THURSDAY 12th MARCH 2020
COMPETITION NIGHT
We were very pleased to welcome Bob Ryan FRSA ARPS along to our meeting on Thursday. Bob has visited the club many times before as a judge and a speaker and on this occasion he was there to judge our March competition. With a full evening ahead of him, twenty four print entries and sixty digital image entries, Bob made an immediate start to the judging. He commented that the standard of the entries in all sections of the competition was very high thereby making his job extremely difficult. As he went along Bob gave helpful and technical comments to each image so assisting and leading the author of the image to both in camera and post processing hints and tips.
PRINT SECTION
1st – Gloria Pritchard – Black and White Iris
2nd – Steve Varman LRPS – One Track Mind (ICM)
3rd – Steve Varman LRPS– Golden Forest (ICM)
DIVISION ONE
1st – Steve Varman LRPS – Where tea leaf fields and broccoli grow
2nd – Marjory Wright – Hiding the Cracks
3rd – Jenny Fryer LRPS – The Bible
DIVISION TWO
1st – Peter Whitfield – Hidden Secrets
2nd – Malcolm Wootton – Xmas Humbug
3rd – Peter Whitfield – The Long Wait
THURSDAY 5th MARCH 2020
MEMBERS EVENING
Members’ evenings have proved to be very popular and the one held on Thursday definitely came up to the mark. Steve Varman took on the task of organising the programme and it was unquestionably an evening packed with information and entertainment from the nine members who volunteered to share their knowledge and images with the rest of the club members.
One of our new members, Steve White, opened the evening with a collection of Astro Photography Images. He split his photographs into three sections – The Moon, The Stars and The International Space Station and commented how he found it easier to photograph the stars, as the moon and the space station move so much faster. Apart from the incredible landscapes under the starry and moonlit skies, he managed to included himself in a couple of the photographs.
When Don Grundell took to the floor, he said he would show images he had taken over the past few months. He entitled his presentation ‘Thornbury and beyond’ and began with images he had taken on a club outing to Bathampton over the Christmas period. Other images included colourful houses in Westbury-on-Trym, Sharpness Docks and the two Severn Crossings at night, Tintern Abbey and frosty views of The Wye Valley.
In August 2019 several members of the club took a holiday together in Scotland and Gloria Pritchard made this the topic of her presentation. Her images showed the type of weather the holidaymakers had whilst away – mostly rain, but as time went on the weather did get slightly better and Gloria managed to capture a good number of images from each day, including a boat trip on Loch Ness, deer on Rannoch Moor and club members enjoying their time away.
Bill Beere had recently won the annual print landscape competition and for his spot in the evening’s programmes he explained how he had achieved that winning image. Starting off with a colour image of a grasses bed at Purton he talked and walked through every step of the procedure he had taken within the software package on his computer to end up with a very dramatic monochrome image which won him the Landscape Print Trophy.
Jenny Fryer LRPS followed on the same theme as Bill, but as she explained how she had achieved many of her winning photographs it became apparent that the changes she made involved cutting and pasting parts from several images together to give her final work of art. What seemed to be random bits in one photograph made the centrepiece in another and with the use of filters, the bringing together of all these components was seamless.
George Ryske kicked off the second half of the evening with a selection of images from two places he had visited whilst on holiday in France last summer. The river views and narrow streets of Dinan from a vantage point at the top of the clock tower featured in the first half of his choice of images whilst Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, with its narrow, crowded streets and Abbey concluded his presentation.
David Brookes happened to holiday in France last year, as well, but his collection of images were of Parish Churches and their churchyard crosses. The churches David visited were all in Finistère and took him and his wife on a tour to Notre Dame de Tronoën, Pleyben, Saint Thégonnec, Guimiliau and Lampaul-Guimiliau. The intricate carvings on and around each of the crosses depicted a characterful, minature community.
For something completely different, Peter Whitfield explained how he really enjoyed ‘playing’ with the photographs that come out of his camera. The software he uses enables him to ‘stack’ several pictures together to produce impressionistic images similar to those produced by Catalan artist Pep Ventosa. Another process that Peter uses is to rotate his camera to take a series of pictures of the same object and then merge them into a kaleidoscopic effect.
Having just returned from Tenerife, Brian Wetton wanted to share with everyone the dust storm that he and his wife, Christine, had encountered towards the end of their holiday. He showed pictures before, during and after the storm and the serious damage that the wind and dust had made to trees and property on the island. Brian explained it was something he had never witnessed before and hoped that he never would again.
Steve Varman brought the meeting to a close by thanking all those who had given a presentation.
THURSDAY 27th FEBRUARY 2020
RICHARD KELSEY
Back in the 1980’s, Richard was a member of Tyndale Photography Club, so it was good to welcome him back as a speaker. His photographic talk was entitled ‘The River Severn from the Air’ but he started the evening off by showing images that he had entered into competition when he used to be a member and attend the weekly meetings.
