FRIDAY 21st July 2023 Tyndale Photography Club 75th Anniversary
Tyndale Photography Club
Tyndale 75th Anniversary
Images from the anniversary meal at Eastwood Park
THURSDAY 27th April 2023 FINALS NIGHT judged by ADRIAN HERRING ARPS DPAGB
Where does the time go? This season has flown by and I can’t believe that I am writing up the ‘finals night’ review! The judge for our last competition of the season was Adrian Herring ARPS DPAGB and it felt quite an honour to have him with us, as before the evening began Adrian told us that after 50 years of judging he was retiring and this was his last competition. Adrian, who was accompanied by his wife Vanessa, said it was good to be back at Tyndale as it had be many years since his last visit and thanked us for inviting him to judge the end of season competition. It was obvious than Adrian had spent quite some time viewing the images entered into each of the four categories to be judged and he hoped that even if an image wasn’t to his taste he would be fair and constructive with his comments. He gave a good spread of scores and awarded a number of images commended and highly commended placings, but at the end of the evening the over all winners were :
PRINT Personal Selection Competition 1st place – Steve Varman LRPS – Wye Valley 2nd place – Jane Martin – Fletchers Mill 3rd place – Steve Varman LRPS – VC10 Tailplane PRINT of the Year 1st place – Don Grundell – Sweet Pea 2nd place – George Ryske – Strolling at Low Tide 3rd place – Mike Smith – Nuthatch Up & Down PDI Personal Selection Competition 1st place – Steve White – Canal Side 2nd place – Mike Baxter – Piercing Stare 3rd place – Kay Welsh – Winter Walkies PDI of the Year 1st place – Mike Smith – Bee Nectaring 2nd place – Christine Morgan - Kingfisher 3rd place – Steve Varman LRPS – Tree, caught in a breeze
At the end of the evening certificates were handed out for the following achievements First place in PDI competitions – Steve Varman LRPS First place in Print competitions – Brian Wetton PDI Landscape Competition - Steve Varman LRPS Print Landscape Competition - Joan Scott Folio Five Competition – Diana Baker Photographer of the Year – Brian Wetton
THURSDAY 13th APRIL 2023 'AN EVENING OF PRINTS' - LES LOOSEMORE ARPS DPAGB AWPF
With a car jammed full of equipment and his friend Phil for company, Les Loosemore ARPS DPAGB AWPF travelled over from Bridgend, South Wales to deliver his talk ‘An Evening of Prints’. He began the evening by saying how nice it was to be back in North Nibley Village Hall, due to the covid pandemic, it has been several years since Les last visited us.
Les’s approach to photography is theme based, he sets himself a particular topic and then decides how he is going to achieve making up a panel of several images. With careful planning, Les ‘makes’ his picture before he ‘takes’ his picture, he prefers to prepare his image and so use minimal post processing to achieve exactly what he wants.
The evening began with the topic ‘Panoramas’ and the first print that Les popped up onto his display stand was that of a collection of teddy bears sitting on a sofa, which proved that panoramas don’t always have to be seascape or landscape images. He did, however, then show us several panoramic images taken in places such as Dunraven Bay in the Vale of Glamorgan, Coniston Water and New England, USA. In the majority of these images, the colours were subtle and the effect he achieved was painterly thus creating a sense of pure calm.
His second panel of images was entitled ‘In Flight’ and consisted of photographs taken not only at different airports but also of parts of an aeroplane through the window as he was flying to far off destinations. A topic that many of us have never thought about photographing!
Prints of ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Autumnal Scenes’ filled the second half of the evening. Les’s wasn’t so much bothered about the accuracy of the insect when photographing the butterflies, his approach was to capture nature in an artistic manner. The Autumnal colours he managed to achieve in the prints of Glencoe Scotland were incredible.
With time not on his side Les took a vote as to whether we wanted more – and so he finished off the evening with ‘The Lake District’ , in this panel Les showed images where he had captured the delicate colours of Coniston Water behind the early morning rising mist.
Les considers himself to be ‘just an ordinary photographer’ and creates the feel and mood in an image with the help of mother nature, he feels that photography is about content and emotion and not necessarily sharpness.
THURSDAY 6th APRIL CHAIRMAN'S EVENING - DAVID BROOKES ARPS
For one meeting every year, the chairman can do whatever he/she wants, certain members can be invited to show their photographs, other members may be asked to give a talk or he/she can entertain the members present at the meeting themself. It is the third option that our chairman David Brookes ARPS opted for and it was most definitely a wise choice as it was a very entertaining and most informative evening for all those present.
His talk began by telling us about a Christmas present he had been given back in 1956 – it was a 3D photographic viewer and as a child the disc he liked most above all the others was entitled ‘Châteaux of The Loire’, from that day onwards his ambition was to visit them all.
It took David some time to fulfil his dream but over a period of several years he has built up a good portfolio of images which he was more than happy to share with us. He naturally gave his talk the same name as his childhood favourite disc – ‘Châteaux of The Loire’.
