What bemused you today?

[ABERS]

.....and the winner is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15636808

[jinky]

.....and the winner is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15636808

Nice snap!

[Jonathan]

.....and the winner is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15636808

Nice snap!

Maybe so.  I never comment on the TW until I've seen the pictures for real.  The web isn't a great medium for viewing the subtleties of medium format film.

[ABERS]

.....and the winner is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15636808

Nice snap!

Maybe so.  I never comment on the TW until I've seen the pictures for real.  The web isn't a great medium for viewing the subtleties of medium format film.

So it's possible to take a snapshot with a medium format?  Be interesting to know your opinion when the subtleties are revealed. 

[michaelb104]

.....and the winner is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15636808

Was that not the same girl that was in the winning photo last year but then she was sat on a horse with a sheep or deer laid across it??       

[Jonathan]

.....and the winner is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15636808

Nice snap!

Maybe so.  I never comment on the TW until I've seen the pictures for real.  The web isn't a great medium for viewing the subtleties of medium format film.

So it's possible to take a snapshot with a medium format?  Be interesting to know your opinion when the subtleties are revealed. 

Well I just shot my wife's portrait with medium format.  I have it on a 20 inch portrait monitor and it looks pretty nice.  I suspect it would look even better printed nicely at a larger size.  She uses it as her LinkedIn avatar and yes, at 50px it's a nice snapshot.

[hevans]

Don't be so harsh. Technically, the lighting and tones on the winning shot are very very good. If it was achieved with natural light with no exceptional efforts as used for studio lighting, then it's very well done. Her hair and the fur are quite complementary. If it was done on film as well with little or no photoshopping, then it's even more technically accomplished. The convergence of the background lines to the head show an attention to background detail, with the background lights providing a halo effect. Then there's the moment - just getting the eye contact and the expression with only three slides.

Of those seen via the BBC link, either it or the artist top the list. The parents in the bedroom smacks too much of Martin Parr, with whom I'm not overly enamoured. And the other two aren't anything particularly special.

H.

[hevans]

Well I just shot my wife's portrait with medium format.  I have it on a 20 inch portrait monitor and it looks pretty nice.  I suspect it would look even better printed nicely at a larger size.  She uses it as her LinkedIn avatar and yes, at 50px it's a nice snapshot.

I didn't know you were married, never really thought about it, though.

Who did the photos at your wedding?

[DaveB]

All sounds too much like people are trying too hard to find something to like about an average shot. A "Well the judges must be seeing something that we're not quite seeing here" attitude. No, I personally have seen a lot better but those obviously didn't bother with this comp. So with 'You've got to be in it to win it' in mind I say well done on the win. But I'm not impressed.

[ABERS]

I think what DaveB is saying, don't blame Ms Woodward for winning, applaud the fact that she had the nous and nerve to enter the comp with such a mundane shot.

What rankles most people is the fact that if they had taken this picture, they would out of courtesy offered a copy to the subject and then have forgotten completely about it, let alone consider entering it in a competition!

Still it gives us something to talk about and the organisers some press and PR. 

[hevans]

I think what DaveB is saying, don't blame Ms Woodward for winning, applaud the fact that she had the nous and nerve to enter the comp with such a mundane shot.

A life lesson for us all: who dares, wins!

With all seriousness, I'd very much enjoy a selection of examples and explanations that are considered better. Of the five I've seen in the competition, I would consider the Cavia to be a reasonable selection above the others. Whether there were others entered that I might consider better I can't say. Have I seen other examples outside of the competition that I consider better? Yes, but not many.

And, is there any portraiture that isn't mundane? I've yet to see many examples, with the possible exception of Erwin Olaf, and Sally Mann. But in their cases, the person in the photo is not the subject of the photo, rather more of a prop that sets the scene and so perhaps not strictly portraiture.

I think this is a different situation from the Turner prize, where the constant question arises, "Yes...but is it art?". Portraiture is a pretty well hammered out and specified theme, and achieving anything that is new, unusual or really stands head and shoulders above the rest is probably not going to be seen more than once every 20-30 years. So, yes, the photo might be mundane, but that's because the genre is.

H.

BTW: specifications like "mundane", "better"  are subjective adjectives and will vary wildly from person to person. There are no absolutes.

[Jonathan]

Who did the photos at your wedding?

Dunno.  Some bloke with a Nikon and a roll of Kodak Gold.

Even at web res, that image has the kind of tones I associate with MF.

[ABERS]

Curiouser and curiouser. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15689652

[Graham]

Curiouser and curiouser. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15689652

  Right click......Save picture as......open in PS.......Send to printer.
  Jobs a goodun, mines a pint!
                     Graham.

[hevans]

Curiouser and curiouser. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15689652

On this, we see eye to eye. I can only guess that it's worth the price because the horizon is level??

H.