The first competition evening for Otley Camera Club was “General Record” and the images were viewed and the results given on the 8th October. Two of the established members battled it out for the top places.

As well as the judging the members brought images both in print and electronic format for the Portrait competition. Again a good number of entries were submitted.
 

October concludes on the 22nd with a Landscape Learning Zone aimed at improving the landscape skills of the club without venturing into the cold dark night.
 
The club then has no meeting on 29th October due to half term holidays at the school

November 5th

Otley Camera Club saw the results of the portrait competition which were judged by Bill Johnson ARPS, DPAGB, APAGB of Normanton Camera Club. Bill has many years of photographic experience and brought this to bear in his judging and comments.

Bill stressed the importance of the background in the shot and in particular he did not favor the white backgrounds at times. Sharpness was also key to a good image, as was watching the edges of the frame for distractions. The images were a combination of projected and prints, in the end the prints won through though expect the experiment with the combination at the club to continue.

1          Two Princess                          Mike Holwill
2          Delightful                               Mike Holwill
3          We are family                         Mike Holwill
4          In a mother’s arms                  Mike Holwill

November 12th

The club welcomed John Whitley who gave his charity lecture in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind,

The club has invited John to give his lectures before and as always this talk was excellent. This year’s lecture took in South America where John has been trekking taking in Venezuela and Bolivia. John is a traditional exponent of slides and his shots depicted people flora fauna historic sites, lakes, mountains and volcanoes some which are live volcanoes. To prove the point one picture showed an eruption he experienced. There was the contrast of modern day locations showing how clean and lacking litter most areas are, and conversely how dangerous from mugging etc cities are and that you should not go out alone on foot.

We look forward to future visits from John in the future as he has many more images and stories to tell.

A collection was taken for the Guide Dogs for the Blind.

November 19th

The planned evening on 19th November was a review of the YPU images, a collection of the best work from photographic clubs from around Yorkshire, unfortunately due to an error the CD was not available on the evening.

A quick re-jig of the evening gave us a members audio visual of the South West USA, before looking at the Digital Imaging 2008 presentation from the Royal Photographic Society. For members who have seen previous YPU presentations the RPS selection was certainly different. Some images were excellent as one would expect but it was felt others would not do well in camera club exhibitions. In the end it is all down to the judges and what they are looking for when judging. One area that certainly provoked comment was the somewhat extensive commentary that accompanied the presentation, never using one word when ten were available, maybe next time we will turn the volume down and just enjoy the images.

We have a chance to enjoy some of the clubs own images on the 26th November when we see the results of the Landscape competition, members are reminded to bring along entries for the General Subject competition.

December kicks off on the 3rd with a Pictorial Learning Zone; what is pictorial as a class? Members are asked to bring along examples for the club to discuss and help point members in the right direction for a future competition evening.

November 26th

Landscape photography is a universally popular subject and there was a wealth of images, both projected and prints for the Otley Camera Club Landscape Competition. The judge, John Bickerdike, ARPS, brought his considerable experience to the judging and offered insights into improving technique. He recounted that all landscape work needs TLC, not just tender loving care but  timing, lighting and composition, and it is fair to say that the winners all exhibited those characteristics.

Projected
1                    X Bush
2                    Descent from Thorong La
3                    Pokhra lake

Print
1                    Ullswater reflections – Mike Holwill
2                    Climbers ascending Mont Blanc – Peter Sanderson
3                    Lindisfarne castle in sunset light – Debbie Horwood

3rd December

This week we were treated to a 'show and tell' of members' interpretations of the pictorial class of photograph. Their subject matter varied, but one characteristic common to them was that they needed to evoke an emotional response from the viewer, which thus excluded record shots. It was a great opportunity to see the work of the members dating back 10 years or more and many thanks to all who contributed. The next meeting on 10th December is the Wharfedale competition, and the year closes with the Presidents night on 17th December.

10th December

Wharfedale, the lovely dale on the doorstep of Otley was the subject of the competition on 10th December and we looked forward to a wide range of images covering the length of the dale. It was a well attended meeting but the number of entries was lower than expected given the accessibility of the subject.

Interestingly the usual; “honeypots” of Wharfedale were conspicuous in their absence as the entrants looked to reflect the quieter parts of the dale. The entries were in both print and projected form but were judged as one competition.

1st        Bolton Abbey – Phil Reeds
2nd =    Coniston Scar – Phil Reeds
2nd =    Valley of desolation – Phil Reeds
4th        Looking towards Hubberholme – David Powell
5th        Stile at Pool in Wharfedale – Trevor Davey

It was interesting to note than many of this images were not taken in the last few weeks but a result of constantly seeking to make the most of the light and conditions available during the year to get good images. The moral is obviously to keep taking the shots.

Another club member, Deborah Horwood is to be congratulated for her success in winning the YPU Photo of the Month competition on their web site, well done Debbie, a first for Otley Camera Club.

January 14th

Due to school closures last week and bad weather preventing our speaker from attending this week the General Subject competition was held instead. This category is the 'anything else' not covered by the other competition, and the subjects really were planes trains and automobiles, as well as a lot more.

The competition was judged by the members, with 1 point separating the top 5!

Well Done to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners:

Joint 1st: Whispy Waterfall - Debbie Horwood, The Way we Were - Trevor Davey

Joint 3rd: Quintillian 1769 Choir Stall - Peter Sanderson, Bouys - Debbie Horwood,
Do-er Upper - Debbie Horwood.

Next week is the AGM, and submission deadline for prints for the Pictorial competition. All members are encouraged to attend

January 21st

Otley Camera Club held their AGM on 21st January where the current President David Powell stepped down and the new President, Stan Shaw, was elected, with Tony Jennings joining the committee as Vice President. The year was reviewed and a lively discussion ensued in relation to the make up and style of competitions that the club runs. Obviously an area that was of keen interest to members who are interested in having the opportunity to enter a diverse range of subjects with good judges, and be in line with the trends in other clubs. The members will also be approached re contributing to the make up of next year’s program of meetings by Richard Morris who stepped forward to be Program Secretary.