The Loire is the longest river in France, so David limited his talk to the stretch between Orleans and Angers. And on our ‘evening river cruise’ we ‘visited’ Château Chambord, the largest château and probably the most recognisable château in the Loire Valley, Château de Chenonceau, one of the best known for its span across the River Cher (a tributary of the Loire), Château de Villandry a grand country house known for its beautiful gardens and Château Chinon, the most historic of those visited. Of all the châteaux David has been to, he said his favourite is Saumur, he first visited this château in 1995 and took shots with a camera that produced colour film, he revisited in 2014 with a digital camera in order to better quality images.
The images of both the interior and exterior of these historic buildings and David’s knowledge of them made for a most entertaining evening, thoroughly enjoyed by those present – especially the members who have been to The Loire Valley and visited several of the villages and towns shown in the talk.
THURSDAY 30th March 2023 COMPETITION judged by Eddy Lane ARPS DPAGB EFIAP APAGB
It has been many years since Eddy Lane ARPS DPAGB EFIAP APAGB, wildlife and travel photographer, has visited Tyndale Photography Club and his latest visit was to judge our last regular competition of the season. He began by saying it was good to be back but with 22 prints and 46 projected images to get through he would press on with judging. The choice of subject entered into the print competition was left to the photographer and included landscapes, nature, still life and sport. The projected digital images, however, were to comply to the subject ‘Reflections’ and it was surprising how the subject had been interpreted by the members who entered into the spirit of the competition.
Eddy was both constructive and sensitive with his comments on each image and was generous when allocating scores.
Print Results 1st place – Strolling at Low Tide - George Ryske 2nd place – Three Trees - David Gamm 3rd place – Nuthatch Up & Down - Mike Smith Projected Digital Image Results 1st place – At The End of The Day - Steve Varman LRPS 2nd place – Sunrise at Screw City - Steve Stone 3rd place – Light as a Feather – George Ryske
THURSDAY 23rd MARCH 2023 'Wildlife of South Luangwa, Zambia' - Liz Stagg
It was clear, as Liz gave her talk to us, that she has two passions in life – she loves to travel and is a devoted volunteer to ‘Deki’, a registered charity that believes everyone should have the opportunity to work their way out of poverty. She began the evening with images she had taken on a trip for Deki to Togo showing the members present how the charity has and continues to help African women make a living and work their way out of impoverishment. From a group of African ladies being taught about birth control to the smiling faces of the entrepreneurs who had been supported by Deki to set up their own businesses, Liz showed that the charity has had a major impact on the lives and livelihoods of these disadvantaged communities.
After making a Deki visit to Malawi, Liz decided, whilst out in Africa, to make her own way to Zambia and take a holiday in the South Luangwa National Park, an area that is known as the home of walking safaris. She shared with us images of the many varieties of wildlife she encountered, from oxpeckers and crown crested cranes to cape buffalo, hippos, giraffes and zebra. We were very impressed to see how she kept her nerve when charged at by an elephant, keeping her ‘camera rolling’ rather than running away and she was proud to tell of how she, not her guide, spotted a leopard lying in a tree. She had nothing but praise for the people of Zambia saying how the local guides gave a warm welcome to travellers and were eager to share their immense knowledge of the park and its inhabitants, making the safari experience extremely memorable.
THURSDAY 16th March 2023 A visit from members of Cirencester Camera Club
It was a pleasure to welcome six members of Cirencester Camera Club to our recent meeting. Even though it was a cold, wet, miserable night they made the twenty mile journey to entertain us with several different photographic topics. Their secretary, Stephen Chapman, opened the evening with a brief history of their club and it was interesting to hear that they were established in 1939 – just 9 years before our own club.
Their first speaker was chairman Mike Cheeseman LRPS who spoke about their club being approached by Cirencester Civic Society to undertake a few photographic assignments. He explained in depth about, how as a team, they used a shift lens camera to take an image of a wall painting in Weavers Hall, a drone camera for panoramic images of The Roman Amphitheater and internal images of The Parish Church and the obstacles they had to overcome during covid to produce an on-line art exhibition for The Bingham Library Trust. Mike concluded by saying that all four projects turned out to be more interesting and certainly more challenging than they originally thought they would be.
Next up was Jill Bewley LRPS and the topic of her talk was lightpad photography, a type of photography that she became interested in purely because her obsession with the flowering plant physalis, more commonly known as chinese lanterns. She spoke of the equipment she uses and what she finds to be suitable objects for capturing these types of image. Alongside her own images, Jill shared images from famous photographers that she greatly admires.
During tea/coffee break, they set off a slide show of their club competition images which gave us an insight into the high standard of photographs produced by their club members.
With the break over, we were then shown three of the panels that were entered into their club’s panel challenge. This is a competition they hold to encourage members to print their photographs. Each member can submit a panel comprising of 7–10 images and judging is performed internally by the club members. Martyn Smith LRPS chatted about his ‘A Dash of Red’ panel, Jill Bewley LRPS about her ‘Murmuration’ panel and John Smith LRPS about his winning ‘Water Drop Photography’ panel.
To finish off their presentation, Stephen Chapman chatted about the ‘speed learning evening’ the club held. He explained it was similar to ‘speed dating’ but in fact it was to boost the sharing of knowledge between members.