With the ‘memory lane trip’ done, he then explained how he tackled this huge photographic project with his pilot friend, Dave Lamb. The 220 mile trip from the source, at Plynlimon, to the sea at the Bristol Channel took a lot of planning by both Rich and Dave. Flight paths had to be plotted and the hiring of a plane had to be organised before a single image could be taken. With that said, the whole distance of the river took many trips and, from inception to completion, the whole project took between three and four years to execute. The majority of the images were taken from the air, but then Rich drove to certain areas to get shots from the riverbank. On finishing the photography project, Rich then had to sift through hundreds of images to put his slide-show together. He was very appreciative of friends in Tewkesbury who, in the past, had been flooded out, gave him images of what it is like to have your property suddenly invaded by water.
Throughout the evening, Rich was able to show us how the same area of the river looked so different from one season to another and how devastating the river can be when it floods, not only the fields but also the towns in its journey to the sea.
After views of Shrewsbury and Ironbridge from the air, Rich then included images from Blists Hill Victorian Town. It was fascinating to see the river splitting Bridgnorth into two, High Town and Lower Town and Rich also pointed out where the line of the Severn Valley Railway followed the course of the river for much of its route from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster. Passing through Bewdley with its Georgian style waterfront, Worcester with its Cathedral and Tewesbury with its Abbey, we finally arrived at Gloucester and the area very close to where we all live. Rich was able to capture quite a few images of surfers riding the The Severn Bore and, from his archive, of people crossing the frozen river from Arlingham to Newnham. The remains of the two tankers, Arkendale and Wastdale sitting on the riverbed, clearly stood out as we were taken past Purton and Sharpness docks. Berkeley and Oldbury power stations sitting on the edge of the river and the setting sun over the two Severn Bridges concluded the evening’s entertainment.
Rich’s knowledge of the river and its surrounding towns made for a fascinating evening and was much appreciated by the members present.
THURSDAY 20th FEBRUARY 2020
The 7th Cheltenham International Salon of Photography (2019)
Martin Fry FRPS EFIAP/g AV-EFIAP ABPE APAGB is the chairman of Cheltenham Camera Club and has visited us many times and on this visit he came to show his audio visual presentation of The 7th Cheltenham International Salon of Photography (2019).
A Salon of Photography is an exhibition, created by a photographic society or camera club, with a set number of sections. International associations support and give patronage to these international salons and also supply a range of awards to recognise photographic merit. Images are judged to the standards set by whoever a club has received patronage from and photographers from around the world are able to submit images into any of the more than 500 worldwide salons held each year.
In 2019, just over 600 photographers, from 45 countries, entered 7100 images into the Cheltenham Salon, giving the panel of judges quite a challenge. 1928 of the entered images were accepted and of those 60 were awarded medals.
A selection of the accepted entries in each of the five sections were displayed in turn, with the images given awards shown at the end of their respective section.
Those present, witnessed an amazing variety of stunning photographs.
The evening began with the TRAVEL section and this was clearly a celebration of photography from all around the world, displaying a wide variety of landscapes and portraying all aspects of so many different cultures. The CREATIVE section definitely showed a ‘different’ type of photography where the imagination and post processing could ‘run wild’. The majority of the images were ‘marmite’ images – you either did or didn’t like them, but without exception every image was arresting. The MONOCHROME section was a fascinating group of photographs and they definitely ‘packed a punch’ in the contrast of black and white and seemed to portray a great deal of emotion. The NATURE section as you would expect, covered images from rock structures to fungi, insects to animals, birds to butterflies and even a few underwater shots. The final section was COLOUR and in this section it seemed that ‘anything goes’ as long as it is in colour. The variety of subjects in each of the sections was extremely varied and I am sure has given the members of the club new ideas for their own photography.
Two of our members had images accepted into the salon and luckily all were chosen to be shown in the audio visual presentation. Jenny Fryer LRPS had ‘Moody Seascape’ accepted into creative section whilst George Ryske had ‘Take a Seat’ accepted into the monochrome section and ‘Waiting to Leave’ accepted into the travel section. A round of applause was given when all three images ‘hit the screen’. Well Done Jenny and George!
The excellent audio visual was well presented and appreciated by everyone present and we are all looking forward to next year when Martin will return to the club with the 2020 Salon winners.
