Weekly #854 - All Things and Folks Medieval Competition

First of all, many apologies for the delay in at least posting the winner, it was all ready in the early hours of this morning and then Virginmedia went down for maintenance "to improve the service". Still isn't back, but at least I can let you know the pecking order!

WINNER garethjmorgan

SECOND PLACE sueriley

THIRD PLACE drofmit

The judging notes are ready and will be posted as soon as VM are back up again. See you later (not too much later I hope) and congrats to our podium place winners!

Thanks for the win John - look forward to your comments. To keep things rolling I have already added a new weekly competition theme.

VM keep putting back the time for things to be fixed, so it looks like it could be quite a while yet. I'm on my mobile hotspot meanwhile, but sadly not on the coputer where the text is. Ah well...

Many thanks for the new competition!

And this is what I was going to post quite a few hours ago!

It's unfortunate that the competition had to be started so late in the week, so it hasn't given much time to trawl the archives, and even less time if a new image was being shot. However, the response has been great and we have enough pixtures to make it worthwhile.

On with the judging!

garethjmorgan – The Gatekeeper – This is a strong contender right from the start, with a great subject complete with suitable props. Maybe he looks way too affable to be a serious opponent, but then again that might be a cunningly disguised look and he is actually a fearsome warrior. Either way, nice one.

Francisbd – Le Chateau be Bouillon – Monochrome is a good choice and the subject matter in keeping with the competition. A great description plus the free French lesson!

sueriley – Ready to Charge – Probably more realistic than we might imagine, a real rabble of weekend soldiers all making a Loud Noise and desperately hoping the enemy will run away. The crop choice and photography are spot on and it all makes an attractive, colourful shot.

Nigelk – Fountains Abbey Refectory – I thought this was the Undercroft, but without doubt it does make a great subject. There are a couple of window/door areas that inevitably are over bright, and maybe they could be darkened down, but overall there is little to distracty from this interesting and well crafted architectural shot.

Noelcmn – Jester- Although not directly medieval, it does make a valid nod to the medieval so many thanks for working with what was available and entering the competition. I might have cropped in quite a bit tighter to maximise the Jester and minimise the modern trappings, but the message comes across anyway.

drofmit – Medieval Minstrels – There are just so many opportunties at fairs and re-enactments across the country and they produce great characters just like these terrific Medieval Minstrels. The medieval music sounds great as well. A couple of photographic points here in that the image is maybe a little on the light side and it is also tilted, witness the building in the background that is falling over.

Raw Masonry – davidwozhere – A very clean, precise composition and a lovely gritty texture to the stone make this image. I would have preferred a bit of blue or darker sky peeping through rather than white, but it's a good choice to keep the shot straight without trying to add something in.

There are three images in this competition that stand out for me, by garethjmorgan, sueriley and drofmit. The final order is:

WINNER – garethjmorgan – The Gatekeeper

SECOND PLACE – sueriley – Ready to Charge

THIRD PLACE – drofmit – Medieval Minstrels

So a special thanks to everyone for joining in despite the short window of opportunity, and if winners could set up the next competition as quickly as possible that would be helpful. It's also worth bearing in mind that those setting up a new competition need to be ready to select their winner promptly and put in some judging comments if they can.

So, over to garethjmorgan!

Thank you John for the competition and comments... congratulations to Gareth and Sue...
despite the very short time, they were all good pictures... almost equally buildings and re-enactors.
Thank you for the third placing..... I noticed the lighter shades and I don't know why....
the monitor I do it on was colour corrected using a Spyder X Pro... it is a Benq Senseye+ photo
This is the same photo on Photocrowd
https://www.photocrowd.com/photos/wanding-minstrels-three-9497616.b62ec9780/
Visibly darker!
And yes, I know the picture is tilted.... but when straightened, the minstrels look to be falling over on their faces... I think it is the angle the piper is standing at that's the culprit and so I decided to keep the foreground recorder player as vertical.

Is the image sRGB? If not, for example if it's AdobeRGB then that might account for the lightness.

A fine set of photographs and congratulations to the winner and runners-up.

A fine collection of what we could find at short notice. .... and I never even noticed the buildings falling over in 'Minstrels'! Congratulations to the winners and thank you John for your excellent and concise critiques, despite every attempt by Virgin to scupper them.