It was a very different evening that Stephen, Mike, Jill, Martyn and John gave us, but one that was very much enjoyed and appreciated.
THURSDAY 9th March 2023 COMPETITION judged by Angela Rendell AFIAP
This is the third time that Angela Rendell AFIAP has visited Tyndale Photography Club this season. Her first visit was as a speaker, she accompanied her daughter Kate Peake (who came as the speaker) on her second visit and third time round was to judge our recent monthly competition.
She began the evening by saying that because she had so many images to critique if any photographer would like more information about any of their entries, she would be very willing to expand on her comments, all they had to do was email her direct – a very generous offer on her part I thought.
Whilst judging the 28 prints and 44 pdis Angela was very complimentary about the extremely high standard of the images entered into the competition. Angela was very kind with her comments and generous with her scores and said she doesn’t like to be over critical but hopes that her comments and hints help. As far as the prints were concerned she was impressed with both the quality of paper chosen and the way each print had been so carefully mounted.
Print Results 1st place – Study In Green - Steve White 2nd place – Ambulatory, St Germer de Fly - David Brookes ARPS 3rd place – Winter Reflections - Brian Wetton
Projected Digital Image Results 1st place – Passing Storm - Don Grundell 2nd place – Misty Morning from Coaley Peak - Brian Wetton 3rd place – Sherborne Abbey - Peter Whitfield
Thursday 2nd March 2023
10th Cheltenham International Salon of Photography (2022)
Aleks Gjika EFIAP DPAGB, member of Cheltenham Camera Club and Chair of the Cheltenham International Salon of Photography, recently paid us a visit to showcase the 10th Cheltenham International Salon of Photography.
Before the audio visual began, Aleks explained that a Salon of Photography is an exhibition of work, not a competition. It is created by a photographic society or camera club, with a set number of sections. International associations support and give patronage to a Salon 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 worldwide salons held each year.
During covid, all judging was performed remotely, but the 2022 Salon was again judged on the ‘big screen’ where six internationally recognised judges formed the panel of selectors sharing the sections between them. They had quite a challenge in front of them, viewing 5008 images, entered by 436 photographers, from 41 countries. 1201 of the entered images were accepted into the Salon 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.
The evening began with the TRAVEL section – a Photo Travel image is a portrayal of the real world we live in, there are no geographic limitations and this section displayed a wide variety of landscapes, portraits and characteristics of various cultures. The MONOCHROME section contained an amazing number of images with no colour, only shades of grey, from pure black to pure white. They all displayed the power that black and white images can give in emotion and texture. The CREATIVE section tends to be a ‘marmite’ section as it definitely shows a ‘different’ type of photography. Creative thinking and clever post processing by the authors produce some unbelievable and unique images. Whilst all the others sections have strict rules attached to them ,the only rule with this section is that every part of the final composite image must be of your own making. The NATURE section, as you would expect, recorded all branches of natural history. Images shown were mostly of animals, but there were also several insect, bird and butterfly shots. The final section was COLOUR and any image that satisfied the general rules submitted into this section was judged solely on its pictorial merit. The variety of subjects was wide ranging and included landscapes and portraits, it was good to see such an assortment of images.
The excellent audio visual was well presented and displayed an amazing variety of stunning photographs, it was most definitely a celebration of photography from around the world.
Three of our members had acceptances into the salon: ELIZABETH RESTALL ARPS had 'Hebridean Tranquility' accepted in the colour section. JENNY FRYER LRPS had 'Wildfire' accepted in the colour section. GEORGE RYSKE had 'One Careful Owner' accepted in the colour section and 'Resting Budhist Monk' accepted in the travel section. Well Done Elizabeth, Jenny and George!
Thursday 23rd February 2023 Tom Crowe Challenge and Jenny Fryer LRPS
At the beginning of February, we had an evening of two halves and to end the month we had another meeting with two entirely different topics. The evening began with an audio visual of the judging of the annual Tom Crowe battle. Each year, Thornbury Camera Club invite other local camera clubs to a challenge in memory of Tom Crowe, a former chairman of their club. The invited clubs submit eight entries, with each image submitted having been taken by a different photographer, the competition is a battle between clubs rather than individuals. This year, there were four set categories to fulfil – Landscape, Portrait, Creative and Night, the remaining four images were placed into Open categories. The competition was judged by Simon Caplan LRPS who spoke at length about each of the sixty four submissions, giving his own personal thoughts, comments and mark as each image was displayed. At the end of each round the scores were totalled and a leader board displayed showing each club’s mark and photographer for that round and a running total for each club. As it has been in other years, it was a tightly fought competition with superb images entered by each and every club. The final scores were a disappointment for Tyndale Photography Club being placed 5th with 117 points. Congratulations are due to all photographers who entered, thanks are due to those in each club who organised and pulled the folio together for the competition and acknowledgement must be given to Thornbury Camera Club for, yet again, providing another evening of entertainment.
