of a wait, our driver showed up and we headed into New Delhi and a nice warm bed.

The hotel I had booked was in a rather run-down area and in an alley. I was a little leery. However the owners were very friendly and the room was very comfortable with a clean, functioning shower, cable T.V and a large, comfortable bed. After a brief nap, I went up to the restaurant for a bite and a beer and then back to bed for the night. I couldn’t believe how cold it got as the night

wore on. The blanket helped, but my legs were freezing.

There are probably several thousand dogs in Delhi and each night they have a barking contest. Unfortunately, two of them were right outside my window. Earplugs helped drown out the noise and I got a good night’s sleep.

The next day I woke up and had a nice cold shower. Not my choice. Apparently I was turning the taps the wrong way plus it was necessary to wait some time to allow the hot water to reach my room. This is quite common in cheaper hotels.

(Continues on page 9)

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HOW SHARP IS TACK SHARPBy Roy Sletcher

At our most recent print competition the trio of excellent judges commented frequently that many entries displayed soft images where the composition and image required sharpness of detail. On one or two images the judge even highlighted the halo effect and artifacts visually consistent with over sharpening, stating that one image missed an award because of these defects.

In general comments like that are music to my ears, as I have a fetish about image sharpness, and constantly strive to make sure that parts of my images that should be sharp are, at the very least, pin sharp. Or should that be tack sharp. I need to see the detail of every hair in portraits, and cringe at bird images that show the plumage more like fur than feather detail.

However, in my opinion, their comments concerning sharp images concentrated overly on post production techniques, leaving us with the opinion that sharpness is resolved by using the correct settings in post production software’s sharpening tools. I am of the belief that sharpness starts before you take the picture and offer the following points for consideration.

Sharpness is the clarity of detail in an image. There are two elements that contribute to sharpness: focus and contrast. (Technically: resolution and acutance). When images are not "tack sharp", they look "soft", "out of focus" and detail is "washed out". Photoshop can only help with one of these factors; the other is determined by the in camera image.

Once the image is in the camera, artificially increasing the resolution usually results in a corresponding decline in image quality. Detail that isn't recorded can't be pulled out of thin air. It is essential to get the best possible image when taking the photograph. Quality images are the result of a technique that begins when you start to think about the picture you are creating. The ministrations of Adobe the Magician when attempting to rescue an image lacking sharpness are very limited. The only help he can give you is to increase the contrast by changing the colour of a few pixels along an edge or line. Usually accomplished by darkening the pixels on one side, and lightening them on the other side. A good image out of the camera will responds magnificently, and a poor image, may at best, just be made a little less poor. Quality images start in the camera not when you open Photoshop.

This short treatise is not a silver bullet with magic solutions. It written more for recent DSLR owners who are now finding their new “Camera Wonderful” somewhat more complicated than a “point and shoot”. This short treatise will not contain startling revelations and is presented here to give a logic and context, to the basic requirements needed to ensure sharp images.

NUMBER ONE: Movement or motion blur is one of the main reasons for lack of sharpness. Simply put, “If the image moves or the camera moves during exposure the image will not be sharp”. Almost a no-brainer because it is so logical, and the answer is so obvious. Don’t be fooled by the beguiling adverts praising image stabilization, vibration reduction, or whatever your latest “Camera Wonderful” offers. You will NOT get consistent

sharp images at a twenty fifth of a second using that technology no matter what the advertisements say. This is true especially if the subject is moving as well. Also don’t fall for the overly simplistic solution much loved by the pundits that your hand held shutter speed only needs to be a reciprocal of the lens focal length times the crop factor. This would mean your 100mm macro lens should give a sharp image a 160th second using a crop lens. Try photographing a flower close up with that setting and see if it is sharp. My guess is that you need at least three times that speed. Finally, remember the duration of a flash is in the region of thousandth of a second, and providing your scene can overcome the inherent difficulties of flash lighting, it may be a viable alternative if image sharpness is important. The purists will start by telling you a sturdy tripod stabilized with a 20lb sandbag, mirror lockup, self timer, prime lens, exposure bracketed, shooting raw, and many more restrictions. Kind of takes the fun out of a stroll in the Gatineau hills, and there are simpler solutions.

