Club News 2024 - 2025

Jump to bottom of page for links to what we did last year and in previous years

Themed competition - A Splash of Red

We had a strong entry for this competition, particularly the DPI section, with some good entries from our new members. Our judge for the evening was Tony Oliver, of Salisbury camera club, on his first visit to Wincanton. Varying amounts of red were seen in our images with some members taking the theme quite literally. A more detailed report can be read on our Photographs page.
The following image is by Alan Brain and scored 20 points in the DPI section

To see the scores from all competitions, including this one, click on our Club info page
To see the DPI's from this competition click here.
To see the Prints from this competition click here
Remember, by clicking on the small images you can view a larger version with the image title, including score and author.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Wincanton Camera Club in December 6th 2024 issue of The New Blackmore Vale Magazine

Once again we have an article printed in The New Blackmore Vale free magazine, printed and on-line versions, which came out on December 6th. We are on page 26. The online version can be found here. The article summarises our achievements this season so far, including our winning the Lanes Trophy.

Congratulations to club member, Paul Dyer, on having one of his bird photos featured in the online only version, November BV Magazine page 90.

Photographing Horses and Dogs - the journey to a Licentiateship with The Society of Photographers

On Wednesday November 27th Brian Stubbs presented some of his horse and dog photographs to our club and guests. Brian started with the thought processes behind his image capture, featuring some of his horse photography, and then went on to show a "warts and all" view of his work and progression to achieving a Licentiate qualification with the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP), including mentored critique and the final assessment comments from 5 judges.
The evening was well attended, despite some of our members being unwell, with guests from Shaftesbury, Sherborne & Bradford Abbas, and Wincanton.

For those who may be interested here are some links to The Societies and The Society of Photographers Qualifications

Our next meeting, Wednesday December 11th, is our competition on the theme "Splash of Red". This will be our last meeting before Christmas.

Wincanton night time photography

On Wednesday November 13th our club met, as usual in the Memorial Hall, before venturing onto the streets of Wincanton to indulge in some night time photography. Exploring long exposures we looked to capture some light trails and have a bit of fun along the way. On our return to the hall we were able to enjoy a sausage roll and soup - thank you Rosy. We were also able to view our latest trophy, the Lanes Trophy.
Image of Wincanton high street at night

Our next meeting is all about photographing horses and dogs, Wednesday November 27th for a prompt start at 7.30pm. Guests welcome.

Wincanton Win The Lanes Trophy at WCPF event

Saturday November 9th saw a significant number of the club committee sat in a hall at Monkton Heathfield with their fingers crossed for the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF) Kingswood Salver and Lanes Trophy events. For the Kingswood Salver clubs have to enter 5 prints from 5 different photographers to make up a cohesive panel of images. This year, in honour of Pam and Eddy Lane, there was also the Lanes Trophy for smaller clubs where each club only needed to submit 3 images by 3 different photographers. Four Wincanton members - Amanda Checkley, David Foster, Andrew Washington and Brian Stubbs, had planned to make an entry based on a studio photography session they all attended. Three images were finally selected and printed to form our panel. This would not have been possible without the contribution of all four photographers.
The event was judged by Gareth Martin AWPF CPAGB from Port Talbot in Wales. Gareth also presented a wonderful talk about his own work in the afternoon.
To our great delight, Wincanton won the Lanes Trophy for the best entry by a small club in the West of England federation. From all the images in both competitions, Kingswood Salver and Lanes' Trophy, Brian was awarded a Highly Commended for his photo " Bella Boudoir ", on the right of the panel.
The Kingswood Salver (5 images) was won by Bristol Camera Club. Our grateful thanks to the WCPF committee for organising this event and to Pam and Eddy Lane for the trophy awarded in their name. Triptych of 3 images featuring the model Natasha J Bella

Triptych of 3 images featuring the model Natasha J Bella

Photograph of Adie Ray, our Chairman, receiving the Lanes Trophy from the judge, Gareth Martin

Photograph courtesy of Peter Fry, WCPF

The WCPF Club Championships are coming up in February of next year and entry opens in December this year. Watch out for Competition Secretary, Andrew Washington, calling for possible entries soon. We have won the small clubs award for the last two years but we are totally dependent upon our members submitting enough images for the selection committee to pick a strong entry.

