6th February – "Ten thousand miles of ocean"

It was a great pleasure to welcome Sarah Kelman to our club tonight, along with two new members. Sarah, her husband and two children took a year out to take part in the Panerai Classic yacht race, an epic journey in a classic sailing boat from Lisbon to Barbados. Then they sailed through the Carribean, up the east coast of the USA and then eventaully across the Atlantic back home.
We almost felt we had experienced the journey with her as she had one or two video clips showing the heel of the boat, trying to prepare dinner in the galley to mention just two.
Not quite sure how Sarah managed to take so many fantastic photos whilst involved in this journey but they ranged from boats to architecture, from marine life to wild life and from landscape to abstract.
In addition Sarah's passion for wild life and preserving our planet was very evident, with a plea for us all to look at the Marine Conservation Society web site and get involved. 
(www.mcsuk.org)

EAF Club Championships – Sunday 4th February

WDPC was well represented at the Fulbourn Centre on Sunday with 11 members attending the Club Championships. Nail biting moments as we waited to hear whether we had made it into Round 2.....and yes we were placed 14th, so just made it through to round 2. So after lunch we settled down to look at the adjudication for the next 10 images from each of 14 clubs. 
We only scored two less points in total than last year and we finished 12th= out of 37 clubs competing. 

Thanks to all club members who submitted images.

Cambridge Inter-Club Digital Competition - Saturday 20th January 2018

After the club's amazing victory at this competition last year we set off with some trepidation not expecting too much this year. After a very close contest we were absolutely delighted to find we had finished in joint 3rd position - so not too shabby!  Many congratulations to North Norfolk Photographic Society on winning and huge congratulations to Andy Caws for winning the prestigious Roy Pitman Award for best image in the competition.

Our images can be seen below:

Chasing Elephants by Andy Caws - Best Image 

Maximum Effort by Keith Mountford

The Industrial Age by Heather Ryder

Bringing Home the Herd by Di Jackson

Victory in Sight by Keith Mountford

Tuesday 23rd January. Digital Competition, Monochrome

We welcomed Rex Makemson to be our judge for the second round of the digital competition. There were 85 images, a third in Members Class and the rest in Members Advanced. So Rex had his work cut out but managed to finish in time and was helpful in his comments.
The highest scoring images are shown below:

Bony the Mexican Musician by Suzi Senior 20

Shoe Envy by Andy Caws 20

Window on the Soul by Heather Ryder 20 

The Lookout by Diana Graham 20

Young Grey Seal by Tom Thurston 20

Arctic Fox by Jack Mitchell 20

Herring Gull Reflection by Rachael Trivett 20

Reassurance by Christine Alcock 19

The White Hut by Graham Jackson 19

Agarve by Paula Cooper 19

Leading the Way by Tim Leonard 19

Bald Eagle by Kim Scrivener 19

Maleficent by Chris Kot 19

The Beauty of Steam by Dave Angood 19

Zebra Reflection by Rachael Trivett 19

Sunday 14th January - Point to Point Racing at Ampton

The first WDPC event of 2018 found us at Ampton Point to Point races - a pretty good turnout from members and we were lucky with the weather considering what we have been experiencing - it wasn’t too cold, wet or windy - the light wasn’t brilliant but it is January!

Lots of action from what turned out to be 7 races (there were so many riders for one of the races they split it into two races) which gave us plenty of opportunities to capture that ‘special’ shot.

Some of our images can be seen below:

Neck and Neck by Jan Murphy

A Different View by Liz Blake

Eyes on the Leader by Sue Baldwin

Galloping up the Hill by Roy Scrivener

The Chase is On by Andy Caws

Shouting the Odds by Ann Barber

Lensbaby Effect by Christine Alcock

By Christine Frost

By Graham Frost

Hunting Red by Di Jackson

Neck and Neck by Roy Scrivener

Studying the Form by Sue Baldwin

Just Holding On by Ann Barber

Each Way by Christine Alcock

By Christine Frost

By Graham Frost

Going Good to Soft by Di Jackson

The Last Race by Andy Caws

Tuesday 9 January - My kind of photos

This was our first meeting of 2018.  We had a really varied programme provided by three of our members Chris Kot, Roy Scrivener and Mick Ladner.

Chris illustrated his progress in the field of portrait photography over the last few years and shared some tips on how he interacts with models, locates studios and outdoor locations, sets his camera and processes his images.  In his more recent portraits, Chris’ individual style was clearly evident.

by Chris Kot

by Chris Kot

Roy concentrated on several areas of interest architecture, landscape, industrial and low light.  Sometimes work gets in the way of photography, other times, for example when driving home in the middle of the night, it provides wonderful opportunities!  Roy's architectural shots showed some impressive structures and both these and the industrial locations took on a new dimension when taken at dusk or at night.

COTTAM POWER STATION by Roy Scrivener

JUNO OF MORTON by Roy Scrivener

Mick finished the meeting with an excellent selection of his wildlife images.  He started in Wales with red kites and dippers and ended up in his garden sharing his plans for attracting local wildlife.  Along the way, he showed us images of waders, pheasants, hares, deer and seals.  Mick stressed that the best approach is to sit and wait for the wildlife to come to you.  Mick clearly has a lot of patience and it has resulted in great wildlife photos.

KNOT TAKING FLIGHT by Mick Ladner

RED KITE by Mick Ladner

Many thanks to Chris, Roy and Mick for an excellent evening.

Thursday 5th December – A talk by Ruth Grindrod

Ruth is a locally based landscape photography and we welcomed her along to the club meeting to give a talk entitled "My Photographic Journey".
Ruth had brought along lots of prints, printed on a variety of papers and members enjoyed looking at them. However she gave an excellent presentation and talked about her photography in general...what were the key points in taking a picture..and then discussed some of her pictures. She gave many learning points along the way including tips on composition, tips on the gear used, in particular, the filters she used, and also how she had brought out various parts of the image in editing. She even showed some of her images which were not so good and explained why she thought that was so.
She finished by giving a brief demonstration of how she processed one of her images.
Her images had a softness about them which many members found very appealing. Many can be viewed on her website, https://ruthgrindrodlandscapephotography.co.uk
All in all a very worthwhile evening.