NUMBER TWO: Focus! Focus! Focus! Make sure you know how to set the focus points on your camera. Equally important is knowing how to change and move the focus points while shooting, and simultaneously looking through the viewfinder. Make sure to focus very carefully on the point requiring maximum focus. No matter what focus method a camera uses some image detail is required to lock focus. Focusing on the sky or a blank wall will confuse the camera. Make sure the camera has locked focus on your preferred point of focus before releasing the shutter. If necessary find some alternative detail at the same plain of focus, half press the shutter release to lock, and if necessary recompose the image before releasing the shutter.

A final check. Sometimes a camera or lens will consistently front or back focus. If your camera is not focusing consistently on the point you select, look into the remedies for front or back focus. (Google is your friend – be careful, and don’t believe everything you read on the www)

Remember, if your lens is close to wide open your depth of field is somewhat more shallow than if it is stepped down to a higher F number, and any focusing error will be more visible. Depth of field is not equivalent to focus, but stepping down for a deeper depth of field will often mask focusing errors to a small extent.

NUMBER THREE: Lens sharpness. We all lust after the top of the line lenses. The big whites in the Canon line, or equally desirable lenses from our manufacturer of choice. Ultimately as hobbyists we all have to settle for something more realistically priced. In some cases it has to be the kit lens (AKA the optical coke bottle). Even the cheapest modern lens is capable of good and sharp images if used within its limits. The following considerations will help you get the best sharpness you can from your lens no matter how modest the specifications.(Continues on page 5)

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Inter Club Competition

The topic for the Inter Club competition has been changed to "Transportation" for on topic, and "General" for open.The deadline for uploading your entries is midnight April 2, 2012. Tony Deluca and I will be collecting any print entries

Tuesday March 27, 2012.

Please refer to the guidelines for more details on the club site, or refer to the previous e-mail sent on January 11.The presentation night will be April 17, 2012 at the RA club.

If you have any questions send me an email and I will try to answer your questions.

Carol Brown

AE – Cari Haurney - Novice AE -Joan Anderson - Intermediate

AEs - Slide Competition Ruinous

AE – Kate Morgan - Intermediate

AE – Michel Casault- Advanced AE –Paul Dickie - Advanced

HM can be seen on the Gallery of our Website at

www.cameraclubottawa.ca/gallery

It is best to view the newsletter in full screen mode.

Exhibition opportunitiesOur Club has been offered some space in the new Archive building, located at 100, Tallwood (Nepean)

to display our artwork for a period of 4 weeks, 3 times over the next 12 month. Paul Dickie has offered to coordinate these exhibition times. Should you be interested in showing/selling your pictures, please contact Paul.

The first opportunity will start at the end of May 2012.

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AEs - Slide Competition OPEN

AE – Isabelle Dhavernas - Intermediate

AE – Carol Brown – NoviceAE – Vishal Kapur– Novice

AE – Isabelle Dhavernas - Intermediate

AE – Frank Knor - Intermediate

AE – Sheryl Manson - Novice

AE – Janice Street – Adv. AE –Kathy Clarkin – Adv.

AE – Suellen Seguin– Advanced

“Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later;

art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”

Steve Jobs

:

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(Continues from page 2)

Every lens, from the cheapest to the most expensive is softest wide-open and when closed down.

The sweet spot is usually about 2 stops below wide open, and after that, as you stop down, the diffraction effect tends to reduce sharpness slightly but progressively. (Lookup diffraction on Wikipedia for more info)

Every zoom lens, from the cheapest to the most expensive is softest at the ends, both wide and telephoto, and sharpest in the middle of the zoom range.

Every prime lens will be sharper and have better contrast than a zoom covering the equivalent focal length.

