Our third competition of the season was judged by Peter Ottley from the Bleadon Photographic Group at Weston-super-Mare and a record number of entries had been submitted.

Despite struggling with a slow broadband connection which meant that images and their respective critiques could sometimes lose their synchronisation, Peter was able to provide concise and helpful feedback and offer suggestions how the images could have been strengthened. He appreciated the different viewpoints that had been adopted in several images and challenged some of the tight cropping that had been used which, had in his view, overly restricted the space around the image. This was evident in some wildlife images where he felt that showing more of the environment and the habitat of the subject could have benefitted the image.

The overall winning image was a still life entitled “Forgotten” by Jim Bullock.

Stu McKenzie, an ex-Army photographer and senior BBC cameraman, gave us a revealing insight into his personal photographic journey. After several demanding tours of duty in the military and hectic overseas assignments with the BBC, Stu sought solace in photography as a therapeutic tool and means to destress his lifestyle. He travelled to Mongolia and joined some Kazakh eagle hunters as they journeyed into the Altai mountains and experienced first hand their way of life. Their isolation and basic way of life resonated with him and building a rapport enabled him to take many images from an insider perspective.

By chance Stu became aware of the indigenous Nenet people living in northern arctic Russia whose livelihood depended heavily on reindeer herding and fishing. He planned a tortuous journey to join them as they moved their reinder herds in extreme conditions.  Through immersing himself in their culture he was once again able to both experience and record their life style and witness the threats posed to their way of life from climate change and development of the oil and gas industry.  Operating in temperatures which could drop as low as -40C presented many photographic challenges including frozen LCD screens, shortlife batteries and operating the camera controls whilst wearing two or three sets of gloves!!.

Despite these demanding and extreme conditions, Stu managed to record striking and powerful images that reinforced the narrative of his approach to photography and the benefits it had delivered to him. He hopes to revisit the Nenets and join their 1000 km migration when conditions permit.

The Club started the New Year with an evening that allowed members to share their images and engage in general discussions on photographic topics of interest.  But before that a quiz was held with 30 questions on different photographic topics ranging from the straightforward to more obscure facts and figures. No-one achieved a maximum score but the results were tightly grouped and everyone learned something new in the process.

After the quix, Adam showed some images including opportunistic shots of “retired” Boeing 747s at Kemble airfield whilst passing by along with a miscellany of local Christmas images including our photoshoot of the RWB Christmas lights. This was followed by Jim with some multistacked images of plants, Autumn themed shots and stiched panoramas of local landscapes. Dave then shared images of puffins taken on the Farne Islands both in flight and proudly displaying their catch of fish. The evening concluded with some images by Peter taken at the Longleat Light Festival and of a scatty cockerpoo off the leash. Thanks to all those who shared their images and a Happy New Year to all the Club’s members.

Our second competition of the season was judged on Zoom by Laura Pearce from Yeovil Camera Club. Laura’s critiques of the images were straight to the point and she gave an array of suggestions on how improvements could be made to enhance the final result. Her feedback was well received and attendees took away plenty of ideas to explore. Attempts at adopting different approaches, perspective and techniques were encouraged, especially where such actions contributed to and extended the context and narrative portrayed by the image. Her general comment about “bringing out the light” encapsulates the very essence of photography and served as an ongoing reminder and challenge to us all.

The winning projected image was a landscape “Storm clouds over Coniston Hills 2” by Adam Kowalczyk

with “Mutual preening” from Jim Bullock in second place

and “Organ Loft” by Nigel Bailey in third place.

Clive Greenland from Corsham Camera Club gave a Zoom talk entitled  ” What the judges are looking for, ” which is a topic that intrigues us all and invokes a range of opinions and discussions.

After introducing himself and describing his photographic experience, Clive outlined some of the general challenges faced when judging images. Open subject competitions in particular tend to be more difficult to judge than themed competitions where a closer agreement can be reached and less subjectivity exists.  He then described the 10 key elements that he considered to be the systematic basis for assesing an image and forming a rational judgement on its photographic merits. Each element was illustrated with images to reinforce the importance and contribution that it made.

Some questions were raised around consistency in judging approaches and how the judge’s personal preferences could be controlled. The evening concluded with Clive showing a series of  wildlife and aviation images to further reinforce the points made previously. Plenty of food for thought as our next competition submission deadline was imminent.

A dozen or so members joined the call and were able to see a selection of the WCPF Digital Projected Competition images that had been judged in the early part of the year and assembled into a slide show. Nearly 50 clubs across the region had entered and each club had submitted 18 images for judging. Unfortunately a transgression of one of the rules meant that our Club’s score had been reduced and our position affected accordingly.

Following this, a selection of the winning images at the 2020 Southampton International Exhibition of Photography were shown. This event was in its 107^th year and attracted 1200 entries from 45 countries. Firstly the three print sections of mono, colour and nature were viewed. The evening concluded with around 90 projected images in open, nature and landscape categories. There were many stunning images which hopefully have encouraged and provided new subjects and techniques for members to experiment with.

Several members took this opportunity to show and discuss some of their work. Adam got the ball rolling by sharing his collection of “photo-a-day” images which he started at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately some health issues intervened during the summer so he was disappointingly not able to maintain the project. Thereafter Dave G highlighted the usefulness of a couple of Topaz software programmes – deNoise and Mask which he found particularly useful to speedily edit his bird images without the need to spend long periods at the computer.

After a break Tony gave a presentation on his lockdown walks around the Wootton Bassett countryside area and the images he had been able to capture in the process. This was followed by  some images from a recent visit to Salisbury cathedral by Peter. Jim rounded off the evening with three sets of images featuring some humorous cutlery shots, carefully captured images of an agility dog traversing a see-saw and a creative composition, courtesy of Photoshop. All contributers were thanked and it proved to be a full and informative evening.

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.