Tyndale Photography Club images were: Landscape – Beech in the Mist - David Gamm Open – Watchful - Jane Martin Portrait – Ashleigh - Dave Rumsam Open - Tintern - Steve Varman LRPS Creative – Eilean Donan Castle - Jenny Fryer LRPS Open – Treeflake - Peter Whitfield Night – Through the Canopy - Steve White Open – Tourists at Karnak - Elizabeth Restall ARPS
After the tea break Jenny Fryer LRPS showed a 30 minute audio visual composed of images she had taken on her holiday to the United States of America just before covid hit the world. Her trip took in several of the major cities in the deep south and a tour of Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll!
The professionally put together AV presentation was full of character and colour, was accompanied by complimentary music from the ‘King’ himself and clearly displayed what a wonderful holiday it must have been. From images of bartenders and bands on the Creole Queen Paddlewheeler to posters about Martin Luther King, and from the hustle and bustle of Beale Street to the peace and quiet of Gracelands, Jenny gave us a most entertaining evening.
THURSDAY 16th FEBRUARY FOLIO FIVE COMPETITION - judged by Martin Cooper LRPS
It was Martin Cooper LRPS who had the tough job of judging the folio five competition. Entries into this annual event are made up of five digital images which form a set with a common theme, a sixth image is generated where the five individual images are presented as a panel.
Before appraising the fifteen entries, he commented that there are three ways to present a panel; linear, symmetrical and collection and he was pleased that each of these options had been presented to him.
Before commenting on each individual image, Martin spoke at great length about the layout of the fifteen panels entered and gave his personal feelings about how they had been laid out and whether he felt they could have been improved upon. It was evident from his comments that Martin had spent a lot of time studying each and every image and after announcing the winners he said how much he appreciated the amount of work and effort that was put into this particular competition.
The winning panels were : First Place – Autumnal Mists – Diana Baker Second Place – Coloured Staircase at Battersea - Elizabeth Restall ARPS Third Place – Birds of Prey – Christine Morgan
THURSDAY 9th FEBRUARY 2023 'Street Photography My Way' - PETER CRANE ARPS
Our speaker this week started the evening by saying he has two main interests, fishing and photography, he then went on to explain how in some respects they are pretty similar. Street photographer Peter Crane ARPS said for both hobbies you need to be alert and have plenty of patience – as an angler you try to catch a fish with a rod and line and as a photographer you try to catch a moment in time with your camera.
At the beginning of his talk, Peter told us about the equipment he uses, he shared with us many tips and spoke in great detail about the techniques he has acquired over the many years that he has been taking photographs ‘on the street’. When out and about, Peter looks for either a good background or a particular colour and waits for a suitable human being to come along to create his image. He tends to take his photographs at hip level as he wants to be discreet and to be sure of a sharp image he very often uses high speed continuous shooting.
Included in the huge selection of photographs Peter showed were shots taken in Bristol, Bath and Exeter but the majority were taken of the extraordinary Brick Lane folk in the East End of London. It was clear as the talk went on how observant Peter is, his eye for matching colours and spotting backdrops is extremely perceptive, he manages to see and use things that other people would maybe not notice. Although Peter did say that he loves colour several of his images were monochrome because he felt too many colours would confuse the story he was trying to tell. From dramatic Extinction Rebellion images captured during a demonstration to the amusing annual event ‘No Trousers Tube Ride’ images Peter definitely kept us entertained all evening.
THURSDAY 2nd FEBRUARY 2023 PRINT COMPETITION judged by Peter Ottley LRPS CPAGB and MEMBERS EVENING
Our most recent meeting was one of two halves, the first being a print competition and the second a members evening.
Peter, who travelled up from Weston-super-Mare, made his second visit to the club to judge the set subject print competition. Whilst commenting on the 24 entries, he complimented the authors on the standard of the presentation of their images, remarking that on the whole it was excellent. He appreciated both the creative and non-creative interpretation of the topic ‘Transport’ to which all the entries were obliged to conform to.
The winners were:
1st place – Hanoi Hells Angels – George Ryske
2nd place – Classic Citroens – Brian Wetton
3rd place – Thames Barge Leaving the City – Elizabeth Restall ARPS
After the tea break, both Steve White and Steve Stone each gave a talk about photographing still life images. Steve White was introduced to still life by attending a workshop, whereas Steve Stone was influenced by a recent Zoom speaker at the club. They both showed photographs of their set up – windows, black board, curtains and table coverings all played a big part in creating the image they wished-for. They both stepped through the post processing actions they had taken to achieve their final image from their ‘out of camera’ shot.
A Photo Book enables you to share your photographs without having to carry your laptop around with you and Diana Baker, who enjoys creating Photo Books,
took us through the process of creating a ‘modern photo album’. She introduced us to several on-line companies who will produce the actual book but advised to take care when choosing as they all differ on price and quality.
To conclude the evening, Brian Wetton took us on a photographic journey around North East Essex, the county that both he and his wife, Christine, grew up in. He showed huge container ships moored up in Felixstowe, extensive wind farms out to sea at Frinton, pastel coloured beach huts on Mersea Island and the property pictured in John Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’.
