Thursday 30th January saw the results of the Second Open PDI competition.

Our judge for this event was Peter Walton from Durham Photography Society. Peter had been a police forensic photographer and a professional wedding photographer before retiring to concentrate on competition judging.

There were 38 entries and as is normal there was a wide range of subjects and themes. Peter adeptly reviewed the images and explained his opinion of each one, often from the perspective of the photographer.

Many thanks to Peter for his judging skills, to all who entered images, and well done to all who were placed or received highly commended.
 
The results (five placed images and five highly commended) were are follows

1st       Dent de lion                   Julia Robson
2nd      Playtime                        John Ridley
3rd       Joey                                Bob Finlay
4th       Thrust Two Mouse       Alec Cowley
5th       Garden Window            Peter Moody
 
Highly Commended

The Path Through Blue Bell Woods        Jim Meikle
Volcano Island                                           John Ridley
Bird not on a stick                                     Paul Dunn
Red Deer Stag                                            Bob Finlay
Golden Tresses and Balloons                 Bob Finlay


The top 5 images can be viewed…..(HERE)


Iain Chambers (PDI Secretary)

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Exchange visit to Gosforth CC

Last evening (28th January) Cramlington CC were warmly welcomed by our friends at Gosforth CC for our exchange visit to their club venue at the Duke of Wellington Pub on Kenton Lane.

Cramlington gave presentations by 3 club members, Derek Parker, Colin Livingstone & Alec Cowley.

First up was Derek who showed some of his stunning prints, mostly bird life, taken on his many trips to far flung locations around the world, whilst regaling the audience with the odd amusing ‘anecdote’. Reaction to the quality of Derek’s prints was plain to see. Even the problems with a temperamental easel didn’t put Derek off his stride.

Second up was Colin who explained the use of ‘nodal points’ in calibrating lenses to best capture panoramas. A topic Colin has had an interest in for some time.  He used both still images, video and practical demonstration to aid his presentation. This proved a topic of great interest to the audience.

Alec followed with his forte, AV’s.  After a brief explanation on how he constructed them Alec showed 3 of his favourite AV’s. Images of Newcastle by night and Aircraft, one of Alec’s passions, with beautiful transitions and stunning sound tracks. All to the delight of the assembled audience.

Colin finished off our presentation with a series of images from various locations around Newcastle in which he amalgamated or ‘morphed’ old images taken in Victorian times and earlier with images taken currently by himself. This showed how many buildings or parts of buildings have been retained.

It is safe to say that Derek, Colin & Alec did Cramlington CC proud and the response from the assembled Gosforth members showed that the visit had been a resounding success.

Can I say a big ‘Thank You’ to our hosts, Gosforth CC for their warmth and friendship that made our visit all the more enjoyable.

A copy of the ‘Thank You’ card we received from Gosforth CC is shown below.


Bob Finlay (President)

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Winner 'Cheese Board'.  Janet Leadbitter
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Runner Up 'Little Snack'.  Julia Robson
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Joint 3rd 'Coffee Break'   Pauline Wilson
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Joint 3rd 'Slices'  Janet Leadbitter

2nd Open Print Competition
Tonight (9th Jan) saw the results of the seasons 2nd Open Print Competition judged by Nigel Bradley, from Ryton Camera Club.
 
Nigel explained that when judging prints he placed them all out in his front room and viewed them over a number of days at different times and lighting conditions. He also asks the opinions of other members of the family before coming to a final judgement.
For today’s competition Nigel said that the standard of prints were very close making his job of judging difficult but that there could only be one winner.
Firstly Nigel provided his comments on the mono prints followed by the colour prints providing his suggestions where the prints could be improved and the areas of the prints which he liked.
Tonight’s congratulations go to Adam Burness for Alex (mono) and to Jim Meikle for Harvest Mouse (colour).

At the end of the evening Nigel was thanked for judging the competition and received a round of applause from the members.
 
A full list of the prints 'placed' and' highly commended' are shown below. To view the images, both colour and mono click ...(HERE)
 
Paul Dunn 
(Print Competition Secretary)


MONO

1st    ‘Alex’                                            Adam Burnes
2nd   ‘The Aliens are Here’                 Alec Cowley
3rd    ‘On the Dark Side’                      Pauline Wison
4th    ‘Looking for the Sun’                 Jim Meikle
5th    ‘Unseen’                                      Paul Dunn


HC   ‘Rich Boys Toy and the Sage’    Alec Cowley
HC   ‘Dahlia’                                          Pauline Wilson
HC   ‘Setting Sail’                                 Bill Leadbitter


COLOUR

1st   ‘Harvest Mouse’                          Jim Meikle
2nd  ‘Bush Cricket on Kingfisher’       Derek Parker
3rd   ‘Flying Scotsman’                       Alec Cowley
4th   ‘Frog on Spadix’                         Jim Meikle
5th   ‘Contemplating’                          Pauline Wison


HC  ‘Mountain Stream’                      Jim Meikle
HC  ‘Upstairs & Downstairs’              Tom Wilson
HC  ‘Halong Bay’                                 Paul Dunn
HC  ‘Grey Backed Camaroptera’       Derek Parker
HC  ‘Old Shed’                                     Paul Dunn