THURSDAY 13th FEBRUARY 2020
COMPETITION NIGHT – FOLIO FIVE
Michael Krier MA(photography) ARPS AFIAP is a highly qualified photographer, speaker and judge and we were extremely happy to welcome him back, after a two year gap, to adjudicate our annual ‘Folio Five’ competition. As the title suggests each member entering the competition submits five images on the same theme and Michael did a great job in selecting the winning folios from the twenty seven panels entered. He began by telling us he viewed and scored each individual image and then looked to see if the images fitted the title of the theme and also if they hung well together. Michael was inspirational, enthusiastic and positive about all the entries and he provided plenty of encouragement for each of the photographers taking part in the competition. The variety of subjects chosen to photograph made for a most enjoyable evening and everyone benefited from Michael’s friendly, constructive advice.
He awarded points as he went along giving 2 panels 19 points – 2 panels 18 points and 7 panels 17 points, he did, however, keep the final placings until the end of the evening.
From the panels awarded 19 points Jenny Fryer LRPS was awarded first place with her panel ‘ Chasing Ghosts’ whilst Mike Smith took second place with his panel ‘Birds of Prey’. Bill Beere pipped Peter Whitfield to the post for third place with his ‘Sailing Club’ images.
THURSDAY 6th FEBRUARY 2020
DON BISHOP ARPS
When Don Bishop ARPS visited us he took the members present on a journey the full length and breadth of the UK with his talk ‘Light & Mood – UK landscape Photography’.
He began the evening by introducing himself and telling us about his photographic journey. He has been a keen photographer for over 25 years; at first he concentrated on taking photographs of his other passion in life – steam trains – but he soon discovered that they looked much better out in the countryside – hence his landscape photography evolved as well. He became a full-time professional photographer in the mid 2000’s and was then able to spend more time on capturing his landscape images. When not out with his camera and not in his studio in Somerset, he attends country shows, railway shows and craft fairs selling his prints.
The digital slide presentation began at the far tip of Scotland in The Outer Hebrides with the white sands and blue sea of Sheileboist Beach with the snow capped Harris Mountains in the distance. Many more dramatic images of Scotland followed – Luskentyre Beach in winter, glowing sunsets over The Isle of Skye and the isolation of Black Rock Cottage at Rannoch Moor. Don explained his use of filters which enable him to achieve such stunning landscape images. Combining both his passions, he concluded his the tour of Scotland with an image of The Jacobite train crossing the Glenfinnan viaduct on its route from Fort William to Mallaig.
Travelling down through England we were treated to dreamy images of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland and Derwent Water in The Lake District set in a very impressive sunset. On the Eastern side of the country, The Settle – Carlisle Railway featured highly as did the ‘cow houses’ in Swaledale.
During his time in Wales, Don was able to capture the splendour of Snowdon, the peace and tranquillity of The Brecon to Monmouth Canal and several wonderful images from the Severn Valley Railway.
As the evening continued, we journeyed through the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Gloucestershire and Somerset to name but a few, before ending up in Cornwall with unbelievable images of the tin mines along the South West Coastal Path.
With over three hundred photographs projected, Don ended his show as he had begun it, with white sands and blues seas, but this time not in Scotland but in The Scilly Isles.
In Don’s images, you can see that planning, patience and persistence definitely pays off.
THURSDAY 30th JANUARY 2020
PHIL SAVOIE
On the evening that Phil Savoie came along to Tyndale Photography Club, the two and a half hour meeting just flew by. His talk was entitled ‘Up Your Photography’ and Phil, who is originally from New York but now resides in Monmouthshire, not only shared his images with us, he also passed on plenty of hints and tips so that we could all ‘up’ our photography.
He began the evening by giving us an insight into his qualifications and achievements; he is a biologist, photographer and film maker and has degrees in all three subjects. He joined the BBC Natural History Unit in the early 1990’s working on programmes like Planet Earth, Life of Mammals and The Natural World. His still photography has been published throughout the world and even on the covers of Sir David Attenborough’s DVDs. But even after over forty years experience he says he still considers himself to be an advanced beginner as there is always something new to learn and he is forever experimenting new ways of taking photographs.
His philosophy is ‘if you like your photograph – it’s a good photograph’ – photography is a personal pursuit. He suggested to the members present that each image we shoot should tell a story and in doing that photography has nothing to do with cameras and equipment, it’s all to do with the photographer.
He stated that it’s always good to break the rules every now and then, you can often achieve a great image in doing so – he accompanied this statement with an image he took in his twenties which was bold and strong and is still one of his favourites.
I am sure I wasn’t the only to be amazed by the list of accessories he carries with him on a shoot, they ranged from knee pads to clothes pegs and as he read out the list he justified why each item deserved its place in the bag.
With each image that we were shown, whether it be sheep from The Royal Welsh Show, motorbike riders at a rally or his local farmers, Phil explained about the equipment he used and the processes he had gone through to take his subject in that particular way.
The majority of the photographs shown were natural history and landscape, some were dating back to his twenties, some taken as recently as last month but all were ones that he loved and was very proud of.