THURSDAY 26th JANUARY 2023 'Journey to FRPS' and 'This Beautiful World' - ANDREW MARKER FRPS
The talk this week was something completely different, the subject matter that Andrew presented to us in the first half of his talk was the journey he took to gain his FRPS. The fifteen images he had submitted to gain his ARPS were all on display for us to look at ‘close up’ and when the meeting began Andrew explained how the idea for the panel of reflections in water came about. He then explained how he actually produced the panel. He showed his original images, which captured the reflections of the brightly coloured buildings on the islands of Burano and Murano and then the parts he cropped from them to create the colourful, abstract images on display. Having gained his ARPS in 2013 Andrew put his mind to a twenty image panel to achieve his FRPS. He shelved three ideas, pictures within pictures of costumes at the Venice Carnival, abstract images his glass paperweights collection and details from landscapes taken in Yellowstone National Park, before being inspired by the white buildings on Santorini. The predominantly white minimalistic images in the final panel showed simple graphic lines, shapes and textures in the buildings on this Aegean island. The overall feel of the gentle pastels, with the occasional pop of blue or brown, was one of beauty, peace and tranquility. This two and a half year journey, with his individual style and attention to detail in both subject matter and presentation, gained him his well deserved FRPS in 2016.
In complete contrast, for the second half of the evening Andrew entertained the members present with five audio-visual presentations. He demonstrated the starkness of Dungeness, the ever-changing colours on the Isles of Harris and Lewis, the subtle Autumnal Tuscan landscapes, the jagged peaks of the Grand Tetons as background to the colourful valleys below and the cold Winter views of Yellowstone National Park in a calm, personal, modest style with the accompanying music fitting the images perfectly.
This was definitely an evening to remember!
THURSDAY 19th January 2023 – COMPETITION judged by Aleks Gjika EFIAP DPAGB
This is the first time Aleks has visited us as a judge, he has visited before as a speaker but that was held over Zoom, so it was good to welcome him face to face. He had a busy evening in front of him with 23 prints and 40 digital images to judge and comment on. He gave a lengthy critique on every entry, commenting in some cases how he felt an image might be improved and in others how there wasn’t a lot to remark on. Entries into the print section were competing for the Landscape Print Trophy and Aleks made reference several times as to how composition and lighting are of upmost importance in this type of photography. With judging over Aleks stressed that all statements made were personal to him and another judge would probably have given different comments and scores.
Landscape Print Results
1st place – Llyn Padarn – Joan Scott
2nd place – Shadows and Light at Blea Tart – Elizabeth Restall ARPS
3rd place – Quarry Snow – David Gamm
Projected Digital Image Results
1st place – Kingfisher – Chris Morgan
2nd place – Portrait in Infrared – Steve Varman LRPS
3rd place – Dahlia – Christine Ryske
THURSDAY 12th JANUARY 2023 'The Wider World of Photography pt1' - Ashley Franklin ARPS ABPPA APAGB BPE1
Holding a Zoom meeting enables us to invite speakers from further afield than usual and this week we struck gold when Ashley Franklin, from Derbyshire, gave us his talk ‘The Wider World of Photography pt1’. Unlike all other speakers who visit, Ashley’s talk only included half a dozen of his own images but he kept us entertained for over two hours by telling the story of portrait, fashion, social, industrial and war photography through the images of a multitude of famous photographers.
Ashley, who has himself been a camera club member for many years, created this talk because he felt that although the presentations given to clubs were wide and varied they only took up a small part of the wider photographic world and commercial photography was rarely spoken about. Through this very personal talk, Ashley shared and celebrated the powerful, poignant, daring and dramatic images taken by photographers, from the distant past to the present day, that have inspired, amused and fascinated him.
Included in the huge selection of photographs Ashley had chosen, was the well-known Victorian portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a series of working life images showing people in the late 1800’s just about existing on the streets of London and fashion shots and portraits of the rich and famous from the early 1940’s through to the 1960’s. Although we all sit and watch the events of war as they happen on our TVs, Ashley was able to show through the many images taken in World Wars I and II, The Vietnam War and lately the Russian invasion of Ukraine that stills are thought provoking and will always speak volumes.
It was a presentation that was extensively researched, educational, memorable, refreshing and brilliantly executed – I’m sure I’m not the only one who is looking forward to when Ashley will return with part 2.
THURSDAY 5th JANUARY 2023
‘People and Places’ – Colin Westgate FRPS MPAGB MFIAP APAGB
Although many of us, after two years of virtual meetings, feel ‘Zoomed out’ there is one great advantage of Zoom and that is that we can invite speakers from further afield to entertain us with their images and narrative. It was a pleasure to welcome Colin Westgate FRPS MPAGB MFIAP APAGB (from Mersea, Essex) to our recent meeting where, even though feeling ‘under the weather’, gave us a insight to his travels around the world with his talk ‘People and Places’.
