News

1st  March 2024

In our Annual Battle with Melbourn last Thursday, we did well though sadly came very close second ;  but we did win the Colour Print section! Not so fotunate  in the Monochrome Print and the PDI.  The scores were as flollows:

Overall: Melbourn 425  Royston 421

Colour Print:            Royston 110; Melbourn 101,                                            with Peter Baker winning the category
Monochrom Print: Royston 105, Melbourn 110                                           Melbourn Image On the Forest Floor  was declared the winner
PDI                               Royston 206, Melbourn 214                                          winner of this category was Melbourn's Last Leaves

 

10-February 2024
In our latest  Competition - People PDI was rightfully won by Peter Baker with his stunning portrait of the 'Warrion Queen', in second place was a jolly seaside portrait of a group of young ladies on  Felistowe beach taken by Jitka Bryn  and a third palce was awarded to Jim Cromwell for his collection of portraits from Mill Road Fair. The winnng images can be viewed here

2nd January 2024
Happy New Year 2024! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas break and are eager to start again.
Belated Congratulations to Andy Fox for winning the Scape Competition and to Peter Baker and Jitka Bryn for their second and third place, respectively. You can find all winning images here

We shall start the New year with a practical night - using our home light boxes for macro photography.  The programme has been updated (check it out here) there are more fun evenings in store. Enjoy!

 

18th November 2023
the winner of our latest It's a Knockout Competition was a landscape image of a rainbow over the hills by Buttermere lake.  Taken by Jitka Bryn.  The runner up was Peter Baker with a very evocative image 'Path of Many Colours' taken in the new Canary Wharf passageway. The evening was enjoyable even if I had to vote against my own images on two of the rounds.  The competition had plenty of excellent images so hard choices were necessary.

10th November 2023
looks like I have not reported for some time - my apologies.

Yesterday we heard an informative talk by Kevin Pigney ARPS-DPAGB-ASINWP with some wonderful wildlife images projected as well as prints. Very enjoyable evening, where Kevin shared his approach for capturing these stunning images.

We have filled our half term with a pleasant ZOOM meeting discussing photo in recent competitions and the following week another ZOOM meeting instead of a wet evening in Cambridge (the wehather was indeed appaling) - a good substitute on a wet and windy night.

Our first Print Competiton  on the 19th October was very well attended with some exceptional images. The competition was won by Phil Gravett with an image of Siberian Huskies, in second place was Bob Coote's image of Speedy Horse Rider and in third place was a smile provoking image by Pat Flicker taken in a cow shed and called Head Above the Rest
you can see allwinning  images here

13th October 2023
It is some time since the last post and few club nights have passed.  The Royston Art Festival Exhibition was a good success with 399 visitors and  two images sold.  Visitors voted for their favourite image and BOB Coote's Thief Denied came on top with 31 votes.

 In our first competition of the season (Open PDI) Jim Cromwell won the first and third place with his images of Driving South and Fahrenheit 451, resp., second place was awarded to Jitka for her landscape image of Lake District Autumn Colours.

              All winning images images can be viewed here. 

Faulty software prevented completion of our first It's a Knockout Competition, but we had a pleasant evening anyway.  And it will be repeated soon. 

8th September 2023
Very pleasant social first night with good attendance. We are now getting ready for the Royston Art Festival Exhibition. Please bring your mounted images during the next two session.  For any queeries regarding the images please contact Andy Fox. 

31st August 2023
So our new Season is upon us.  Our first meeting is on the 7th September.  It was a long break, but we kept our activities going throughout the summer. We had organised outings to London, BMX biking, Shepreth Wildpark and Cherry Hinton Chalk pit.  We shared our best summer images on a ZOOM meeting - which was very well appreciated. And on the last week of the break under the watchful eye of Bob Coote we went to Paxton pits to photograph insect.  A very pleasant outing, thanks Bob!

1st May 2023
Congratulations to Phil Gravett and Peter Baker for getting their CPAGB award last month. Very well deserved! 
Also our last competition of the year (Open PDI) was a success with 48 images and worthwhile winners : Congratulations to Tim Somervell for winning with his Kestral Looking image,. Second place was won by Martin Johnson and third was awarded to Kirk Ritchie. You can see the winning images here

This week is our last gathering  with Speaker Tom Peck talking to us all about Portraits.   After there is the AGM on the 11th before the end of the year.   Hope you all had fun!

17th March 2023
Well praised and judged Macro and Cole-up Competition was won overall and with first two images by Jim Cromwell. Third place was awarded to Bob Coote.  You can see all the winning images here
The competition was judge with appreciation of the images and good comments by Ken Payne a member of United Photographic Portfolio - and you can visit the website for contact, information and tutorials here

Also big Congratulations to Bob Coote for winning the very prestigious PAGB Gold Medal in the St. Ives Inter-Print Competition for his image "Robber Fly with Prey". And here is the moment when he was presented with the medal by our chairman Peter Andrew last Thursday

           

13th March 2023
Fun evening with plenty of images for our second Knockout competition. Lots of lovely images and often a very hard to make a choice.  And the image which sailed through to win  was and outstanding capture of an Owl in Finland by Bob Coote. The second finalist was Peter Baker.  Congratulations to you both!
Next Thursday is our Macro-Close up Print competition - please enter your images for the competition onto Photentry by Tuesday and bring your printed images along on Thursday. 

