This year each monthly projected and print competitions will have two sections – Open and a Set Subject/specialism so that members may choose to allocate their four image  allowance in any way they wish.  We had a bumper start to our competition year last night with Nature and Open projected images judged expertly by Peter Young from Cymbran club in Wales.    We asked Peter to award first, second and third places plus highly commended or commended as he thought fit. His studied and measured critiques were both informative and helpful as we went through each competition.

Nature:  Congratulations to Dave Martin for his winning image ‘Bee Orchids’ which Peter said had a pictorial quality and technical excellence. Second was John Draper’s ‘New Arrival’ and his ‘King Penguin Resting’, third.  Highly commended were ‘Male Four Spotted Chaser’ by Peter Elton and ‘There Once Was…’ by Peter Keeble.  ‘Male Ruff Displaying’ by Judith Gimber and ‘Polperro Gull’ by Mark Buckley-Sharp were commended.

Bee Orchids by Dave Martin

Open: (anything other than ‘nature’!) Congratulations again to Dave Martin for his first placed  monochrome ‘Pavilion Bexhill on Sea’ – Peter commented it has great tone, form and texture.  John Draper was second with ‘Sculpture on the Lake and Judith Gimber was third with ‘Amadi’.  Highly commended were ‘Going Under’ by Peter Elton, Alan Colegrave’s ‘ Nina 121’ and ‘Street Seller Guatemala’.  Commended were Dave’s ‘Bonnet Fungi’, Alan Graham’s ‘Hollyhocks Gallore’ and Sue Wright’s ‘Iceberg’.

Pavilion Bexhill on Sea by Dave Martin

Well done and thanks to everyone who contributed to the evening and special thanks to Peter for his encouraging and helpful commentaries.

All the images may be seen on our Facebook page.

Next week we are back at the Guide Hall for a Monochrome Workshop led by Avril Candler – who thinks it really should be Dave!

Have as good a week as possible, stay safe and well.