Tuesday 4th July - Zoom meeting Mike Martin 'Shooting People'

For our last meeting of the season we were joined by Mike Martin who took us through his journey into creative portrait photography.  He described how he started and then showed a series of portraits charting his progression through different styles of portrait photography.

Mike dares to be different and experiments with techniques not usually associated with portrait photography such as using a fish eye lens or an infrared camera.  When entering these images in exhibitions they have often proved to be 'Marmite' shots with some judges giving them the lowest score possible while other judges award them medals.

There is a clear message from Mike's approach - make images that YOU enjoy because you can't please everybody.  

Tuesday 27th June 2023 - Image of the Year competition

In the last competition of the year, we welcomed Naomi Saul to judge the print and digital Image of the Year. First up were 21 digital images ranging from creative images through to classic nature and landscape shots. Naomi held back 9 on her shortlist before settling on Roy Scrivener’s ‘The Artist’ as the winner.

After the break, we turned to the prints. There were 16 entries and 7 were held back and in with a chance of scooping the title. The winner was Di Jackson’s ‘Compromised Mountain Hare’. 

Congratulations to our winners and runners up. You can see their images below.

Digital Image of the Year 'The Artist' by Roy Scrivener

THE ARTIST by Roy Scrivener

Print Image of the Year 'Compromised Mountain Hare' by Di Jackson

COMPROMISED MOUNTAIN HARE by Di Jackson

Runners up in the Digital section:

2nd place  LITTLE OWL by Sandie Jardine

3rd place  DREAMY COSMOS by Jan Murphy

Highly Commended  FLAT AROUND CORUM by Christine Frost

Highly Commended  CATCH OF THE DAY by Robin Orrow

Highly Commended  LOOKING INTO EMPTINESS by Stephen Gregory

Highly Commended  BOAT GRAVEYARD by Francesca Shearcroft

Commended  HARE WASHING by Caroline Tillett

Commended  MONGOOSE by Diana Graham

Runners up in the Print section:

2nd  CAMBODIAN MONK by Carol Martin

3rd  ACCELERATING INTO THE STRAIGHT by Andy Caws

Highly Commended  LOWER MANHATTAN SKYLINE REFLECTING IN HUDSON by Jan Murphy

Highly Commended  LONE HARBOUR SEAL by Jack Mitchell

Commended  MALE STONECHAT ON BRAMBLE by Christine Frost

Commended  FARNE FROM BAMBURGH by Roy Scrivener

Tuesday 13th June - Focus On Composites

In earlier meetings this season we have seen demonstrations from club members and watched Zoom speakers create composite images.  Tonight was a chance to see how people applied the various techniques to create their own images.  We saw a wide variety of results which demonstrated both skill and imagination.

There were 30 entries and the members at the meeting voted for the top 5.  The clear favourite was Sue Baldwin's 'Bootiful'.  Sue described the components of her images and how they were combined as did the authors of the other images in the top 5.  Scroll down to see the images that received the most votes.

In the second part of the meeting, Jack Mitchell did a step-by-step demonstration using Photoshop and Lightroom to create a contact sheet of six images.  This is something that will be needed by entrants of our annual summer challenge.  Jack also covered adding a pinline or stroke to finish an image and saving the image as a correctly sized jpeg - I know our competition secretary will be pleased if more of us master resizing!

1st BOOTIFUL by Sue Baldwin

2nd AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN by Graham Jackson

3rd CANT SEE ME by Stephen Gregory

4th THE FACE IN THE CITY by Jan Murphy

5th PRETTY IN BLUE by Francesca Shearcroft

6th= A HOST OF GARDEN BIRDS by Jack Mitchell

6th= POPPY PATCH by Andy Caws

6th= THE BLACK SWAN by Roy Scrivener

9th WAIT FOR ME by Graham Jackson

10th= CARNATION by Diana Graham

10th= PLAYING IN THE MUD by Francesca Shearcroft

Tuesday 6th June - Bob Johnson 'The Kingdom of the Ice Bear'

Bob was originally scheduled to visit us next season but kindly stepped in when our original speaker pulled out.  We will still see him next season with a different presentation.

This evening Bob took us on a journey around 'The Kingdom of the Ice Bear'.  We experienced the images, sounds and smells of a four-week trip Bob made in Svalbard aboard the Havsel, a converted seal hunting ship.  While the main subject was polar bears, we also saw photos of seals, arctic foxes, walrus and skuas.  The trip started and ended in Longyearbyen and Bob's images showed us what life was like living in the most northerly town on the planet.

Next time we see Bob, he will transport us to the Serengeti.

Tuesday 30th May - Round 3 Print competition - Street Photography

For the final round of our print competition, we saw 36 examples of street photography from many different locations.  The prints were judged by Tony Bramley FRPS and street photography is one of his workshop subjects so we were in good hands.  Before scoring any of the prints Tony described two of his pet hates: back views of people and shots of people using phones - oh dear, we're in for a tricky evening!

We started with the members class and Tony gave many tips on what makes a good street photograph in his opinion.  It's a challenging genre and it was interesting to listen to Tony as he analysed each of the prints. There were some stand out images and the high scoring ones are shown below.

In Members class:

THE BUTTERWALK DARTMOUTH by Ann Barber 18/20

In Intermediate class:

BOYS WILL BE BOYS by Andrew Stringer 20/20

IMMOBILE by Andrew Stringer 20/20

ALONE WITH A PHONE by Pam Rutty 19/20

IN THE ARCADE by Pam Rutty 18/20

In Advanced class:

TIME TO STOP by Graham Frost 20/20

LIFE by Jan Murphy 20/20

THE LIKELY LADS by Stephen Gregory 20/20

RUSH HOUR VIETNAMESE STYLE by Jan Murphy 20/20

ILLUSION IN GOLD by Christine Frost 20/20

SORRY by Carol Martin 19/20

CONTEMPLATION by Sue Baldwin 18/20

Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve (SWT) & Oulton Broads Powerboat Racing - Thursday 25th May 2023

Well, it was certainly a day of two halves. First, Carlton Marshes, a reserve new to the club where we were hoping to find a variety of dragonflies and damselflies but it was too windy and cold for much activity and the majority of the birds were at a distance beyond most of our lenses.  However, it was a fantastic day to be out in the sunshine enjoying the peace and quiet with some friends.

Moving on to the evening session at Oulton Broad and it was all action!  Powerboats galore creating incredible speeds and noise which made for an exciting photo shoot.  We were lucky enough to arrive in time to grab front row spectator positions so we were able to make the most of the fantastic action.

Some of our images from the day can be seen below:

Carlton Marshes Images:

DAMSELFLY by Marnie Ball

ALDER FLY by Andy Caws

WATER VOLE by Maureen Campbell

CHINESE WATER DEER by Jack Mitchell

BROAD BODIED CHASER by Gina Childs

AFTER THE SUN HAS GONE by Tim Leonard

CHINESE WATER DEER by Maureen Campbell

A FRIENDLY FACE by Gina Childs

SWAN OVER THE REEDS by Jack Mitchell

HAIRY HAWKER by Di Jackson

GO AWAY! by Tim Leonard

and Oulton Broad images:

IN THE LEAD by Marnie Ball

A MOTLEY CREW by Andy Caws

A CLEAR WINNER by Jan Murphy

FLYING ALONG by Francesca Shearcroft

TAKING THE BOTTOM TURN by Andrew Stringer

PERFECT FORMATION by Di Jackson

HE'S TAKEN THE LEAD by Jan Murphy

BANKSY AT NICHOLAS EVERITT PARK by Francesca Shearcroft

YELLOW No.8 by Andrew Stringer