Generally lenses are softer in the corners and edges and sharpest in the center.

The above points are a result the laws of physics, and the compromises necessary in the design of zoom lens optics, and not because you have a bad copy of any given lens.

In a nutshell, for maximum picture sharpness step down a couple of stops, if using a zoom try to operate within either extremity. Compose to allow some cropping on edges and corners for the sharpest image, especially if you have an economy or budget priced lens.

FOUR: SHOOTING TECHNIQUE:

Mist and haze makes images appear soft – even when pin sharp.Angled side lighting shows off the texture of surfaces and gives the illusion of a sharper image.

Use a polarize if reflections are a problem, especially with side lighting, provided the lens focal length is not so short it gives a graduated effect to the polarization.

As a generalization, the higher the ISO the lower the contrast (An integral part of sharpness) so keeping the ISO as low as conditions permit will contribute to sharpness, and also reduce noise artifacts. A few years ago 400 ISO was luxury. Modern cameras allow you to push your ISO as high as you need to get a sharp image. Learn the limits for your camera. Modern noise reduction programs can get rid of noise effectively. Sharpening programs cannot sharpen blurred images. Make the intelligent choice to get a sharp image.

Do I need to say it – keep your lens clean! The comparison is driving your car into the setting sun with a dirty windscreen.

If you produce JPG images out of the camera, there is some inherent sharpening determined by your camera manufacturer and applied to the image before it is transferred to your memory card. Usually this is user adjustable and your user manual may be needed to interpret the menu commands to do this.

FIVE: POST PROCESSING SHARPENING

Whole books have been written about the various sharpening techniques. It is a difficult subject to write about without illustrative examples, and is probably better explained in a workshop! Any volunteers – a picture is worth a thousand words.

The following comprises the simplified basics:

• Perform all other post processing changes before sharpening.

• Save a copy of the corrected, but unsharpened version. (You’ve already saved a copy of the original, right?)

• Size you image to 100% on your monitor. This should ensure one image pixel equals one monitor pixel and will make it easier to judge the effect of the sharpening controls. This is where you get full value for a good quality monitor.

• Sharpening cannot be reversed (Unless using Adobe Smart Sharpening – another subject) and it is good practice to sharpen on a separate layer which can be deleted without losing the image if things do not work out. The separate layer also increases control by permitting adjustment of the layer opacity. In effect reducing the severity of the sharpening if necessary.

• Use the Unsharp Mask for basic sharpening, as it provides more control than the other related filters. The name is not intuitive, so think if it as creating a mask to remove the “unsharpness” in the image, thus what remains is the sharpness in the image.

• If final output is to print on an inkjet printer, err on the side of slight over sharpening. The amount will vary depending on paper selection, and some practice or experience is needed to get it just right. With output is to screen be very careful not to over sharpen. Nothing is worse than the overcooked crunchy look of excessive sharpening.

• Adjusting the three unsharp mask sliders, usually labeled AMOUNT, RADIUS, and THRESHOLD, is something that improves with practice.

• The best starting point is to set threshold to ZERO and concentrate on the other two. The AMOUNT slider determines the aggressiveness of the sharpening. Make sure the preview box is checked so the effect can be judged. After setting the Amount to what seems optimum, adjust the RADIUS and look at edges with a lot of contrast as you do so. This is where you will see the dreaded halo effect indicating over sharpening. Back off the radius control just enough to minimize the halo effect. Juggle between the two slides to get the final effect you want.

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Victoria Island Outing – January 22nd, 2012By Marc Dhavernas

Seventeen participants came to the Winter outing in January which took place at Victoria Island. There were ten challenges to choose from and each participant was asked to upload eight of their best pictures representing these topics on our Website. These pictures will be shown during one of our regular meetings. Thanks for coming on this very cold day, but I am sure that you will agree that photographically it was worth it!

February Outingby Michel Casault

Thirteen club members felt LOVE calling them, so they participated in the February 19th CCO outing on Richmond Road.