Presentation by Charles Gervais - Wednesday October 30th

This evening we were treated to an excellent presentation by professional photographer, Charles Gervais, who lives in our town. Charles generously gave us his time and demonstrated much of the very technical gear he uses to capture his wonderful timelapse sequences. Answering questions as he went along, Charles illustrated his talk with very impressive imagery and was able to explain to us how he got the shots.
Timelapses by Charles including a stunning Aurora Borealis sequence taken on Windmill Hill, Wincanton. Click on the Videos tab.

Although a longstanding professional photographer, Charles still describes himself as an amateur in that he is still in love with photography (amo, amare = to love) and takes on personal projects as well as his professional work.
You can see more of Charles' work on his website - click on the link below.
Charles' website

Thank you Charles for an excellent evening which seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

Our next evening is Night Photography so do come prepared with cameras and outdoor gear!

Two Club Members' work featured in Digital Blackmore Vale Magazine

Congratulations to Meyrick Griffith-Jones and Paul Dyer on each having an image featured in the The BV Readers' Photography Charity Calendar 2025. The quality of photographic submissions to the BV Magazine is of a very high order so to have 2 out of the 12 images from our club members is a credit to the individuals and our club!

Sherborne Bradford Abbas Shield

Meyrick's print of Autumn on Bonsley Common

On Tuesday, October 22nd, a good sized contingent of Wincanton members travelled to Bradford Abbas for the annual Sherborne Bradford Abbas Shield competition. This is a competition where each of 5 competing camera clubs submit 5 digital images for projection and 5 prints each to be marked by an external judge. The club with the most points overall wins the shield. Competing clubs were Shaftesbury, our hosts Sherborne Bradford Abbas (SBA), Yeovil, South Petherton and ourselves. Last year's winners, Shaftesbury, had set the theme of Trees for this year's competition. Once again the standard of entry was superb, particularly the prints.
The first section judged was the DPI's. Scoring was tight but SBA had a good lead with 92 points. Wincanton were equal third with 84 points. Then came the prints. Again the scoring was so tight but we did well with two of Meyrick's images scoring the maximum 20. SBA, however, matched us and maintained their lead with Shaftesbury just holding on to 2nd place and Wincanton were 3rd although we consoled ourselves with the thought that our prints were equal first!
Final results: SBA 1st with 186/200, Shaftesbury 2nd with 181, Wincanton 3rd with 178, South Petherton 4th with 165 and Yeovil 5th with 163. Our thanks to our hosts, Sherborne Bradford Abbas camera club, for their organisation and hospitality and to the judge, Rose Atkinson. We look forward to finding out the theme for next season's event and participating once again.

Click here to view the Wincanton entries in this competition and click on any small image to view a larger version.

Our next meeting, Wednesday October 30th, features local professional photographer Charles Gervais.

Club Critique Evening - Wednesday October 16th

On an absolutely foul evening this was a very well attended meeting. Members brought their images in on laptops, memory sticks or as prints. There was some very good work. Kit's spaniels and David's street photography spring to mind along with Pam Watt's black and white cathedral shot on a phone! Forgive me if I have missed your masterpiece but I didn't get to see everything. Adie carefully set up the parameters for viewing the images and, as usual, people were doing their own thing within 15 minutes, but the most important aspect was the busy hum of conversations going on and helpful, constructive chat. A measure of the success of the evening was that people got their coffees / teas and just carried on talking!
We welcomed two new members, Adrian Cooke and Schirstan Bampton. We hope you enjoy our club.

On Tuesday next week, October 22nd at 7.30pm, we compete in the Sherborne Bradford Abbas shield once again. This is held in Bradford Abbas Church Hall, DT9 6RF. Parking can be tight so don't leave it to the last minute to get there, particularly if you are bringing along our prints! We have done very well in this competition over the last few years and won it 2 years ago. Our fellow competitors are Shaftesbury, Yeovil, South Petherton and, of course, Sherborne-Bradford Abbas Clubs. This is always a good evening out so do come along if you can.