10th February 2023   Our 5th competition with subject People.  39 images were presented and excellently judged by Jonathan Vaines, who delivered his comments with great observations and humour. Overall a pleasant and inspiring meeting, with plenty of  images with a fresh approach.  Well done to those who took part! deserved winners were 1st. David Waters, 2nd Peter Baker and 3rd Phil Gravett.  You will be able to see the images soon here
Also - our Exhibition in Tesco is now opened - and apparently very popular!
   
                 

29th January 2023
Our exhibition in Tesco will start next month.  Please bring your images, they need to be collected  on the 2nd February. Mounted in 50x40cm mounts with presentable white backing as per Peter's emails.

14th January 2023
Our first Competition of the year - Open Print had 46 images to be judged by Naomi Saul.  Congratulation to Bob Coote for winning the fist place as well s the great total of 59 points! The second place was awarded to Peter Baker for a Frog image. The third place was shared between Martin Johnson and ob Coote with images of 6- Spot Burnet Moss and Grass Track racing respectively. You can see all the winning images here

 

3rd December 2022
Well attended Scape Competition with plenty of entries.  The winner with 'Creating Calm' image was Peter Baker, and he also scooped a second place. Congratulations! London City skyscrapers featured also in David Waters's City Crush image.  The competition was excellently judged by David Steel, and the whole evening was very pleasant and very encouraging.  Next Week David Steel returns to give a talk on 'My Type of Photography'. 

26th November 2022
We had our first Knockout Competition  and it was fun.  Phil eventually mastered the software,  and the competition flowed well, with more than 100 images to quickly evaluate before a winner was chosen.  I got dissapointed that my image did not make it very far, as it clearly entertained the crowd. So I am posting it here! 
Otherwise - Congratulation to the winner - Bob Coote with his emotional image - Walking By.  Deserving choice from the audience!  My image of the Smiling Loo did not go very far, but it did make people laugh.  Hopefully there will be more of us for the next Knockout Competition!!

4th November 2022
It was a very pleasant evening with plenty of high quality entries for our second competition of the year - Monochrome Print. Thanks to the judge Jim Bennet for fair and to the point comments. And thanks to all who submitted their images.  The winner of the competition with his image Elvis Has Left The Building was Peter Baker . In second place was Martin Johnson with an excellent image of Running Sanderling and the third was awarded to Jim Cromwell for his image Happiness. There were 2 images with High Commendations for Peter Baker, Martin Johnson and Commendation for images from  Jitka Bryn and Peter Andrews.  As always you can find the winning images  here

21st October 2022
We welcomed two more new members last night and much enjoyed a talk by Justin Minns - Interesting Stuff

16th October 2022 
The exhibition in Tesco is on display now.  Thank you Peter.
Also the exhibition in the Museum is extended until the 6th November due to popularity.  Great News!

29th September 2022
Successful Exhibition for the Royston Art Festival in the Town Hall over the past weekend. People voted for the best like image and the winner was a picture from Andy Fox - Thornham Flood Tide with 34 Votes. People voted in the 2nd and 3rd place for  Peter Baker's images of  with Rolling Hills of Therfield with 27 votes and the Red Eyed Tree Frog with 21 votes. Congratulations to the winners!! 

25th September 2022
Two Exhibitions on the go!  The Royston Museum opened with Private View attended by members and supported councellers Fiona Hill and Ruth Brown and on the 16th September. The exhibition is opened during Museum Opening hours until the 17th October. So please visit and take friends.  

The Arts Festival Exhibition is currently on the way this weekend with 48 images and plenty of public interest. Well done all who contributed to the events! To see the images click here

Red Eyed Tree Frog - Peter Baker

Female-Meadow-Grasshopeper-Martin-Johnson

Linda Besin -Stripes and Bubbles

HC Female Meadow Grasshopper - Martin Johnson

11 September 2022
Welcome Back!! We had opened our season  on a very sad day - as we just heard the news of Her Majesty's Queen Elizabeth II passing. But there were task to complete and announcement to make and it was a long time since we have gathered together at the school for meeting, so it went on. We have welcomed two new members . Images for the Exhibitions (at the museum and for the Royston Art Festival) were displayed and collected. Peter Baker has lead our annual Quiz with a difference and it was good to brush up on our knowledge. So despite the sadness it was a good night and it is so good to be back!

 

18 July 2022 
We are now closed for the summer.  Have a nice holiday!!
Our new season will start on the 8th September 2023 , hopefully back in the School.  

On the 14th July the AGM was attended by 18 members on ZOOM.  We have agreed to shorten the season from next year, finishing early May 2023, and from in the following years in April.  Most of the committee was re-elected to their roles. Exception was Jitka who has passed the management of events to Phil Gravett. 

The topics for competition are yet to be decided so please forward your suggestions to Phil or the Committee.

4th June
A nice evening with Martin photographing butterflies and flowers on Church Hill on Thursday.  Not many of us there, but not surprising as it was one of the jubilee bank holidays. Still the hill has butterflies and they shall be probably even more visible if 2 -3 weeks time.  So make you way there and get some winning shots

   

19 May
Good turn out and excellent images in our last judged competition of the year. Big Congratulations to the winners, Bob Coote, Jitka Bryn and David Walters.  And many thanks to the Judge David Steel too.  The whole evening was run in a very friendly atmosphere, and it felt good to be together again in numbers. Also a warm welcome to our new potential member Kirk Ritchie.
For the winning images, click here

1st: Elk - Bob Coote

12th May
Very entertaining evening on ZOOM with Chris Shepherd  full of interesting images from London and advice  for Street Photography. It is amazing what you can achieve in a lunch hour! Thank you Chris!! 
Please note next week Competition will be in Foxton. Bring your images set up according to Phil's instructions on an email. 

