CACC Championship Day: Amanda Wright Reports

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Last Sunday, March 23rd, was the ultimate annual Chiltern's Association of Camera Clubs Print and PDI Competition we call Championship Day. It's a full day of some of the best photography the CACC has to offer with the two competitions being held separately plus the addition of The Chiltern's 100 where individuals are invited to submit an image of their own choosing.

Our judges for the day were:

  • Bob Moore MPAGB HonPAGB HonFRPS

  • Sue Moore MPAGB FRPS

  • Naomi Saul ASINWP DPAGB EFIAP APAGB BPE4

The Chiltern's 100 was the first competition of the day with 170 images submitted from a total of 16 clubs. Sadly numbers seem to be ever declining, I remember when I first joined EHHPS and came to these events there would be approximately 300 - 400 images in each competition. There would also be a large posse of representatives from each club with 10 or so just from EHHPS. 

The 3 judges score out of 5 (so 15 is the top score) and as this competition has PAGB patronage the judges award a PAGB Gold Medal, PAGB Silver Medal and a PAGB Bronze medal with 3 PAGB Ribbons also.

We had 7 images in this competition with two members getting a high score of 13 - congratulations to Jenny Fenton with Hakuba and to John Clare with Kasbah Encounter. I managed to score the lowest points in the entire competition receiving just 7 points for 'The Journey', they must have really disliked it, I think that's a first!

The results and winning images can be found on the CACC website.

After a long lunch break of 1 ½ hours (which really upset the judges who seemed not to be amused for most of the day)  we continued with:

The Championship Print Competition.

13 clubs entered this year each submitting 15 images so 195 prints in total and I'm delighted to say that EHHPS came 5th with a total score of 184

EHHPS top scorers with 14 points each were

  • Hide And Seek by John Clare

  • Abandoned Dreams by John Clare

  • Sun Kissed Glencoe by Dennis Durack

    We also had 3 x 13's which went to

  • Valencia Vulture by John Clare

  • Tidal Force by Jenny Fenton

  • Flight Of Fancy by Shaun Hodge

Many Congratulations to you all.

Joint winners in the competition were Amersham and Wycombe with 195 points each with Watford coming 3rd with 189 points.

Full score details and top scoring images can be found on the CACC website.

The final competition was Championship PDIs and sadly we didn't fare quite so well, coming joint 11th out of the 13 clubs that entered.

This time we managed a top score of 13 with just one image

  • Kasbah Encounter by John Clare

Very well done John, what would we have done without you!!

Club winners were Watford with 194, 2nd were Amersham with 189 and 3rd were Maidenhead with 180

EHHPS' total score was 158 way below our print results.

Complete scores and winning images can be found of the CACC website.

(Amanda Wright)

Intimate Scapes Competition: Amanda Wright Reports

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Last night (27 February) we skipped a club night in person in order to attend the penultimate Intimate Landscapes Competition '25 hosted once again on Zoom by Tring Photographic Society and organised by Peter Cox.

13 clubs re-entered as per last year and there was one new entry - Hemel Hempstead PS. The evening was very well attended and indeed reached it's max capacity of 100 viewers, with some people unable to get in. I think I spotted 9 other EHHPS members (and a couple of them were there to represent our fellow Northfields CC as well),

The two judges were both from the Southern Federation, Maria Leekblade who lives in the New Forest, a judge we have come across a few times before and Tony Oliver from Salisbury PC. Tony had a very good analogy I thought to aid those struggling to understand the genre and thought process behind what makes an Intimate Landscape image and that was to think of a vista as a jigsaw puzzle, removing a couple of the pieces from that jigsaw puzzle but still achieving an interesting and engaging image.

