So, he marches to his own drummer but unlike many who do this with a view to just gaining a reputation for being “controversial”, Ian backs this up with in-depth and practised knowledge gained through years in competing and judging in the London camera club circuit. On Tuesday, members followed his travels to India and Nepal, which both offer colourful and interesting photo-opportunities but what techniques could they learn from Ian for their next holiday abroad?

Both Ian and I use the 18mm-200mm zoom lens on our Nikons. It covers most situations and where desert sand and dust feature heavily, saves changing lenses and risking sensor contamination. But for his candid reportage and “people pictures” he makes excellent use of a wide-angle lens. We saw many great images of smiling local children mobbing the camera and Ian placed them to one side of the frame with the background tapering away . . . making full use of the deep inbuilt depth of field that the wide angle lens offers. With faces inches from the camera, this makes for high-impact images.
But, for me, the most interesting feature of Ian’s work is his love of low-key imagery with heavy contrast where he is happy, quite intentionally, to let shadows burn out and part of the image disappear into velvety darkness. “Shall I lighten this up?” said projectionist Larry of one frame. “No, take it down a bit more” said Ian ! By not showing everything, he makes your imagination wander into the shadows wondering what’s there. He focuses for the highlights and makes no attempt in post-processing software to call up “Shadows & Highlights” and extract detail from the gloom. This results in interesting and compelling imagery. Give it a try sometime.

Unlike the fast-moving Power Pointery, of which I am afraid guilty, Ian has a quiet conversational style, sometimes referring to a sheaf of A4 notes but with the accent upon WHY he made the image and HOW. Fewer and better images than many, less accomplished authors might offer and all the better for that. He delighted the eye and made us think. What more could we ask of him ? I thanked him for sharing his work and thoughts with us and the members gave him a warm ovation.

Another well supported and enjoyable evening with many extra guests to swell our numbers.

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

This was the first time that Paul, a member of Niton Camera Club and relative newcomer to the Island, had judged a competition for us and we soon became aware of his experience and expertise as he quickly got to grips with the evening’s entries. Paul is a relaxed and genial judge and this communicates to the audience who enjoyed his kindly and helpful critiquing of the various images.

As usual, these were presented as Class A and Class B with Colour and Mono Prints judged separately. Paul commented upon the high standard of the images and as the evening closed, the member’s generous applause for a job well done indicated that this would not the last time that he will be invited to come along and judge for us.

Results . . . .

Class A Colour

Storm Overhead by Barbara Springall – 9
Do Not Disturb by Pete Bridle – 8
The Lighthouse by Colin Maskell – 8
Masts by Colin Maskell – 8

Class A Mono 

Horses Ledge Luccombe by Bill White – 10
Lone Walker by Denis Wavell- 10
Tree in Water by Campbell MacFarlane – 9
The Old Railway Shed by Martin Sothcott – 8.5
Newtown Creek by Martin Sothcott – 8

Class B Colour

Market in the Andes by Rob Woodward – 10
Lands End by Karen Lynch – 9

Class B Mono

The Croft by John Roberts – 9
Birds Eye Stone by Rob Woodward – 8
Waiting by Karen Lynch – 8

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

The need to keep moving and follow the route places limitations on the scope of the photography in which coastal views from convenient stopping places and cliff top access featured heavily. That said, we were treated to shots of Ostriches along the shoreline and whales sounding inshore within range of a 400mm lens. This is a fearsome coastline, given a wide offing by passing vessels. Fifty foot breakers smash against huge rock faces to render survival if driven ashore almost impossible. If the sea doesn’t get you the sharks patrolling the bays almost certainly will.

Inshore of the coast road, the standing lenticular cloud that hangs below Table Mountain gave way to rocky scrubland broken by the occasional stand of massive trees with the yellow native protea adding a dash of colour to the scene. These attracted small birds to their nectar making an attractive nature shot. Families of Gibbons roam the highways, pester parked cars for food and render their usual destruction on wing mirrors and car aerials. The interface between tourists and local wildlife is not always harmonious.

Campbell explained that his photographs had not been taken with a view to subsequent viewing by any bar his family and they came up at three second intervals “as shot”. The inclusion of out of focus images and wonky horizons opened the door for ribald comments from some members, all of which bounced off the seasoned hide of our cheerful presenter and President. More worrying for the audience was the room temperature as the electric heaters failed to cope with the sudden cold snap as Siberian winds reached the U.K.