There was a collection of the Pictorial competition entries for one of the last externally judged competitions of the year. Members are reminded to start to prepare their work for the forthcoming competition with Cookridge Camera Club on 11th February if anything needs to be printed ahead of the competition.

The last meeting in January is “Progress to Licentiate” with guest speaker Gerry Padgett (LRPS, DPAGB, APAGB) which will give an insight to members as to how their work can be recognised nationally.

January 28th

Our speaker this week was Mr Gerry Padgett ably assisted by his wife.
He spoke about what was needed & what had to be done to acquire a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society (LRPS). He then showed a selection of mounted monochrome prints of varying subjects; we started in London with the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and then on to candid pictures of people at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, across to Covent Garden.  We then went abroad to Prague, Venice, Rome & Paris, then back home to his local area around Wakefield, Scotland and North Yorkshire. Gerry has used a variety of cameras to take these shots and gave us some very amusing anecdotes of how some of the pictures were “set up” or quickly “grabbed”.
Over the years Gerry has developed the ability to spot the “decisive” moment when to press the shutter. Gerry says that even with today’s digital cameras he still prefers to develop his monochrome work in the traditional darkroom but admits that for colour work he now uses a computer and colour printer.  Finally to end the evening he showed the set of 10 prints in 2 lots of 5 that he sent to the Royal Photographic Society to gain his LRPS.
All in all a very enjoyable presentation with superb monochrome prints displayed, and many thanks to Gerry for his enlightening talk.

Next week we have a talk by one of our members Dennis Murgatroyd, entitled 'So you want to be a pilot'

February 4th

This week took a slight detour from the usual photography based evenings with the tantalising title ‘so you want to be a pilot’

The evening, led by Dennis Murgatroyd, a long-standing member of Otley Camera Club, focussed on his experiences of flying.

Dennis completed his National service in the RAF as a dentist, and in the early 70s fulfilled an ambition to complete his Private Pilot’s Licence, which he did in 1972.

After a couple of anecdotes we were given a crash course (not
literally!) on how an aircraft flies and introduced to the cockpit of a Cessna 150.

After a short break, during which there was a number of Dennis’ maps and manuals available to peruse, we were led on a circuit of the airfield, and we finished with a nail-biting recording of a plane being talked into Leeds Bradford in poor visibility. Many thanks to Dennis for sharing an insight into his activity as a pilot. Over … and out!

Next week sees the annual clash of the Titans between Otley and Cookridge Camera clubs in the Print and Slide battle, this year at Otley

11th February

‘Let battle commence!’ was the cry, as the annual print and slide battle got underway between the camera clubs from Otley and Cookridge. Defending a three year run of wins, Cookridge visited Otley this year, which saw a change of format from slides to digital projected images. Both clubs chose 10 prints and 10 slides from a selection of members’ work to be judges. The Judge was Bob Free, who gave us the benefit of his many years photographic experience.

At the halfway point, Cookridge had a comfortable lead, but Otley started to claw points back, but too little too late, and Cookridge won by 314 points to 304. Well done to all members from both clubs who displayed pictures, and well done to Cookridge.

Prince Henry’s School is closed next week, so there is no meeting next week. The following week is the Pictorial competition.

25th February

Back from half term Otley Camera Club welcomed the YPU judge Tony Caunt (LRPS) to judge the Pictorial Competition. So what is a “pictorial” when applied to a photograph? The usual definition is a picture that arouses and emotion and the members had submitted a range of images, both in print and projected digital images for Tony’s consideration. Tony set his stall out at the start to enlighten us all to his judging style and he proceeded to give his comments and marks to all of the images. The results were as follows –

Prints

1st Winter Wonderland – Trevor Davey
2nd Groyne Relics – Ron Dickenson
3rd Woodland Stream – Ron Dickenson

Projected

1st Frosted Window Pane – David Ricketts
2nd Cottage with a view – Debbie Horwood
3rd Driftwood Alnmouth beach – David Ricketts
Highly Commended  Lochmaddy harbour boards – Debbie Horwood
Highly Commended  Frosty Morning – Phil Reeds
Commended  Rabbit tracks in the snow – David Ricketts
Commended  Mist – Sandra Crowder

Many thanks to Tony for his time. The next meeting is on March 4th when the entries for the Animals competition will be judged internally. On March 11th David Coates will present “Abroad with a camera”.

This week four members took a break from the usual meeting to attend David Noton's "Chasing the Light" Roadshow in Sheffield. The evening too the format of a round the world trip narrated by David and illustated by his beautiful photos. David talked about how to scout out lnew locations, and some technical ideas of how to capture them. He also provided an insight into the unglamorous aspects of life on the road, and tols some amusing anecdotes behind these fabulous images. The highlight of the evening was of course the terrific landscape images from bamburgh to Bombay, which captured the beauty of the world in a stunning way. All in all worthe the drive in awful weather. For more information on the Chasing the Light Roadshow click here

4th March

The penultimate competition of the season was held last Thursday. This time the theme was Animals, and the entries read like the inventory of Noah’s ark.

The winners were:

Prints:
 
First equal: "Sheep near Burnsall" Mary Richards and "Puffin" - David Powell
Third: "Seal Pup Suckling" - David Powell.
 
 
Digital:
 
First:            "It's freezing in there" - Dennis Murgatroyd
Second:        "Marbled White" - Trevor Howson
Third:           "Under Water" Maureen Benton

Next week is an illustrated talk ‘Abroad With a Camera’ by David Coates.