The Bradford Abbas Shield Five Clubs Competition was held on Tuesday evening and, as ever, provided a lively and entertaining event for all concerned. The competition is conducted between five local camera clubs: South Petherton, Yeovil, Wincanton, Yeo Group and Sherborne Bradford Abbas. Each club can submit five prints and five digital images, each of which is marked out of 20 by the judge. The club that amasses the most points wins the coveted shield, which they retain for a year.

The theme of the competition this year was ‘Wet’ and the judge was Sid Jones of Dorchester Camera Club.

We viewed a wide range of interpretations of the theme, from soaked birds to wet people, rainy streets to sodden fields and raindrops on cobwebs, leaves and a clothes line – amongst others.

Sid was an excellent judge, pointing out the best points of each image and making really helpful comments about how each entry could be improved. There was applause for each entry awarded 20 points and we looked in more detail at these winning images when the competition was over.

The Bradford Abbas Shield was won by Yeovil Camera Club with 182 points out of a possible 200. Second was Wincanton with 180 points, third was Sherborne Bradford Abbas with 172 and fourth and fifth, Yeo Group and South Petherton with 170 and 169 respectively.

Here Laura Pearce is seen receiving the trophy on behalf of Yeovil Camera Club from Sid Jones.

Well done, Yeovil – and many thanks to Sid Jones for a job well done!

Here are some of the highest scoring digital images from all of the clubs:

(click on an image to play a slideshow)

We judge the competition ourselves using anonymous marking sheets with points awarded for creativity, technique and ‘do I like it?’. The member awarded the highest number of points wins the competition.

This year the theme was ‘Time’, chosen by last year’s winner, Norman. By popular vote, the winner of this year’s competition was Roger, a relatively new member of the club, who is clearly quite a talented photographer.

In second place was William and in third place Brian H.

Here is Roger being presented with the crystal trophy by Norman.

The winning image is shown below. As this year’s winner, Roger gets to choose the theme for next year’s competition. He has confirmed that he is deliberating the matter very seriously and will announce his decision in due course.

click to see full size

Congratulations, Roger – a worthy winner!

Martin Western

We welcomed members from the other four participating clubs: South Petherton,Wincanton, Yeovil and Yeo Group.

This year we invited entries on the theme of ‘Abandoned’. Each club could submit five prints and five digital images each of which would be awarded marks out of 20.

Our judge was Martin Western from Poole. He commented on each photograph, looking at how well the photographer had interpreted the theme, the composition of the photo and the technical skills that the photo displayed (or not!)

He was an excellent judge, making some very incisive comments and also injecting a touch of humour in his commentary of the images.

When all the points were added up, the final results were:

South Petherton 170 points

Wincanton 167 points

Yeo Group 153 points

Sherborne Bradford Abbas 153 points

Yeovil 143 points

South Petherton therefore won the Bradford Abbas Shield for 2010.

Congratulations to all the winning photographers, thanks to all the other clubs for taking part and especial thanks to Martin Western for being such a superb judge.

See you all again next year!

Our judge this year was Jim Eastaugh, one of the area’s prominent photographic judges and a leading light in the WCPF (Western Counties Photographic Federation).

Each member was limited to three entries which could be either colour prints, black and white prints or digital projected images.

Subjects portrayed included landscapes, seascapes, wildlife, still life, aircraft, panorama, architecture and portraiture.

Jim discussed each picture in each category, explained what he liked and didn’t like about the image, and narrowed each category down into a short-list from which he picked 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.

The winners in each category were:

Best colour print: Brian C.

Best black and white print: Gillian

Best projected image: Roger

Most unusual photograph: William

Winners each received a cup.

Thanks to everyone who entered, congratulations to the winners and thanks to Jim for being such an astute judge!

For further information and entry forms go to their website www.bfcclub.co.uk.

The four open sections are monochrome print, colour print, transparency and digital projected image.    Plenty of scope, so have a go.

Members were invited to submit up to three prints or digital images each on the subject of this year’s theme, ‘Water’.

There were 28 entries in all, 16 prints and 12 digital images. There was a wide interpretation of the subject matter covering all types and states of water.

Norman

Members judged the winner themselves, awarding marks out of 15 for each entry. The judging criteria included creativity, composition and ‘do I like it?’. The marking was done by secret ballot and this turned out very interesting exercise in club democracy!

After all the marks were added up the winner, by a clear margin, was Norman who entered a stunning image taken from within a pod on the London Eye.

Here’s the winning entry:

Congratulation to Norman who wins the new trophy for the year. Well done also to the runners-up, Brian C, Linda, Keith and Gillian.

A very enjoyable evening, using all our new toys!

Jim Eastaugh of Wincanton Camera Club was the guest judge and he stated that he always looked for pictures where the light added interest and definition to a photograph. He wanted to see a full range of midtones between black and white rather than just a ‘grey’ photograph.

Each member of the club was entitled to enter five mounted black and white prints, on any subject, provided that the photograph had been taken within the past year. Members entered a total of 41 prints into the competition, on subjects ranging from landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, statues, flowers, swans and people.

Jim complemented the club on its wide range of subject matter and the quality of the best prints. From a shortlist of six prints, the chosen winner was Brian C. with a landscape entitled ‘Standing Stone Avebury’; second place was awarded to Gillian for a wedding portrait ‘Vancouver Bride’ and third place was taken by another of Brian C’s prints ‘Pilsdon Pen’.

Congratulations to Brian C. for winning the cup two years running, and thanks to Jim for being such a sympathetic and informative judge!

Come on club – someone’s got to knock Brian off his perch next year…

NB:    Deadline for entries is Monday 29th March 2010 – so get printing!

• South Petherton Photographic Society
• Yeovil Camera Club
• Wincanton Camera Club
• Yeo Photo Group
• Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club

Over 50 people attended from all five clubs and we had a lively evening competing for the prestigous Bradford Abbas Shield. Each club had to submit eight mounted prints each of which were to be judged out of 20 points.

Our judge for the evening was Harold Jenkins LRPS, a prominent local judge and a member of Bridport Camera Club.

Harold explained that he looked for photographs that he liked but he also had to be nit-picking about some things.  He said he liked ‘different’ photographs but he also asked himself whether he could live with a photograph or put it on his wall.

There were some excellent images in the 40 entries covering everything from seascapes, water, reflections and mist to architecure, boats, portraits, ducks and geese.

The results were actually very close. Wincanton won with 143 out of a possible 160 points. In second place were South Petherton with 142; in joint third place were Yeovil and Yeo Group with 141 and in fourth place were Sherborne Bradford Abbas with 139 points.

Harold presented the Bradford Abbas Shield to Jim Eastaugh of Wincanton Camera Club – who noted that this was the 25th year of this competition and that he and his club were honoured to win it for the second year running.

After the prize-giving we invited the photographers of some of the highest scoring prints to talk about their photographs, and this turned out to be a very lively and friendly session.

Thanks to all the photographers who entered the competition and thanks also to Harold and Margaret Jenkins for visiting our club. And congratulations to Wincanton Camera Club for a very well-deserved win!

See you all next year,  26 October 2010, for another exciting contest.

Quote from Linda:

A rather peculiar weekend with a dust-storm, a twister in the night (which woke everyone but me) and a downpour on the way back home.   Here are some shots of the dust!

Well, there’s always got to be some disadvantage in visiting these exotic locations