It was obvious that Phil is passionate about photography, his ‘lecture’ was fascinating, his images were outstanding and the knowledge he willingly and generously passed on was unbelievable. He finished off the evening by setting us all a challenge hoping that if we took it up we would challenge our own creativity.
Phil is an extremely enthusiastic and entertaining speaker and I for one hope that it won’t be too long before he can visit us again.
THURSDAY 23rd JANUARY 2020
COMPETITION NIGHT
Angela Rendell AFIAP came along to North Nibley Village Hall on a cold, damp January evening to judge our first competition of 2020. Angela, who was accompanied by her daughter, certainly had her work cut out judging twenty four print entries and seventy digital images. The prints entered were to a set subject – Landscapes in the British Isles – and the digital images were of an open subject. Angela commented quite a few times throughout the evening about the quality of the images and complimented the club for its high standard of photography. Her constructive comments and interesting tips were of great benefit to all present. She told the club members that she enjoys judging and never, unless an emergency occurs, does cold judging. She likes to spend time before ‘competition night’ taking a ‘good look’ at each entry so that she feels absolutely confident that she has given each image a fair mark.
PRINT SECTION
1st – Bill Beere – Phragmites Bed at Purton
2nd – George Ryske – Bridge over Canal
3rd – Brian Wetton – The Ozleworth Valley
DIVISION ONE
1st – Jenny Fryer LRPS – The tree at Lake Wanaka NZ
2nd – Mike Smith – Little Owl
3rd – Brian Wetton – Swirling Flamenco
DIVISION TWO
1st – Andrew Daniels – Flight Path through Flowers
2nd – Steve Stone – Sign of The Times
3rd – David Brookes ARPS – Maize
THURSDAY 16th JANUARY 2020
JOHN CHAMBERLIN FRPS APAGB MFIAP FBPE
Those who attended last night’s meeting were taken on a journey around the world when John gave his talk ‘Near and Far’.
He has travelled extensively since the 1990’s and feels privileged that he had the desire and opportunity to do so. He loves meeting people and exploring new places and, whilst doing this, has taken hundreds of photographs along the way.
The first stop on this whistle-stop journey was in the mountains of Western Japan where he showed images of snow monkeys bathing in hot pools surrounded by snow. He kept the snow theme going by then showing the unbelievable number of king penguins inhabiting South Georgia alongside the wonderful ice formations he saw from the small boat that took him there.
New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Oregon were the next destinations on the ‘world trip’. John explained how he managed to obtain such cracking photographs of the sandhill cranes, snow geese and waders in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge of New Mexico. In complete contrast to this, the spectacular scenery of Arizona and Utah displayed wonderful colours and shapes in the natural rock formations in these two states. John stated how beautiful the west coast of the state of Oregon is and he backed this up with delightful beach-scape photographs. Moving north to Wyoming, John’s images showed what a magical area Yellowstone is in Winter; the elk, bison, big horn sheep, coyote and bald eagle all seemed quite happy with the bitter cold conditions.
In Cuba, John took portraits of the tobacco farmers and street cleaners and of the old American cars filling the streets of Havana.
In the Etosha National Park in Namibia, John rose at an unearthly hour to capture images of the wildlife living in the park, these included elephants, antelope, zebra and giraffes. The amazing shapes made by the sand dunes took on assorted colours depending on the time of day and luckily John was able to show these colours by going out at different times of the day.
Much closer to home, the simple durum wheat fields in Tuscany photographed just before dawn on a misty morning displayed the patterns made by the green and brown colours of autumn beautifully. The very simple images of the rows of vines showed the light and shade that could be obtained by photographing at the right time of day.
Alongside all these wonderful images we also saw photographs of a wide variety birds from as far away as Florida and Hungary to birds in John’s Bristol garden.
THURSDAY 9th JANUARY 2020
MIKE MARTIN AWPF
Mike joined us for our first meeting of 2020 and the talk he gave was entitled ‘Shooting People and Other Things‘.
The entertainment began before the meeting started as he exhibited many prints of ‘other things’ on a display board for everyone to take a close look at. After being introduced he began his talk by saying he would take us through his photographic journey in portrait photography. His first dozen or so images were prints from film and slide images he had taken ‘way back when’, including competition non-winners, competition winners and images he had used darkroom techniques on. Whilst showing these prints he explained the processes and ‘ingredients’ he used to achieve his final result, these processes are now long gone as digital images are processed using software on a computer.
Mike told how, many years ago, he was lucky enough to go on photographic shoots with another photographer who organised the model, venue and make-up artist – all he had to do was drive. This gave him the experience to set up not only his own outdoor shoots in places like Westonbirt Arboretum but also studio shoots for the camera club he belongs to. He said it is good to go on a shoot with other photographers as you can bounce ideas off each other and surprisingly the images taken are always very different. He also said how when on a shoot it is amazing how many passers by will stand and watch.
