Club News 2019 - 2020

YouTube video of competition image selection by Ross McKelvey

I came across this video link and think club members will find it interesting. Ross McKelvey videos
Ross McKelvey, an accomplished photographer and judge, shows some top images and gives his comments on each as he reduces the selection to his top 10. I have added a general link to his YouTube site in our Links page.

Camelot Photographic in Wincanton is a local business providing multiple services for photographers and those wanting photographic prints. Supporters of our camera club, Graham and Trixie Hiscock can provide printing, mounting, including cutting bespoke mounts, framing and many other services too. Need an unusual mount size for our competitions? Then pop in and see Graham. Do let them know you are a member of our club! Their website is Camelot photographic
Graham and Trixie also run a photographic studio in town at Studio H Photography.

Internal Club Competition - the season's results!

Our internal print competition was cut short but we decided our winner on the basis of the three sets of results thus far. Meyrick Griffith-Jones was a deserving winner for the second year running with 118 points. In second place was Brian Stubbs with 114 points and third place went to Paul Dyer with 111.
Thanks to John Tilsley our judge for the last DPI competition we were able to proceed with this remotely. The total scores for the season resulted in a remarkable tie for first place with Meyrick Griffith-Jones, Paul Dyer and Kit Williams all on 148 points for the season. Brian Stubbs was the next highest on 144.
The Chairman's Salver for this year is awarded to Helen Pothecary for the largest public vote for an image at last year's photo exhibition.

Well done to all concerned, including those not mentioned here, for producing an excellent standard of images throughout the year. Regardless of whether one's image scores highly or not there is much to be learnt in entering these competitions and receiving feedback that can improve our photography.

Internal Club Competition - Atmosphere, April 22nd 2020

The current Covid-19 restrictions meant that we could not meet as usual for this competition. Our print competition could not be held therefore. However, for the Digital Projected Image competition members submitted their photos online and these were forwarded to our judge, Mr John Tilsley, who very kindly offered to score these at his home and give us feedback, including a recording of his comments for each image. These are well worth listening to for their insight and helpful suggestions. Our very great thanks to John for doing this for our club.
All the scores are available from our Club Info page or by clicking HERE.

To see the photographs from this and other competitions click onto our Photographs page. You can also listen to the comments from John Tilsley on this page. Congratulations to the three members who achieved maximum scores for their images.

Photography Online

I don't usually put plugs on our home page but I think this one is worth it. If you are a little bored, or lacking inspiration, then check out a relatively new photography YouTube site called Photography Online. New videos are posted monthly but you can also see the issues since January 2020 and May's issue is due out towards the end of April. Two of the photographers behind this production are James McCormick and Marcus McAdam. I have added a link to our normal links page under YouTube Vloggers but will include the link here as well. Photography Online.

VIRTUAL DPI COMPETITION GOING AHEAD

Unfortunately we cannot hold the last of our 4 internal competitions as planned for April 22nd but we are going ahead with our DPI competition virtually. Thanks to the very kind offer of our judge, John Tilsley, members may submit up to 3 images on the theme "Atmosphere" to be assessed and reported on by our judge who will then feed back to us. These image scores will count towards our overall DPI competition NOT our PRINT competition. Please send your images to our Competition Secretary, Paul Dyer, as soon as possible so that he can collate them and pass them on to John for judging. Good luck!

CANCELLATION OF 2019 - 2020 programme

Regrettably the decision has been taken to cancel the remainder of our Club's programme of events for this season in response to Government advice on the Covid-19 virus as of March 17th 2020. Please keep an eye on this website for possible outdoor events and for further news.

WEDNESDAY March 11th - Studio Night

Members met at King Arthur's School Community Education Centre as usual, 7.30pm, and brought their cameras along. This was an opportunity to practise taking studio photos with a floral theme. Members got stuck into their own projects straightaway and then wandered around to exchange ideas and information with fellow members. Always lots to learn doing still life.

Our meeting on WEDNESDAY February 26th - Second Open Competition

This was the third of our internal competitions and the second Open theme. Members submitted upto 3 digital images and / or 3 printed images. Our entries were judged by the very experienced John Tilsley of Dorchester. John was able to give helpful comments on how to improve our photography.
All the scores are available from our Club Info page or by clicking HERE.

To see the photographs from this and other competitions click onto our Photographs page.

Western Counties DPIC success for Wincanton

Wincanton entered the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF) Digitally Projected Image Competition (DPIC) which took place at Exeter Corn Exchange on Sunday February 9th. 1008 images were submitted by 56 clubs from the South West of England. Each club submitted 18 images of which no more than 4 could be from any one photographer. Three independent judges from outside the South West sat and scored each image in front of the assembled audience, a massive task. Each judge awarded a score of between 2 and 5. The scores of each judge were then totalled to give a score between 6 and 15 with the best images gaining the highest scores. Wincanton were very pleased to gain a hugely creditable 28th= position from the 56 competing clubs. Rob Cochran's "The Hunter" and Brian Stubbs' "5 and 9 over the jump" both gained scores of 13 with a number of members gaining scores of 12. This was an excellent result for a small friendly club such as ours.
The full results are available as a PDF file from the WCPF website - DPIC results

Our thanks to the WCPF Committee who put in so much effort to run the event efficiently and in such a friendly manner.

