Wincanton Camera Club

Welcome to the new-look web site of Wincanton Camera Club!

Please come in and browse. Latest news and updates are here on the home page.

As always, new members are most welcome. If you think you might be interested in joining us please come along to one of our meetings, or go to the Contact us page if you just want to get in touch with us.

Some views of Wincanton are shown to the right.

LATEST NEWS


HAPPY NEW YEAR!


DIGITAL PROJECTED IMAGE COMPETITION

After the trials, tribulations and cancellation caused by the recent snow we finally managed to hold our dpi competition on 20 January. This was also our first meeting of the new year and there was a good turn out.

We invited three of our colleagues from Gillingham Photo Group to act as our guest judges for the evening, and thanks go to them for their efforts on our behalf. The format was familiar to those who watch sports such as gymnastics; each judge had cards numbered from 1 to 5, and they had a few seconds after viewing each image to assess its worth and show the appropriately numbered card. Our chairman had equally few seconds to do the sums and call out the score for the competition secretary to record. Phew! All the while the sequence of images, and there were more than fifty of them, kept rolling so the (light hearted) pressure was on. All concerned managed to maintain synchronisation and arrive simultaneously at the final image.

We had intended to pick twenty five of the images as our entry for the WCPF dpi competition. However, having had to cancel our meeting on 6 January, we would have missed the closing date had we waited until now. Therefore chairman Jim Eastaugh and competition secretary Tony Cole had previously selected the images for our entry, and now they revealed their choices. Their judgement was vindicated as many of their selections turned out to be high scorers on the night. We wait with interest to see how we do at the WCPF.

For anyone interested in attending the WCPF event it takes place on 14 February. Further details are available by clicking here.


BRITISH HERITAGE COMPETITION

The images from our British heritage competition are now available to view by clicking here.

On November 27 we had our annual competition with Gillingham Photo Group, with British Heritage as the theme. Gillingham was the venue this year. Our secretary, Lachlan Fraser, wrote about the evening for the Blackmore Vale Magazine, as follows;

The club travelled to Gillingham for an inter-club competition with the subject 'British Heritage', judged by Brian Tarling. Wincanton won the first round, showing prints, by 165 points to Gillingham's 160. Top scorers were Rob Cochran's 'Afternoon Tea', Amanda White's 'Stonehenge', and Tony Cole's 'Chelsea Pensioners' - all with 18 out of 20. The lead was extended in the projected image round which Wincanton took by 176 points to 169, giving Wincanton an overall victory by 12 points. Highlights of this round were Lachlan Fraser's 'Steam at Corfe', scoring a possible 20, the highest mark of the evening, Roger Lush's 'Railway Heritage', and Jim Eastaugh's ' Carnival', both with 19 out of 20.


AUDIO VISUAL (AV) EVENING

25th November was an AV evening. For some of us it was our first attempt at putting together an AV presentation. For those novices it was really instructive to observe our colleagues skill at putting together an attention grabbing sequence. It was your correspondent's first effort in this field; having discovered how many hours work is needed to produce a mere 7 minute sequence I now understand why it takes so long to make a movie!

Jim Eastaugh produced two sequences from Cornwall. Roger Lush's presentation was a little closer to home, being a portrait of Somerset through all four seasons. Lachlan Fraser showed us the road to the isles in Scotland, while Rob Cochran and Amanda White crossed the Atlantic to bring us views of San Francisco and Alberta, Canada, respectively.

This was a really enjoyable evening, not only for the technique on display but also for the fascinating content of each AV sequence.

Some of these sequences are available to view by clicking here.

BRADFORD ABBAS SHIELD

It was Bradford Abbas Shield time again on Tuesday, 27 October. As is the tradition Sherborne/Bradford Abbas Camera Club played host to South Petherton Photographic Society, Yeovil Camera Club, ourselves and, for the first time (replacing Gillingham Photographic Group), Yeovil Photo Group.

This year, instead of prints and projected images, each club submitted 8 prints. Having won the shield last year we were hoping for an honourable defence of our prize and, after yet another very close contest, we were delighted to come out on top. We edged South Petherton into second place by the enormous margin of 1 point (the same as last year if memory serves).

Thanks to Sherborne/Bradford Abbas for hosting the event, and to the judge, Harold Jenkins, of Bridport Camera Club.

Chairman Jim Eastaugh (left) receives the Bradford
Abbas Shield from the judge, Harold Jenkins.
(Picture courtesy of Sherborne/Bradford Abbas Camera Club)

BRITISH HERITAGE

Hot on the heels of the Bradford Abbas Shield (the very next night in fact) came our second internal competition of the season. The theme was British heritage, and it's a harder subject than it might seem at first! 19 prints and 20 projected images made up the entry for the deliberations of our judge for the evening, Tony Marriott of Yeovil CC. A good evening was had by all, particularly those who achieved a maximum score for an image, Roger Lush, Tony Cole, Ian Wallis and Rob Cochran.


2009/10 PROGRAMME

The programme for 2009/2010 can be seen here.


FORTHCOMING MEETINGS

Feb 3: internal competition; theme, rural decay
Feb 17: where is it? competition


COMPETITIONS

Subjects for the club's internal awards qualifying competitions for the 2009/2010 season are:
Open COMPLETED.
British Heritage COMPLETED.
Rural Decay
Open

Other competitions are:
Audio Visual competition
Digital projected image
Kingswood Salver (theme: Textures)
Knightshayes Trophy (theme: Ground Level. For prints only, max entry 2 prints). Click here for more information. (Closing date 14 February, 2010)
Match an image
Print panel competition
Where is it? (Must be within 10 miles of Wincanton)


MEMBERS' PERSONAL WEBSITES

Two of our members have websites of their own where you can see more of their work than we can show here. Amanda White has been running her sites for some time, and Lachlan Fraser has recently launched his own website. In addition to being photographers, Amanda is a graphic designer and Lachlan is an artist.

If you would like to see more of their work please go to our Links page.