| Sandi Croan | ||
pashli@aol.com
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Role of a camera club judge
I view the role of a camera club judge primarily as an educator for both the individual competitors and the audience as a whole. Working within and adapting to each camera club’s rules, format and time constraints, a judge should provide critiques on the individual images in a positive, constructive and specific manner. I believe more time should be spent giving feedback in the novice categories as a way to educate and encourage.
A camera club judge should be knowledgeable in the technical aspects of photography and visual design, including creative and corrective processes that can be performed on images (in and out of the camera) from capture to print.
I also believe that a judge should be open to all types of images, setting aside personal biases that might get in the way of judging individual images fairly.
Finally, a judge should be thoughtful, articulate, and respectful but also decisive.
Criteria I use as a camera club judge
My selection criteria are based on artistry and mastery. When viewing images I look primarily at the image as a whole. I look for images that have strong visual and emotional impact; images that speak to me, intrigue me or make me see something in a new way. These images when analyzed or critiqued almost always evidence excellence in the 3 C’s: Craftsmanship, Composition, and Creativity. The total presentation is also important to me (matting, print quality, dust on slides, etc.).
As individual camera club rules, desires and time constraints allow, I like to have the opportunity to say something positive about every image and give specific reasons (based on the 3 C’s) for my decisions.