Colin, who is a member of Colchester Photographic Society, began the evening with a short introduction saying how his interest in photography began in the late 1950’s and how his love of landscape photography has never weakened. Having taken an early retirement from banking in the early 1990’s he set up his own business, Quest Photography, which provides practical workshops and photographic holidays. He remarked on how he has been fortunate to travel to some wonderful places and split his presentation into several sections illustrating the landscapes and the people of the countries he has visited. His love of Albania and India shone through the mainly monochrome pictures of these two countries. Every image showed either the character of the people living there or the architecture of the buildings in the towns and villages he and his wife had visited. Iceland is a country Colin has returned to many times and has captured the predominantly snow covered land beautifully. He spoke in depth about the waterfalls, blue coloured waters and orangey/brown sulphur landscapes and the accompanying images of these delicate colours were stunning. Alongside these distant countries, Northumberland, Scotland and the South East of England featured highly in Colin’s talk.
It is quite obvious that from the huge number of images Colin shared with us he is not only able to produce dramatic and powerful images but also take a landscape and simplify it into a delicate, pleasing picture.
THURSDAY 15th DECEMBER 2022 – CHRISTMAS KNOCKOUT COMPETITION and SOCIAL
The Tyndale Photography Club Christmas social is a tradition that is looked forward to by many of the club members. For the past two years it had to be held virtually over Zoom but this year we were able to meet up again in person. Despite the weather conditions and the temperature being below zero there was a really good number of members turned out to enjoy the annual Christmas Knockout Competition. It is an evening where everyone can chat, socialise and fully appreciate the difficult job that judges have when presented with quality competition entries.
As with every other year, members were invited to submit up to three images into the open competition, the subjects of the images this year were varied – still life, landscapes, creative and wildlife were all included which made for most enjoyable evening.
Images were shown in pairs and everyone voted for the one they favoured. One by one and round by round entries were eliminated until the final two were left to battle it out. Steve Varman not only took first place with his image ‘Tyndale Snow-globe’ but also took second place with his image ‘Poppies at Sunset’. As the prizes were both Christmas cakes, made by club member Gloria Pritchard, a vote for third place was taken between the images knocked out in the semi-final. Steve White won that vote with ‘Green’ and took home the second place cake.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part and a massive congratulations to the worthy winners.
THURSDAY 8th DECEMBER 2022 – COMPETITION judged by Peter Ottley LRPS CPAGB
Peter, who is a keen photographer and has had work exhibited in international exhibitions and salons, travelled up from Weston-super-Mare to judge our third competition of the season. He must have spent quite some time looking at all the images as he spoke at length and in great depth on each and every image. From the comments he made it was clear that he appreciated the effort and skill of the author of both the creative and non-creative photographs.
Of the 42 projected digital images entered the winners were:
1st place – Calla Lily – Steve Stone
2nd place – The Red Umbrella – Jenny Fryer LRPS
3rd place – The Cab Home – Steve Varman LRPS
THURSDAY 1st DECEMBER 2022 – ‘Adventures with my Drone’ – Kate Peake
On her first visit as a speaker to Tyndale Photography Club, Kate Peake kept her audience fully entertained with her talk ‘Adventures with my Drone’. She began the evening by introducing herself and, although being a chemistry teacher by day, her hobby and passion for videography and drone photography takes up most of her free time. She brought with her the two drones she owns and explained their technical specifications for the ‘techie’ members of the club. She made it quite clear about the current UK laws concerning flying drones and told of the weather checks she does before venturing out.
She stated, quite modestly, that she is not a professional, but likes to take record shots and short films documenting events like The Tall Ships Festival which is held annually at Gloucester Docks. She enjoys flying her drones over the local towns and villages which give a completely different perspective to the area we all know so well.
Her first short film and stills was a history of Saul Junction and she followed this with a trip along the promenade at Weston-super-Mare from the new pier to the very sad looking Birnbeck island and pier, the narration she gave to the documentaries was both entertaining and informative. To end the first half of the evening, we enjoyed drone still shots of Tewkesbury, Painswick and Gloucester and fabulous panorama shots of Uley Bury, Carew Castle and the two River Severn Bridges at sunset. Kate didn’t get a break when tea and coffee was served as many of the members wanted to ask questions and see the drones close up, I must say she was more than happy to oblige.
Part two of the meeting was packed with a montage with, as Kate called it, ‘the best bits from my drone’. We were enthralled with images from not only our local area but also further afield and trying to guess where each image was taken was trickier than you can imagine – places look so different from above!
All in all, it was a very refreshing and entertaining evening.
THURSDAY 24th NOVEMBER 2022 – ‘Whatever Next’ – Richard Price
It was a pleasure to welcome Richard to our recent meeting at North Nibley Village Hall. Richard, who travelled up from Somerset, began taking photographs about fifteen years ago and explained that the talk he was about to give would tell where he started, where his photographic journey had taken him and where he was now. His images would show everything that had happened along the way and how, although having tried out many genres of photography, his main passion lay in landscapes. He decided at the offset that he was going to enjoy himself and whether it be from a well planned trip for that special image, a wild camping adventure to be at the right place at the right time or just a day out walking, Richard’s images accompanied by his jovial chat certainly demonstrated that he had achieved his goal.