Alongside photo-shoots Mike has met up with several Facebook photographic groups and has been on several portrait workshops with professional photographers, from these experiences he showed quite a few panels of work.
The second half of the evening was taken up with projected images of many of the prints that had been shown in the first half, however there was a twist – he showed the original image alongside the final image explaining exactly how the result had been achieved. It was amazing how much a picture can be changed by cropping, blurring, desaturating and merging. His final advice was don’t discard any photographs, you never know when all or part of it may come in handy for an idea you have for your next artwork creation.
THURSDAY 19th DECEMBER 2019
THE CHRISTMAS SOCIAL
The Christmas social is a tradition that is looked forward to by many of the club members. It is an evening where everyone can fully appreciate the difficult job that judges have when presented with quality competition entries. After setting out chairs, decorating tables, arranging food for the buffet, preparing drinks and handing out the table quiz, we all sat down to enjoy and judge the photographs entered in the Christmas Knockout Competition. Images were shown in pairs and everyone voted for the one they favoured. This continued until the last two photographs remained and the final vote was taken. Diana Baker did very well to have two of her three images in the last four but she sadly had them both voted out in the penultimate round. David Bishop took first place with his photograph ‘Natures Threads’ and Brian Wetton took second place with his photograph ‘Underneath the Arches’.
With the buffet open everyone began eating, drinking and chatting and the music in the background provided a real Christmassy feel. The tombola proved to be a success and quite a few members left with a bag full of goodies.
A big thank you to everyone who supplied food, drink and tombola gifts, to those who helped with the setting up and clearing up of the hall, buffet room and kitchen and to Gloria for running the tombola, setting the quiz and providing the cakes for the competition winners.
An even bigger thank you must go to all the members who entered into the spirit of Christmas by taking part in the knockout. I am sure that I wasn’t the only one to feel that the standard of the images displayed was extremely high and that I found it very difficult to choose between any two images put up against each other.
That’s all from me for this year so all that’s left to say is that I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
THURSDAY 12th December 2019
COMPETITION NIGHT
Peter Weaver LRPS CPAGB APAGB has been visiting Tyndale Photography Club for many years and his latest visit was to judge our December competition. He began the evening by saying we should all remember that any general comments made about the photographs we entered were only in his opinion but that we should listen carefully to any technical comments he made as they could help in the future.
The twenty four printed images were all on a set subject – ‘The Force of Nature’ – and several of the images were extremely dramatic and dynamic showing what nature can do to our surroundings. The sixty five photographs entered into the two divisions of the projected images competition were of an open subject and varied across a very wide field of subjects.
Peter’s comments were encouraging and thoughtful, he awarded points to each entry as he went along keeping the top placings aside before announcing which had taken first place.
DIVISION ONE
1st – David Bishop – Lets see what this does
2nd – Don Grundell – Walberswick Huts
3rd – Steve Daniell – Cloud Support
DIVISION TWO
1st – Barry Wilson – It sticks out half a mile
2nd – Andrew Daniels – Hover Fly
3rd – Barbara Gibbons – Feed me Mum
PRINT SECTION
1st – Jenny Fryer LRPS – A Day in the Life of a Tree Fern
2nd – Brian Wetton – Breakwater Erosion
3rd – Gloria Pritchard – Under the Rainbow
THURSDAY 5th DECEMBER 2019
MEMBERS EVENING
Members evenings have proved to be very popular and the one held last week definitely came up to the mark. Steve Varman took on the task of organising the programme and it was unquestionably an evening packed with entertainment from the eight members who volunteered to share their images with the rest of the club.
One of our new members, Alun Rees, opened the evening with a varied selection of images split into six sections – music, landscapes, portraits, birds, architecture and abstract. His portraits of a group of ladies re-enacting tudor queens captured the joy of the day whilst his abstract images demonstrated how even the insides of a tractor engine can produce a really good photograph.
Steve Stone, another new member, then took us on a landscape journey around Great Britain, Portugal, France, Lanzarote and Vietnam. Quite a few of his photographs were taken locally and featured night time reflections in Gloucester Docks, deer at Dyrham Park, a view of the River Severn looking South from Lydney, tall ships sailing up the canal and cattle grazing on Minchinhampton Common.
Diana Baker is a frequent volunteer to show her work at members evenings and never fails to please her audience. Her latest presentation was her first attempt at an audio visual and once again she delighted club members with a seasonal view of the landscape, birds and flowers seen within a small radius of Wotton-under-Edge. She captured in her images the beauty of the area in which we all live.
