Wednesday 11 December 2019

WDPC Christmas Dinner - Tuesday 10th December at The Crown Great Ellingham

40 of us made it for this our third Christmas Dinner at The Crown and, once again, they did us proud.  The function room looked wonderful, the food was great and all the staff were fantastic.  The Chefs were introduced to us at the end of our meal and received a well deserved round of applause.

The Crown's function room is perfect for our celebratory dinners as it seats us all comfortably and also provides plenty of space for us to mingle and enjoy each other's company.








Thursday 5 December 2019

Tuesday 4th December – workstations

A practical hands on evening tonight with lots of choice for all members  Two workstations demonstrating depth of field and focus stacking, two still life sets ups, fruit splashes, oil on water to get some abstract images, and flowers in water droplets not to mention two more basic sets ups for members to practise some of the DoF lessons learnt and also to try to freeze the balls in motion on a Newton's Cradle.

There was lots of chat, lots of camera clicking, lots of questions asked and answered. 
Lots of positive comments from members.
Lots of folk learnt things.
So all in all a good evening.
Some of the images are shown below:





Frozen Motion by Robin Orrow




Strawberry Splash by Francesca Shearcroft

Tuesday 3 December 2019

Horsey Gap Seals - Monday 2nd December 2019

23 of us met up in the Nelson Head car park bright and early and once everyone had all their camera gear and warm clothing on we set off to enjoy the 1 mile walk down to the coast.

Although direct access on to the beach was restricted for the safety of the seals, viewing was excellent, and there were hundreds of seals clearly visible and within easy reach of most lenses.  There were seal pups from newborns to a few months old some nestling close to their mothers others left to fend for themselves.  There was the usual aggressive behaviour to be seen between the males and also with the males becoming too amorous for the females and being sent packing often with bloodied noses!

Once everyone had got their shots we made our way back to the Nelson Head where we were served some delicious food in amazingly quick time - needless to say first back to the pub with food in front of them was Mr. Wilkin!

A few of our images can be seen below:


by Liz Akers

by Nick Akers

by Roy Scrivener


by Ann Barber


by David Wilkin


by Christine Frost


by Graham Frost


by Sue Baldwin


by Graham Jackson


by Mary Laing


by John Laing


by John Kerr


by Christine Alcock


By Di Jackson

Wednesday 27 November 2019

Tuesday 26 November - Round 1 Print Competition - Open

We welcomed back Howard King to judge the first round of this season's print competition. One of his first observations was that some images in the Members Class were worthy of being in Members Advanced.  

There were 16 images in the Members Class and Howard gave a thorough critique of each one.  He had no hesitation in awarding 20 points to Seal At Sunrise by Donna Smith and Migrant Hawker by Maureen Campbell.

In members Advanced Class there were 46 prints to assess and seven attained top marks.  Howard commented on the pros and cons of each one in an informative way.  We all picked up tips which will help us improve our photography.    

The images which were awarded 20 and 19 can be seen below.

This print competition was the first time we had projected digital versions of the prints being judged.  When Robin asked the audience at the end if they thought this was a good idea, there was an overwhelming show of hands in favour.

Images scoring 20:

MIGRANT HAWKER by Maureen Campbell

SEAL AT SUNRISE by Donna Smith

AIRBORNE by Dave Blake

A HARD DAY AT THE OFFICE by Tony Smith

HERRING GULL CHICK by Jack Mitchell

MEADOW PIPIT WITH LARVA by Dawn Osborn

PASSING TIME by Jan Murphy

ROKER PIER by David Turner

RUBY TOPAZ HUMMINGBIRD by Di Jackson



Images scoring 19:

JAG U AAHS! by Dennis Brown

CRESTED GREBE PREENING by Caroline Tillett

DIRTY WORK by Nick Akers

PLATFORM 5 BAKER STREET by Christine Alcock

PORTRAIT OF A WILD TAWNY OWL by Robin Orrow

TE ADOR DENIM by Chris Kot

THE FINAL BEND by Di Jackson


Wednesday 13 November 2019

Tuesday 12th November – Speaker: Danny Green

A larger than normal attendance by club members and visitors attended tonight to welcome Danny Green, renowned, award winning wildlife photographer. Danny's talk was entitles "Wild Taiga" which showcased some of Danny's images taken in the boreal forests around the world.
His dedication, persistence and knowledge of animal/bird behaviour paid off as his images were  stunning. Most, but not all, showed the wildlife in their landscape with a particular emphasis on a relatively shallow depth of field. This resulted in images with eye catching composition and in some cases very ethereal images.
Not many of us would spend 12 days in a hide, a very cold hide, in the hopes of getting the images. Not many of us would spend so many months of the year in the appropriate conditions, away from home, to get the images.
Finland was a favourite place and Danny leads workshops there. For more details and to see some of his images please check out Danny's web site here 


Thursday 7 November 2019

Tuesday 5th November - Focus On ... Sport

Club members entered 36 sports images which were judged by those at the meeting.  After viewing the images several times, each person identified their top 5 images.  After a bit of number crunching, the top five were announced and included a wide range of different sporting activities.  The top 10 can be seen below.

For the second half of our meeting, Mick Ladner introduced us to the wonders of a moth trap.  He brought in his trap for us to see and showed us a selection of photographs he had taken of moths from his trap. We were amazed to see the variety of beautiful moths that can be found locally.  Thank you Mick.


 Focus On Sports Top 10

1st  AIRBORN by David Blake

2nd  TEAM WORK by Dawn Osborn

3rd  THREE BIKERS by Diana Graham

4th  RACEWAY BANGER by Stephen Gregory

5th  A DIRTY WEEKEND IN SWAFFHAM by Graham Frost

6th  GOING FOR IT by David Blake

7th  MONO SPEED by Andy Lowe

8th  BREAKAWAY by Graham Frost

9th  HANGING ON AT CORAM by Di Jackson

10th  GO DOGS GO! by Tim Leonard

Friday 25 October 2019

Tuesday 22 October - Round 1 Digital competition (Open)

This was the first competition of the season and we kicked off with a Digital Open competition tonight which was very well supported.  There were 24 entries in the Members class and 54 in Members Advanced.  We welcomed back EAF judge Andy Swain from Norwich who had the tricky task of assessing and scoring the 78 images.  Early on he paused to check that he was judging the Members class as the standard was so good!

Andy was generous with his 20s awarding four in Members class and nine in Members Advanced.  Other images would have got higher marks if only we'd checked more carefully for distractions in the backgrounds or around the edges.

You can see the high scoring images below.

Scoring 20 out of 20 in Members class were:


CONTEMPLATING by Stephen Gregory

EMERALD DAMSELFLY by Maureen Campbell

CALM WATERS by Stephen Gregory

MOTHER AND CHILD by Georgie McCall


Scoring 19 out of 20 in Members class:


FEMALE KINGFISHER by Donna Smith


Scoring 20 out of 20 in Members Advanced class were:


ST ALBANS ON THE ATTACK by Graham Frost

RUFUS BREASTED HERMIT by Di Jackson

ON A MISSION by Nick Akers

LANG CO LAGOON by Jan Murphy

HAND OFF by Andy Caws

KEEP CALM AND DRINK TEA by Graham Frost

NIGHT STALKER by Robin Orrow

KNOCK FOR KNOCK by Christine Frost

SWALLOW by Geoff Lingwood


Scoring 19 out of 20 in Members Advanced class were:


RELEASE AND RELOAD by Caroline Tillett

POWER ON by Mick Ladner

ATLANTIC PUFFIN by Tony Smith

PRICKLY LOCUST by Kim Scrivener

INTO THE CORNER by Mick Ladner