Our journey ended with images from the Game Reserve and Bird Sanctuary. It is difficult not to be cynical about the choreographed sightings of the larger animals, located and visited in response to the signals from their radio collars but it gives the punters the photo opportunities that they paid for and they depart happy bunnies. What can’t be controlled once you get there are elephants with their heads stuck in the long grass grazing. After a string of shots of its derriere one tends to lose interest. I am convinced that animals the world over do it on purpose just to wind us up.

Residents of the Bird Sanctuary were more accommodating and Campbell brought back some excellent images. One, in particular, with impossibly long tail feathers, stays in my mind. All in all, it was an interesting evening. Whether the area offers enough, photographically, to offset its security dangers (to be fair Campbell had no problems) is a matter for conjecture. My own choice would be Namibia and The Skeleton Coast to the North West of Cape Town for its sand dunes and blackened dead trees. Campbell received a round of applause for his efforts and for whisking us away to sunnier climes on a freezing cold night.

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

To put together a start to finish workflow presentation that combined pre-made and live “hands on” processing across both these two platforms was undoubtedly a challenge. Paul Tucker and Larry Darby were up for it and alternating as presenters, led the members efficiently and painlessly through from capture to editing, in both programmes, fielding questions on the way.

More work for them lies ahead as they are working on making this and other training material available for view as videos on our Club Website. Our thanks to them both for a most useful and interesting evening, after which the members showed their appreciation in the usual manner.

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

So how does a Club Challenge differ from a competition? Simply, that with no Judge, no Winner and no Points marking, interest and focus is not upon the quality and presentation of the finished image but upon the originality of the original concept at the pre-planning stage and its successful capture. Thinking outside the box and making it work photographically.

Members are invited, cajoled, or plain bullied, into offering their critiques of the prints or projected images submitted and a number of areas of common agreement were identified. In the originality stakes, there seems to be a pecking order of merit as to what the reflection was bounced off en route to the camera. Most obvious and, in consequence, lowest was a mirror, followed upwards by still lake water, glass encased modern buildings, wet sand and puddles, highly polished car bonnets etc. Not featured that night but often also used to effect, could be added car wing mirrors and reflective sun glasses. Urban night scenes in the rain with reflections of neon signs and light trails provided colourful alternatives.

One of the Club’s oldest and most respected members, Harry Bird, came back from Bermuda with a most interesting and unusual print to show the Members before the meeting closed. This was of Sting Rays in the beach shallows presented on heavy aluminium sheet. Taken in landscape format, this had been pressed, after printing, into a series of gentle vertical corrugations to give the effect of looking down through rippling water. An interesting new concept that found favour with many of the members.

And so ended a relaxed, enjoyable and thought-provoking evening. There were many excellent and imaginative images and much to be learned from them.

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

Justin’s approach to judging is kindly and tempered with evident sympathy for the problems faced by the entrants when faced with a difficult subject. He has been there, done it and is very much on the side of the author as the images come up for critiquing. Unlike many circuit judges who are out night after night, Justin just does this for us once a year and, in consequence, thoroughly enjoys himself. It shows and is contagious, his relaxed and conversational style creating a great atmosphere as the evening progresses.

The format is designed to produce one winner of the trophy and so first the best Print of Class A and Class B are chosen, then the best projected image in both classes. From these Justin then selects his Trophy Winner. Points were individually awarded to all entries as this was combined with the Fourth Monthly Competition for which they were recorded.

The Chairman, Dick Loaring LRPS, thanked Justin for dealing so well with the large entry and the members showed their appreciation in the usual manner. A most interesting and enjoyable meeting with a fine selection of top quality images in all sections..

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman  

RESULTS:

Justin Gordon Trophy – Light Orbs by Paul Tucker.

