Sandy Watson judged our third competition and in breaking with our normal practice, he judged the images without having previously viewed them.  This added an air of anticipation and gave some valuable insight into how the images were assessed.

From the outset he set the scene by declaring that he was more of a mentor than a judge and clearly directed his attention and comments to the picture rather than the mount in which it was presented. In a number of cases he suggested where he felt that monochrome would have illustrated the detail and texture more clearly in the image. He also encouraged the photographer to try something different and be prepared to make your own mark on an existing image through the use of simple props.

The winning print entitled “Mother and child” featured a hi light image of a pen and its cygnet submitted by Jim Bullock. The projected image section was won by Chris Hayward with his silhouetted image of “Fishing at Dusk”

Tonight’s meeting welcomed back to the club Peter Weaver, one of our regular judges who now also presents collections of his images. This talk was entitled ‘My Digital View’ and consisted of a travelogue of images taken in all parts of the British Isles. All genres were covered from Street to Landscape, Portrait to Crowds, Seascapes to Skyscapes. In keeping with the growing movement to curb unnecessary travel, Peter’s images showed that one really does not need a passport to visit some incredibly photogenic sites and events.

In the first meeting of the new year, the floor was opened to the members to show their work and discuss different aspects of photography.  Adam started the process and shared images from the Club’s summer outing to the Black Country Museum followed by several images of Christmas lights in his village. He concluded with the first few images of his 365 photo-a-day challenge and encouraged others to try the experience.

Tony presented some aspects of his photographic journey including his early work with film and 120 format images taken with a  Zeiss Ikon Ikonta camera which was highly regarded in its day.

After the tea break, Steve showed some of his impressive prints and the evening concluded with a couple of short videos on portrait photography and a selection of National Geographic images.