Wincanton Camera Club member's work featured in October issue of The Blackmore Vale Magazine

Congratulations to Brian Stubbs on having his work as an equestrian photographer featured in the latest issue of the The BV Magazine. Brian was interviewed at his home by the BV team who then wrote an article which, along with some of Brian's photos, then featured in the October online issue. Brian even managed to get a plug in for our club. Do check out the magazine and the article - it runs to 6 pages and is worth a read.

Charlie Waite presentation to Wincanton Camera Club and guests

What an evening! Charlie Waite delivered a wonderfully entertaining talk on landscape photography to a packed audience at Wincanton Memorial Hall on Wednesday, October 2nd. There were over a hundred people in the audience, not all of them photographers, who thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Thank you Charlie. Our thanks also to Toby Erlinger of Fotospeed for stepping in at short notice and ensuring Fotospeed had a presence at the evening with their stand of papers, inks and products for sale on the evening.
As a result of the ticket sales and raffle Wincanton Camera Club are pleased to be able to present the Disabled Photographers' Society with a substantial cheque. They were represented on the evening by Tom Molloy, President of the society, who had travelled from Coventry to be with us. Charlie is a long time supporter of this charity.
Our thanks also go to all club members who got stuck in and helped make this evening happen.

Our next meeting is on October 16th at 7.30pm in our usual side room at the Memorial Hall. The theme is a Critique Evening.

Photo of Memorial Hall filling with guests

Photos courtesy of Andrew Washington.

First internal competition of the season - Open - Wednesday September 18th 2024

We hosted our first internal club competition on Wednesday September 18th at Wincanton Memorial Hall 7.30pm. Even if you did not enter any photographs, these nights are some of our most well-attended evenings as there is so much to learn from seeing the images and listening to the judge's comments. We welcomed Steve Field from Bristol, a new judge to our club, who went through our images, prints and DPIs, with good humour and insightful comments.
We started with the print section where Meyrick top scored with a 20 for "Winter Walk at Burton Bradstock" , a lovely moody image of cliffs, sea and sand.

In the DPI section Brian gained top marks with a 20 for "Black and white Springer", closely followed by Lachlan with 19 for "Shoe Shine" .

In both sections it was good to see a very varied range of subjects including some cracking abstract work and street photography, as well as Portraiture, Landscape and Still Life.
Well done to all who entered and our thanks to Steve Field for an entertaining evening.

To see the scores from all competitions, including this one, click on our Club info page
To see the DPI'sfrom this competition click here.
To see the Prints from this competition click here
Remember, by clicking on the small images you can view a larger version with the image title, including score and author.

Lee Miller

I have been fortunate to twice hear Antony Penrose speak about the life of his incredible mother, Lee Miller. Antony has curated his mother's work and maintains the Lee Miller Archive and Penrose collection at Farley Farm House.
The Victoria and Albert Museum have released a video with Lee's Grandaugter relating some of the story of Lee's life.
The most rebellious female photographer - Lee Miller published by the V&A presented by Lee's grandaughter.

This coincides with the release of a feature film, starring Kate Winslett, which is being released on September 27th. I would recommend all photographers find out about Lee Miller and her role in the history of photography.
Lee - Starring Kate Winslett - Biographical film about Lee Miller, to be released in British cinemas on September 27th 2024.

New Season started on Wednesday September 4th

Everyone is welcome to join us for the new season, just get in touch or come along to a meeting and introduce yourself. We have an exciting programme of events lined up. At our first meeting of the season we welcomed a number of potential new members to the club and, despite a glitch getting started, we enjoyed looking at members' photographs they had taken recently or during holidays. We also discussed plans for the first competition of the season on Wednesday September 18th with a submission deadline of September 11th. We are also getting a touch excited about our guest speaker on October 2nd.

