Wednesday 26 April 2023

Tuesday 25th April 2023 - Digital Competition R3 - Nature

We had a total of 58 images entered in three classes for our nature competition tonight.  Starting with the Members class, our judge Nick Akers ARPS, assessed each image and offered suggestions for improving the images before awarding a score.  Moving on to the Intermediate and Advanced classes, Nick identified any weaknesses in the images and scored accordingly.  There were many strong images and these were held back before Nick decided the final scores 18, 19 or 20.  You can see the held back images below.

Congratulations to Mary, Sandie, Caroline and Carol whose images all achieved top marks.

Members Class:

BLACK CTENOSAUR IGUANA by Mary Laing 20/20

BLUE WITH A SPLASH OF WHITE by Gina Childs 19/20

SMALL SKIPPER by Phil Childs 19/20

GREEN IGUANA by Mary Laing 18/20

Intermediate Class:

MORNING SONG by Sandie Jardine 20/20

PROUD MUM by Les Thwaites 19/20

FORAGING REDS by Sandie Jardine 19/20

Advanced Class:

LOPING BROWN HARE by Caroline Tillett 20/20

MARBLED WHITE ON KNAPWEED by Carol Martin 20/20

GENTOO SHOOTS FROM THE SEA by Dawn Osborn 19/20

TAWNY OWL AND PREY by Robin Orrow 19/20

FEMALE STONECHAT ON BRAMBLE by Graham Frost 19/20

CURLEW FEEDING ON THE MUDBANK by Christine Frost 18/20

WILDEBEEST ON THE MOVE by Andy Caws 18/20

SANDERLING ON THE MOVE by Graham Frost 18/20

JUVENILE STARLINGS by Jan Murphy 18/20


Tuesday 18 April 2023

Monday 17th April 2023 - Oxburgh Hall (NT)

13 club members plus 6 very welcome family guests arrived at Oxburgh Hall in glorious sunshine to explore this wonderful moated medieval manor house and gardens.  The scaffolding has finally been removed and the house can now be seen in all its glory.  Parts of the interior are now also open to explore - it’s amazing to think the Bedingfeld family have resided here for over 500 years.


As you can see from the images below, we explored inside and outside the house, the gardens and grounds and also the nearby church of St John the Evangelist .




UNDER THE ARCH by Sue Baldwin

BLUE CEDAR CONES by Tim Leonard


REFLECTIONS IN THE RIVER by Jan Murphy

ACROSS THE MEADOWS by Graham Jackson

YELLOW AVALANCHE LILY by Tom Thurston

BEDROOM CORRIDOR by Andy Caws

WINGED SKULL by Di Jackson


NEWEST RECRUIT by Sue Baldwin


ONLY SPIDERS LIVE HERE NOW by Tim Leonard


OXBURGH BLUEBELLS by Graham Jackson

OXBURGH HALL IN ALL ITS GLORY by Tom Thurston

TULIPS by Di Jackson

RUSHING WATER by Andy Caws

GOOD QUEEN BESS by Di Jackson

ICM OF OXBURGH HALL by Jan Murphy

Thursday 13 April 2023

Tuesday 11th April - creating composite images - demonstrations

Following on from guest Zoom speakers, Cherry Larcombe and Colin Harrison, who introduced us to textures and montages, three club members, Jan, Francesca and Andy, demonstrated some of the techniques they used when making composite images.

Jan worked with Photoshop and her first example showed how to replace a bland sky and to add realistic reflections.  She stressed that her library of skies were all her own images - a requirement for our club competitions.  The second example was formed by selecting parts of three separate images and compositing them to make a creative image.  We learnt tips for cutting out elements and adding finishing touches to make a coherent end result.

Andy's first example showed the power of blend modes.  Sometimes the right blend mode can save making fiddly cut-outs.  For the next example, four separate photos were used to create silhouettes against a night sky.  Again blend modes were crucial as was the layer order in Photoshop.

To finish, we had a change of editing software when Francesca used Affinity to show how an underexposed image with a creased backdrop could be edited.  She recovered detail in the ballet dancer and replaced the creased backdrop by adding and toning a new texture.  A vignette gave a further touch of drama. Her second example used a sample of a flower's petal to form a new background to the flower.  This was finished with the hint of an additional texture.

You can see the end results which were created below.

I know that this type of post-processing is not for everyone, but perhaps there were some converts after tonight's meeting.


New Sky and Reflection added - Jan

Bernie in the clouds - Jan

Birds added to pier - Andy

Hare and Moon - Andy

Dancer - backdrop replaced with toned texture - Francesca

Flower + texture - Francesca


Wednesday 5 April 2023

Tuesday 4th April 2023 - Zoom presentation by Colin Harrison

From his home on the edge of the Cotswolds, Colin took us on his Digital Adventure.  Over the years he has gained many distinctions and awards for his images.  Many are creative montages stemming from Colin's vivid imagination.  Others are straight images which have been equally successful in international exhibitions. 

Colin gave us some hints on how his montages were created from the camera and lighting set-ups through editing in Photoshop.  In a few months time we have a 'Focus On ... Creative' session so we will have a chance to apply his tips and share our own montages.

Visit Colin's website to see his galleries https://www.colinharrisonphotography.uk/