Don Grundell concentrated his theme for the evening in just one place, St Ives in Cornwall. He had recently bought a set of filters for his camera and wanted to practice with them whilst on holiday. He took his camera and tripod down to the beach and mastered the effects they gave him in no time at all, he then converted some to mono giving more drama to his photographs.
David Brookes kicked off the second part of the evening, but instead of displaying prints or digital images he gave us a demonstration of his recent acquisition. This new gadget of his was a rapid multi lens changer and as he demonstrated it I could see many of the members adding it to their Christmas wishlist!
During the summer Brian Wetton had been on a club trip to Camden Lock and Market . The day started with a boat trip on the Regents canal up to the lock and then they made their way to the market. His photographs were full of colour and his final image, taken by his wife Christine, was of him giving a statue of Amy Winehouse a peck on the cheek!
George Ryske followed this with an audio visual of his recent holiday to Vietnam and Cambodia. The ten minute AV showed the five different cities he had visited, each one so very different from the other, but the one thing they all had in common was the beauty of the temples and palaces. A boat visit to the floating villages on the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia concluded his show.
Steve Varman finished off the evening with something quite different. He explained that originally he had wanted to be a film maker not a photographer so he showed us a film he had taken back in 2010. ‘The White Crab Spider’ showed the tussle, to the bitter end, between the spider and a bee with the accompanying music by Gustav Holst adding to the drama of the piece.
Christine Wetton gave a vote of thanks to all the contributors for their evening of entertainment.
THURSDAY 28th NOVEMBER 2019
HEIDI STEWART AWPF
Heidi last visited us in November 2017 and many club members have waited patiently for her to return as at the end of that presentation she gave us a taster of her new talk ‘Every Step I Take’.
She began the evening by saying that now her children are grown up, she and her husband Alec, who is also a photographer, can plan their holidays around their photography, in fact their holidays are now more like ‘workshops’. Each area they want to visit is researched and on the whole they know exactly where they need to go and at what of time day they need to be there.
Our photographic trip began in Anglesey where sunsets looking over to the Llyn peninsula were followed by images of the ‘blue hour’ with warm tones of the town lights in the distance. Heidi managed to capture stunning images at sunrise over the beautiful beach at Newborough and to her own surprise the Menai Suspension Bridge stood in all its glory both in natural daylight and all lit up at night time.
Heidi belongs to Gwynfa Camera Club and along with a few other members they organised a club trip to Iceland. She said they all found the weather extremely challenging but somehow she still managed to stun us with the projected images of this most wonderful Nordic island. The dark sand of the beaches against the warm orangey colours of the rocks contrasted greatly with the snow capped mountains in the distance on many of the images shown. Heidi managed to capture in great detail the scale of the waterfalls, the power of the sea and even showed us many images of the northern lights which she said was an extra bonus to the holiday.
After the tea/coffee break we were taken on a trip around the UK stopping off at Dunstanburgh Castle and Bamburgh beach in Northumberland, Tintern Abbey and Cardiff Bay in Wales and St Michael’s Mount and Botallack, where Poldark was filmed, in Cornwall to name just a few places. The Highlands of Scotland was Heidi’s last stop off. We saw sensational images of sunrises, dramatic images taken in low light and rain and wonderful images of reflections in the many lochs that Scotland has to offer.
The two year wait for Heidi’s return visit was well worth it as she definitely didn’t disappoint her attentive audience. Her passion for photography really does shine through in all her images and a example we must all take home is that patience really does pay to get that perfect image.
Review of cub meeting on 21 st November By Steve Varman
This month’s competition was judged by Bob Train LRPS CAPB who had the daunting task of judging over 100 images. The competition comprised of prints (open subject) and digital image (landscape). Bob gave a fair critique of each image with comments that were helpful and constructive. Results:
Landscape competition (digital image)
1st – Steve Varman LRPS – Rock formation, Lake District
2nd – Don Grundell – Dartmoor Scene
3rd – Christine Ryske – Signs of Winter
Monthly print competition
1st – Elizabeth Restall ARPS – The Staircase
2nd – Steve Varman LRPS – Strawberry Tea
3rd – George Ryske – Enchanted Wood Westonbirt
This weeks review is by Steve Varman
Thursday 14th November 2019
Ric Harding EFIAP/b DPABG BPE4*
Presentation title: Some of my Wildest Moments
It was a great pleasure to welcome this week’s speaker, Ric Harding. The evening was a breathtaking tour that started small – a fascinating safari in Ric’s own back garden. We then followed Ric’s travels to Kenya and Namibia before being whisked off to California’s Death Valley, then along the stunning Oregon coast and on to Alaska. We finished the evening back in the UK on the beautiful Northumberland coast.
