I won a prize in a staff photo competition

[mumrar]

As most of you know I work for the beloved XC, and Arriva run a photo competition for all of their staff, you have to photograph something operated anywhere throughout Europe by Arriva.

I finished second at my first attempt, and you'll see my shot in the July 2010 section on This page

Won me a tidy £150 too!!!! And of course, in my opinion my shot was way better than the first placed one

 

[Sun Chariot]

Well done, Matt. Nice bit of gratis beer-money, that. Mind you, the shots you link into this forum are of a consistently high standard. Good work fella.

 

[Aictos]

You've given me a idea to push for within First, ta very much

 

[Matt Taylor]

SWT did this for their calendar a few years ago, but the calendar was an early casualty of the financial cutbacks so we have no similar photo competition in the Stagecoach group.:cry:

 

[Greenback]

That is a very good snap Matt! I like the colours, and the reflection in the water.

The only reason that I can see for picking the first place shot is that it's in black and white! Photo magazines seem to value b&w more highly than colour images, at least as far as competitions go!

 

[jimrbrobinson]

You were robbed Matt. IMHO your photo was the best of the three, and better than the April ones too.

 

[Dai.]

I don't like the first place.

Yours is much better.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Agreed - I just don't like blatant 'clever-but-not-attractive' post-production malarkey.

Without wishing to insult the creativity of the July winner, it's too busy an overall composition, with no immediate focal-point

And the 'desaturate everything except the subject' approach works for moody models and wacky wedding-shots - but not a XC...

And I do believe that would have broken a key rule on "Photo of the Week"...

So - by kangaroo court - we, the fraternity and jury, declare Mister Wilson the undisputed July winner! More power to your f-stop!

 

[mumrar]

Agreed - I just don't like blatant 'clever-but-not-attractive' post-production malarkey.

Without wishing to insult the creativity of the July winner, it's too busy an overall composition, with no immediate focal-point

And the 'desaturate everything except the subject' approach works for moody models and wacky wedding-shots - but not a XC...

And I do believe that would have broken a key rule on "Photo of the Week"...

So - by kangaroo court - we, the fraternity and jury, declare Mister Wilson the undisputed July winner! More power to your f-stop!

Thanks for all the kind comments, I think mine was better too of course. Don't suppose you lot mind making up the difference in prize money do you? £150 please

 

[yorkie]

Well done! Yes I'd agree yours is best, impossible to fault (apart from the fact it's a Voyager )

You're in good company there - the Photo of the Year 2009 is stunning, and I really like the April 2010 winner too.

 

[Mojo]

XC employees seem to be trouncing employees of all other parts of Arriva!

 

[mumrar]

XC employees seem to be trouncing employees of all other parts of Arriva!

According to Arriva's own site, company wide they have some 42000 employees, so yes the little quantity at XC seem to be eating the competition alive. When I got the email to say I was 2nd all I could think was "Please don't let it be a bus photo that won"

 

[transportphoto]

Well Done Matt -

I have had a look at the rest of the pic's and noted Oct 2006 2nd place, the little boy is looking at (what looks like) a London Underground Map. Unless it was on something Arrivay I don't know how it could fit the bill. Not that it makes any difference today!
http://www.arriva.co.uk/arriva/storage/pages/photocomp_oct06_2/?t=flash

 

[yorkie]

Yep it's not a timetable, clearly a LU map. You can see the Central line and District line on the map, and the shaded zones.