Roy is one of the leading photographers of the Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal in the Washington, D.C., area. Although Roy spent most of his youth in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, his State Department family’s home base was the Washington, D.C., area. Roy has a BS in Physics from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland and a MS in Engineering Science from Penn State. He returned permanently to the Washington area in 1969 and worked for several major technology corporations for over 30 years.
Roy’s interest in photography evolved from extensive travel in five continents. In 2001, he started his transition to full-time photographer. He always found the Washington area to be one of the most photogenic locations in the world. Roy’s first photography book, Our Potomac, from Great Falls through Washington, D.C., was published in 2005; it was inspired by his affection for hiking and bicycling along the river and the adjacent C&O Canal. The book has led to numerous lecture and slide show engagements with local organizations.
In 2007, Roy became Chair of the Board of Directors for the C&O Canal Trust, a non-profit friends group for the National Park Service. Roy has done extensive photography work for river- and C&O Canal-related government and non-profit organizations, as well as private clients. He was a guest on WETA’s program “Great Views of Washington D.C.” and will be the featured photographer in the forthcoming Best of D.C. publication.
Roy’s second book, Great Falls and Mather Gorge, will be published and available at the beginning of 2009.
I view the first and foremost role of a judge to be an educator.
• For novices, the educational experience will hopefully be an increased awareness of the basic issues that comprise good photography.
• For advanced photographers, the educational experience will be to further their understanding of how others (who perhaps are peers) view their work, as opposed to learning the basics.
The criteria I use are “emotional impact,” “artistry,” and “technical issues.”
• Emotional impact is how the photo gets me in the gut – it includes the choice of the subject, creativity, uniqueness of the approach, mood, and (in some cases) story-telling.
• Artistry is composition, use of color, light, texture, perspective, taking the viewer’s eyes to the right place(s), absence of distracting items (such as miscellaneous stuff in the edges and corners), use of picture space, etc.
• Technical issues are sharpness, depth of field, exposure, control of details in the highs and lows, print quality, matting quality, etc.
I view emotional impact as the highest priority criterion. If it isn’t there, the photo is “out.”
Artistry and technical issues have roughly the same weight, but this depends on the context of the photograph.
http://www.roysewallphotography.com