The evening began with a variety of images from the different types of photography Richard had explored, these included macro shots, portraits and architectural images. His superb wildlife images were captured from several nature reserves and those once in a lifetime opportunistic shots whilst out and about. Whether it was a panoramic view of Cheddar Gorge or a time-lapsed milky-way sky, each photograph was accompanied by the story behind the image and how and why it had been captured.
Richard concluded his talk with a short film of shots that had given him a special experience and he explained how he felt photography and his love of being in the great outdoors had jointly helped his mental health. Through his dedication and planning Richard was able to deliver something for everyone in his very personal and ‘from the heart’ talk.
THURSDAY 17th NOVEMBER 2022 – COMPETITION judged by Mike Dales ARPS CPAGB
It was a pleasure to give a warm welcome to Mike Dales ARPS CPAGB who made his first visit to North Nibley to judge our second competition of the season. Mike, who is a member of North West Bristol Camera Club gained his ARPS distinction in 2008, his CPAGB Distinction in 2015 and has been a registered judge since 2009.
Mike judged the open print competition before the tea/coffee break and passed comment on the quality of the prints he had been presented with. The projected digital image competition subject was landscape. Entries for this competition must be of a landscape in the British Isles and the images entered stretched the whole of Great Britain from St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly to Tobermory in Northern Scotland.
Of the 22 prints and 42 pdis entered the winning images were:
PRINTS
1st place – Mike Smith – Hare Chilling Out
2nd place – Steve White – Blue with White
3rd place – David Brookes ARPS – Sainte Chapelle St Germer-de-Fly Abbey
PDIs
1st place – Steve Varman LRPS – The Lonely Watch
2nd place – Brian Wetton – Smallpox Hill in Mist
3rd place – Peter Whitfield – That Pier Again But ICMed
THURSDAY 10th NOVEMBER 2022
‘Yellowstone in Autumn and Winter’ – John Chamberlin FRPS APAGB MFIAP FBPE
John had been booked to give us a talk which unexpectedly fell inside the covid restrictions. As we were all locked-in and meeting via Zoom, he said he preferred to give his presentation face to face and the date was postponed. With life getting back to almost normal, a new date was fixed and at long last he came to North Nibley to give his presentation ‘Yellowstone in Autumn and Winter’.
John, who is a member of Bristol Photographic Society, started the evening off by introducing himself and saying how he had visited the club many years ago when it was known as ‘Cam and Dursley Camera Club’.
He explained that the majority of the images he was about to show were taken in Yellowstone National Park with a few others captured in the adjoining Grand Teton National Park and it was here where the show began. As John showed, The Tetons are an impressive range of vertical mountains rising above Snake River and the images taken in the Autumn showed the different shades of green, yellow and red of the aspen, cottonwood and conifer trees standing proud with this section of The Rockies framing them. Moving on to Yellowstone, not only did John delight us with the wonderful tree colours but also the incredible range of colours within the many geysers inside the park. The meandering water from the run-offs of these geysers captured in the early morning mist with swaying grasses, often covered in frost, in the foreground gave a haunting, mystical and almost primaeval feel to the beautiful tones of colour captured by John. He managed to take several images of Yellowstone inhabitants including bison, bighorn sheep and elk and even one lucky image of a grizzly bear running through the grass.
John has made several trips to this part of the world and has, through both luck and timing, captured the wildlife and ever-changing beauty of this most fascinating geological area.
THURSDAY 3rd November 2022 – MEMBERS EVENING
The first members evening of the season was presented by Christine Ryske and Elizabeth Restall.
Christine, who is also a member of Dursley and District PhotoGroup, demonstrated to Tyndale members the types of photographic activities she and other PhotoGroup members get involved in at their meetings. Her presentation, which was made up from contributions from PhotoGroup members, was split up into the different topics that have been tackled both as ‘homework’ topics during lockdown and ‘studio’ topics at physical meet ups post covid. The topics are chosen by PhotoGroup members and vary from Abstract to Portraits and from Bubbles to Light Painting. The topic ‘Lines from a Song’ was so popular it ran on for month, an image had to be taken representing the line of a song, when these images were shown, Christine asked the members of Tyndale to guess the song.
Elizabeth was one of nine members from Tyndale who went on an Applegates trip to County Cork in September. Her presentation was made up of members’ photographs taken whilst they were away. Before arriving at their hotel in Rosscarbery they stopped off at Cobh where some members visited The Titanic Museum. No trip to Southern Ireland would be complete without a trip to Blarney and although no one owned up to having kissed The Stone, they did take many lovely images of the castle and gardens. A boat trip was taken to Garnish Island and with its own microclimate, both the Italian and walled gardens were still full of summer flowers enabling the photographers to capture colour at its best. From the number of images taken in Kinsale it was obvious that the group thoroughly enjoyed their time spent in this colourful, historic port and fishing town.
THURSDAY 27th OCTOBER 2022 – COMPETITION judged by Ralph Snook ARPS EFIAP/s DPAGB
Ralph Snook is no stranger to our club, has visited North Nibley many times both as a judge and a speaker and it is always a pleasure to welcome him. Before the evening began Ralph said how nice it was to be meeting face to face and to be judging prints again after a two-and-a-half-year gap. Ralph, who is an accomplished wildlife and nature photographer, gave fair, detailed and constructive comments to each image entered into both the print and projected images competitions, it was obvious that he had not just given them a cursory glance but had studied and enjoyed them before arriving at the meeting.
