Minsmere RSPB Nature Reserve - Thursday 22nd November

Many thanks to everyone that turned up for this club event despite the cold, miserable grey day.  Many of us found the very low light quite tricky to deal with and had to really push the ISO up - we’ll see which software deals best with all the noise.

Some of us were lucky enough to get good sightings of the Bittern and Grey Heron from Island hide - some of us were not so lucky!  There were also numerous Marsh Harriers over the reed beds at Island and Bittern hides which were fantastic to watch. 

Here’s a few of our images below:

Bittern by Robin Orrow

Marsh Harrier - Island Hide by Christine Frost

Grey Heron by Robin Orrow

Bracing Breeze by Andy Caws

Cold Enough for Penguins by Graham Frost

The Elusive Bittern by Francesca Shearcroft

Heron by Diana Daniels

Marsh Harrier by Martin Hill

View from Island Hide by Andy Low

High Key Shoveller by Robin Orrow

Bittern by Diana Daniels

Marsh Harrier by Di Jackson

Fly Agaric by Andy Lowe

Mr and Mrs Teal by Francesca Shearcroft

Marsh Harrier by Martin Hill

Grey Heron by Andy Lowe

Tuesday 13 November - Damien Demolder

Tonight's speaker was Damien Demolder who demonstrated 'how to use photography as a means of communication'.  Right from the start, it was clear that the emphasis was on creating the essence of being there.  Damien stressed the importance of taking control of your camera settings yourself to make the most of challenging lighting.  His varied examples showed us several ways to achieve this to make your subject stand out and distractions disappear.  

He also encouraged us to dare to be different - avoid the cliched shots of popular locations and use your imagination to create something different.
 I know many club members went away inspired to put Damien's advice into practice.  It will be interesting to see how the judges of our club competitions respond to the results!

Many thanks to Damien for an entertaining and informative evening.  For more examples of Damien's work, take a look at his website https://damiendemolder.com/.

Tuesday 6th November - Focus on - night time

Tonight's meeting was split into three different activities.  

Tonight was our first 'Focus On' event of the season where those at the meeting vote for their favourite image on a given theme which tonight was astrophotography and night shots.  33 images were entered and the 40 people at the meeting voted for their top 5.  Well done to Dawn whose 'Arctic Night' was voted our favourite.  You can see this and the other favourites below.

In the rest of the meeting, we heard from two of our Special Interest Groups.  Tim and Tom described the activities and aims of the Natural History SIG illustrated with photos showing the range of topics and also how their photography had improved over the years.  Finally, Jack presented the recent work of the Landscape SIG from their trips to various venues in East Anglia which featured a good variety of shots from coast to city.

If you are interested in these SIGs, please see Francesca or any committee member.

ARCTIC NIGHT by Dawn Osborn

EVER TURNING CIRCLES by Roy Scrivener

STARSPIN by Andy Lowe

REBECCA LOUISE by Roy Scrivener

FELIXSTOWE BY NIGHT by Christine Alcock

MOONS by Martin Hill

CHRISTMAS NIGHT by Tim Leonard

PARTIAL MOON by Martyn Anderson

REACH FOR THE STARS by Heather Ryder

'Steeplechase' Saturday 27th October 2018

Blackwater Farm usually plays host to 3 day equestrian events but today saw them hosting the ‘Steeplechase’ Norfolk’s original obstacle race.  The course offers 5k or 10k options over around 50 obstacles and today's challenge was extremely tough as it was cold and, before long, very wet with driving rain and hailstones!

Photography was tricky as the light was poor and keeping equipment dry was a real problem.  However, as most of the competitors seemed to be coping with the conditions, the least we could do was to try and capture some of their efforts.

After getting pretty wet, most of us discovered the cafe was open and providing very welcome hot drinks and fantastic cakes which soon warmed us up.

Some of our images can be seen below:

Never Again by Diana Graham

Still Going Strong by Dawn Osborn

Nutty Nadine by Graham Frost

Stuck by Christine Frost

Not What I Call Magic! by Sue Baldwin

The Vault by Andy Caws

The Orange Thunderbolt by Liz Akers

Fun Run Fairy by Caroline Tillett

Pushing On by Nick Akers

The Helping Hand by Di Jackson

One of Our Own by Dawn Osborn

I'm So Cold! by Diana Graham

Still Smiling by Christine Frost

Patriot Games by Graham Frost

In the Lead by Liz Akers

Making a Splash by Caroline Tillett

Over the Obstacle by Nick Akers

Splash and Dash by Andy Caws

The Paparazzi by Sue Baldwin

The Orange Tutu by Di Jackson

Tuesday 23rd October – Digital Open Competition

For our first competition of the year we welcomed Adrian Stone as our judge. There were 27 images in the Members class and 56 in the Members Advanced group. The theme was Open and images were submitted digitally.
Adrian was clear and concise in his comments for both groups and managed to get through all images within the time frame. He commented that in both groups the standard was very high and also that the subject matter was very varied.
The high scoring images are shown below.

Anemone by Christine Alcock 20/20

Misty Morning by Daphne Lingwood 20/20

Fighting for Possession by Di Jackson 20/20

Farewell by Chris Kott 20/20

Kingfisher by Maureen Campbell 20/20

Abandoned by Liz Akers 20/20

White Morph Reddish Egret Fishing by Dawn Osborne 19/20

Guillemots by Paula Cooper 19/20

Evening Tide by Daphne Lingwood 19/20

A New Look by Christine Frost 19/20

Chilean Flamingo by Liz Akers 19/20

Marching Through the Mist by Sue Baldwin 19/20

Fly Agaric by Andy Lowe 19/20

Cutting Edge Technology by Ann Barber 19/20

Sharing a Drink by Tim Leonard 19/20