Tuesday 9th July – AGM

WDPC is 10 years old.
The AGM was kept to a minimum time as all the various reports and been sent out to all members beforehand. The chairman repeated her thanks to all committee members for their hard work throughout the year, and extended this to all members who had helped with refreshments and those who came along early to help with setting the hall up.
Two committee members, Christine Alcock and Jan Murphy, were not seeking re-election and the chairman presented them with a small token of appreciation for their hard work over the past years. The Programmes had been most enjoyable and the coming year's continued in the same vein. Click here for the new programme.

The following officers and committee members were elected for the coming year:
Chairman; Francesca Shearcroft
Vice Chairman: Robin Orrow
Secretary: Andy Caws
Treasurer: Marnie Ball
Committee Members:    Di Jackson
                                    Christine Frost
                                    Graham Frost
                                    Jack Mitchell
                                    Roy Scrivener

After the official business of the AGM we were treated to two slide shows. The first was all the high scoring images throughout the year, including the images from IOTY. The Awards and trophies were presented at the appropriate places in the slide show. See here for a list of winners. The second was a slide show of the various events held throughout the year. It mainly showed those who had attended but also some images from the various venues. This was then left as a rolling slideshow as we all enjoyed some light refreshments.

The centre piece of the refreshments being the "10" Anniversary cake.

Tuesday 2nd July – "Beautiful Light" Print presentation by Dr Jane Goodall

It is rare that you get a speaker who shows us beautiful images and also gives so much information about how to take them, how to plan, what to think about in terms of composition, and even how to process images.  All delivered with great enthusiasm, including demonstration of gear to keep warm and dry!!
One member whose main preference is wildlife was heard to say "I could be inspired now to take some landscape images", another said "best talk for a long time".
Jane is a great speaker and her talk was inspirational.  To see some of her images please check out her web site here.

WDPC BBQ - Sunday 30th June

Perfect weather for our annual BBQ - 40 of us gathered at Wells Cole where we were treated to a fantastic spread prepared by the team at Wells Cole.

Kathy very kindly supplied our entertainment with boules and a game new to most of us called 'Smite' - it proved to be hilarious.  Played on uneven grass with the 'Smite' stick flying and bouncing around in every direction - it soon had us all in stitches and definitely brought out the competitive side in some members!

Many thanks to Raechal and her team for a wonderful afternoon. 

Tuesday 25th June – IOTY

Tonight was our Image of The Year competition with each member being able to enter one print and one digital image. Only one class. We welcomed Daphne Hanson as judge and, on her own admission, it was not an easy task to select a winner and 2nd and 3rd place in each category.
Congratulations to those who were successful and a big thank you to all members who entered. Lots of great images, even if Daphne was concerned about the author of one image...which had been entered by the chairman!!

The winning images, highly commended and commended are shown below.

Prints:

Ist Crested Grebe feeding young by Caroline Tillett

2nd White Morph Reddish Egret by Dawn Osborn

3rd Golden Eagle with Red Fox by Robin Orrow

Highly Commended Arctic Terns by Liz Akers

Highly Commended Mountain Hare Grooming by Di Jackson

Highly Commended Lloyds Building by Diana Graham

Commended Lonely Tree by Kim Scrivener

Commended Master Farrier at Work by Christine Frost

PDI's

1st A New Look by Christine Frost

2nd Two's Company by Fred Thompson

3rd The Cuillin Hills by Nick Akers

Highly Commended Brown Bear Fishing by Robin Orrow

Highly Commended Fighting for Possession by Di Jackson

Commended Abandoned by Liz Akers

Commended Male Orchid Mantis by Roy Scrivener

Commended Rainy Day in London by Heather Ryder

Commended The Fly by Andy Lowe

Banham Zoo - Thursday 20th June

Nearly half our club members turned out for this, our penultimate club event of the season. The weather looked threatening but at the last moment the clouds cleared and we had a dry, warm evening for our tour.

We were given free access to roam and photograph the animals or, if preferred, join the guided tour with one of the keepers.

After an enjoyable evening of photography we headed for the cafe ready for tea, coffee and cakes.

Some of our images can be seen below:

Meerkat by Marnie Ball

Bar-headed Goose by Liz Akers

White-faced Saki Monkey by Jeff Bowley

Legs by Heather Ryder

Watching by Sue Baldwin

Lookout by Christine Alcock

Little Egret by Graham Frost

Reclining Otter by Roy Scrivener

White-faced Saki Monkey by Andy Caws

Cheetah by Di Jackson

Who Has the Hump? by David Wilkin

Snowy Owl by Christine Frost

Pallas Cat by Vanessa Robertson

Scarlet Ibis by Jim McConnell

Kangaroo with Joey in her Pouch by John Kerr

Tuesday 11th June – A slide show of the club trip to Wells-next-Sea

Every year we have an evening meeting as a trip out, usually in June when the daylight lasts longer and often when the weather is better. However last week was slightly different as is rained, rained and rained some more. None-the-less a very small group of WDPC members met at Wells and having enjoyed a fish and chip supper proceeded to take some pictures around the town.
Some chose to use one specific fixed focus lens as an additional challenge.
The resulting slide show, which we saw last night, included a wide range of genres; from street to macro, from coastal views to urban detail, from colour to monochrome. All going to show that there is no such thing as bad weather just weather.  A few of our images can be seen below.

After the break we enjoyed a presentation by Liz Akers about her recently gained ARPS. Liz talked us through her photographic journey and then how she arrived at her theme and selected the 15  images for her panel.  Liz had displayed her prints for all to see.
Congratulations to Liz on this achievement.

For more details on how to obtain the RPS distinctions please see their website  RPS

NETS by Dennis Brown

HIGH TIDE AT WELLS by Graham Jackson 

LOBSTER POT by Marnie Ball

LOW TIDE by John Kerr

MAC by Christine Alcock

Arcade Amusement by Di Jackson

THE GRANARY by Andy Caws

DUSK by Jack Mitchell

Tuesday 28th May – Print Competition, Nature

We welcomed Paul Radden to be our judge for the final print competition of the season. In addition to being the EAF President Paul is also the Judging Secretary for the EAF and  is well qualified to judge images.
There were 50 images from two classes. 
His comments were constructive and helpful, focusing mainly on getting the right crop, making the best use of light and, perhaps more significantly, involved the audience in the judging process.

The high scoring images are shown below.

Fighting Arctic Terns by Liz Akers 20

Bracket Fungus with Sapling by Pam Rutty 20

Golden Eagle with Red Fox by Robin Orrow 20

Great Blue Heron with Young Marine Iguana by Dawn Osborn 19

Mountain Hare Grooming by Di Jackson 19

Coastal Wren Calling by Caroline Tillett 19