Colour Prints A Class

• Three Pronged Attack by Paul Tucker ( 9.5 )
• Light Orbs by Paul Tucker  ( 9.5 )
• Cold Light of Day by Barbara Springall ( 9 )
• Early Morning Mist, Hersey by Martin Sothcott ( 9 )
• Twilight by Campbell MacFarlane ( 9 )
• MSC Splendida by Peter Bridle ( 9 )

Mono Prints A Class

• Twilight Angler by Denis Wavel ( 9.5 )
• Going Home by Barbara Springall ( 9 )
• Midnight at the Oratory by Peter Bridle ( 9 )
• Pool Side at Night by Paul Tucker ( 9 )
• Night Fishing by Bill White ( 9 )
• Morning on the Thames by Campbell MacFarlane ( 9 )
• On Comes the Lights by Harry Bird ( 9 )
• After the Sun Has Gone by Harry Bird ( 9 )

Colour Prints B Class

• Old Shanklin by Karen Lynch ( 9 )
• Fireworks by Tony Lynch ( 9 )

Mono Prints B Class

• St. Micheals Mount by Tony Lynch ( 9.5 )
• Trees by John Roberts ( 9 )

DIGITAL  A & B Class

• Tree at Low Light by Campbell MacFarlane ( 9.5 )
• Lacock Abbey by David Vennings ( 9.5 )
• Yarmouth Pier Twilight by Larry Darby ( 9 )

The results of his labours were there for all to see on Tuesday night as, in addition to the projected slides accompanying his talk, Danny brought along a fine selection of mounted images for the members to appreciate and in my case, envy. He uses a Canon digital s.l.r with a 500mm f/4 telephoto lens on a sturdy tripod for most of his work and shutter speeds of around 1/1000 second in fast burst mode. Venues switched between the Island and Spain / Portugal for many of the raptors* where Danny keeps a property. (* birds of prey. derivation: Latin “raptus” seized)

The first part of the evening featured Owls and of the sixteen specie found in Europe, only four may be seen on the Island, the most common European, the Tawny Owl, not being among them. So what can you expect to see in our locality? The delightful “Little Owl”, the Barn Owl sweeping low across the fields at dawn and dusk in the hunt for its favourite prey, voles. The Long Eared Owl, with its vivid orange eyes and the Short-eared Owl. The “ears” are not ears at all, merely tufts of feathers. Take a trip up to Yorkshire and you may also be able to see the Eagle Owl that breeds there. Males can be distinguished by their darker plumage. Time then for a welcome cup of tea.

The smallest of the raptors is the Little Merlin, with a wing span of around a foot, that flies fast along the hedgerows trying to scare out small birds as prey. The highly manoeuvrable Little Hobby has been known to catch Swallows and Swifts in the air. More common and well-known are Sparrow-hawks and Kestrels with Eleanor’s Falcon a rarer sighting. The frequently seen Buzzard opts for a quieter life than all this flitting around preferring to sit on a post or grub around on the grass looking for worms ! If you have good sea-legs, Danny has been taking his Bembridge based Lochin 33 out to No Mans Land Fort for the last six years to capture images of Peregrines that have been nesting and breeding there. He has kindly offered to take a number of our members along in the future and our Hon. Social Sec’s. Vanda and Tracey will be arranging this together with a guided walk with Danny around his local habitats looking for Owls & Raptors.

In September, the rare and beautiful Osprey breaks its journey from its Scottish home to Africa, for two or three weeks, to visit Newtown Marshes something to note in your diary. At Porchfield, Danny has also photographed Red Kites and elsewhere the Black Shouldered Kite with its distinctive red eye. On Brading Marshes he also recorded a Marsh Harrier. At Chale’s Gull Cliff in August of last year he made a fine image of a Short Toed ( snake ) Eagle. Moving to Spain / Portugal Danny showed images as a grand finale of Booted, Bonelli’s and the impressive Spanish Imperial Eagles. What had the biggest wing span ? Young William came out to hold the end of the tape and Danny moved up through the species ending up with a vulture with a twelve foot wing span ! To date Danny has recorded 26 out of the 38 Raptors and is still busy adding more.

Our thanks to Danny Vokins for a most interesting and informative evening which was enjoyed by all.

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

Over the years, the Club has evolved the successful format of combining a tea and finger buffet, including member-contributed “nibbles”, with an audience judged knock-out of digitally projected images. Assistant Competition Secretary, Larry Darby pre- assembled them ready in Lightroom for projection in pairs. A show of hands was taken for each and the winner of the pairing was held back. Some high-level mathematics ensured that, like the cream in your coffee, the best eventually surfaced to the top.