5th May 
A successful Macro and Close up Competition with worthy winners, despite a difficult start. At the end the competition was help on ZOOM with 28 images being presented. It was judged by Alison Jenkins, who had plenty of time to give a good critique and advice how to improve the image. Some images did not need improving - like the winning image of a Fly by Bob Coote, or Red Eyed Tree Frog by Peter Baker who came second. In a third place the inevitable beautiful butterfly by Martin Johnson. To see  all the winning images click here

Winner Fly - Bob Coote

28th April
a  successful evening with Canon and Canson representatives  demonstrating new printers and what can be achieved on variety of photo papers. Lots of fantastic images laid out to see the differences according to paper. Discounts on printers  and free samples.  So shame if you missed the evening out.  I thank members of Melbourn Club for taking part and filling up the numbers. We all had a very pleasant evening.

8th April
another disappointing event with respect of attendance for our outings.  The weather was not playing game with very strong winds, so trip to Cambridge was cancelled. But only one person turning up for the Royston shoots?  That is really surprising and disappointing.  But here is an image from last year outing

pasque flower photographer

1th April 
on the 31st April we had our first face to face meeting for 2 years. Few of us gathered in Foxton Village Hall, but sadly lot of members were missing, either due to COVID or fear of it?  The venue is spacious and can be well ventilated, the kitchen facilities are good and tea, coffee and biscuits were provided by Peter A. Many thanks! We had a lively discussion and it was good to meet again. So please come for the next meeting on the 21st April!!

12th March 
We are getting ready to meet again F2F from the end of the month. The Venue for now will be in Foxton Village Hall and we shall meet at our usual time. The first meeting there will be on the 31st March - where we can discuss any new or (not so new) equipment and accessories.

3rd March
Excellent East Anglia Landscape talk by Harry Wheeler-Brand (Harrybehindthelens).  Great images and good tips  how to  achieve them and for location.  Harry is an ambassador for Lee Filters.  Also he published a quidebook to East Anglia coast - click here for more details.

18th February
Thanks To Glenys Garnett for an impressive talk about Creative Composites, taking us step by step on how to create some very exciting  photograpphic art from images and textures with Photoshop. Excellent presentation with lots of information and visual treats. You can learn more by visiting Glenys's FB page by clicking here

Winner of last week Open Competition was  Bob Coote with a lovely image of a Brown Bear in its natural environment. Second place was  awarded to Martin Johnson for a Female Chalkhill Butterfly and a the 3rd palce was won by David Waters for his moody evening landscape image of Skye. Altogether 40 images, not so well attended as previous competitions. But good images and judging and a nce evening.

28th January
A friendly (and a fierce at the same time competition) with our neighbour Club Melbourn.  The results were very close, Melbourn  with 416 points and Royston with 409! Easily could have gone the other way! Phil Gravett secured the 2nd place with 'Going...Going' image and we had several images with 20 points and highly commended 19 points. Peter Baker and Bob Coote and Martin Johnson were among the commended authors. Well done everyone!  It was an enjoyable evening. 

16 January 
Our entries to the Cambridge Interprint competition fared reasonably well - Phil Gravett scored 18 points with the image 'Collecting Nectar' in Nature, and 17 points were awarded to Jitka Bryn for the Citizen M spiral in Monochrome and another 17 points to Andrew Colgan for his Blue Diamond.  Overall we scored 82/100 points . The winner Club was Ampthill and District Camera Club with 91/100 points.

14th January 
our first competition of the year Movement and Motion was won by Phil Gravett with an excellent image of a surfer Going..Going...In second place was Bob Coote with a Running Coyote  and third place was awarded to Martin Jonson for A Black-Headed Gull landing. The images can be viewed on the competition Winning Images page here


First - Going.. Going... by Phil Gravett

8th January 2022
We have started the New Year with a wonderful presentation by Phil Gravett, full of african wildlife and human life he experienced while on a Safari with Bob Brind-Surch. It was a full house, so thanks also to all members and visitors for making this forst talk of the year a very pleasant experience.  So a big Thank You to Phil for the talk - from all of us!

2nd January 2022
Welcome back and Happy New Year

We
start 2022 online on the 6th with a part II talk from Phil about his trip to Africa. And hopefully we shall be meeting back in the school soon. Meawhile we have a competition on the 13th - Motion and Movement, and we hope for some excellent images from you all.

10th December 2021
great talk by Ian Wilson ARPS  about the workings of Flash with Camera and updating us with the new features in Adobe Lightroom and Camera Raw.  Good evening with members participation. We look forward to more talks by Ian in the future.

26th November 2021
Despite the delayed start we had an enjoyable evening and good discussion following yet another good presentation on the merits of DSLR cameras from Peter Baker.  Many thanks!  And now we are due for some similar on modern Mirroless cameras. 

12th November 2021
well, we came second in the Melbourn Trophy  against Melbourn, but there were some excellent images which merited full or high scores.  So Melbourn won witth 416 points against our 389.  Full 20 points were awarded to Andrew Colgan and Phil Gravett for the images of  'Blue Diamond'  and 'Collecting Nectar', resp.  So Congratulations to Melbourn and thanks to all who took part. 

