NEWSLETTERDEC2005

NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2005

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME

JANUARY 10th: No Meeting

FEBRUARY 14th: 'British 2005' Presentation by Alan James

COMPETITION PROGRAMME

JANUARY: No Competition

FEBRUARY: Divers

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

February Meeting

The February Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue:

Coniston Community Centre

The Parade, Coniston Road

Patchway, Bristol BS34 5LP

To find us:- Go up Coniston Road for approx 1 mile until you see a road sign on the left for 'The Parade Shopping Centre' and 'The Surgery'. Turn right into Blakeney Road and then immediately right again into the car park for the Surgery. The Community Centre is directly opposite the Surgery. Click here for map or use www.multimap.com

Please try and be on time as we have to keep the main doors locked while we are using the building. However, there is an intercom entry system so you should be able to get in if running late.

The main feature of the night is a presentation by Alan James on his efforts to photograph British underwater life during 2005. Alan will also be bringing along a new television screen which promises a marked improvement in quality over the projected digital image.

The 'On the Night' competition theme is 'Divers' so most, if not all of us should have something suitable to enter. Send digital files to Bob Anthony, our Competitions Member (anthonyrez30@tiscali.co.uk), or bring your slides on the night (let Bob know if you will require a slide projector).

December Meeting

The December Meeting was a fairly relaxed, social evening with a chance to chat and eat a few mince pies. There were two competitions to be decided: our very first Portfolio Competition and the Monthly Competition.

Portfolio Competition

This, our first Portfolio competition was on an 'Open' theme and attracted a good number of entries on a wide variety of subjects. The winner was Heather Hammond with a very attractive portfolio which included several cleaner shrimps in action:

Heather was presented with the winner's trophy by Bob Anthony, our Competitions Member (it looks like he's enjoying it too much, if you ask me!):

In Second place was Arthur Kingdon with a portfolio of images taken in 2005 during trips to West Papua, Seychelles and Nuweiba:

In Third place was Trevor Rees with a portfolio of British images:

Amongst others shown was a fascinating portfolio by Ed Whiting, shot in the Seychelles, which showed two octopus performing what may have been a mating ritual - we would be pleased to hear from anyone who can confirm what they were actually doing:

Monthly Competition

The theme was 'Open' so there were lots of entries for us to savour. The winner was a stunning shot of a coral trout taken by Bob Anthony on his recent visit to Nuweiba:

Amongst other images picking up votes, was a beautiful shot of a firework anemone by Trevor Rees. Trevor had used Photoshop to good effect - including posterizing the centre and using 'plastic wrap' on the background. I'm sure Trevor would be pleased to explain what he actually did if you contact him:

Alan James had entered three images of eyes, including a beautiful shot of an anglerfish eye but, for something different, he had photographed the eye of a dogfish - most unusual:

Amongst Cathy Lewis's entries was this lovely shot of anemones:

MISCELLANEOUS

Nikon Battery Recall

If you use a using a D100, D70 or D50, you may wish to check out the recall information on the following link; http://www.europe-nikon.com/default.aspx?countryId=20&languageId=22

BUPG Competitions

The themes for our monthly competitions for 2006 are as follows:

January: No competition

February: Divers

March: Fish (also Annual Print Competition)

April: Macro

May: British

June: Wide Angle

July: Open

August: Reflections

September: Wrecks

October: Abstract

November: Manipulated Images

December: Symbiosis (also Open Portfolio competition)

The list above has been drawn up bearing in mind the feedback from yourselves but it does also mirror quite closely the BSoUP competition themes. This will enable those who are BSOUP members to have a trial run, usually a month before entries have to be submitted to their competitions.

BSoUP Competitions

Heather Hammond has had a successful year in BSoUP competitions and has just taken Fourth place in the 'Open Portfolio' competition with the portfolio shown at our December Meeting - well done.

There is no excuse now for not entering the BSoUP competitions as they are now accepting entries via email. We have a great deal of talent within the group so why not give it a go? Let's show the London lot what we can do in the south west! Check out www.bsoup.org for further details.

Arthur