Our first competition round of the new season comprised two competitions with “Open” subject and a themed competition ” Telling a story”. Julie Kaye from Hanham Camera Club kindly agreed to judge the print and projected image entries and the membership contributed a very healthy input of entries.

The print entries were viewed firstly and it soon became clear that the theme of Telling a story proved to be very challenging to fully comply with but some creative attempts were evident. The winning print was “Two Seasons”, a diptych from Jim Bullock and Jim also won the Open print section with “Orchid Flowers”

After a short break we then viewed the 55 projected images and the judge patiently provided a critique of each image before selecting “Red Kite eyeballing” by Dave Garmont as the Open winner and “Amateur Dramatics” by Rob Slade as the themed competition winner. Our next meeting is a Macrophotography practical evening.

Red Kite eyeballing

Amatuer Dramatics

We started the evening with an Extraordinary General Meeting to elect a new Club President as the position had been vacant since the passing of the previous President in April. Roger Smith was duly elected as Club President.

After a long absence due to the pandemic, we were able to resume our viewing of the Travelling Prints Exhibition which featured a selection of 71 prints entered into the Members Exhibition held earlier this year. The selection comprised 20 Nature prints, 26 Open Colour prints and 25 Open Monochrome prints.

As expected the prints were of the highest quality, covering a wide range of subjects and genres. Previously we had viewed each print as a group but this year we did things differently by setting up tables with a small group of members at each and letting them view each category in turn and selecting their first and second place entries. Not surprisingly the outcomes were generally different between the groups and also with the official judging results although the same monochrome image of a gymnast was selected by club members.

It was an enjoyable evening that attracted good participation and gave members the opportunity to critique other photographer’s work as opposed to being on the receiving end. The seemingly fashionable trend of using cream/ivory coloured mounts was evident, as was the distinct preference for non-glossy photographic papers.  Hopefully those who participated will be inspired and motivated in developing their own print images and printing techniques.

Our first meeting of the new season set out to reacquaint members after the long summer recess and provide feedback on various topics. The annual Prints Exhibition in the local library has been well received and was visited by the Deputy Mayor who expressed a keen interest in the images on display. Notifications on upcoming events such as the process to re-elect a new President, the Photography Show at the NEC and external competitions were provided. Now that print competitions are being resumed, there was discussion around the easiest way to provide the judge with a digital image of the prints to enable them to start the judging process without having to physically deliver the prints.

After the interval, we looked at the activities and services that the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) can provide and their e-news magazine and recorded lecture series are of particular interest. We concluded the evening by viewing the PAGB Inter-Federation competition entries from last year which, not surprisingly, featured a host of inspiring images, especially in the Nature category.

The weather gods smiled upon us as the overcast sky cleared and a magnificent evening greeted us as we embarked upon one of our more vigorous and demanding photowalks in Alton Barnes. An intrepid group met at the roadside car park before scaling Knap Hill and taking in the magnificent views it afforded over the rolling Wiltshire countryside, bathed in golden sunlight. With hopefully some pleasing images captured, we returned to the car park and tackled Walkers Hill and Adams Grave, the most dramatically located Neolithic long barrow in Wiltshire and the site of battles in 592 and 715.

The area surrounding Walker’s Hill is pitted with barrows and ditches of many sizes and shapes and a grazing area for a herd of cows searching for green vegetation in the sun scorched fields.  We never made it on foot to the Alton Barnes white horse as our previous exertions had created a thirst that we urgently needed to satisfy by a visit to The Barge Inn, by the Kennet & Avon canal in Honey Street and the perfect way to conclude our evenings photowalk.