Blue Diamond
Blue Diamond - Andrew Golgan
Phil Gravett
Collecting Nectar - Phil Gravett

23rd October 2021
Excellent and instructive talk by Peter Baker how to use Flash Photography at home and outside .  Many thanks it did bring a lively discussion making the evening very enjoyable. Please find the presentation and the summary of hints on flash photography under the Useful Links.

5th October
The first competition of the year - Open PDI - judged by Naomi Saul had 45 images. The first price  was won by Linda Besin with her image of Stripes and Bubbles. Second place went to Martin Johnson for his Two Male Chalkhill Blue Butterflies and in the third was a close-up of Bob's Hover Fly.  There were also highly commended images for Peter Baker, Andrew Colgan and Bob Coote. You can find the winning images here

First: Linda Besin -Stripes and Bubbles

11th September
Our first evening back , despite being on ZOOM was a pleasant start to the Year.  Friendly chat, an update with regards Covid and the possibilities of alternative venues was given by Peter.  We looked through the website and programme for the forthcoming months.  And then there was a Quizz with 20 questions and inevitable disputes about some the answers.  But good scores of 16-17/20 - not bad! And a lot of fun.  We toasted the start of the year with our own  glass of wine. And  hopefully, we shall be meeting back at the school soon.
Please note : our  Royston Arts Festival Exhibition will be on the weekend 25th-26th September in the Royston Town Hall from 10:30 am - 4.30 pm.

7th September
It was decided that due to the nature of our venue and increasing number of Covid cases, that is is safer to remain with our virtual meetings on ZOOM for the time being.  It is a pity - I myself looked forward to see you all  - but a sensible decision.   Nontheless - lets make this year as good as any!

31st August
Our school term is quickly approaching.  And we are asking members to give their view about returning (safely) to the school for meetings. Please give your answer to Peter ASAP.  \
If we choose to return to school our first evening shall be with wine, intro to the club  and quizz as normal. It would be great to see you all again for real!

Also prepare your images and send PDI's for the Royston Art's Festival Exhibition!

 

15th July

Congratulations to Linda Besin for winning the vote for the 'Most Improved Photographer of the Year'.  Her images enchanted us over the years and many were chosen as top images in several competititions, Well Done Linda!

Linda Besin - Peekaboo

 

14th June
and the winner of the POTY competition 2021 is Pat Flicker with an excellent image of a Blue damselfly. Here are the winning scores. Thank you everyone who  took part.

11th June
Thank you Bob Brind-Surch for a great talk to get us all thinking about histograms. I shall forward Bob's PDF notes to participants.
Members, please note that we swapped the last sessions - next week we have Phil to talk us through Focus stacking and look at some of our images.
The Print of the Year is now scheduled for the following week - the 24th June. 

11th April
Our Annual Exhibition is now displayed on the Royston & District Museum Facebook Page - please visit!
Alternatively you can view the exhibition directly here

1st June
Thank you to Mark Hughes - the Mayor of Royston and Amy Judd for taking part in the the Grand Opening Celebration of our Annual Exhibition.  Thak you everone involved in organising the exhibition and this event!

14th May
The last competition of this year - Horizons was won by a serene picture of Silky Bay  by David Waters. Congratulations!
True to himself Peter Baker was taken both the second and the third palce with his images of Dawn to Dusk (Cromer Pier) and No Company Needed -  a second image of the Heath three willows. There were highly commended images for H, Bob Coote and Lucie Wood. To view all winning images click here

Silky Bay - David Waters
 

10th May
Congratulations to Andrew Colgan for winning the Open Competition with his moody image of Blue Diamond. and being  the overall winner for that competition with full 60 points. Peter Baker gained  second and a third place with his images of  Well Balanced and On Therfield Heath. Bob Coote and Martin Johnson had their images of 'The Tackle' and 'Two Male Butterflies, respectively, Highly Commended

Blue Diamond
1st - Blue Diamond Andrew Golgan
2nd - Well Balanced Moment -Peter Baker
3rd - On Therfield Heath - Peter Baker

9th April
Our first outings after a long lockdown. We went to the Royston Heath Church Hill to photograph the famous pasque flowers. There are plenty there, and even though the sun did not smile at us, it was great to be outside and among friends and have something very special to photograph. An enjoyable start of the evening followed by a friendly ZOOM meeting where we shared our 'best' Landscapes. 

1st April 2021
Congratulations to PeterBaker for being awarded the LRPS;  a prestigious award of the Royal Photographic Society for his panel of 10 outstanding pictures.  Well Done Peter Baker LRPS!

20th March 2021
Congratulations to Andrew Colgan for winning the People Competition with his Image The Girl with a Pearl Earing.  Very well done! And also congratulations to Peter Baker for getting the highest overall score in the competition with winning the second (Hurrying to Lectures) and third place with his image What Might Have Been - see below.  For a larger format follow the link to Competion Winning Images

Also big Congratulation to Peter Baker war being obtaining the  LRPS award this month.  Very Well Done!

5th March 2021
Very successful evening with members panels. Plenty to show and discuss.  We particularly like Jenny's  'Time and Light'  Panel shown here.



Very well done!

20th February 2021
great talk by Glyn Edmunds about  Work and Wildlife in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Thank you very much for the stories so well illustrated by your images. We wish the Conservancy great success with all their project!

