The first round of the PDI Trophy competition 2025-2026

This was the first round of the PDI Trophy competition of the season held on September 18th 2025. This round had “Open” as both themes.

For each image I had to choose a roughly defined “genre” with the added condition that each submitted image must have a different “genre”.

Time for a Coke

In the American Diner of the Pit Stop B&B, Kacie Belle posed with a bottle of Coke.

I selected “Portrait” as the genre…

Summary of judge’s comments
… very piecing eyes looking straight into the camera , full intent, arms wrapped around []

… facing [the photographer] isolated from a rather busy background

… there’s a reflection down here on the counter,

… very strong in the face, strong contact wit the photographer

There were 25 images in this Open Round and the score was 9.5.

The Cool One

In June 2025 on the platform at Temple for the District Line I continued my project of taking images of passengers on Underground carriages.

I selected “Street” as the genre . . .

Summary of judge’s comments
… is he cool or is he looking superior down , even haughty, aloof, , no he is not cool

…but I do like what you have captured there, I would have got rid off and made it half and half [the tube train framing]

… the expression on his face is almost a look of disdain, coming through []

… I suggest that you look later at cropping

There were 25 images in this Open Round and the score was 8.5.

The original images

The cool one

Time for a coke