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Our judge on the evening was Chris Palmer and there was an embarrassment of riches for him to choose from. The results were: Colour John Boteler Misty Forest First Nigel Finch Coming into Land Second Terry Carpenter Communication Old and New Third Peter Warrington Becalmed Highly Commended Ian Bray Noxon Pond Highly Commended David Belcher Speedway Action Oxford Highly Commended Peter Marshall The North America Nebula (pink) Commended William Hall Morning Hare Commended Dave McKay Monks Kick About Commended Keith Worthington When the Dancing Stops Commended Monochrome Sandra Devaney Smile Please First Helen Stewart Studio Model 2 Second Sandra Devaney Flat White Third Jill Bain Staircase Highly Commended John Boteler Fisherman’s Hut, Dungerness Highly Commended Philip Joyce Cardiff Highly Commended John Boteler The Traveller’s Hat, Stow Gipsy Fair Commended Ian Bray Jubilee Pool Commended Dave McKay Hornstrandir Commended William Hall Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris Commended

Last week’s meeting Tues 4 February: I Also Fight Windmills – Ania Ready Ania is a former OPS member who is a photographer, a publisher and a mother. She now has three children and has moved to rural Oxfordshire. She had been researching the life and work of Polish writer Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska (1872-1925) after coming across an archive of her work. This led Ania to a seven-year research project which involved reading hundreds of manuscripts in English, French, and Polish, and travelling to rural Poland, Krakow, Lviv, Paris, New York, London, and Wotton-under-Edge to piece together the writer’s life and produce a Literary Photo Book on Sophie’s life and work.

Last week’s meeting Tues 7 January: Astro-photography with Gareth from LCE Gareth took us through the ins and outs of astro-photography. He had planned to have us trying out some of the techniques but unfortunately it was too cloudy to photograph anything in the sky.

1. Last week’s meeting Tues 7 January: Round two of the Rosebowl Competition And the result was: 1st with a score of 272: Oxford Photographic Society 2nd with a score of 270: Pinner Camera Club 3rd with a score of 264: Harpenden Photographic Society 4th with a score of 258: Northfields Camea Club It was a high scoring competition and a very tight finish with Oxford and Pinner neck and neck before the appropriately titled ‘Bailey on the Charge’ photo by Dave Belcher pipped Pinner at the post.

Last week’s meeting Tues 7 January: Phil and Pete’s Show – Planes, Trains and Imbeciles Before the presentation we were treated to an old (no one admitted how old) photograph of our two presenters in a very Chas and Dave pose… and they duly started to ‘rabbit’. First up was a digital version of a colour ‘slide’ audio-visual presentation about a train journey to and from Gatwick airport. No ordinary passenger journey but one in the driver’s cab.

Last week’s meeting Tues 10 December: Projected Digital Image No. 2     Our judge was Colin Mill and the results were: Commended John Boteler – Misty Forest Dave Atkinson – Cub in the Meadow Pete Warrington – Black Light, Bexhill on Sea Dave McKay – Traditional Fishing, Cao Bang Highly Commended Dave Stroud – Greater Flamingo Dave Atkinson – Red Squirrel Snacking in the Snow Pete Warrington – Into the Bleak Wood Third – Dave Stroud – Avocet Second – Keith Worthington – Cheetah Cub has strayed First – Dave Stroud – The Elephants of Amboseli Many congratulations to all who entered the evening’s competition

Last week’s meeting Tues 3 December: Intimate (Land)scape explained with Adrian Cubitt and members’ Show and Tell    Adrian took us on a search for the mythical and illusive beast that is the Intimate (Land)scape genre. All this was in preparation for the Intimate Landscape competition run by Tring and District Camera Club. Some 14 camera clubs have enrolled in this competition which “celebrates the creativity and variety of images that the subject ‘Intimate Scapes’ inspires”

Last week’s meeting Tues 26 November: Wildlife for all Seasons with Robert Harvey Roger organised his presentation around the four seasons starting with winter. He shoots most of his wildlife subjects with a 400mm or 600mm lens. For Roger birds look their best in winter and if you feed them in your garden and strategically position perches you can get incredible shots of them with pleasing backgrounds. Thanks to the winter light and staging he had a beautiful shot of an iridescent starling, a bird that is so easily underrated as a subject. Chaffinches tend to hover before they settle on a bird feeder and setting his aperture at f/8 and shutter speed at 1/2000 of a second he got a pin sharp shot of the bird in midair.

Last week’s meeting Tues 19 November: Out of Africa with Helen and Keith Helen and Keith gave us a fascinating and informative presentation about not only photographing the wildlife of Kenya and Zambia, but also the habits and behaviour of the wildlife they photographed.

Last week’s meeting Tues 12 November: Sorrow, Dawn Rogers This was an extremely moving presentation. Not surprising given that the subject matter was Dawn’s grieving process of losing her brother Geoff, who was in his early 20s when he died. The timing made the evening poignant as the anniversary of his death was the day before.