All clubs are requested to submit 5 images each by a different author so 70 images in total and the standard was incredibly high. The judges had been poring over the images at length before the competition and also with a 3 hour meeting with Peter Cox too to agree final decisions. Images were scored between 12-20 

Our club entries were:

  • Birchwood by Jenny Fenton - a classic Jenny Fenton multiple exposure shot with fabulous colours and excellent composition. The judges initially seemed to agree saying it was a lovely viewpoint and subject matter, very creative and with a lot of work having gone in to create the image, however Tony felt it was 'jarring' and 'visually grating' as there were faint and distant trees in the background that he couldn't account for which for me seemed to contradict his initial comments.
    Score 15

  • Cold Cabin by Kris Mason - the judges felt it was interesting to see the human element within the landscape, the snow was well handled and the colours worked well. He also said it had a dark, sinister and foreboding feel as the snowy environment seemed hostile and the door to the cabin was barred, again highlighting the sinister feel. (At this point I decided he'd clearly been watching too many horror movies) 
    Score 17

  • Forest Light by Jacqui Sinnatt - They really appreciated the beautiful light in this image with fabulous textures particularly in the moss and that it did have an intimate feel with the suggestion of enclosure creating a lovely atmosphere and mood. 
    Our highest scoring image 18

  • Fairytale Rocks by Jane Arnold-Forster - The judges really enjoyed the feeling of elves, pixies and gnomes this image gave having a very Tolkeinesque quality. They suggested it could do with having a greater tonal range, needing a little more contrast to really make the rocks stand out and that a large portion of the base could be cropped to give the background rocks more impact. 
    Score 16

  • Little Shed by The River by Dennis Durack - Comments on this image were that it had lovely detail and information throughout of all the different textures, with good information in the shadows and that the colouration was spot on. They enjoyed travelling through the image and particularly liked the fronds that stood out against the window of the shed. 
    Score 17

Our total score on the night was 83 putting us in joint 5th place with our lovely friends at Northfields CC

The winning club was Maidenhead (I think their total was 89)

(Amanda Wright)

All images can be seen on the Intimate-landscape website.

For those unable to access the zoom stream on the night, a recording was made, and the relevant link will be made available in the next EHHPS newsletter.

NwFed Final (and a Trophy for John Clare): Amanda Wright Reports

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The Final of The Federation of North-West London Photographic Societies (that's a bit of a mouthful so thankfully we affectionately call it the NWFed) was held this afternoon (Saturday 22 Feb) at Watford's Friends Meeting House, between Amersham and Pinner. The Final itself was judged by Colin Mill from Milton Keynes and the Starred images from throughout the competition were judged by Tim Morland.

We started with the 18 Final Prints. It's fair to say the standard really was incredibly high so it was a tough ask for Colin and this was reflected in the scoring where most of the way through it was neck and neck. Colin awarded 4 20's with 3 of them going to the underdogs Pinner who had never made a NWFed final before.

The eventual print score was an incredibly close

  • 166.5 to Amersham

  • 164 to Pinner

There were only 2 20's awarded from the 18 PDI's this time both going to Amersham.

The final PDI scores were

  • 169 to Amersham

  • 162 to Pinner

So combined final score was

  • 1st place Amersham (again) 335.5

  • Runners up Pinner 326

Pinner did extremely well and were rightly very pleased with the result despite not winning.

Next was starred Prints of which there were 26 in total and EHHPS had Abandoned Dreams by John Clare entered. Tim held back 11 but sadly John's was not one of them. There was no scoring for this round just two Highly Commendeds and a winner and these were

Highly Commended

Carving The Turn by Maggie James of Amersham

H/C Short Eared Owl Hunting in Winter by Brian Ridgley also of Amersham

First Place - Humble Life of The Blacksmith by Belinda Ewart from Field End

Humble Life of The Blacksmith by Belinda Ewart from Field End

In the Starred PDI's there were 22 entered and Tim held back 14 with two of them being from EHHPS .Again no scores but the results were 

Highly Commended - Purple Heron Landing in Morning Light by Deepan Vyas of AME (sorry no image)

Highly Commended - Fit For A King by Belinda Ewart of Field End

Fit For A King by Belinda Ewart of Field End

And in First Place was

Kasbah Encounter by John Clare EHHPS

Kasbah Encounter by John Clare EHHPS

So very well done JC, so well deserved, I have a trophy for you! 

(Amanda Wright)

Rosebowl Round 3: Amanda Wright Reports

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Tuesday night (11the February) was a busy night for Rosebowl rounds. EHHPS had their third and final round this time against Stoke Poges and Imagez who hosted the event, judged by Peter Prosser. Unfortunately as I was judging a Rosebowl myself that evening I couldn't attend and due to a lack of reliable internet connection at the meeting hall the competition could not be held over Zoom either. I don't believe any of our members made the journey.