12th February 2021
41 images were entered to a challenging competition of Minimalism, judged by Daphne Hanson. There were First place was won by me! 🙂 with 'Enter Phsyche', in second place was Andrew Colgan with 'Emergence' and in third David Walters with a gentle image of a 'Snowdrop'  Linda Besins image  of 'Love is Love' was Highly Commended. There were 4 members with 52 points Andrew Colgan , Jitka,  Aitch  Dawes and Martin Johnson
To view the winning  images follow this link

27th January2021
the website is currently under re-construction - so for the moment there is no access to galeries . I shall do my utmost to rectify this soon

14th January 2021
Congratulations to Linda Besin for winning the Abstract Competition with a beuatifully colourful image of 'Different Kind of Rainbow'.  Second Place was awarded to Peter Baker for 'Making Scense' and third to Margaret Budgen for her 'Conch'. To view the winning  images follow this link .
Linda Besin

7th January 2021
Happy New Year! - 
wonderful pesentation by Colin Westgate - Expressive Landcape! What a great start to the year.  Thank You Colin. We shall call on you again!.

5th December 2020
in the last weeks we enjoyed two excellent talks via Zoom.
Slawek Staszczuk talk about Landscape Photography and how simple it is?? was refreshingly instructive and illustrated with many excellent examples of his work. We enjoyed the talk very . Thank you Slawek.

Alison Jenkins had shared her photographic experiences as a profession and a hobby and led us through a number of fascinating images and situations in which the images were taken. Many thanks to Alison, we have all enjoyed your talk.

7th November 2020
a talk about Prague with images from both Lucie and Jitka has seen us walking on the west side of the river. Second part of the talk will be in January.
here are 2 links to recent events in Prague - the end of the spring lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/01/czech-republic-scraps-face-mask-rule-as-prague-hosts-outdoor-party and riots in the Old town square last month when a new lockdown was introduced. https://youtu.be/oxFfZy130Gs. Turbulant time we are in at the moment.

October 2020
Seems that I have left a number of events to report on over the past month. so here is a summary.
We had a educational talk by James Brown on the 1st October - you shall find links to some of his add-on under the 'Useful Links' headings. on the 8th we shared some lovely pictures of reflections and had a pleasant discussion. on the 15th October the Mono Competition with about 54 great entries was wan by Andrew Colgan with an image of High Tide at Thornham. This was followed by a very interesting talk about his trip to Antartica given by Phil Gravett. and we concluded the month with a very enjoyable meeting where we shared our Autumn images.

25th September 2020
Good evening with a short talk Peter Baker -thank you! and lots of images from members together with useful information. Also our Landscape Photography group starts next week - so watch this space!

19th September 2020
our first Competition hosted 54 excellent images.It was judged on line by Pauline Martindale. Big Congratulations to Martin Johnson was awarded 1st place for a lovely image of a butterfly. For the winning images click here.

12th September 2020
JadeStaceyMaria - a fashion and beauty model shooting her own self portraits in abondoned location - had given an insight view of how to select, dress for and utilise the space and colours on locations. Interesting and fun first talk full of colour and remarkable places. Many thanks Jade!

5th September 2020
a very pleasant start to the season with good attendance. It was very nice to see us together again. But I missed the usual wine and biscuits. The annual quiz - was quite tough but we coped with the online way of presenting it and selected a worthy winner - Peter Andrew. Congratulations! Next week will be a a talk about modelling on location, and it should be good.

30th August 2020
Firstly many thanks to Melbourn for 3 excellent talks over the summer.
Now we are ready to start our new term with a fun Opening evening and the following week by a speaker all the way from Tbilisi on the 10th. Due to the time difference we shall start earlier then normal so please check the time!
So hope to see you soon on out Meet link -(provided by Phil).

29th July 2020
We have been invited to online meetings organised by the Melbourn Camera Club throughout the summer. We now had a second talk , this one given by Martin Patten. EXcellent talk giving inspiration and tips how to improve your photography in many disciplines. Thanks you Melbourn for allowing our members to participitate in these talks.

5th July 2020
So we had our AGM last Thursday - for the first time online. It may have put few people off, which is a shame, as there were important items to discuss. But overall plenty of us took part.
-Peter Baker was awarded The Most Improved Photographer of the Year. He had shown us in his presentation how to approach improving phototgraphy skills and we all judged from his work shown over the year that that approach works. Congratulations! - the award is greatly deserved.
-Horizons were chosed for Lucky Dip competition. Thanks Sue Sanders! Nice topic!
-Competitions - it was decided by show off hands that next Year Competitions will NOT take the form of POTY. Themes will be maintained and the best images shall be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
- Sadly we are very unlikely to have our first meetings in the next year in persons in the schools. You shall be informed about that closer to the time.

19th June 2020
Our last competition of the Year should have been in print but we did have fun viewing the images and voting on line for the Print of the year. It was won by Andy Fox with a great morning landscape of Shropshire. Linda Besin's great image of poppies against blue sky was voted in second place and in third place was Michael Smith with Sunrise - Southwold Pier. A Collection of great images, and a good attendance to the meeting Just a shame there were not more images entered.... The winning images can be viewed here

Shropshire Morning

AGM on the 2nd July. Please forward your nominations for the committee to Andy Fox and also theme suggestions for the Lucky Dip Competition with short description to Phil Gravett

29th May 2020
Yesterday we have been inspired by Peter Baker's excellent presentation 'Sourcing High Level Training' in which, based on quotes from famous people and illustrated by his own excellent work, he had shown us his dedicated approach to improving his photography. The presentation can be viewed here. Thank you for all us Peter!

