Quarterly competition “Patterns”

The first of our team competitions had Reflections as its subject, and proved to be very popular. It promoted a flurry of activity trying to find things that fitted the subject matter and helped to encourage team work and hence getting to know other club members better.

Sue Heard our competition organiser decided it was time to have another team competition, this time on the subject of Patterns. We had enough willing participants to form 5 teams of 5. A team captain was appointed for each team and they organised meetings, Whatsapp groups and outdoor photo gatherings to find photo opportunities. Each team then selected ten photos to be submitted to an external judge.

Our team met in the Turquoise Cafe in Holburn street, before we set out in the rain to explore Aberdeen city centre for patterns. These lovely ladies run the cafe that sells some truly amazing cakes. I took this shot just before we went outside, but the judge deemed it not fitting the brief, oh well better luck next time.

It’s interesting that confronted with a specific competition subject, you start seeing patterns everywhere, even when not out to take photos for the competition. After the competition finished I still kept spotting things that could have been a suitable subject. So it can be worthwhile having to get outside of your photographic comfort zone. Although I do try to draw the line at wedding photography, as it can be quite stressful. But still did one recently, fortunately it all worked out fine.

Architecture, nature, art, engineered objects all featured in the final selection. I’ve grouped the entries in no particular order, but tried to put them in groups of similar subject matter.

Impressive how many different interpretations of “Pattern” are possible, and I’m sure this is by no means an exhaustive selection.

Below a selection of the architecture images.