Congratulations to Ray Hill for being awarded ‘Print of the Year’ by judge Darrell Oakden DPAGB EFIAP BPE5*, for his captivating print of a ‘Common Female Kestrel’. Darrell thought it was a classic nature image which ticked all of his boxes. He enjoyed the elegant pose of the bird, and the well balanced composition. The diffused, environmental background added context to the picture. Darrell added that it was pin sharp, and you could see the texture of the kestrel’s wings. A worthy winner. Well done Ray.
Darrell told us that the nature section was our strongest, and held back 12 of the 15 entries. He ended up awarding a 1st,2nd, 3rd, 5 Highly Commended and 4 Commended prints. Ray’s wife, Kath, secured 2nd place with her well caught ‘Irritated’ which shows a bee eye balling an eagle. Darrell said it was good to see something a bit different which demanded a second look. Ray also took 3rd. place with a detailed portrait of an ‘American Bald Eagle Grooming. Again, Darrell liked the exceptional sharpness, and the texted revealed by the side lighting. He also liked the bird’s attitude.
The five highly commended prints were Wallace Baxter’s ‘Squirrel Eating Nut’ and ‘Redshank Feeding’, Kath Hill’s ‘Common Terns with Catch’ and ‘Red Squirrel on tree stump’ and Ray Hill’s ‘Hamerkop repairing nest’. The four commended prints were Keith Mulliner’s ‘Red Squirrel on Log’ and ‘Black Jaguar Watching’, and Peter Robinson’s ‘Joyful Macaque Family’ and ‘Weaver Bird on Twig’.
In the Colour General section, 11 of the 13 entries were held back. Keith Mulliner’s studio portrait of a professional model, ‘Book Reader’ took 1st. place. Darrell liked the props and lighting which gave gentle shadows. He added that lady’s pose which added to the atmosphere. Ray took 2nd spot with his equestrian photo of ‘675 Oliver Townend on Butts Lelia’. Darrell liked Oliver’s expression and the lack of any distractions. Wallace Baxter’s well-timed cricket print of a batsman being clean bowled, ‘When everything goes wrong’ came 3rd. It was caught at the decisive moment, with the bails in mid-flight and the batsman wearing a pained expression.
The three highly commended prints were Wallace Baxter’s ‘Victorian Photographer’, Peter Robinson’s ‘Amputee Football Action’ and Keith Mulliner’s ‘Aaron Silvester on bike no 34’. The three commended prints were Peter Robinson’s ‘Jessica’s Try’ and Kath Hill’s ‘He’s Mine’ and ‘Radcliffe Hill’.
Peter Robinson’s ‘Steam Engineer’ won the monochrome section. Darrell told us it was a natural environmental portrait where the engineer looked proud of his working machine. Another of Keith Mulliner’s studio portraits took 2nd spot. His ‘The lady’ was well liked by Darrell who said he liked the elegant pose and setting. It was well composed, and the lighting brought out the detail. In third place was Wallace Baxter’s fine rugby study of a ‘Line Out’, It showed a playing in flight catching the ball against the sky. Darrell thought the square crop worked well and told us it was sharp and had good detail.
The three highly commended prints were Wallace Baxter’s ‘Eye on the Ball’, Peter Robinson’s ‘Cher Tribute Act’ and Ray Hill’s ‘Pre 1984 Russian 4×4’. The two commended prints were Keith Mulliner’s ‘Eye Contact’ and Peter Robinson’s ‘Oasish Guitarist’.
All the prints that came 1st.2nd, 3rd and were highly commended can be seen above. All the results can be seen in our Results page.
New members are welcome to visit us for up to three meetings, before deciding to join us. All we will ask, is that they pay the £3 addition fee that cover the coffee and biscuits.
Next Meeting: Thursday, 21st.March 2024: Alf Myers shows what he sees ‘On the Streets’.
Non-members can attend 3 meetings before deciding to join us.
We meet at the New Life Church in Fuller Drive, Wistaston, Crewe CW2 6TH.
You can find using the ‘What3Words’ app at ///hissing.markets.toothpick
The doors will open at 7:15 for a 7:30 start, and we usually finish by 9:30.
♦ Here are large and small scale maps to our new home.
Please explore the website and visit our Flickr site and Facebook page
WYPROBUJ NAS: Po prostu przyjdz na spotkanie. Mozesz przyjsc na trzy spotkania zanim zdecydujesz sie dolaczyc do Stowarzyszenia
ANNOUNCEMENTS
♦ NEW Congratulations to Keith Mulliner for winning our Print League for 2023-24. See all the league results in our Results page here.
♦ Fine art photographer, Stephen McNally paid us a visit to explain how he creates is imaginative ‘Photographic Cubism’ images. They reminiscent of artist David Hockney. The final image is made up of many individual images taken with a 50mm lens baby. To see some of his cubism work, have a look on his website at:here.
♦ We recently were inspired by the creative pictorial photographer, Erica Oram CPAGB AFIAP BPE3, who’s a member of Sheffield PS. We joined Alsager to see her present her imaginative talk ‘The View from Here’. See some of her creations on the Gamma Photoforum at here.
♦ The results are in for the 5 Towns Mono Print Competition. The clubs involved were Nantwich CC, Mid Cheshire (the hosts), Whitchurch, Alsager and Crewe PS. See the results on our Results page here.
♦ Creative portrait photographer, Peter Gennard, MFIAP, EFIAP/d2,has had many of this stunning portraits exhibited in the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) salons. He explained to us how he created his ‘Latest Creations’ in a recent talk. See more of his character composites on Smethwick’s website here.
♦ Outstanding nature photographer, Des Ong, gave us a memorable talk during our joint meeting with Alsager. He explained how he achieves to capture his stunning photographs with careful planning and dedication. See more on his website here.
♦ Our Competition rules have been updated as agreed during our AGM find the in our Documents page here.
♦ Thoughtful photographer Brian Law CPAGB ARPS will give us his approach to travel photography. See his unique photographs on his website here.
♦ Wirral based Travel Photographer, Brian Anderson, gave us a well researched and informative talk during a joint meeting with Alsager. The stories behind the photographs brought it to life. See his work here.
♦ Ashley Franklin gave us a riveting talk on iconic photographs and how they were taken in his ‘The Wider World of Photography’ talk. See more of his photography here.
♦ Do you want to try sports photography? For some good advice, see Michael Berkeley’s website here.
♦ The Jim Harrison Trophy is our Annual PDI Competition, but who is Jim Harrison? Newer members may not have known him. John has written a fine tribute, telling us of gentleman Jim’s interest in photography. Read it here.
♦ For some stunning historic photographs, have a look at the History Photographer of the Year gallery.
♦ Congratulations to our talented member, Ian Whiston who is one of just over 50 photographers to achieve a FBPE (Fellowship of the British Photographic Exhibitions). That’s over 500 acceptances in BPE sponsored exhibitions. Wow! See more of Ian’s pictures here.
♦ CPS now has its own Virtual Gallery proudly displaying its members photographs. Browse the images here.
♦ For some inspirational black and white street photography, see Alan Schaller imaginative work here.
♦ Natural portrait photographer Helen Barlett has some wonderful images presented on her website.
♦ Read John’s latest article ‘James Ravilious ‘Making an art of recording’ under Resources>Documents>General documents Find it here.
♦ Robert Frank – The photographer who showed the Americans who they were, has died aged 94. Member Ian McNab wrote an article about him Robert Frank – is Ian’s latest piece.
Be careful what you wish for is a personal account of art photography since 1970 by Ian McNab.
♦ If you can’t find what you’re looking for it may have been moved to the Links page.