Tuesday 26 February - Digital competition 'Scapes'

Judge Andy Swain reviewed and scored 68 'scapes' images.  Club members had been quite inventive in their interpretation of this theme and we saw a good variety of photographic styles and locations from near and far.  Andy gave a concise critique of each image before awarding a score.  At one point he commented on the overall high standard of the images, some of the best he'd seen in the last two years of judging.

Thank you to everyone who entered images and very well done to those who achieved high scores.

Here are the high scoring images:

Images scoring 20 out of 20

AN URBAN LANDSCAPE by Heather Ryder

BLEA TARN by Geoff Lingwood

BODYSCAPE by Chris Kot

BOSCOMBE PIER AT DAWN by Andy Caws

COLD AUTUMN DAWN by Dawn Osborn

LAGANGARBH CLIMBING HUT GLENCOE by Graham Frost

THE DORSET COAST by Tim Leonard

TIMANFAYA by Diana Graham

Images scoring 19 out of 20

A BREAK IN THE STORM by Di Jackson

KICKING HORSE RIVER FALLS by Dawn Osborn

SAND DUNES AND SALT PANS by Tim Leonard

SEA LAVENDER AND BOAT by Christine Alcock

THE SEA BATHING POOL by Nick Akers

WINTER by Francesca Shearcroft

WOOD PILINGS IN THE EAST RIVER by Jan Murphy

Chippenham Park Gardens - Wednesday 13th February

We couldn’t believe our luck as the clouds disappeared, the wind dropped and the sun came out - what a beautiful day.  This club event was about photographing snowdrops but there was so much more to enjoy at Chippenham Park gardens - winter aconites, crocus, amazing displays of hellebores and many fragrant winter flowering shrubs.  Thank you Christine for recommending this destination as a club event - I think some of us will definitely be returning to enjoy the gardens later in the year.

After all going off in various directions to find that special shot we met up at the cafe to enjoy a hot drink and sample some of their splendid hot food and cakes.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their day and thought the gardens and all the facilities were outstanding.

Some of our images can be seen below:

Boxing Hares by Graham Jackson

Standing Out From The Crowd by Andy Caws

Aconites by Diana Graham

Snowdrops by Maureen Campbell

Purple Crocus by Di Jackson

Lazing by the Pool by Sue Baldwin

Yellow Crocus by Francesca Shearcroft

Legs Akimbo by Sue Baldwin

Lone Daffodil in the Snowdrops by Diana Graham

Purple and White Hellebore by Di Jackson

Crocus by Maureen Campbell

Sunlit Snowdrops by Di Jackson

Tuesday 12th February – An Evening with Colin Trow-Poole

Colin Trow-Poole came all the way from Worcester to visit us tonight. A journey of over 150 miles. His talk was definitely in two halves. The first being mainly, but not exclusively, landscapes including architecture abstracts and urban scapes and the second being nearly all portraits. Most of Colin's images were monochrome and being sponsored by Permajet they were all prints.
Colin's talk was not just about showing his images but along the way he included many hints and tips as to the reason he took the image the way he did. Also gave us several editing suggestions as well. Although Colin clearly knew the rules of composition he was  not afraid to break them and explained to us why he did so.
A great evening  and well supported by members.
Many of his images can be seen on his website http://www.colintrowpoole.com

Tuesday 5th February

This evening we had a repeat of the workshops held a couple of weeks ago.
Members had a chance to go along to the same of a different work station.  The committee received many favourable comments about the two evening sessions. 
Hopefully members will practise, practise and practise and ensure they can used the new skills learnt.

Tuesday 22nd – Software workstations

The post-processing/editing of images always seems to pose challenges for both beginner and more advanced photographer alike. With either significant upgrades or new software being released this was an evening where members could get some guidance on different software. There  were six different tables using a variety of different techniques to edit images.
Members had a chance to do one workstation before the break and one after.
Next meeting we will repeat the evening giving members a chance to watch two different workstations or may be the same having practiced over the weeks and come back with questions!!
Workstations included On1, Lightroom both doing basic RAW conversion and the use of local adjustments in LR, multiple exposures with Photoshop, using textures, editing nature images and using Photoshop to replace skies or create reflections.
Thanks to the members who put in the hard graft to prepare the various workstations.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening and learnt something!!

Tuesday 8th January – Competitions/Distinction SIG Presentation

WDPC have three Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Towards the end of November we heard from both the Landscape and Nature SIGs. Tonight we had an excellent presentation from  Di Jackson one of the founder members of the Competition and Distinction Group. Several members have gained both PAGB distinctions and BPE Crowns with many members continuing to enter BPE.  Di's presentation included the successful entries for those who had gained PAGB Distinctions in 2018.
Di was at pains to point out that in addition to those in the SIG group several new members had recently gained RPS, PAGB and BPE distinctions. Their images were not shown as at the time they were not part of the SIG! However, subsequently some folks expressed an interest in joining the group.
After the break we were treated to some images from one of the recent BPE Exhibitions which included entries from several club members.

Tuesday 11th December – Christmas Social

Traditionally WDPC finishes the year with a Christmas Social. This year was no exception and 34 of us gathered together at The Crown, Gt Ellingham. William and Sarah and their staff looked after us extremely well although sadly Di, who had organised the evening, was unwell and unable to attend. However we were all delighted to see that Jack was back to form.
We all took a night off from photography but one person could not resist a few pics for the record!!