Our meeting on WEDNESDAY February 12th

Members brought along sets of 5 images that told a story. The stories and photographs were very varied and gave useful insight into the differnt approaches of our members. We were also treated to a display of the photographs submitted for the Western Counties DPIC competition in which our club was so successful this year. See above.

Our meeting on WEDNESDAY January 29th

The meeting was for members to present the " hacked " images they had edited based on the initial material supplied by our secretary. More or less anything went as long as the end work was derived, at least in part, from the image(s) provided.

Another Photographic event you may want to see

Charlie Waite is a world renowned photographer and founder of the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition which is just about to open. Sherborne Arts Society are hosting 2 talks by Charlie, looking at over 70 of his images, in the Digby Hall on Wednesday, February 5th. The first talk opens at 2pm for a 3pm start; the second talk opens at 6pm for a 7pm start.
Click on the link to Sherborne Arts - Charlie Waite for more details.
If you haven't seen / heard Charlie speak then he is well worth listening to.

Our Quiz Night on WEDNESDAY January 15th

We met at King Arthur's School, Wincanton, 7.30pm as usual, for our annual quiz devised by the masterful Roger Lush. Our quiz is just for fun and usually covers a range of devious themes or topics. As usual Roger had put a huge amount of work into collating the questions and the various soundtracks to go with them! Most of us struggle to get half marks but congratulations to Rob Cochran who top score and very many thanks to Roger.

Photographic events you may want to see

Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, opening of a Don McCullin exhibition entitled "The Stillness of Life" January 25th 6-8pm. This is free but likely to be busy. The exhibition continues until May 4th 2020. See Hauser & Wirth's site for details.
There is also to be an "In Conversation: Don McCullin and Tim Marlow" hosted at Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, on Friday March 13th at 6.30pm, cost £15. Contact Eventbrite the Eventbrite site to book.

At Bridport Arts Centre, Another Way of Life As seen from a Motorcycle - Photographs by George Wright. George Wright is a freelance photographer whose work has appeared in newspapers and magazines including the Observer, Telegraph and Independent and has taken him all over the world, from Armenia to Zimbabwe and from Djibouti to Irian Jaya. His photographs are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Dorset County Hospital and Dorset County Council. This exhbition runs from January 4th to February 15th. There is also an artist's talk on Thursday January 23rd at 7.30pm in Marlow Theatre where George Wright talks with Horatio Morpurgo. Admission is free.

Visit the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF) Digital Projected Image Competition (DPIC) hosted at the Corn Exchange, Exeter on Sunday February 9th. Doors open at 9.30am for a 10.30am start. Spend the day seeing over a thousand images projected on a very large screen, judged and scored in front of you. This is an inter club competition with individual prizes too. There are usually some trade stands to view in the breaks. The cost is £7 and whilst tickets may be bought on the door it is strongly recommended that you pre-book to avoid disappointment. Visit Exeter Corn Exchange to book seats.

Sherborne and Bradford Abbas camera club are hosting a talk by Gered Mankowitz entitled "Rock and Roll Photography" on Tuesday February 11th at Bradford Abbas Village Hall. Gered Mankowitz is best known for photographing The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Marianne Faithfull plus many others. Tickets are £5 but limited in number. Contact Elizabeth Jubb.

Congratulations to our member Kit Williams

Congratulations to Kit Williams on winning a Springer Spaniel Photo competition with photocrowd.com. The winning image can be seen at Photocrowd.com
Well done Kit!

Internal competition on the theme of Sport - Wednesday December 4th

Our judge for this competition was Brian Tarling to whom we give many thanks for the unenviable job of trying to score such a varied and high quality entry of images. The sports represented in our choice of images were many, each with their own challenges. Four projected images were held back for further consideration and maximum scores of 20 were given to Roger Lush for "Catch it!" and to Kit Williams for "Downside of Downhill". In the print section five images were held back resulting in maximum scores given to Meyrick Griffith-Jones for "Late on the turn", Paul Dyer for "Speedway" and Brian Stubbs for "Left a leg behind".
All the scores are available from our Club Info page or by clicking HERE. To see the photographs from this and other competitions click onto our Photographs page.