22th May 2020
excellent set of images for our online OPEN competition. Congratulation to Andrew Colgan for winning the competition with a great image of the Diamond Lake Dusk, Bob Coote and Peter Baker for their second place. Third place was shared between Andrew Colgan and Martin Johnson. The winning images can be views here

Also Congratulation to Andrew Colgan for winning the Photographer Of the Year . Well done!
2nd was Bob Coote and in 3rd place Martin Johnson. And Peter Baker has risen from 13th in the previous year to a vey honourable 4th place. Congratulations to all!

 

20th May 2020
we have now had 3 successful online meetings kindly organised by Phil. So we are about and active. Also many thanks to Phil for organising judges for the phone and Open competitions. We learned how to use the online software and how to present. Also many thanks for Andy Fox for showing us his virtual exhibition and organising one to host our images. Next meeting is on Thursday 21/5 where we have the Open Competition and presentation for the POTY winner.

14th February 2020
Congratulations to Martin Johnson for winning the PDI Rivers and Estuaries Competition. Second place was awarded to Peter Baker and third to Linda Besin. You can see the images here

31 January 2020
Very enjoyable lecture from Chris Shepherd about 'Looking Local'. Good suggestions for locations and ideal conditions.
For your interest here is a link to e-PHOTOzine, where Chris is a moderator.

24th January 2020
Last night was an example how clubs should work. It was a very friendly and informative evening about various equipment and provided lots of opportunities for people to show their gadgets and ask questions. Thank you Peter Andrew for suggesting and organising this and thanks to Bob, Kevin, Phil and all others who contributed.

17th January 2020
the scape competition did not attract many competitors, but there were some great images on display. It was won by a seascape image taken by Jitka Brynjolffssen, second place was awarded to Peter Andrew for the Winter sunset over Awesbury and in third place was Bob Coote with Woodland Walk.

10th January 2020
What a great start to the year!  An excellent presentation by Justin Minns and great turn out. If you wish to see more about Justin Minns work or book a workshop with him, or purchase his book on Photographing East Anglia  visit his website 

20 December
We have rounded our up our year with a friendly - members vote competition, helped along by some mulled wine and mince pies - very nice indeed. The winning image from Pat Flicker was a very nice landscape from the Lake District.  Thanks anyone taking part - it was a very pleasant evening.  Now have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2020! See you next Year!

6th December 
Interesting and revealing talk and demos about what can current mirroless Olympus cameras do from David Smith (Olympus support Specialist)  Lots of kit to look at and handle as well as some fascinating demos - namely fast speed photography, in camera focus sacking and long exposures.   It is such a shame so many of the club members missed this talk . Here is an image straight from the camera using the long exposure for light painting. Click here for enlargement

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

24th November
excellent competition on Nature theme, won by Bob Coote. In second place was Peter Baker and third place was awarded to Tim Somervell. Here is the winning image. For all wining images follow the link to the Competition Winning Images page.

15th November
Interesting talk with lots of images from Paul Mitchel FRPS last night - teaching us to see what is out there. Many thanks. Paul runs work shops and courses so it is good to visit his website to see more.

1st November
Fun evening around Jubilee Woods with Light Painting. Sorry we missed some of the members - next time I shall provide a phone number so this doe not happen again. Here are some great images from from  Linda and  Lucie

13th October
Good evening with models Charlotte and Tracey for our Studio Night. Thank you both very much, and thank you Andrew for keeping the shoot organised.

 

28-29th September
The Royston Arts Festival is in full swing. Our Annual Exhibition is in the town Hall on these dates.

RPS Poster 2019

22nd September 2019
We had a good start to the season with  welcoming evening on the 5th, good talks about close up photography (Bob Coote) and how not to treat your cameras (Jitka) on the 12th and a open PDI competition with 50 great and varied images to show. Judge David Steel was very fair and entertaining - and Chose Bob's 'Dancer' as a winner, Jitka's 'Stork Conversation' as second and  Martin's 'Common Blue Butterfly' as third. 

Dancer

 

Stork Conversation 

 

Common Blue Butterfly

26th May 2019
The weather smiled on us during the Picture Hunt on the 23rd. Thanks Rhianna for organising the event and all those who participated. The Hunt was for:  flower, crack, up the road, repeat, point, low, colour and number. We shall review the images we took on the 6th June.

Picture Hunt 2019
Up the Road

 

Picture Hunt
Flower

19th May 2019
Congratulations to Bob Coote for winning the 'Life in the Extreme Cold'  Themed Panel with 60 points. Full scores were also achieved by Andrew Colgan (2nd) and Peter Baker(3rd). 

We had a very good Studio Portrait session on the 9th May with Clive Downes and two excellent models Luke and Tracey. Many thanks to all who helped and taken part.

4th April 2019
Several of our images were selected to be shown in the EAF Exhibition. Well done Bob, Phil and Andrew. And many thanks to Phil for organising this.  Here is one of the selected images from Phil

l

28th March
Congratulation to Sam Orchard for winning the open print Competition with an excellent portrait of a 'Dog and Bone' , Andrew Fox in second place with 'Dancing in the Dark' and Bob Coote in third place with 'Grass Track Racing'. Many thanks to the Judge Colin Strong.