A chance for Larry, as projector man, to be running the show up front and for us to benefit from his dry off-beat humour. Often at his own expense as he tried hard to justify some outrageously improbable pairings of images from totally different genres. Audience participation became cranked up and allegations of vote-rigging surfaced as entrants rallied support for their (officially anonymous) efforts. Adjudicator Paul Tucker attempted to total a sea of waving hands amid demands for re-counts from rival quarters.

Our Hon. Treasurer Martin Sothcott’s star was still in the ascendency as a Landscape of Newtown Creek, with an old anchor as foreground interest slowly moved up through the ranks. Obviously taken on the same day, it shared mood, sky and an interesting brownish overtone with his National Competition winning image of the walkway and boathouse. It looked destined to be the winner.

Coming up fast on the inside was an excellent image, probably taken at the last Island Ploughing Match, of a Tractor and Ploughman in the foreground with the furrows drawing the eye away into a great Island landscape. Why was Martin seemingly unconcerned as voting for this and his Newtown Landscape went right to the wire? You guessed it.They were both his!

I presented him, on behalf of the Club, with a very drinkable bottle of champagne, thanked Larry Darby for presenting such an enjoyable evening and the rest of the Committee for all their hard work through this, the first half of the club year and in particular Alan Rowe for manning the tea bar. The members responded with a generous round of applause for all their efforts, Alan opened up, the tea queue lengthened as, cup in hand, they made their way to a table groaning under a heap of savoury and sweet “nibbles”. No one went home hungry after a great club evening.

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

Our Club now has an active and happy group of approaching fifty members ( in number not age !) who provide financial stability and enjoyable company at our meetings and outdoor camera rambles. They would be envy of many other less fortunate Clubs. So what has this to do with Tuesday’s meeting?

If you were there, you will have already guessed. Our problem is dealing with the increased number of competition entries, within a reasonable time frame, in one evening. Finding that optimum balance between allowing members to submit a number of images and providing the visiting Judge with enough time to offer a worth-while assessment and helpful critique of each when viewing. To provide time for him to give a considered and encouraging judgement not just a snap decision and mark.

Faced with some hundred odd images and two hours, less tea break, to do it, Judge Brian Williams LRPS initially took it in his stride with the assurance that his wealth of experience provides him. He should have had a pinger-timer set to one minute or less to meet his brief and he deserved better. Unlike others, he omitted his life story or how his parents gave him a box-brownie at the age of three and got on manfully with the job. Faced with an uphill struggle his stride moved up to a canter and he coped wonderfully with the array of Prints and Digitally projected images. Camera Club Judges, like football referees, will never get it right in the eyes of everybody but few could find fault with his unerring eye for a good image and selection of worthy winners. Recently joined and younger members contributed some excellent images too which augers well for the club’s future.

Our Hon. Treasurer, Martin Sothcott, received a well deserved round of applause at the news that his image of the new walkway leading diagonally to the old boathouse at Newtown Creek, which had been runner-up in this year’s “I. W. Photographer of the Year” awards, had beaten some 2000 entries nationwide to take first place in the prestigious Landscape Section of the annual competition sponsored by “Wildlife World”. He has done himself and our Club proud.

In closing, I thanked Judge Brian Williams LRPS for his hard work and paid tribute to Larry Darby, Assistant Competition Secretary, for his time spent mastering the Club’s free new software for the screening of projected images, courtesy of our member Malcolm Young. This showed “Held Back” images in a panel rather than relying on the Judge’s memory when individually presented with the title, image and points awarded superimposed.

Apologies to our members for a long-haul session on economy class seats. It put undue pressure upon your derrieres as well as your patience and we will have to address this problem as a matter of urgency.

Next week is “end of term” and so we will move at a more leisurely pace as we celebrate the coming of the Christmas break. I look forward to your company and nibbles.

Kind regards

Dick Loaring LRPS Chairman

The camera was rested on the handrail of the walkway creating a dramatic result as you can see.

Martin said, “Once back on the computer I could tell it was a little bit special and with some dodging and burning I created the desired effect.”

Martin has entered this image in two competitions. Firstly, it was placed joint 2nd in the Isle of Wight Print of the Year, but more importantly was recently placed first in the Landscape category of the Wildlife Extra Competition. This competition had 6 categories and 2000 entries so an excellent result that won Martin a pair of Olympus 8×24 Binoculars. You can check out the competition results here.

If you would like to comment or congratulate Martin this is also posted on the club forum here.

Well done Martin.