Of the 18 prints and 34 pdis entered the winning images were:
PRINTS
1stplace – Don Grundell – Sweet Pea
2ndplace – Mike Smith – Jay
3rdplace – Mike Smith – High Alert
PDIs
1stplace – Steve Varman LRPS – Tree, caught in a Breeze
2ndplace – Steve Varman LRPS – Romanesco Broccoli
3rdplace – Mike Smith – Bee Nectarine
THURSDAY 20th OCTOBER 2022 – ‘Landscapes: Making the Effort’ – David Jenner
It was in October 2019 that we last welcomed David Jenner to North Nibley when he gave his talk ‘Night & Day Panoramas’. On his recent visit, his talk was entitled ‘Landscapes: Making the Effort’ and David, a passionate, creative landscape photographer, told us of the extremes he goes to capture an image that he is one hundred percent happy with. The beginning of the evening was taken up with David itemising a list of what he feels makes the perfect landscape picture, explaining each of the fifteen points in detail, these included composition, focal point and leading lines but he stressed that ‘Making the Effort’ was the most important of them all.
In order to achieve the best image that he possibly can, David gets up early for sunrises, stays out late for sunsets and always hopes that Mother Nature will be kind to him. He demonstrated this with several images of St Thomas a Becket Church, Romney Marsh. He arrived before sunrise and in his own words, ‘worked the scene’ by taking several images from different spots in the area. He felt extremely lucky that the mist had hung around giving his final shot the feeling he had set out to get. David stressed that when luck isn’t on his side he tries not to feel despondent, he lets it motivate him to return to the scene and try again and he demonstrated this with stunning night-time images of the old pier at Brighton.
By the end of the evening David had shared with us not only his wonderful landscape but also the maps, mobile phone apps, and photographic accessories he feels would definitely assist anyone wanting to take up landscape photography. His final comment was that he hoped he had motivated and inspired us to ‘Make the Effort’.
THURSDAY 13th October 2022 – ‘My Monochrome’ – Angela Rendell AFIAP
It was with great pleasure that we were able to welcome Angela Rendell AFIAP to our second meeting of the 2022-2023 season. Angela had been booked to give her talk ‘My Monochrome’ last year, however, as her talk is based mostly around prints and all club meetings were still being held over zoom, the presentation had to be cancelled. She began the evening by introducing herself, telling those present that she is an enthusiastic photographer with a passion in printing her images. She is also a historical costume maker, which compliments her photography and has enabled her to create a good portfolio of historical images. She emphasised that the purpose of her talk was to demonstrate how an image you would ordinarily dismiss, can be made into something to be proud of. Although Angela always takes photographs in colour, she feels that in some instances, monochrome images become more about shape and pattern and post processing a flat, lifeless, raw file can reveal great emotions and tell more of a story.
During the first part of the evening, Angela projected basic, untouched, out of camera images. She then described the processes she had taken to enhance them and then showed the final image she had created. The processing of a dull image of Gloucester Cathedral Cloisters made her final artwork into a winner and a quite ordinary sheep from ‘Adams Farm’ was suddenly transformed into a stunning handsome fellow.
After a twenty-minute break, during which we could view all her prints close up, Angela then explained with what and how she printed and mounted her images. Her many hints and tips on types of paper, ink and mounting board were well received and she spent quite some time answering questions from the floor.
All in all, it was an enjoyable and extremely informative evening.
THURSDAY 6th October 2022 – ‘Adventures with Alex’ – Alex Nail
At long last we feel comfortable enough with ‘covid’ to meet up again at North Nibley Village Hall and it was with great pleasure that David Brookes ARPS, Chairman of Tyndale Photography Club, welcomed our first ‘face to face’ speaker in over two and a half years. Alex Nail, a landscape photographer known for his mountain and wilderness images, travelled from Bath to North Nibley to give his talk ‘Adventures with Alex’ to the assembled members. In his introduction he explained how growing up in Peter Tavy on the edge of Dartmoor started his passion for landscape photography.
The first half of the evening was taken up with images and tales of his wild camping adventures in The Highlands of Scotland, both on solo trips and with him leading workshop groups. Over the years he has captured spectacular wild mountain panoramas under impressive conditions, in different seasons and very differing weather situations, this culminated in him publishing a book documenting the hours spent in the wilderness.
After a tea/coffee break Alex ‘took’ us to Drakensberg, the mountainous border region of Lesotho and South Africa. The area, probably unknown to many of us, is outstandingly beautiful with verdant green valleys and red coloured towering mountains above them. With the weather in the area changing from minute-to- minute Alex was able, over his several visits, to capture, apocalyptic clouds sweeping up over the cliffs and lightning bolts in massive thunderstorms. The dramatic night-time images with completely clear views of the milky way and the stunning early morning sunrise images were a delight to see.