NEWSLETTER JULY 2008

Aug 12th:    Monthly Competition - Reflection
                      Photo Forum - Abstract - Arthur Kingdon
                      Annual General Meeting

The Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue - The Casson Centre, Rodway Road, Patchway, BS34 5DQ (map) It is easiest to access it via Durban Road, off Highwood Road - you can turn right at the traffic lights if coming from the Gloucester Road direction. The Casson Centre is the left hand part of the Patchway Community Centre, immediately next door to the Patchway Town Council Offices. There is off road parking adjacent to the Centre and further spaces along Rodway Road, near to the local Spa shop.

The monthly competition theme is 'Reflections'. Send your digital files to Arthur Kingdon (akdiver48@hotmail.com). Unsure about entering? Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback - it's an ideal way to learn.

It's also time for our Annual General Meeting. Come along and have you say as to how the Group is running. If you want things done differently, this is your opportunity to get it changed.

The St Abbs Splash In takes place on Saturday 23rd August. We have a boat booked for the Fri/Sat/Sun and, at the moment, there may be one space on the boat and accommodation for one male, plus a lift there and back. Details are now on their website:

This theme proved to be far more popular than expected and there were thirty five entries from fifteen entrants.

Well clear of the field with eight votes was this excellent, moody image of a Galapagos fur seal from Steve Judd.

In Second Place with three votes was Trevor Rees with this image of a Stoney Cove perch, with a background blurred effectively using PS.

In Third place with two votes was Arthur Kingdon with this image of a batfish and cleaner wrasse. Like the image above and several below, it shows how striped subjects can be very effective when given the monochrome treatment.

Seven images collected one vote apiece:

Lionfish by Jan Davies

Diver and shoal by Martin Bailey

Nudibranch by Rick Ayrton

Our own Splash In was held at Hope Cove on the 7th June. With the conditions far from ideal, it was quite a challenge for all who took part. The Wide Angle category had only five entries but the Macro was better supported. The Overall Winner was chosen between the winners of the two categories.

In First Place Wide Angle and Overall Winner was Jan Davies

In Second Place was Bob Davies

In Third Place was Julie Kaye.

In First Place was David Stephens with this cuttlefish (with a sand eel in its tentacles, which no-one noticed during projection!)

In Second Place was Arthur Kingdon with this starfish

In Third Place was David Stephens with this pipefish

Well done to all who took part and congratulations to Jan Davies who showed the DSLR users how to do it - with a compact.

The use of surface reflection has been a favourite of Alan's for quite some time and he encouraged everyone to make more use of it. He showed several images all exhibiting surface reflection to a greater or lesser degree. The reflection in this one was enhanced by holding a stroble out of the water. Alan was of the opinion that the intentional use of surface reflection, such as here, was more desirable...

...than the 'accidental' use such as here when choosing images to fit this competition theme.

An excellent example of surface reflection.

And another, with sufficient distortion in the reflected image to avoid confusion.

Although Alan likes using surface reflection, you may wish to consider other images that may fit the theme; this one from Jan Davies won this competition a couple of years ago. The creative use of Photoshop is another option.

Using Discovery Divers' fast RIB, twelve of us were quickly transported to the chosen dive sites (following advice from Dave the skipper) for our 'On the Day' efforts. The weather had been very poor up until the weekend but the wind dropped and we had some comfortable diving. The viz was not too bad at around 6-7 metres.

Winner of the Animal Portraits category and Overall Grand Prize was Helen Wehner. This was a great effort by Helen who was sharing the day with Rick, so only had one dive.

Winner of the Close Up category was Cathy Lewis

Winner of the Beginner Wide Angle category was Rob Kemp

Runner Up in the Animal Portraits category was Trevor Rees

Winner of the Advanced UK and Irish Print category was Trevor Rees

Runner Up in the Overseas Print category was Cathy Lewis

Runner Up in the UK and Irish Print category was new member Rob Bailey

Rob Bailey was also awarded a Highly Commended by an independent panel of judges in the Image of the Day competition.

Third Place in the Wildlife Trust's selection was Arthur Kingdon

Thanks are due to the BSoUP team who worked very hard to ensure the event was a great success. For a comprehensive report see http://www.bsoup.org/Splash/2008/splash_results/S2008_splash.php
(have a look at the excellent shot of a pike by Robert Cuss - lots of surface reflection).