A splendid talk “Confessions of a landscape photographer” by Paul Mitchell. Useful tips for the landscapers amongst us, and some beautiful images to inspire.

Colin’s main take was that he needs a new alarm clock!

For the second week of the year we had a session in the city taking photos on themes drawn at random from a range drawn up by Chris Bennett.

Despite the poor weather, most people spent plenty of time searching for the matching image, and then gathered at the Cathedral entrance before adjourning to the pub for a chat.

First meeting of the year and Colin gave a good review of the results of the member’s survey and a preview of the programme for the coming months. Then we had a quick practice review of some images.

Welcome to our new members.

This years Jimmy Watts award subject was Silhouette, and was won by Chris Drury with “Winter Sunrise”.

The Print Challenge was “Alternate views” won by Chris Williams with “Paper fun”.

Congratulations to both winners.

Congratulations to Helen Cullens for victory in the Colour Prints league, and to Ian Duffield for leading the way home in the Monochrome section.

Somewhat belated congratulations to Chris Bennett as the deserved winner of the Projected images league for 2017, with a string of fine entries.

This years winner ofthe Albert Beale trophy for “Coloured refelections” was Geoff Clinton with his study of Cologne Cathedral. Also commended were Juliet Morton for “River Teifi”, Colin McInnes for “Cafe Reflections” and Michael Shaw for “In a globe”.

The Carter award (for a triptych) in 2017 went to Steve Ballard for “Lighting department”. Commended in this category were “Sundowner” by Gareeh Richards, “Transition” by Colin McInees, “Matlock Bath Illuminations” by Chris Bennett, and “Birds in our garden” also by Chris Bennett.

Both competitions were judged by Mark Buckley-Sharp, who gave some helpful hints for the future, especially up on getting colour balance across all 3 elements of your triptych.

Congratulations to Colin MInnes for his winning entry of “Derwent boats”, and to Chris Bennett for 2nd and 3rd places – both of which scored 20.

Bit late but I have added the scores for Round 3 for both Colour and Mono.

In the colour section, Geoff Clinton managed 1st and 2nd places with “Wistman’s Wood Dartmoor” and “Pen y garreg Dam in the mist” respectively, with Laura Barfoot taking 3rd place with “Your Majesty!”

Meanwhile in mono, Ian Duffield did the 2st and 2nd double with “Lynx cubs on a fallen tree” and “Path to the pikes”. Chris Williams took third with “Angelic Music”.

As yet I don’t have images to upload.

A question I’m sure we have all pondered from time to time!

Julia Cleaver came along last week and gave her talk on teh above subject, although I think was missig the sub-title of “… and how to do acheive it”, as she provided us with lots of inspiration and guidance on making those winning images.

Some highlights that I noted down were :

“POOTA” – a useful acronym for the 5 key qualies a judge will look for :

Powerful Composition
Overall and Immediate Effect
Originality
Technical Merit
Artistic Merit.

Along with the 7 P’s and the other checklist Julia shared, I will try to put together a better page on the website rather than bury them in a post.