27th September: Ron Wake Print Trophy Inter-Club Competition, judged by Kevin Day

Last night we hosted the Ron Wake Trophy, our inter-club Print competition, which was judged by Kevin Day.  Many thanks to Ealing and Hampshire House, Field End, Pinner and Watford clubs for entering this year and to Kevin for his excellent judging.

Congratulations to Alison Jenkins, Watford CC, who won the Trophy with  ‘Icelandic Arctic Fox’;  Ray Staff, Field End PS, was second with ‘Big Old Boy’ and  third place went to John Dobson, Pinner CC, for ‘From Day to Night’.

In addition to the placed prints, Kevin also awarded seven highly commended and three commended accolades declaring he had been given a very hard task judging a competition of such high standard.

We thank him for his thoughtful commentaries and all the clubs who supported the competition and entered their work.  Congratulations to Watford for retaining the Ron Wake Trophy and we look forward to the re-match in 2023.

Next week we have Monochrome and Open projected competitions which will be judged over Zoom by Chris Sargeant.

Have a good week.

 

 

20th September: Monochrome Workshop – led by Avril Candler

In the first part of the evening, Avril’s informal ‘formal’ presentation set the scene by covering key areas and included a selection of  ‘successful’ monochrome images for open discussion, keeping appropriateness, complexity vs simplicity and technical challenges in mind.

The majority of the evening was spent critiquing members’ own work – using the above criteria.  We reviewed and discussed the iterations the images went through;  straight-from-camera,  processed colour (or mono) and the final monochrome version for each set of images.  This method proved helpful, inspiring and informative for the photographers and all.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this relaxed and enjoyable evening.  Special thanks to Avril for her well-structured,  interactive workshop – executed to plan and time!

Next week we are hosting our Ron Wake Inter-Club Print Trophy competition and welcome visitors and members of the competing clubs to the event.  The judge for this event is Kevin Day from Stoke Poges.

In the meantime have an enjoyable week.

13th September: Projected Nature and Open Competitions, judged by Peter Young LRPS CPAGB AFIAP Hon.PAGB

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.