ornate_wrasse
Moderator
I was in Toastmasters for a number of years and could not agree with you more. Being in the Toastmasters program helped transform me from a person who was afraid to speak in public to someone who became vastly more comfortable with speaking to a group of people.
That being said, I did want to reply to the numerous comments made after my original post and to clarify what actually happened.
First of all, the images I submitted were prints. We were to submit 5 prints in size 8x12. I requested and received permission to submit in 10x10 for my medium format print (the image I posted in this thread). It was scanned in a drum scanner and then printed out.
One of the prints we were to submit was "unjudged", that is, it would NOT be given scores by the judges and would be in the exhibit no matter what.
This was done so that each of us in the group would have a chance to have at least one image in the exhibit. My Mamiya image was actually not judged or scored. I only heard about the "white balance" comments when the group organizer took me aside at the meeting on Saturday and told me some of the judges commented on the white balance. She said I may want to change it but that it was entirely up to met if I wanted to make changes since the image will be in the exhibit no matter what.
There were 4 images of mine that were judged by the 3 judges. Each of the three judges gave each image a score of 1, 2 or 3. A score of 3 meant the image should definitely be in the exhibit, a score of 2 meant "maybe" and a score of 1 meant it should not be in the exhibit. Thus, the maximum score was "9" and the minimum score was "3".
Of the 4 of my images that were judged, two received a score of "9" and will definitely be in the exhibit, one image received a score of "7" and will be in the exhibit, and one image (the Leica image for which I used Velvia) received a score of "4" which was considered too low of a score to make it into the exhibit.
So I am quite pleased with the overall results and perhaps I might hear that one of more of the images were sold (including the medium format image). I guess I was just irked at the comments made. And I was feeling frustrated and probably looking for support from RFF members, as another poster suggested.
The Mamiya shot was picked by me because it had received numerous positive comments from others. In fact, when I recently took the image to a frame shop to be framed (this was done before I had the image printed from a drum scan for the exhibit), I was told when I picked it up that it was a very nice picture and numerous people at the frame shop had commented on how much they liked it. The folks at the frame shop handle many, many images including some by local artists of outstanding ability.
To another poster who asked about the ages of the judges, one was in her 40's, another was in her late 50's or 60's. As to the third judge, all I know is that it was a woman. I don't know her age.
The funny thing about the woman in her 40's is that she actually took the negative to the printer to be scanned and printed for me as she lives close to the printer. She told them to print it in 8x12 and the printer had to call me to tell me that I should be printing it in 10x10. My medium format image was the only print in size 10x10, the rest of the prints were 8x12.
I am glad each and every one of you took the time to post, I have indeed learned a lot from your comments.
Ellen