Ric’s garden safari shows that you don’t necessarily have to travel far – with the help of a macro lens, there’s a hidden world to discover just beyond your back door. Ric explained that when photographing insects and animals, capturing behaviour rather than static poses will help make a more interesting image – something that was demonstrated in Ric’s images from Africa. We were treated to hippos, lions, leopards and more, with shots of a hunt and kill in progress. Other treats were AV montages including views from a hot air balloon drifting over the Namibian desert.
The Alaskan grizzlies fishing for salmon were particularly impressive – not least because Ric was just a few feet away at the time! Ending Ric’s wildest adventures was the rugged coastline of Northumberland which included lovely imagery of Lindisfarne and the Farne Islands.
The geographical scope was vast, and so too was the subject and style of photography which included macro, nature, landscape, long exposure, abstract and textures – we were certainly entertained and educated with helpful hints and tips throughout. So thank you to Ric for sharing your adventures with us.
THURSDAY 7th NOVEMBER 2019
LES LOOSEMORE ARPS DPAGB AWPF
Les last visited Tyndale Photography Club in October 2018 when he displayed four panels of work to his attentive audience. He had intended showing eight panels but time sped by and so, at very short notice, he returned this season to show the panels we were ‘owed’.
When Les visits he always brings along his own professional, well lit, display stand where he places his prints after presenting them individually on a light box, this enables those present to get a close up look at each image when Les has spoken about the full panel of work. This is a real treat as usually we only see prints from a distance.
His first display were all panoramas and this generated quite a few questions from the floor as to exactly how they were taken and in particular how Les had printed them.
From here on in each twenty four to twenty eight panel displayed was on a particular theme, the subjects being ‘The Lake District’, ‘The Fragility and Resilience of Decay’, ‘The Brecon Beacons’ and ‘Storm Brian’. He concluded the evening’s entertainment with a panel he was still working on – ‘Intentional Camera Movement’.
Each panel had its own style – ‘The Lake District’ demonstrated calmness, the delicate colours that Les managed to capture created mysterious images of the morning mist and reflections whilst ‘The Fragility and Resilience of Decay’ showed how wonderful nature can be even at the end of its life. Even though ‘The Brecon Beacons’ landscapes were minimalistic with desaturated colours they showed the beauty of this country we live in and ‘Storm Brian’ showed the enormity, strength and impact of the weather.
Les explained that he always ‘makes’ his image before he ‘takes’ his image thus reducing the amount of post processing, his image making is in his camera not his computer. He often takes several photographs of the same view changing the orientation or the depth of field and it is surprising how different the final images look.
Les’s entertaining tales and calm approach made the evening most enjoyable and I am sure that quite a few members will now go home with new ideas for their own photography.
31st October 2019
Competition judged by Martin Cooper LRPS
Our first competition of the season was judged by Martin Cooper LRPS who had a very busy evening judging 24 prints, 31 images for division two and 34 images for division one. Both prints and digital images were of open and very varied subjects with several entries in monochrome. Overall his comments were constructive and considerate and hopefully helpful not only to the individual concerned but to all present. He awarded points to each entry as he went along keeping the top four or five aside before announcing which of them had placings.
DIVISION ONE
1st – Steve Varman LRPS – Brecon Beacons
2nd – Steve Varman LRPS – Rainbow Houses
3rd – Christine Wetton – Colourful Beach Huts
DIVISION TWO
1st – Barry Wilson – Side Saddle
2nd – David Gamm – Foxglove and Fern
3rd – Barbara Gibbons – Red Kite
PRINT SECTION
1st – Jenny Fryer LRPS – Under the Falls
2nd – Majory Wright – Waiting for a Fare
3rd – Elizabeth Restall ARPS – Porthgain Harbour
Winning images of the competition can be viewed on the respective pages of this website.
THURSDAY 24th OCTOBER 2019
MARTIN FRY FRPS EFIAP/g AV-EFIAP ABPE APAGB
‘The Cotswold Lad Returns’
Martin Fry FRPS EFIAP/g AV-EFIAP ABPE APAGB usually visits us once a year to show the audio visual from the Cheltenham International Salon of Photography, his latest visit, however, was to give his talk ‘The Cotswold Lad returns’, describing, in his own words, his journey from Artist to Excellence. In order to honour distinguished personalities in the field of photography, the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) has created many distinctions, the lower one being Artist (AFIAP) rising through different levels of Excellence (EFIAP) up to Master (MFIAP).
Martin accompanied his talk by showing us the images and audio visuals he used to attain his Artist and Excellence distinctions in both areas. He explained all the requirements he needed to submit his entries for consideration and hopefully acceptance into photographic salons all over the world.
