NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2007

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME

Jan 8th: Monthly theme competition plus presentation on French Polynesia by Cathy Lewis

COMPETITION PROGRAMME

Jan 8th: Monthly Theme - Open

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Jan 8th: Monthly Meeting

Please note that the Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our new  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 presentation will be by Cathy Lewis and will cover her recent trip to French Polynesia in search of humpback whales. Expect to see some great images from a destination that is far from the beaten path.

The monthly competition theme is 'Open',  so what could be easier?  Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback.  Send your digital files to our new Competitions Member - Kathryn Rosling (kathryn.rosling@blueyonder.co.uk). A word of caution - Kathryn's email has played up a couple of times recently, so do not leave your submission to the very last minute.

RECENT EVENTS

December Meeting

Monthly Competition - British

This was a popular theme with a high standard of entries. The voting was spread fairly wide and, with three votes each, there was a tie for First Place between Jan Davies and Trevor Rees.

Jan's image was a simple but very effective shot of a starfish and kelp:

Trevor's image, of a wrasse guarding his nest, showed great animal behaviour:

Close behind, with two points each, were images from Jim Drake, Rick Ayrton and Tamsin Eyles. Jim's beautifully lit rock was taken in St Abbs during this year's Splash In and was one of his first images using the new Tokina 10-17mm fisheye:

Rick's cuttlefish looked just like a an Impressionist painting - Rick has been doing mainly video work up to now but he has recently acquired a D200, so watch this space!

Tamsin does not dive in the UK, so thumbs up to her for going out and attempting this over/under in the docks. Alan James cautioned that there have been several instances of swans damaging dome ports - you have been warned!

Seven images picked up one vote each: two from Jan Davies, two from Arthur Kingdon, and one each from Jim Drake, Stephen Judd and Trevor Rees. Note that all three of Jan's entries received votes - considering he uses a compact camera, this was an excellent result.

©Jan Davies

©Jan Davies

©Arthur Kingdon

©Arthur Kingdon

©Jim Drake

©Trevor Rees

©Stephen Judd

Annual Open Portfolio Competition

This was a very well supported competition, with seventeen members submitting portfolios - quite an increase on last year. All entrants enjoyed the experience of putting a portfolio together, although many would admit to being relieved when they had made their final choice!

There were no ties this time and, with 43 points, Alan James was the clear winner:

Keeping it in the family, Anna James was the Runner Up with 17 points:

In Third Place was David Stephens with 13 points:

In Fourth Place was Pam Murphy with 12 points:

In Fifth Place was Ian Lightfoot with 11 points:

Ralph Mortimore was Sixth with 9 points:

Looking very healthy, Alan James received the Winner's Trophy:

Following the success of this portfolio competition, there was a good deal of support for another portfolio competition within our calendar year - either a theme portfolio or a British portfolio - watch out for further details.

BSoUP Open Portfolio

The BSoUP Open Portfolio competition was the week following our own Meeting, which had served as a useful sounding board for anyone intending to enter this competition. Well, we did not achieve quite the same degree of success as we did in the 'Best of British' and the 'Beginners' portfolio but, of some twenty seven entries, Alan James managed Fourth Place and Arthur Kingdon was Fifth, so not too bad a result.

Alan's entry was completely different from his BUPG entry and all the images were from a recent week in Nuweiba, diving with the intention of capturing images to suit a portfolio:

Arthur's entry was a reworking of his BUPG submission, following the feedback at the Meeting:

To see the winning entries go to http://www.bsoup.org/Open_Portfolio/2007/OP2007_1.php

Miscellaneous

Best regards for 2008,

Arthur