NEWSLETTER JULY 2009
FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME
AUG 11th: Monthly Competition - Animal Behaviour
Annual General Meeting
Video - Tiger Beach - Arthur Kingdon
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Aug 11th: Monthly 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 'Animal Behaviour'. Send your digital files to Bob (anthonyrez30@tiscali.co.uk ) and please include BUPG on the subject line. 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.
Arthur will show a short video that he took whilst on a Jim Abernathy shark trip.
The Annual General Meeting will be held so come along and have your say on what you like, or don't like, about how the BUPG is run. Volunteers for assisting with the running will be especially welcome!
RECENT EVENTS
July Meeting
Monthly Competition - Green Water
An interesting selection of entries, with one or two members not quite appreciating the criteria for this theme - not much different there then!
| The runaway winner, with ten votes, was Rob Bailey with this spider crab image from Pembrokeshire. |  |
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Anna James came in Second, with two votes, with this creative image from a day out in the Brecon Beacons. All Anna's entries were from the same location and one of them went on to be placed fifth in the BSoUP monthly competition. |
| Jon Priddle accompanied Anna on the Brecon Beacons trip and this was one of his images. It received one vote as did the following: |  |
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It was a good night for Rob Bailey as his other two images also picked up a vote each, including this close up of a sea hare... |
| ..and this jellyfish. |  |
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Jan Davies using a green water Magic Filter to good effect. |
| One vote for Colin Matson |  |
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and for Rick Ayrton,.. |
| Trevor Rees.... |  |
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.. and Julie Kaye. |
BUPG Splash In
Our own Splash In was held at Hope Cove on June 13th but it was poorly supported. Only five hardy individuals turned up, of which two packed up after the first dive! The conditions were challenging to say the least and the results were less than stunning. The small number of images entered were judged by the audience with the following result:
Macro Wide Angle
1st: Jan Davies 32 points 1st: Arthur Kingdon 51 points
2nd: Rob Kemp 27 points 2nd: Arthur Kingdon 27 points
3rd=: Arthur Kingdon & Pam Murphy 23 points 3rd: Jan Davies 24 points
Arthur Kingdon was the Overall Winner with 74 points and he was presented with the Splash In trophy by last year's winner Jan Davies (Runner Up this year).
The winning Macro and Wide Angle images are shown below:
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BSoUP Splash In Review
Our members starred once again, winning most of the prizes:
| The winner of the Grand Prize of a Red Sea liveaboard trip was Cathy Lewis with this image of a topknot. |  |
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Winner of the Close Up category was Rick Ayrton. This image also won Rick the Close Up, Beginner and Best Beginner categories. Rick gave a mini-presentation on how he achieved this image using an item of dental equipment - if you weren't at the Meeting, you will have to ask Rick. |
| Julie Kaye won the Animal Portrait, Beginner category with this image of a group of shannies (not tompots) |  |
Well done to our trio of prizewinners. Read the full report on http://www.bsoup.org/Splash/2009/S2009_splash.php
Presentation - Water Babies - Anna James
This was a presentation with a difference in that all the images were taken in a swimming pool. Anna shoots for a company called Water Babies which is the world's largest baby swimming company, with franchises as far as Ireland and Australia. Have a look at the website www.waterbabies.co.uk
At the end of the swimming courses there will be a film shoot and that is where Anna, or one of five other Water Babies photographers, comes in. Anna has being photographing babies underwater for five years and has now photographed over 2,850 babies, of which 1000 were photographed last year. The most she has done in one day was 130 - now that sounds like hard work to me. Anna in action below:
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Anna recently took 2nd place in the BUIF Portfolio competition with this stunning group:
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The company uses a blue fabric background in the pools and lighting is via twin on board flashguns plus a remote flash just above the water level. The result is beautifully lit subjects - as long as they play their part. A trained 'dunker' positions the babies in front of the camera and then there is only a few seconds to get that stunning image.
| This is the 'classic' image that Anna is aiming for |  |
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Twins this time - twice the difficulty for the photographer |
| Mother and child |  |
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Anna also experiments with creative shots |
This was a fascinating presentation with stunning images - thanks Anna.
MISCELLANEOUS
Epson Red Sea - Monthly Competition - June and July
The UK winner for June was Rob Bailey and, as I write, the results for July have just been announced and Rob won that as well. This means that Rob has won three out of four of the months so far. Trevor Rees has won one and has at least two second places, so it's looking like a two horse race at the moment. Well done to Rob and Trevor.
See: http://www.eilatredsea.com/?CategoryID=300&ArticleID=25
Wild Photos 2009
I have received details of this event to be held at the Royal Geographical Society, London in October. This event, hosted by Chris Packham, has a sensational line-up of international nature photographers including Daniel Beltra, Niall Benvie, Vincent Munier, Solvin Zankl, Kevin Schafer and a keynote presentation from the world-renowned National Geographic photographer, Michael 'Nick' Nichols. Also presenting their work will be winners from this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the results of which will be announced immediately before WildPhotos. For more info www.wildphotos.org.uk
Keep bubbling,
Arthur