A group visited St Mary’s Church Rodbourne Cheney, which has existed since the 13th Century with Saxon and Norman connections prior to this. It is the only mediaeval church in Swindon. Rodbourne Cheney was once a separate village but was absorbed into the growing town of Swindon following the arrival of the Great Western Railway and following designation as an “overspill” town (taking excess population from London)

The Church has an impressive location and most of the church dates from the Perpendicular era, albeit much restored by the Victorians. The building has been enlarged over the years and a few traces exist of an earlier building. The entrance to the southern porch and also the chancel are 13th century and early English in style.

Our visit included the opportunity to climb the torturous spiral staircase, with more than 40 steps, into the tower and observe the ringing chamber, bells and clock. Taking great care not to disturb the ringing ropes, we were also able to get some further exercise by winding the 8 day clock and climbing a ladder to view the bells.

Many thanks to Rob Slade for organising the visit which proved very enjoyable with lots to photograph both inside and outside the church.

Our first photoshoot during the summer recess was at the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum in Calne, where we enjoyed a private viewing of their car, motorcycle and motoring memorabilia collection.

The majority of their 100+ exhibits were cars from the 1920’s onwards including Rolls Royces, a Daimler and many more models that were familar to us from our teenage years, and early motoring experiences. In addition to the cars there was a collection of motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles along with a very impressive display of hand made model lorries and an extensive model car display. A separate, smaller hall housed some commercial vehicles and a few American cars with their distinctive styling.

A Williams FW10 Formula 1 car was also on display and there was a reconstructed 1930’s style garage complete with vehicles.

The Museum is described as a “hidden gem” and is certainly worth a visit.

The penultimate activity of the season is our Annual Competition for prints and projected images and features three subject areas; Action; Open and Portrait. Eddy Lane from Calne had the judging task to pick the winning entries from a modest quantity of prints and a healthy submission of projected images.

The print winners were:

Action: Blue tits in flight by Dave Garmont

Open; Stanton Park Lake by Dave Garmont (which was also selected as the best overall print)

Portrait: Face time by Alan Pryor

The projected image winners were:

Action: Eyes on the prize by Nigel Walkley

Open: Four spot chaser by Nigel Walkley

Portrait: Brothers and sisters by Robert Slade (which was selected as the best overall projected image)

The awards will be presented at the next meeting on June 18th

With our scheduled presenter unfortunately feeling unwell and unable to give his talk, we had to rapidly improvise our plans for the evening. After some general discussion of club matters, we then explored some YouTube materials on photography basics; how to use histograms and ‘exposing to the right’ in order to obtain as much detail in the shadows as possible, without any of the highlights losing information along the way.

We followed this with materials on portrait photography tips and portrait composition ideas, which provide plenty of food for thought. To conclude the evening, we watched some WCPF audio visuals from previous years submissions.

We will try to reschedule the planned talk at a later date which will be in our 2024/25 programme as the current season is drawing to a close.

A large selection of the audio-visuals submitted to the WCPF annual AV competition were viewed and once again included a diverse range of subjects and special effects, including girl band animations and avatars.

The AVs were classed into three categories i) Short – around 2-3 minutes ii) Long – up to 10 minutes and iii) Photo-harmony which emphasised the transitions between images and the sound accompaniment.

Having viewed many of the contenders in each category, we concluded what proved to be a long but enjoyable evening by watching some of the winning entries and we were generally in agreement with the judges decisions. We will keep any unwatched AVs in the locker for a rainy day or until some available time exists during a members evening.

Our final competition round that contributed to the award of the Mayor’s Cups at the end of the season featured “Open” and “Portrait/Self Portrait” subjects for prints and digital projected images. With several contenders still able to top the points table, the competition was keenly contested and Steve Field from Bristol Photographic Society had the challenging task of selecting the winning entries.

“In an alley” by Dave Garmont won the “Portrait/Self Portrait” print category and a delightful flower print ” Daf, Hellibore and May Blossom” by Jim Bullock won the “Open” category.

Both the projcted image categories were won by Peter Hodgson with a “Moroccan jewellery salesman” portrait and a candid shot “No damn wifi here” winning the Open category.

Trophies to the overall winners will be presented at our Awards Evening on June 18th along with trophies for the forthcomong Annual Competition which features three categories.