Judgement Day

The print section was judged this morning. The audience were shown DPI copies on a big screen while the the 6 adjudicators only saw the prints.

There were 29 entrants, each submitting 10 prints. Only the titles were read out as each image was displayed, quickly followed about 10 seconds later by the judges’ collective score.
The PAGB are keen to point out that each judge awards a vote rather than scores.
They can each award a 2, 3, 4 or max 5.
2 = fail
3= a near miss
4= pass at the level applied for
5= good enough to pass at the next level

The system has been designed to be as fair as possible (apparently) and you should hope for 24 votes for each image.
That said, at the end of the judging if you have accrued a final score of 200 or above, you have gained your distinction.
The scores were very low to start with. 14’s and 16’s .
By the time my 1st image came up I was worried - 19.
At this rate no one was going to pass.

Things for me improved as I then got a couple of 20’s but the majority of the scores were well below the pass mark.
By half time I had 2 more points than I needed but I certainly didn’t feel confident.
My votes picked up a lot in the 2 nd half with Jorgie scoring well when she appeared.
In the end I got a total of 215 :-D)
Only 13/ 29 entrants were successful so I’m feeling pretty chuffed

After lunch it was time for the DPI section. Another member from my CC had applied so we watched with interest but without the earlier palpitations!
There were a lot more entrants in this section and the votes continued to be low but at the end of the day we both achieved our CPAGB.

The two happy photographers are pictured having just received their awards