The winning images can be viewed here

22nd  March
Warm thanks to Brian Human for excellent interactive lecture on Looking at Pictures.
Royston PS-Looking at pictures

Mobile Phone competition Winners: Excellent selfie by David Walters with "Fridge Raider", emotive B&W scenery by Andrew Colgan "Together At Infinity's Edge" and in third place was a dramatic shot of "Icelandic Sky" by Jitka Brynjolffssen 
The winning images can be viewed here

16th March 2019
Melbourn Battle: getting better with scores of 442 to Melbourn and Royston with 431 images.. Congratulations to Andrew,  Bob, Jitka and Sam for getting  20 points for their images. 

2nd March 2019
Thank you very much to Phil, Bob and Petr for their lectures on Lightroom workflow and printing.  We shall continue with teaching evenings in the future. I shall post  Phil's presentation here.

St. Ives Interprint External Competition
we scored 135 points and came 10th our of 29 clubs. Thank you everyone who entered and congratulations to all high scores! For more details click here

17th February 2019
I
nspiring evening on Phone photography delivered by Rhiannon.  We are all geared up now for the next competition! Thank you Rhiannon!

7th February 2019
Many thanks to Alice, Charlotte and Lisa for modelling during our Studio Night  last Thursday. Pictures to follow. Also many thanks To Kevin Richard and Paul for helping with setting up the studio lights.  The evening would not turned out well without their help!

 

1st February 2019
Excellent evening with Garry Nicholls Imaginarium.

Here are some Photoshop Instruction on the portrait work demonstrated:

skin retouch (003)

The Power of Grey

19th January  2019
Cambridge Interclub Competions: 
Excellent result  - we came 6th  with 36 clubs taking part.
Well done to the photographers entered for this competition particularly Sam and Bob for scoring 20 and the scores are below:

1 Sam Orchard-Jones - The Spots in a Box - 20 points 
2 Bob Coote - The Tackle - 20 pts 
3 Andrew Colgan - Hope Valley Sunrise - 16
4 Bob Coote - Wasp Drinking - 18
5 Neil Sumner - Safely Over - 16

Primary Colour Competition

Good competition with lots of entries and great images. Thank you everyone who took part

First place wass won by Martin Johnson with  the Blue Chamber
second was Neil Summer with Red Drop
in 3rd place was Linda Besin with Passage to unknown

Martin Johnson

 

Neil Sumner

 

Linda Besin

 

12th January - 2019

We kicked off this year with an excellent talk by Sam Orchard about Dog Photography.  Well done Sam and all the pooches which sat for you in your armchair and boxes!  Very enjoyable evening!

16th December

Last Thursday we held a very festive evening with mince pies and mulled wine.  Our members images competition of 16 prints was won by a good margin was Andy Fox with his image of Winter scene . We voted Bob's Fox into second place and a lovely image of the Load Mill by Peter Andrew was third. 

We had a great Christmas Dinner evening at the Banyers on Friday,  lovely atmosphere with good food and great company.  Hope we shall continue in this spirit next year

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, see you all in the New Year

                           

8th December

Christmas Dinner  on Friday the 14th December at the Banyers Hotel at 7.30 pm

1 December

Lots of wonderful images in our Macro Competition last Thursday. The Judge Howard King gave good explanations and reasons for the scores.

First and second place was awarded to Bob Coote and 3rd to Andrew Colgan. Here are the winning images

 

22  November

Many thanks to an spirited and entertaining talk about West Cork by Celia Bartlett.

Contacs for Celia's  residential workshops in West Cork:  on website or email .

 16th November

Fun evening with night photography. Long exposures and ghosting.  And we finished with a drink in the Banyers. Thanks everyone who joined us and look forward to see some photos from the evening.

8th November

Fun night with Studio Lights.  Thank you Terry  for modelling (again!) - and PJ for showing us how he put together his picture of a Lancaster Bomber in the sky.  Very believable!  We also had musical instruments to photograph and other objects. 

27 October

Many thanks for an excellent Talk by Justin Mimms last Thursday, lots of good advice and amazing images.  If anyone would like to go to one of his workshops here is a link.

20th October

Very good selection of prints in our Monochrome Competition on the 18th. Thank you all who entered and also Ron Tear for excellent judging.
The competition was won by Sam Orchard with "Spots In A Box", in second place was Andrew Fox with 'Clairvoyant and third place was given to Bob Coot  for his image of 'Grass track races. For the rest of the winning images  follow the link

.

5th October

Wonderfull images in our Open PDI competition yesterday. Thank you Alison Jenkins for judging! 

The winner of the PDI competition was Neil Summer  with 'Safely Over'

Safely over

Second place was awarded to Andrew Colgan for 'Contentment'

In the third place was Kevin Binks with  'How it Fell'

 

20th September

Great evening with lots of interesting objects to photograph in Macro. 

  

   

Images by Jitka Bryn

13th September

Really enjoyable evening with Ann Miles talking about Monochrome My Way.  Lots of useful information and some stunning photos. Thank you Ann Miles!

7 September

We have opened our upcoming year  last night.  We had the pleasure to welcome 3 newcomers, Linda, Karen and Lucy and hope that they will soon be active members of our club.  With wine and cheese, Sam's quiz, first showing of images for the RAF exhibition and updates about the club activities it was a very pleasant evening. Thank you all for coming.