Everyone was in love with the weather but not with the challenges. One example was “lovey horse“ as a subject. The expression means “the act of rubbing one's face on someone else in a loving manner”.

The women in the group caught on a bit faster than the men and it will make for an interesting showing at the outing’s night.

Eleven met at Whisper afterward for discussion and

sharing. (Rocky was not there waiting for us, surprising since he is the Beer SIG monitor).

2011-2012 Program

Mar. 6 Slide Competition “Nature” & Open

Mar. 13 Techniques/Outings – Images from the Club outings.

Mar. 20 Print competition - “Portraits”

Mar. 27 Guest Speaker - Younes Bounbar, travelphotographer.

April 10 Interclub Audio Visual Showcase – RA

April 17 Interclub Competition – RA Center

April 24 Master's night

May 1 Guest Speaker (to be announced)

May 8 Outing plus ?Results of recent outings.

May 15 Annual General Meeting – AGM

??? Banquet

Outings, outings, outings....

So far four people have volunteered to take charge of our next outings.

Carol Brown for the March museum visit.Isabelle Dhavernas for the April outing at the Carleton raceway races – 6 pm. - 9 pm. including dinner.

This leaves the following :

May visit to the Wakefield quarry – Tulip festival June - New growth and new arrivals at Mud lake

Do we have any takers.... these are only suggestions... let me know...

Michel Casault

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AEs - Print Competition – Topic Elegance

AE – Cari Hauraney - Novice AE Open – AdrienneDiorio - NoviceAE – Yves Jardon - Intermediate

AEs - Print Colour Open

AE – Dan Jones - Advanced

AE Open – Roy Sletcher – Intermediate

AE – Dinh Ly - Advanced

AE – John Allen - Intermediate

AE Open – David Findlay - Intermediate

AEs – B&W Print Competition - Small World

AEs – B& WOpen

AE – Sheryl Manson - Novice AE Open – Michel Casault - Advanced

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Interesting Sites How about some amazing underwater shots:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/feb/14/underwater-dogs-pictures#/?picture=385913194&index=2

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For even more amazing macro motion:

"http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0"

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If you have ever wondered how that idiot could have not seen you:

From a former Naval Aviator: This is a great illustration of what we were taught about scanning outside the cockpit when I went through training back in the '50s. We were told to scan the horizon for a short distance, stop momentarily, and repeat the process. I can remember being told why this was the most effective technique to locate other aircraft. It was emphasized repeatedly to not fix your gaze for more than a couple of seconds on any single object. The instructors, some of whom were WWII veterans with years of experience, instructed us to continually "keep our eyes moving and our head on a swivel" because this was the best way to survive, not only in combat, but from peacetime hazards (like a midair collision) as well. We basically had to take the advice on faith (until we could experience for ourselves) because the technology to demonstrate it didn't exist at that time. Visit http://www.msf-usa.org/motion.html for a demonstration.

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Wonderful fields of tulips in Holland

http://andjohsemail.blogspot.com/2011/04/netherlands-in-may-at-first-glance-it.html

David Griffin on how photography connects ushttp://www.ted.com/talks/david_griffin_on_how_photography_connects.html

Competition Awards – November 2011Color Slides - Go Green + Open

Novice TOTAL Cadena, Marcelo HMDiorio, Adrienne 2AEGross, Ian HMHaurney, Cari AE,HMLambert, Monique AE,HM

Intermediate TOTALAnderson, Joan 2AEBaddoo, Michele AE,HMBlokpoel, Hans 2HMDeluca, Tony AEDhavernas, Isabelle HMDhavernas, Marc AE,HMHuntley, Rob AEJuneau, Carl AEKnor, Frank HMMorgan, Kate AESibthorpe, Graham HM

Advanced TOTALAdams, Barbara AE,HMCasault, Michel 2HMClarkin, Kathy AE,HMGardner, Simon 2HMGosselin, Mitch 3HMJones, Dan AELy, Dinh HMMcAlpine, Robert AE,HMPaskovich, Jan HMSeguin, Suellen 2AE,2HMStreet, Janice HMYoung, Bob 2AE

These have been compiled by Suellen Seguin.

