Captured by the Camera - "Church Tower seen from the Car Park"

Church Tower from the Car Park

The March Competition had the title “Reflections” and I decided I must think outside the box and try and get something strikingly different to everyone else. Close to the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Tring, there is a small car park which takes about 8 cars, and in the morning the cars are in the shade, while the church is (on sunny days) brightly lit. A bit of experimenting found that one car's bonnet and front wing was shaped in such a way as to give a double selection – and by holding the camera high above the car I could also get another reflection in the windscreen. The only digital modification was to remove the windscreen washer jet which appeared as a small blemish on one of the reflections of the tower.

This was the first digital image competition I has ever entered and there was no doubt it was unique in the way interpreted the subject – and several people gave it marks of 9 or 10, but its overall score was middling – possibly because it was unusual. From other comments I suspect that being unusual is not the way to get high marks and the problem was highlighted by the review after the images had been shown, where the reviewing member almost exclusively selected marvellous views which happened to include a reflection in a lake, pond or canal, with only one or two pictures in which the reflection was the domininant feature. This was actually queried by several members who commented that the competition subject was meant to be “Reflections” and not views which, however beautiful, happened to include reflections.

As far as I am concerned the purpose of joining the camera club was to help me to think “outside the box” and if I end up producing unusual pictures and a middling average score I feel I will have learnt more than by producing a technically perfect “me too” type picture.

This is the first of a series of weekly pictures each of which will have been stimulated either by competitions in the Tring Camera Club, the “Tring 700 Project” to record Tring 700 years after its first charter was awarded, or simply wildlife and scenery seen during my regular walks for exercise.

Other photographs, with an Easter theme, posted on the Tring Archive Site last week

1. Arranging Flowers in the Church for Easter
2. Easter Daffodils and the Cross in the Churchyard
3. Waiting by the Tomb in the Church at Easter
4. No Entry to the Supermarket on Easter Day
5. Easter Pilgrimage (1) - Leaving the Parish Church
6. Easter Pilgrimage (2) - Coming along Tring High Street
7. Easter Pilgrimage (3) - Leaving Tring Town Centre
8. Easter Pilgrimage (4) - Strolling by Pendley Beeches
9. Easter Pilgrimage (5) - Arriving at the Cow Roast Lock
10. Easter Pilgrimage (6) - Walking along the Canal towards St Albans