27th April 2021 - Competition: Theme - Macro/Close-up

We welcomed Leo Rich ARPS, EFIAP/g, DPAGB as the judge for our final league competition of the season and with 72 images to judge we were in for another full evening.

As you would expect with a theme of Macro/Close-up a high percentage of the images were natural history subjects with flowers, butterflies, fungi and various other flora and fauna featuring strongly. There were also some amazingly imaginative images which all helped to provide a very interesting and varied display of images for Leo to judge.

Thank you Leo for offering constructive helpful comments and, most importantly, encouragement.

Some of the high scoring images can be seen below:

In Members Class:

COPRINOPSIS IAANII by Les Thwaites 20/20

COMMA UNDERSIDE by Maureen Campbell 19/20

FROSTY ROSE by Pam Rutty 19/20

YELLOW BRAIN FUNGUS by Maureen Campbell 19/20

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE by Tom Thurston 18/20

TIME GONE BY by Tom Thurston 18/20

In Members Advanced Class:

MINATURE METAL SKYLINE by Jan Murphy 20/20

DOUBLE IMAGE by Christine Frost 20/20

GREEN-VEINED WHITE ON WILD MARJORAM by Di Jackson 20/20

HOUSE FLY by David Ashfield 20/20

MALE BANDED DEMOISELLE by Graham Frost 19/20

CHALK HILL BLUES PAIRED by Di Jackson 19/20

Tuesday 13th April – "Abandoned Places" an illustrated talk by James Kerwin

It was a pleasure to welcome James Kerwin to WDPC tonight. When booked I thought he was from Norwich so hopefully he could have come for real to a club meeting or via Zoom, not even thinking the pandemic would still have us locked down. In reality he has lived overseas for the last few years and has spent his time focussing on the Abandoned Places, so once again zoom saved the day.

His talk recounted his different projects in various countries, ranging from Lebanon to Georgia, from Poland to Armenia. He told many stories relating to his images, both of which showed what beautiful buildings some of the abandoned places must have once been. Not really "urb ex" images but more along the lines of a society in decline, even though only one image had any people in it. Along the way he spoke about the importance of light, how he used a tilt and shift lens and also gave additional tips how to photograph architecture.

His web site, https://jameskerwinphotographic.com,  as well as show casing some of his images also gives details of the workshops the he runs often enabling participants to visit some of the more off the beaten track venues. 

An interesting evening and one which had many members considering where they could find any abandoned buildings nearer home.

Tuesday 6th April – "In the Making" by Gareth Martin, CPAGB, AWPF

Gareth joined us via Zoom from S Wales. He has had many successes in various salons and he showed the images straight out of the camera and then showed the final edited image, in some instances showing the intermediate stages as well. quite amazing how some apparently nondescript images could be processed into something acceptable to the salons. 

It could well be that if we all trawl through our hard drives we too may find some award winning images!! 

Thanks for coming along Gareth and sharing such varied images in a challenging presentation.

23rd March 2021 - Competition - Theme - 'Scapes'

This evening over 40 of us Zoomed in on this month's competition themed 'Scapes'.

There were over 70 images for our judge, Richard Houghton, to consider. Richard explained that he would be looking for what he considered the 5 essential elements in an image namely: exposure, focus, composition, impact and story telling plus of course his personal taste.

We saw a good variety of different examples of 'Scapes' and Richard offered helpful suggestions and comments he felt might improve some of our images and praised those he felt required little or no improvement.

Some of the high scoring images can be seen below:

From Members Class:

FJORDS by Les Thwaites 20/20

WATER COLOURS by Pam Rutty 20/20

ASHNESS BRIDGE by Daphne Lingwood 19/20

FOGGY FROSTY MORNING by Pam Rutty 19/20

BORNEO SUNSET by Les Thwaites 18/20

THE APPROACHING STORM by Ann Barber 18/20

From Members Advanced class:

HIGH AND DRY by Christine Frost 20/20

PATH LEADING TO HAPPISBURGH LIGHTHOUSE by Diana Graham 20/20

THE TWELVE APOSTLES by Jan Murphy 20/20

FIVE FINGER STRAND by Liz Akers 19/20

SELJALANDSFOSS by Paul Radden 19/20

ST PAULS SKYLINE by Tony Smith 19/20

TULIP FIELDS by David Ashfield 19/20

WHITE POCKET by Paul Radden 19/20

LADYBOWER BRIDGE by Roy Scrivener 18/20

MAGPIE MINE by Roy Scrivener 18/20

THE OLD CUSTOM HOUSE KING'S LYNN by Graham Frost 18/20

UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS by Di Jackson 18/20

Tuesday 9th March – Presentation by Astrid McGechan entitled "Feel the Land – Photography and Emotion"

Astrid McGechan, LRPS and Light & Land leader, came along to share her thoughts of Photography and Emotion. She started off by telling us a little about herself and how she came into photography, illustrating her story with her images. 

Continuing she shared why and how to capture emotion, including quotes from many other creatives, including playing some music. It seems that images which were important to her tended to show beauty, harmony and calm and these frequently related to how other's felt about her images. She told many stories along the way and gave a few suggestions as to why black and white was important to be able to convey emotion.

In the second half Astrid explained some of the techniques she used when making her images, including multiple exposures, ICM, using textures, and even defacing an image. All were ably illustrated by her own images and stories she told about them.

It was a totally different type of presentation given by Astrid McGechan that made us consider images in a different way, perhaps best summed up be her phase, "Don't take pictures of what it looks like but take pictures for how it makes you feel".

Many positive comments from members afterwards and increased activity on her FB page!!

Tuesday 2nd March 2021 – "Macro and Close-up Nature Photography"–a talk by Daniel Bridge

 It was good to welcome back Daniel Bridge to WDPC and we enjoyed his relaxed but very informative style of presentation. He explained the effect of using different lenses, the value of the relative different camera positions, the need to understand the behaviour of your subject and the basics of composition. 

We have a wide range of abilities in the club and I am sure most members were able to take something away from his presentation which was illustrated with many of his images.

Daniel was only too willing to answer members questions and I am sure there will be some folks who will be keen to attend one of Daniel's workshops when they resume. For details please check out his web site: https://www.danielbridge.co.uk

23rd February 2021 - Competition: Theme - Nature

We welcomed Sue Wilson DPAGB from Clay Cross Photographic Society to our competition.  Sue had a total of 82 Nature images to view, comment on and finally to award points to in her capacity as judge for the evening. There were over 40 club members keenly watching and enjoying some fabulous nature images.  

Many thanks Sue.

Some of the high scoring images can be seen below:

Members:

AFRICAN VULTURE by Les Thwaites 20/20

AVOCET by Daphne Lingwood 20/20

BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY by Maureen Campbell 19/20

SAFE IN MUMS ARMS by Les Thwaites 18/20

SILVER WASHED FRITILLARY by Maureen Campbell 18/20

Members Advanced:

FEMALE KEELED SKIMMER by Christine Frost 20/20

PIED KINGFISHER LANDING by Roy Scrivener 20/20

TURNSTONE FEEDING ON THE BEACH by Christine Frost 20/20

BEARDED TIT IN FLIGHT by Nick Akers 19/20

BLACK WINGED STILTS by Di Jackson 19/20

IMMATURE GANNET by Nick Akers 19/20

STARLING FEED by Graham Frost 19/20

AFRICAN FISH EAGLE by Roy Scrivener 18/20

CHALKHILL BLUES PAIRED by Dawn Osborn 18/20

FOLLOW ME by Donna Smith 18/20

POPLAR HAWK MOTH by Diana Graham 18/20