PAGB Interclub PDI Championship Warwick 14 July

The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain hold the Interclub PDI Championship at The Arts Centre at the University of Warwick on Sat 14th July 2012 starting at 10.15am.

Two clubs from each of the Federations, together with the top 10 placed clubs from the 2011 Championships will compete to find the Champion Club for 2012.
Admission is by pre paid ticket only.

An application form is well hidden on page 7 of the PAGB news in this link.

Southern Marsh Orchid June 2012

Dactylorhiza praetermissa

On a trip out with the Leicester and Rutland Gardens Trust Research Group to Long Close Garden in Woodhouse Eaves.

What an amazing place, and planned on the only dry day for what seems like the last month.

The main aim of our group meeting seems to have been to decide what salads and chocolate cakes are best for picnics as well as to visit the incredible flower meadows which form part of John Oaklands stunning 5 acre garden.

We were tasked with counting the orchids and reached totals of over 200 in the first meadow, which is carefully managed for its wild flowers.

The difficulty was getting in close to one on what was very wet ground.  I was using my 90mm Tamron  f2.8 Macro and Nikon D700 on a Slik Tripod with a remote release.  The top picture is a stack of three images set at different foci.

Below is a single shot at f6.3, 200th sec, ISO 200.

The garden at Woodhouse Eves is open under the Yellow Book Scheme.

Long Close, Main Street, LE12 8RZ.

Midland Counties Photographic Federation Photofolio Exhibitition

Photofolio is an annual exhibition hosted by Smethwick Photographic Society at The Old School House, Oldbury.  It is organised by The Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF).  Burton PS is a member of the MCPF.  All of the individual county federations join into the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB).

Sunday 10 June was also the AGM of the MCPF, and I took the opportunity to see the exhibition and attend the meeting.

Individual clubs are allowed to submit 20 printed images and 20 projected digital images (PDIs) to go into the selection process.  The images are scored by three judges who can each give a maximum of 5 points.  So the most an image can score is 15 and the acceptance mark for the exhibition is 12.  I was a helper at the judging day and was amazed to see the judges rattling through the pictures looking at each one for less than 8 seconds.  To get selected an images has to have instant impact and no distractions.

BPS Mono Acceptances:

Adrian Halford - Tall Ships and Tower Block and Paws For Thought (HC)

Pip Wheatcroft - The Viking





BPS Colour Acceptances:

Ralph Duckett - Honesty

Robert Belcher - The White Room

Sandie Holyland - Hellebore and Evening Stroll through Dunes

BPS PDIs Acceptances

Jacqui Davey - In Flight Club

Pip Wheatcroft - Surf Action and Woodpecker in Rain

Robert Belcher - Early Light on Rocks

 In the MCPF AGM, Ralph Duckett, our outgoing BPS President, took over from Judith Parry as President of the MCPF.

The exhibition is the best of the work comming from each club, so to even be chosen to represent your club is an honour.  The accepted PDIs were set to music and shown, simply stunning.  The variety and quality of work on display  was breath taking and inspirational.

I would encourage all photographers to visit these exhibitions if they have a chance. Look at the hard copy of these images, assess print quality, be swept away by the PDS and share a thoroughly enjoyable day with like minded folk.



LRGT Web Site June 2012

I'm a committee member of the Leicester and Rutland Gardens Trust and do the photography for them.We have an annual celebrity which raises funds for our Schools into Gardening Fund.  Chris Beardshaw did a great job last year.

With some of the funds raised we were able to organise a trip to Kelmarsh Hall in Northampton for children from Belgrave St Peters C of E Primary, and I was there to record the day.  Pictures were to be used for our web site and for a record for the the school and Kelmarsh.

Kelmarsh is a special place, from the web site
Built for the Hanbury family in the 1730s by virtuoso architect, James Gibbs and builder, Francis Smith of Warwick, Kelmarsh Hall was praised by historian Nikolaus Pevsner as, “a perfect, extremely reticent design, done in an impeccable taste.”

One other arbiter of fashion to leave her mark on the Hall was Nancy Lancaster. Drawn by the house’s fine bone structure, her taste for combining comfort with formality set the trend for the Twentieth Century’s Country House look.

Her spirit still pervades the house today in the delicate terracotta colouring of the Great Hall, the exuberant Chinese wallpaper and seasonal flower arrangements.

Well, a great time was had by all and we felt it was well worth the effort.  Kelmarsh had kindly waived their fee for the day, the kids seemed to enjoy it as did the old uns.
I wanted to take pictures that did not concentrate on individuals and were more abstact. We had permission to photgraph all except one child which made life a little more challenging.

Image processing for the web page is very different and here's the layout

I make up the blocks of images to hold the text in place, separated by white borders

These are 194px by 574px, so low res but you do need good quality to start with.

I particularly liked this one, which seemed to sum up the day.

Here's the link to the page