Our first Open competition of the new season was conducted on Zoom Meetings and judged by Ian Hosker from the Sidmouth Photographic Club.

Ian primarily looked for both technical execution and impact of the images and the balance and interaction between the two. He gave a detailed critique of each image which was accompanied by some suggestions on what effect and contribution might have been achieved by adopting a different viewpoint, framing and cropping to further enhance the image. He had a sharp eye for detail and his comments were positive and insightful, giving authors plenty of ideas to ponder and try out.

Congratulations to Jim Bullock for his inventive and well executed winning entry entitled “Shadow hatching”

Shadow hatching

Despite rather sparse attendance, a number of inventive and imaginative self portraits  were shared by the attendees on the Zoom call.

Several techniques had been used to create images including the use of props, costumes and a range of processing methods. These ranged from basic image enhancement through to more extensive image manipulation using PhotoShop.

The exercise provided a good opportunity to dust down the tripod, find the remote cable release, reacquaint with our selfie sticks and explore different lighting conditions both indoors and outdoors.

After viewing the images, Jim Bullock showed some animal portraits that he had recently taken at a local wildlife park and the evening finished with a couple of examples of a series of images that had a connecting theme. This could be a good exercise for later on in the season when members have had sufficient time to obtain 6 – 8 images with a common narrative.

We joined with Warrington Camera Club to hear Rod Sloane present his unique and engaging ideas and images of cycle racing for which he has an enduring passion. Although Rod only became fully engaged with his cycling photographic activities a couple of years ago, he had progressed a long way in a short space of time. He outlined various approaches to pursue and emphasised the importance of accreditation to gain inside access to events for enhanced image taking opportunites.

Categorising himself as an enthusiastic photographer, wherever possible Rod tries to tell a story through his images, capturing not only the action but the emotion of the occasion and the spirt of human endeavour.  He is a very active participant and advocate of Instagram as an important way to share images, engage with a wider audience and selling some images.

He started his talk by outlining that his objectives were to educate; inspire and entertain and he ticked all the boxes

Professor Paul Welham-Clarke shared details of a number of photographic projects that he had embarked upon throughout his career of over 30 years. He combines teaching photography as well as being a practicing professional photographer and had been active in many different areas ranging from Industrial, Commercial, Portrait and Photo-documentaries. His most recent work had focused on major documentary projects with  strong social and environmental themes and current UK issues and are often produced in partnership with a charity.

His work has been widely publicised through various exhibitions and he has received numerous awards. Paul has a strong desire to communicate with the public on subjects that he feels passionate about including homelessness, deaths on our highways and most recently the impact of genetic conditions upon sibling relationships.

His imaginative and thought provoking images were a pleasure to experience.

We continued our adoption of Zoom Meetings to view a medley of highly impressive monochrome and colour images that had been submitted from across the globe. The genres covered included Nature, Open and Travel and the task of identifying award winners must have been a tremendous challenge to the judging committees.

Many images prompted exchanges of views on the composition and processing techniques which had been utilised to achieve the end result. The levels of creativity and interpretation of subject matter will no doubt have stimulated many areas to explore.