DPIC selection preview WEDNESDAY November 20th

The theme of the meeting was the selection of images for the Western Counties' Photographic Federation (WCPF) Digitally Projected Image Competition (DPIC). Click here to visit the WCPF DPIC site.
This is an annual event, held at the Corn Exchange in Exeter, and is an inter-club competition for the whole of the South-West of England. Last year's event sold out and was viewed by a packed audience. Three esteemed judges from outside the South-West sit in judgement as the images are projected on a very large screen. They have just seconds to score the image and the score out of a possible 15 marks is read out. Each judge awards their own score on a scale of 2 - 5 and the scores are then added to provide the mark. Images that are good club standard are about a 3; images worthy of acceptance into a salon / exhibition are awarded a 4 and those in with a shout of winning a major competition are awarded a 5. Where an image scores a total less than 13 but one of the judges awarded a 5 this is also announced. Total scores of 15 are very rare - there may only be one or two in the whole day. At the end of the day the scores for the clubs are totalled to see which club was the most successful.
To give members an idea of how DPIC works and the need for impactful images we split into groups of three and scored the images as per the DPIC process. The groups then had a total score out of 15 for each image. Once we had completed this process we viewed all the images again and read out the scores from each group for the respective images. Every club member attending was involved and learnt just how difficult a process judging is.

Warminster Camera Club Knockout competition TUESDAY November 5th

A good contingent of members attended this very pleasant social competition between Warminster camera club and ourselves in Warminster. Members had been asked to submit images for consideration which had not been seen by their club members previously. These were then put together randomly and shown on two projectors with the audience voting as to which of the two images shown was the best. These successful images then progressed into the next round. As the rounds came and went we eventually ended up with the image voted the best on the night. This was one of Meyrick's images, a shot of Water lilies taken at the Water Gardens in Chickerell. Meyrick also had the second best image on the night as well! This was a lovely social evening and we were made very welcome by our Warminster hosts. Our thanks to all involved in organising the evening including our own Paul Dyer on one of the projectors!

Photograph of members from each club with top images

Bradford Abbas Shield

On Tuesday evening a small number of club members attended the Sherborne - Bradford Abbas club for the annual Bradford Abbas Shield competition. This was contested by South Petherton, Shaftesbury, Sherborne - Bradford Abbas, Yeovil and ourselves. Each club submitted 5 DPI's and 5 prints which were assessed and scored by an independent judge who gave useful and sympathetic feedback on each image. The scores were then totalled to determine the winning club. As the winning club last year, Sherborne - Bradford Abbas had set the topic of People at Work and there were a very varied range of entries but all of a high standard. The result was a very close thing but Sherborne-Bradford Abbas were once again deserved winners with a score of 186. Wincanton were 4th= with South Petherton on a score of 178; Shaftesbury were 3rd with one more point on a score of 179; Yeovil were 2nd with 180. Many thanks to our gracious hosts for hosting the event and the refreshments and also to our Judge, Malcolm, from Dorchester. (Image courtesy of Paul Dyer)

Bird Photographer of the Year

This prestigious international competition has a website where you can check out the 2019 winners' images and enter the 2020 competition which is now open for entries. The site is https://www.birdpoty.co.uk and has been added to our Links page. (27/9/2019).

Wednesday September 25th - Our first Open Competition

Our thanks to our judge, Huw Alban, who stepped in at the last moment when our scheduled judge was unable to attend through ill-health. There was a good turnout of members with a strong input of images, both digitally projected and prints, of high quality. This was reflected in the high scores given by our judge along with detailed and supportive comments with suggestions on how to improve our work. Landscapes, still life, animals, architecture, abstract, portraiture and nature were just some of the themes displayed. Our next internal competition is on the theme of sport so get out there and take some images!
To see all the scores visit our Club Info page and click on on the link for September 2019. To see the photographs from this and other competitions click onto our Photographs page.

Photograph of road with overhanging trees

Library Exhibition

The Wincanton library exhibition was a great success this year with lots of visitors and complimentary comments. There were 219 votes cast by the public and the popular winning photograph, with 15 votes, was Tunnel Vision by Helen Pothecary.

Other high scoring images were Angel Eyes by Amanda White (12 votes), Curlews by Paul Dyer (11 votes), The Hunter by Rob Cochran and Storm Diane - Lyme Regis by Meyrick Griffith-Jones (10 votes each).

Landscape Photographer of the Year LPOTY

This prestigious competition opens for entries on January 15th 2020 so get out there and take your landscape photos if you fancy entering this competition. The closing date is April 5th 2020. The website to check out details is http://www.lpoty.co.uk and launches soon replacing the old site.

Club Photographic Exhibition at Wincanton Library - a popular success

Enjoying more visitors and voters than previous years, our Photo Print exhibition in Wincanton Library is being extended for a further week, by popular demand. If you haven't seen it yet then you now have until Saturday September 21st to call in and view the images on show. You can vote for your favourite image or even purchase that special image.

Our first meeting of the new season was on WEDNESDAY September 11th

We met at the Community Education Centre at King Arthur's School, Wincanton, at 7.30pm as usual and got into the business of sorting images for the Bradford Abbas competition entry. Further details of the season ahead were highlighted along with the success of our current exhibition at Wincanton Library.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday September 25th, usual place and usual time, where members will view images for our first competition of the season. Come and join us. Com

Club Photographic Exhibition at Wincanton Library

Our annual club exhibition of prints, which has been so successful in the past, is being repeated at Wincanton Library. The exhibition will be on view from Saturday August 24th to Saturday September 14th. Do drop in to the library to have a look and vote for your favourite image.

What we did in 2018-2019