Club outing to Savernake Forest

On Saturday, August 31st, a group of members travelled to the Savernake Forest, just South of Marlborough in Wiltshire. This is an ancient forest with lots of very old trees making very good photographic subjects. Our thanks once again to Meyrick for organising this trip. Attached photo is courtesy of Pam Watts. Photo of club members at Savernake forest

Photo of club members at Savernake forest

Olympic Photos - some special ones

With the Olympic Games currently underway in Paris there are a huge number of photos being taken and made available to the World almost instantaneously. The Athletics hasn't even started and yet Getty Images have close on a quarter of a million images available. This is matched by the other agencies such as Shutterstock, Alamy and so on. There have been, however, some very special images and these are featured in an article by Time Magazine. Click on the link below to see some amazing sporting images.
Time Magazine and some incredible sporting images

Wincanton Camera Club annual print exhibition

Our annual exhibition of prints at Wincanton Library opens on Wednesday August 7th. Prints will be exhibited on newly made stands (thank you Andrew) and will continue to be on show until Saturday, September 14th. This is a free to view exhibition and members of the public are encouraged to vote for their favourite image. Why not pop in to the library and have a look. If you like what you see and would like to get involved with the camera club then do look at our Contact page and get in touch.

Wincanton Camera Club in the New Blackmore Vale Magazine

Wincanton Camera Club features on page 4 of the latest issue of the New Blackmore Vale Magazine (NBVM) printed edition and also in their online version of the magazine.
Wincanton camera club on page 4 of 101st issue of the NBVM
A lovely write up and good plug for our forthcoming presentation by Landscape photographer Charlie Waite. This talk is open to the public who can purchase tickets via our online booking system. More details are shown further down this page.

Welcome to Wincanton Camera Club's website.

We are finalising our programme for the 2024-2025 season which promises to be a very exciting year for us. We have an extended exhibition of members' work being held in Wincanton Library from August 7th and our first club meeting is in Wincanton Memorial Hall side room on Wednesday September 4th at 7.30pm. Do have a look at our Programme. We are particularly thrilled to welcome renowned landscape photographer, Charlie Waite, to speak to us in the main hall on October 2nd. This event is open to the general public and tickets are already selling. See the article below for more information.

A very special speaker for our new season - Charlie Waite

Wincanton Camera Club are delighted to announce that Charlie Waite will be coming to Wincanton Memorial Hall to speak to us on October 2nd 2024. This will be a very special event and as such we are opening admission up to the general public. Fotospeed will be in attendance to market their products as Charlie is one of their ambassadors. There will also be representatives from the Disabled Photographers charity in attendance as they will be sharing in the funds raised by this event. Charlie is a long time supporter of this charity.

Click here for much more information about the event and for a link to purchase advance tickets. We fully expect this event to sell out so do not delay booking your tickets.

Photography session with professional model, Natasha J Bella

On Saturday, June 29th, four of us from Wincanton Camera Club travelled to Rod Warren's RawPics studio, near Ilminster, to meet with professional model Natasha J Bella for 4 hours worth of studio photography. Natasha is a professional freelance model and photographer, based near Leeds, who was able to guide us through a model shoot. All lighting and universal triggers were provided by Natasha within Rod's very versatile studio. The session was limited to 6 photographers so that each had plenty of opportunity to take photographs and have time with Natasha, who was able to advise as we went along. All were agreed that this was an excellent outing and that we must repeat the experience in the future. Our thanks to Natasha and to Rod who was on hand to assist if needed.

Photograph of group at RawPics Studio
Photo courtesy of Rod Warren.

Club outings / activities during the holiday break

Do keep an eye on the website and your emails for activities taking place during the holiday break. Some of us have already been to Nunney International Horse Trials and a number of us are attending a photography studio portraiture workshop with a professional model and photographer on Saturday June 29th. There will be other activities for you to join in with if you wish.

Wincanton Camera Club on Facebook

Our club now has a private group on Facebook for members only.
Click on this link to see the page and request to join. You will need to have a Facebook account which is free.

What we did in 2023-2024

What we did in 2022-2023

What we did in 2021-2022

What we did in 2020-2021

What we did in 2019-2020

What we did in 2018-2019