3 August 

Please note change of dates for the OPEN PDI competition. It is now scheduled for the 4th October 2018.

23 June 

Still Life Photography RPS

and few words about some terms and photographers mentioned   Still life photographers.docx

21 June

Big Congratulations to Andrew Colgan for winning the Photographer of the Year this Year.  In the second place was Bob Coote and third place Martin Johnson. The competition at the top was very tight with just 4 points between the winner  and the second place.

18 June

We have had two Competitions since last post - sorry for the delay.

The winner of the Portfolio Competition was Bob Coote with 'Feeding Gannets' 

  
Second place was awarded to Andrew Colgan  for his 'Atomic Structure' Image


In the third place was Jenny Hudson with 'Are Buskers Just Rubbish'.

Are Buskers Just Rubbish 1

 

Are Buskers Just Rubbish 3

 

Are Buskers Just Rubbish 2

Congratulations to all three!!

 

The long awaited Curves Competition was won by Jitka Brynjolffssen with her Image 'Watch where you're going!'

Watch were you're going..

Second place was awarded to Margaret Budgen with  'Lunch Break'

And in the Third place was  image of 'Horseshoe Bend' by Katryn Watson 

5th May

Our last competition on the challenging theme of Abstract was won by Andrew Colgan with his 'Royal Exchange' image. Second place was awarded to Martin Johnson with a colourful image of 'Petrol on Water' and Boob Coote's triptych of 'Corrosion' received a third place. 

14th April

We had a good practical night aiming for abstract (or non) photography with flowers. Thank you Rhiannon for organising the event and Terry for opening up!

11th April 2018

Bishop Stortford Multi- battle  had a strong showing and  Royston came joint 2nd with 181 points!.
In the PDI round we came joint 3rd with Bishop Stortford in first place.  In the Print round we came joint first with Saffron Walden.

It was little surprise that Bishop Stortford won the competition with 185 points having been joint first at the Cambridge club digital competition.

Congratulations to our photographers and the scores are below:

Prints - Score - 90
Fowlmere Gold - Andrew Fox - 19
Ogwen Valley, Snowdonia - Kath Watson - 20
Lesser House Fly - Bob Coote - 18
Winter Sunrise on Over Owler Tor - Andrew Colgan - 18
A Dash from the Pool - Sam Orchard Jones - 15

PDIs - Score - 91
Hungry Gannets - Bob Coote - 18
Do Not Disturb - Lyndsay Lees - 16
Me and My Dad - Sam Orchard Jones - 17
Hope Valley Sunrise - Andrew Colgan - 20
The Jewel in the Grass - Martin Johnson - 20

The judge was Dr Roger Winter

 

26th March 2018
Open Print - excellent competition with  lots of entries and 11 images  receiving a full score of 20

Congratulations to the Competition Winners!

 Winner - Andrew Colgan

2nd place - Bob Coote

3d place - Sam Orchards

 

 

7th March 2018
In the EAF Print competition we did not make the first 15,  but finished 20th from 29th entries. Alan says: Plenty scope for improving! Please look under the EAF tab  for the results tables.

2nd March 2018
Please note that the Curves PDI competition has been rescheduled for the 17th of May

1st March 2018
St Ives Interprint 2018
The St Ives competition was held yesterday and Royston PS finished in 20th position with 28  clubs taking part.  The winners were Cambridge CC with 142 pts,  2nd - Ware and DistrictPC  -140 pts  and 3rd - Norfolk PG with 139 pts. for full  details please click here

Our images scored as follows and congratulations to the members taking part:
Manos – Sam Orchard Jones – 15
Foggy Trees – Richard Schramm – 16
Hungry Gannets – Bob Coote – 16
Guggenheim Detail – Alan Linsdell – 16
The Connection – Andrew Colgan – 15
Just One More Cigarette – Richard Schramm – 15
Reflected – Andrew Colgan – 15
Fowlmere Gold – Andrew Fox – 17

 

13th february 2018
THE EAF competition in summary
37 Clubs from around 200 registered with the EAF entered the competition.  After number of years RPS entered this competition again .
We entered 25 PDI images, our first 15 into the first round of the competition.  At the end of the first round we were in 15th position with 171 points, shared with Norwich & District PS.  So we missed the final round by just 1 position or 3 points.
We did really well! for a small club with limited experience in this type of competition.  Read more here

EAF PDI Championship 3rd Feb '18
The winning images from the EAF PDI competion 2018 can be viewed here

 

1st February 2018
The Mobile Phone Competition held on the 1st February 2018 featured 36 great images. Many thanks to Adrian Stone for excellent judging.  The winner was Terry Hartga with Night Time Transit on the Shropshire Union Canal

The second place was awarded to Andrew Colgan for The Royal Exchange

Third place was awarded to Rhiannon Maslem for The Lads. All enlargements for the winning images can be viewed here

 

18th January 2018
The Landscape Print Competition on 18 January was well attended with great selection of images. The winner was Andrew Colgan, who also received second place. Third place was won by Kath Watson . To view the enlarged images please click here

1st place: Andrew Colgan -  Winter sunrise Over Owler Tor           

2nd place: Andrew Colgan - Hope Valley Sunrise

3rd place: Kath Watson  - Ogwen Valley

 

Recently we celebrated the Clubs 30th Birthday in the presence of the Town Mayor, Councillor Vera Swallow. An Article about the event was posted in the Royston Crow 18th January edition .
To view photographs from the event, please click here