On Tuesday 8th December we had Richard Spiers judging our set subject for the year "Surreal". Richard was absolutely the right judge for this subject as he has a finely judged sense of what is surreal, and he often twins this with a surreal commentary.
With 40 plus entries there was a wide spectrum of ideas encapsulated in the images. There were only a couple of entries which borrowed from Salvador Dali, the rest were the products of our members' imaginations, and they ranged across a very fertile ground. There were quite a few excellent composites, although Richard had a very hard job in trying to determine the joins. A tortoise with a blue booby's head was stunning as it was difficult to determine what it actually was, and the earth bent at a 90 degree angle was equally unusual. "The Potters Hands" had a technique that I can only guess at, and the Angel of the North bending down to greet people showed the liquify tool at it's best.
Once again we had a wide spectrum of winners with 11 different members being placed, commended, and highly commended. This shows the breadth of entries we are getting, keep it up. Congratulations to Peter for his third place with the emperor dragon fly going shopping, to Maggi for her second place with the stunning eye berries, and to Janet for winning with her take on Flora Borsi's style of images. Janet's juxtaposition of a puffin with the eye and beak aligned with a model was masterful.
Also congratulations on the fantastic news that Arjun has just become a consultant at the RVI, absolutely excellent.