His first audio visual, ‘The Cotswold Lad Returns’ took us on a journey from Coaley Peak to Cheltenham, displaying The Cotswold Way in all its beauty. The very familiar scenery was shown with frosty fields, mist covered vales, rainbows stretching as far as the eye could see and the ever changing light over the landscape in front of him.
Martin’s photography is very much inspired by the beauty of his native Gloucestershire and he stayed very much in the Cotswolds with his AVs of farmers in ploughing matches held by the Fairford, Faringdon, Filkins and Burford Ploughing Society and The Slad Valley shown in all its glory with accompanying music by Johnny Coppin and poetry by Laurie Lee.
His final audio visual ‘Capturing the Moment’ told the story of the camera capturing images from the beginnings of photography in Lacock through the last century to the current day. The thought we were all left with was – ‘I am the camera – you are the photographer – capture the moment’.
THURSDAY 17th OCTOBER 2019
SANDIE COX ARPS DPAGB
‘How to take better Wildlife Photographs’
Sandie Cox ARPS DPAGB has been to the club before on several occasions as both a speaker and a judge, but this time she came as a ‘tutor’ imparting her knowledge on her two passions – photography and wildlife. Her talk was entitled ‘How to take better Wildlife Photographs’ and although she displayed some incredibly beautiful images of wildlife from all over the world she also showed us the ‘ones which went wrong’ and explained how she managed to make an acceptable image from them.
Her first statement was to say you had to have the four ‘Ps’ in order to get what you want when photographing wildlife – Practice, Patience, Persistence and Passion – and it showed in the second half of the evening when Sandie displayed photographs from her many expeditions that she clearly has all four.
She demonstrated to her attentive audience the difference it can make in taking an image in the two differing orientations and also where to place or not place your focal point. She pointed out the ‘rules’ of taking wildlife images, the angle and height to shoot from and whether it be a bird or mammal, to think about where it is and what it is doing.
Club members were fascinated and comforted to see that even speakers and judges can have ‘failures’ but they were even more interested in knowing how Sandie was able to process these ‘not so good’ photos and turn them into stunning images you would be proud to hang on your wall.
Even those who are not too interested in wildlife photography learned something from Sandie’s talk, as a lot of the post processing tips she gave would be applicable to any type of images we would take.
THURSDAY 10th OCTOBER 2019
DAVID JENNER – Night & Day Panoramas
It was with great pleasure that we welcomed our first speaker of the season, David Jenner travelled over from Kent, with his wife, to give his talk ‘Night & Day Panoramas’. He began by explaining that he was, by profession, a graphic designer but was inspired by fellow designer/photographer James Rowland in 2009 to take up photography. He soon discovered that he had a passion for landscapes and, in particular, panoramas. His first ‘shoot’ was at Canary Wharf at what is termed the golden hour – sunset – giving him an outstanding panorama of this cityscape. He followed this with panoramic visual images of Leeds Castle and the view from Southwold Pier.
Within his ‘proper job’ he had fifteen years experience of Photoshop and with this in mind, an idea popped into his head – although to begin with he had no idea how he was going to actually create his day to night panorama. He returned to Southwold Pier where he spent eight hours, in the same position, shooting, in total, around one thousand images to take home and begin his project. It was six months and more than ninety hours of work later that he finished his night and day panorama of the seaside town, with the pier in broad daylight, the sun setting over the lifeguard’s hut, the town in dusk and Gun Hill lit by the moon.
Over the years he has produced several more of these panoramas , one being ‘Metromorphosis’ – a panorama shot taken at hourly intervals showing The River Thames downstream in daylight and St Paul’s Cathedral in sunset – using poetic license he also added a Red Arrows flypast and fireworks over London Bridge.
After the tea/coffee break he talked about, and showed, the several images he has entered into national and international competitions, on several occasions he has won and had his images shown in photographic and wildlife magazines. He has also won and been runner up in the Royal Photographic Society regular competitions.All in all, the evening was a great success, not only did the members thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the hours that David has put into his achievements, but his humour had everyone laughing throughout his very entertaining talk.
THURSDAY 3rd October 2019
The first meeting of our 2019/2020 season was held last night and it was very well attended, we were very pleased to welcome several new members. As is customary at the first meeting it was the ‘U Judge’ competition where members can, if they wish, enter up to three prints for all present to vote on.
Our president, Brian Wetton, opened the evening by explaining the rules of the competition and then left everyone to browse the images on display. From the 37 entered a final five were displayed together for a ‘show of hands’ vote to decide on an eventual winner. The entries were of a very high standard and of many varied subjects but this year The Colab Trophy was awarded to Joan Scott for her winning photograph ‘Japanese Anemone’ – well done Joan! Don Grundell and David Brookes shared the second place with their images ‘Teignmouth Pier’ and ‘Treguier Cathedral – South Choir Aisle’. A light buffet supper finished off a most enjoyable evening.