Tuesday 10 September: - "Landscape from Idea to Postproduction"

Slawek Staszczuk

We welcomed Slawek who gave his presentation via zoom. He stressed that his aim is to capture the beauty of the outside world and immortalize it in his images. He tries to keep his images as naturalistic as possible.

His style is Telephoto landscapes. He showed us a range of his images and demonstrated step by step his approach to postprocessing.  He starts with the detail - sharpening, using noise reduction and chromatic aberration with all of his images.

He also stressed the importance of light in relation to the angle of the camera and how he uses it, along with the shadows, to give the illusion of volume.

A visit to his web site will give you a flavour of his work. www.photoss.net

Tuesday 3rd Sptember 2024 -Summe Challenge

 This evening we welcomed our members back after our summer break and we also welcomed Nick Akers to Judge our Summer Challenge. We had a varied selection of images ranging from insects to still life, monocrome to multiple exposures, making it very difficult for Nick to select a winner.

The winning images are below:

1st Place: Hares by Jack Mitchell

2nd Place: Still Life by Jan Murphy

3rd Place: A Sense of Botswana by Robin Orrow

Commended: Insects by Maureen Cambell

Commended: Insects by Geoff Lingwood

Commended: British Wild Life by Sandie Jardine

Thursday 1st August

WDPC is on holiday during the month of August giving members a chance to go out and about and take more photographers..perhaps for the Summer Challenge competition. (For details click HERE.)

However the Nature Special Interest Group had an outing to Ranworth Broads which included a trip on an electric boat, run by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, who had a base at the broad.

A great time was had by all. Diana Graham and  I were kindly invited to join the group for the outing, thus ensuring the boat was full to capacity. We  stopped at the hide on the way to the brod and were thrilled to catch a glimpse of a kingfisher, fishing!!

On arrival at the NWT Centre Tom captured this photo showing the fun-time we all experienced for the day:

John showing his camera settings to our new SIGGERS member.

Tuesday 9th July – AGM and Presentation of Awards

 AGM's are never the most exciting of meetings, however we managed to cover the necessary business fairly quickly, not least because all relevant reports had been sent out before hand. There were few questions asked at the meeting.

The Competition Secretary had prepared a slide show of all the high scoring images of the year and at the appropriate points we awarded the Trophies, Certificates and, new for this year, the Medals. 

After the meeting conclude we enjoyed a time to socialise enriched by the delights from the catering team, which did not disappoint.

Thanks to all members who came along and congratulations to all those who received awards.

Some of the award winners for 2024.

Sunday 7th July – Summer Lunch

In the past we have had a BBQ for our end of year social but this year we decided to try something different, namely a bring and share meal. The table was groaning with all the food that members had cooked/provided. All dietary requirements were catered for. And we had a wonderful spread of cold meat, quiches, loads of different salads and a veritable feast of puddings, with at least three different pavlovas!!

Before the serious eating began we all assembled for a group photograph. Hopefully in the years to come this will be a happy reminder to all those present of the occasion which was enjoyed by all present. It was great that Tim and his wife could come along and share the occasion with us after his recent spell in hospital. (see pictures below).

A huge thanks to Sue and Pam for their organising and to all members for bringing along the various dishes. A great time was had by all.

Tuesday 2nd July: "New York Boogie Woogie"– A presentation by Keith Snell

 We welcomed Keith to our meeting this evening but his web site suggested he was a landscape photographer in the  Lake District........however this was far from the Lakes and far from landscapes. The images he showed were all taken on a workshop trip to New York with Doug Chinnery and Valda Bailey and featured multiply exposures all done in camera.

Keith included some technical details about white balance and other camera settings and then showed us how he had created the images. Not all cameras have the blend modes for multiply exposures or the facility to change any parameters between the first and second image.

Keith's images were very  subjective!! Some  member's loving them and inspired to try the type in London perhaps, whilst at the other end of the scale members were totally switched off. 

None the less Keith's presentation was informative and provided some useful technical information, at least for those with the flexibility in their cameras to do multiple exposures.

Tuesday 25th June – Image of the Year

We welcomed Mike Lloyd along to WDPC to judge the Image of the Year. There was only one class and members could enter one digital and one print image.

Mike commented on the high standard of images and struggled with his final scores. The lower number of entries meant that he had time to look at each image and provide constructive feedback. 

Thanks to all those members who submitted images. 

The winners and scores are shown below.

                Print:  

                         

1st Icelandic Fox by Robin Orrow

                               

2nd Red Deer Stag by Sandi Jardine

                                     

3rd A fisheye View by Jan Murphy

             

Highly Commended: Impressions of the Forum by Sue Baldwin

                                

Highly Commended: Little Blue Heron with its Prey by Dawn Osborn

Commended: Cromer Hot Rod by Roy Scrivener

                                                            

                Digital:

1st Male and Female Little Owls by Sandi Jardine

2nd Flesh Fly by Geoff Lingwood

3rd Bow Fiddle Rock by Roy Scrivener

Highly Commended: Magnolia Bloom by Francesca Shearcroft

Highly Commended: Kicking Up Dirt by Carol Martin

Highly Commended: Little Owl about to land by Dawn Osborn

Highly Commended: Nose to Nose by Robin Orrow

Highly Commended: Mountain Hare by Lyn Ibbitson-Elks

Commended: Elderly Village Lady by Jan Murphy