Cambridge Inter-Club Digital Competition - Saturday 20th January

Wayland were one of 28 clubs in this competition which is run over five rounds and each round has a set theme Monochrome, People, Landscape, Nature and Open.  This year the judge was Barbie Lindsay and after a brief critique she scored each image.  After a tense last round, we were thrilled to hear we finished in second place two points behind the winners PICO.

Many congratulations to the club members whose images represented Wayland.  You can see our entry below.

A CONNECTION by Christine Frost

THE ARTIST by Roy Scrivener

LENTICULAR CLOUDS OVER MOUNT RUNDLE by Dawn Osborn

LEOPARD WATCHING FROM A GRASSY MOUND by Dawn Osborn

THUNDERING OVER THE BRIDGE by Di Jackson

Tuesday 9th January 2024 - Kevin Pigney 'A Passion for Wildlife'

Our first meeting of the year got us off to an excellent start.  Local wildlife photographer, Kevin Pigney, didn't just show us his award winning photographs but also described in detail how he captured them.  Hearing the background to the shots made us realise how much planning and preparation goes into creating the perfect shot.

One of the distinctive features of Kevin's wildlife images is the subtle diffused background.  Very often this is achieved by shooting from low level and we could see what a difference camera height makes from the examples Kevin showed.  

Kevin shared many practical tips and I'm sure club members, whatever their level of experience, went away with some ideas to try.  

You can check out Kevin's website https://kjpphotography.myportfolio.com/ or get in touch via this Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010849904090.

Little Owl at Burwell Fen © Kevin Pigney

Kestrel Landing © Kevin Pigney

Boxing Hares © Kevin Pigney

WDPC Christmas Dinner - 12th December 2023 at The Crown, Great Ellingham

What a fantastic evening - lovely food, great company and excellent service all made for one of our best Christmas dinners ever.

Nearly 40 determined club members and partners ignored the road closure signs and made it to The Crown to enjoy our last get together of 2023.

 

Wednesday 6 December 2023 3-way competition at North Norfolk PS

A group of us attended North Norfolk Photographic Society in Bodham for a three way Inter Club Battle between WDPC, Kings Lynn and North Norfolk. This consisted of two halves, the first being 10 prints per club and then 10 digital images per club after a coffee break.

The Judge was Roy Essery who gave a detailed critique of each image before scoring out of 20.  After the print round, Wayland were ahead by just 5 points.  During the digital round, North Norfolk were eating into our lead and needed to score 20 with their last image to draw level.  They got 19 and we scraped home by 1 point!

Many thanks to the eleven travelling supporters and to the members whose images represented Wayland.

Our best scoring images in the print round were:

A STRANGER ARRIVES IN TOWN by Graham Frost (20)

COMPROMISED MOUNTAIN HARE by Di Jackson (20)

LEOPARD WATCHING FROM A GRASSY MOUND by Dawn Osborn (20)

FARNE FROM BAMBURGH BEACH by Roy Scrivener (19)

LENTICULAR CLOUDS OVER MOUNT RUNDLE by Dawn Osborn (19)

STORMING THROUGH by Graham Frost (18)

Our best scoring images in the digital round were:

LITTLE OWL by Sandie Jardine (20)

HITTING THE ROUGH WATER by Di Jackson (19)

FEMALE STONECHAT ON FOXGLOVE by Christine Frost (18)

MARBLED WHITE ON KNAPWEED by Carol Martin (18)

STORM STACEY, BRITISH SUPERBIKES by Graham Frost (18)

Tuesday 28th November - Print Competition - Round 1

Some photographers say you haven't finished until you produce a print.  Luckily a good number of our members agree and we had a good show of prints on display last night.  Perhaps a few of our less experienced members need a little more help and encouragement to venture into the world of print as there were only 4 entries in the Members class.  

We welcomed back Naomi Saul to judge this competition.  Starting with the Members class Naomi talked through the strengths and weaknesses of each print.  Previewing the prints when they were on display on stands at the back of the hall is one thing but Naomi commented on the prints coming to life when viewed on the illuminated print stand.  Across the Intermediate and Advanced classes, 15 prints were held back before Naomi settled on the ones worthy of full marks.  

Here are the high scoring prints:

In Advanced:

SAFELY ROUND THE BEND by Di Jackson (20)

GENTOO PENGUIN LEAPS FROM THE OCEAN by Dawn Osborn (20)

RED DEER STAG AT THE RUT by Graham Frost (20)

ABANDONED by Carol Martin (19)

LITTLE OWL ON POST by Sandie Jardine (19)

BEARDED REEDLING FEEDING ON SEEDS by Christine Frost (19)

THIS MAY NOT END WELL by Graham Frost (19)

BABOON AT DUSK by Andy Caws (18)

A SPRING BOUQUET by Carol Martin (18)

GREAT WHITE PELICANS IN BREEDING PLUMAGE by Di Jackson (18)

In Intermediate:

BODLEIAN LIBRARY, OXFORD by Pam Rutty (20)

THE FISH SHOP by Sue Baldwin (20)

IMPRESSIONS OF THE FORUM by Sue Baldwin (19)

JAPANESE ANEMONE by Graham Jackson (19)

DRAGONFLY by Geoff Lingwood (18)

In Members:

TAKING A BREAK by Ann Barber (20)

COLLECTING POLLEN by Ann Barber (18)

Tuesday 14th November - More help with editing

Every day's a school day!  

Members attending this meeting picked up more tips on editing their images.  Some had brought in images that were proving tricky and were able to get advice from our local experts.  

Other members visited the various workstations where they could see demonstrations on editing a flower image and using Point colour in Lightroom (Jan); producing a Photobook and editing wildlife images using ON1 (Robin); the Depth Blur filter in Photoshop and preparing images for WDPC competitions (Jack); using Lab color in Photoshop (Stephen); and editing in Affinity (Francesca).

Now we need to keep practising at home so that our newly acquired knowledge sticks.

Many thanks to the club members who brought in their laptops and computers and generously shared their knowledge with others.

Tuesday 7th November – "Mindful Photography – slowing down for success" Simon Turnbull

 We welcomed Simon Turnbull, via Zoom, whose presentation was in two distinct halves. Part 1 was an introduction to Mindful Photography and Part 2 tips and tricks on how to achieve it.

Simon stressed the need to slow down, take the tripod footprint shot and then look, look and look again for the details. Taking pictures for yourself and not for the judge or social media was inevitably more rewarding.

In honey pot locations Simon suggested asking the question..What can I take here that is a bit different? He suggested eliminating all distractions and concentrating on the scenes around you. Simon also suggested a few Apps for smart phones to help with our photography.

Simon's talk was peppered with many of his photos, some of which can be seen on his website: https://www.simonturnbullphotography.com

Simon was well qualified to talk on the subject has he has won many national awards, the latest being the winner of the Landscape of the year in 2022.

An interesting evening and Simon gave us much to think about hopefully to increase our enjoyment of our photography.