Color Print - Soaking wet + Open

Novice TOTALDhavernas, Marc AE,HMGroleau, Shirley AEHaurney, Cari 2HMLambert, Monique 2HMSmith, Beverley HM

Intermediate TOTALAnderson, Joan HMDeluca, Tony HMFindlay, David HMJardon, Yves 2HMMorgan, Kate HMSeguin, Suellen AESmith, Beverley HM

Advanced TOTAL

Casault, Michel HMClarkin, Kathy HMJones, Dan 2AE

B&W Print -Intersections + Open

Novice TOTALBlokpoel, Hans 2HMDiorio, Adrienne AE

Intermediate TOTAL Allen, John HMBerkovitz, Christena HMDickie, Paul AEFindlay, David HMJardon, Yves HMPaskovich, Jan HMSeguin, Suellen AE,HM

Advanced TOTALCasault, Michel HMDhavernas, Isabelle HMJones, Dan AE

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My trip to India, by Bob young (continued)

I headed of to Old Delhi to visit the Red Fort. I went by tuk-tuk , a small three-wheeled taxi. It took about fifteen minutes to get there. It was still dark and we passed areas where there were many individuals and families sleeping in doorways

They were covered with whatever material they could find to keep out the cold. On the road there was every means of transport including oxen. This time of the day is not so busy. Later the whole place becomes incredibly busy and noisy.

We arrived at the Red Fort at 7:15.I had a fare dispute with the driver who wanted to charge me almost double the price that I had been quoted by the hotel. A threat to call a nearby cop resolved the problem. The fort wasn’t open until 8:30, so I took a ride in a Delhi Helicopter, a bicycle rickshaw. My friendly driver took me around Old Delhi and it’s market. There was a lot of poverty evident. Complete families were sleeping on the street. It was hard to listen to the young children crying and I was glad to get back to the Red Fort. It was very foggy and I could have gotten some great shots, BUT my battery had run dry. The fort is quite splendid, but compared to others I saw later, not so magnificent. The walls are of really red sandstone and the whole fort is well preserved. It was nice to be wandering around in the mist all alone.

After the fort I took another “helicopter” ride to the Ghandi Memorial Park. It’s quite large with lots of trees and small ponds full of ducks. The park is quite close to the main road, but is surprisingly quiet in this screaming city. The memorial itself is a large, flat circular stone guarded by two security guards. I learned a little late that shoes must be removed while on the site. I was quite moved to be in this place. After I visited a museum of Ghandi relics and photographs all very interesting.

I spent the afternoon inquiring about organized trips of Rajistan. At one point I was approached by a local who was happy to buy me a coffee. I was a little unsure, but he seemed friendly

enough. While we were having our coffee, a friend of his showed up and convinced me to visit the “official” government tourist office. After a half hour of speaking to a representative, I was not convinced that it was the official office. There was a lot of pressure to sign up “now”. They were trying to sell me a private taxi for about 45 dollars a day. That’s cheap, but I wanted to go cheaper. I also visited a market near my hotel. There was a ton of stuff to see and buy. I had supper at the hotel and spent the evening with some ex-patriot Indian businessmen now living in the U.K. They were going skiing in the north. The leader of this group paid his bill from a doctor’s bag full of money bills. Lord knows how much money was in the bag, but I was surprised he would be carrying it in a bag.

More to come.

Bob Young

Water Palace

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Message from the President (continued)

Now, entries in the open category of the Portrait competition do not have to follow the restrictions of being a "Candid Portrait". In the last newsletter I told you about our new three-judge scoring system and since then I have had some questions from members about how awards are assigned to the winning photographs. To answer this, I'll first give you a little background:

For the past number of years, CCO has used a single judge for all of our normal club competitions, and three judges for our Year-End judging (you can read more about the Year End judging in the Operations Manual; the rest of this discussion will focus only on our regular club competitions.) The judges would review each entered image, and then decide which image would receive an Award of Excellence (AE) or Honorable Mention (HM). Sometimes their decision was based on an image score they had in mind, sometimes just on intuition. In each case, the judges were told that our club's "rule of thumb" is to have approximately 25% of the images receiving awards; 10% AE and 15% HM. Sometimes the judges would listen to this advice, and sometimes not, but in the end it was always the judge’s decision. This is why some competitions saw lots of awards, and some very few. In addition, even with the guideline in place, there have been times in the past when the judges have felt that no images in a particular category and class were deserving of either an AE or HM, and times when almost 50% of the entered images received awards. In both cases, it was a judgment call based on the perceived caliber of images submitted. Anecdotally, through the years we have probably came close to the 25% guideline for most competitions.

Fast forward to January this year when our club moved to a three-judge system for all remaining competitions, using a scoring machine as I described in January's newsletter. Now that each image is receiving a score out of 30, awards can be determined based on the image scores. Because we made this change part-way through the season, to be as fair on everyone as possible the Slide and Print Competition Chairs are using a combination of statistical analysis and logical reasoning to determine which images receive awards. I'll briefly explain my process (as acting Print Chair), but I'm sure the Slide Chairman is using a similar approach.

Once all images in a competition are judged, the scores are translated into a digital spreadsheet and the columns that contain personal identifiers (name and image title) are hidden so that only the entry number, competition class (Novice, Intermediate and Advanced), and judges scores are visible. Based on the number of entries per competition per class, we determine how many awards would normally be expected using the original 25% guideline. Then, looking at the given scores for the images in each class, we determine which images will receive awards.

For example, if there are 10 entries in a Black and White, On-topic, Print competition, in the novice class, scoring 18, 19, 17, 17, 16, 22, 18, 20, 20, 18, respectively, we would have given an AE to the image that scored 22, and HMs to the two images that scored 20. This gives 30% of the images awards; about as close as we can get to the 25% guideline given the number of entries. If the scores were 18, 19, 17, 17, 16, 20, 18, 20, 20, 18, two options are available: award three AEs to the images that scored 20 and no HMs, or three HMs and no AEs.

This method is much easier when there are 20 or more entries, and can be very difficult when there are only 3 entries in a category/class. In most cases, we error on the side of giving more awards instead of less. Respecting the historic nature of the 25% guideline, when the scores are higher more awards are given and when scores are lower, fewer awards are given. We have used this process for the January, February and March competitions. In January's print competition, the award average was 33% overall, and in February's print competition, 23% overall. (At the time of writing this column, the March print competition had not yet been judged.) The main differences between these two competitions were the image scores; the average score for January's competition was 19.5/30 compared to 17.8/30 for February's competition.

Please keep in mind that this process is only being used for the remaining competitions in the 2011-2012 season, in an effort to be as fair and unbiased as possible, and so we don't change the anticipated ratio of awards part way through the year as we roll out the new three-judge system. The competition chairs are also making small adjustments to the way the judging sessions are run as we gain experience with this new system. The executive is still discussing the options of determining awards from the image scores, and it is our hope to put a method in place for next year that will be easy to implement, fair to the competitors and strive for photographic excellence. One option we are considering is a cut-off or criteria method where awards are only given to images that achieve a minimum score; this is a popular method with other camera clubs in Ontario and easy to implement, but it can be difficult to determine what the score criteria should be and may result in either higher or lower award ratios as compared to our historic 25% guideline. Another option includes a similar method as above where the top 25% images (based on score) receive awards, in some cases with the judges deciding on tie-breakers, regardless of the actual score given; this method would retain our historic award ratio, but might mean very low-scoring images receive awards simply because of statistics. Other options discussed include variations or combinations of these two methods. As we work toward finalizing this process, please feel free to provide your input, comments, concerns, or suggestions in writing to president@cameraclubottawa.ca.