EHHPS scores for our 15 PDI's were 

  • See No Evil - Paul Mason 19

  • Valencia Vulture - John Clare 18

  • Kasbah Encounters - John Clare 17

  • Mimi - Paul Mason 16

  • Vintage - Paul Mason 18

  • Crouching Leopard - John Alexander 17

  • Eye Contact - Mike Lloyd 16

  • Autumn Dreaming - Amanda Wright 16

  • Nothing On The Telly - Kris Mason 17

  • Hide and Seek - John Clare 17

  • On Brighton Pier - Mike Lloyd 16

  • Abandoned Dreams - John Clare 20 and a Star

  • Naked Flame - Kris Mason 16

  • The Artist - Paul Mason 17

  • Nature's Awe - Jenny Fenton 20 and a Star

Congratulations to our top scorers and particularly to Jenny and John for their stars.

Peter awarded 4 20's across the competition 2 to Ealing and 1 each to Stoke Poges and Imagez.

Final Scores were

  • 1st Place EHHPS 260

  • 2nd Imagez 259

  • 3rd Stoke Poges 246

I'm quite pleased I didn't see it, it must have been a tense night with us winning by just 1 point!!

As we were already in 8th position and came 1st we will be in the final. Yay.

(Amanda Wright)

Rosebowl Round 2: Amanda Wright reports

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Thursday 5th December saw EHHPS hosting the 2nd round of this season's Rosebowl Competition, ably if not occasionally contentiously judged by Alan Taberer from Imagez.

In all my years as Competition Secretary for EHHPS, this round was one of the more stressful to organise. Originally we were supposed to be four clubs but sadly Kidlington decided to drop out of the Rosebowl this year leaving Leighton Buzzard, Banbury and ourselves to battle it out. 

An unfortunate combination of Comp Sec holidays, lost emails and mis-communications meant that the usual two week preparation period went down to the wire. However, the show must go on, and with the usual excellent support of Rick and Burgess, all worked flawlessly on the night.

Alan was understanding, and gave us an entertaining and unpredictable nights judging.  He held back 11 of the 45 images, 6 of which were from EHHPS and 5 from Leighton Buzzard and as is always the case with so many images held, it was tricky to call it.

The results were

  • 1st EHHPS 266

  • 2nd LBPC   261

  • 3rd Ban      244

Ealing's top scorers:

Scoring 18

  • See No Evil by Paul Mason

  • Nothing On The Telly by Kris Mason

  • Hide And Seek by John Clare

  • Abandoned Dreams by John Clare

Scoring 19

  • Valencia Vulture by John Clare

  • The Artist by Paul Mason

Scoring 20: (there were 5 awarded)

  • Kasbah Encounter by John Clare (this image was also awarded one of the two allocated stars)

  • Crouching Leopard by John Alexander

Very well done guys

(Amanda Wright)

NWFed Round 3: Amanda Wright Reports

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Thursday night (21 November) was the 3rd and final round of the NWFed once again against Amersham and Stoke Poges, hosted by us and kindly judged for us at short notice by Mark Buckley-Sharp, standing in for Paul Burwood who was unable to attend. Mark explained to us the methodology behind his judging style, looking for the technical aspects, composition and story the author was trying to portray. He also explained how he always only selects two 20's when judging this competition which will therefore automatically provide the two allocated stars and at least one 15 from each section to help him judge his scale. I couldnt help feeling though that subject matter played an important role in his decisions on several occasions.

We started the evening with the prints, 5 from each club and we didn't do too badly as we were awarded 3 19's. Sadly though we did get the 15 (very unfairly I thought). Amersham were awarded both 20's ergo the two stars.

Final print scores:

  • AME 92

  • EHH 89

  • SPCC 86

Our top scoring prints were

  • Mimi by Paul Mason 19

  • Quiet Misty Morning by Annie Hackett 19

  • Valencia Vulture by John Clare 19

In the PDI section, despite holding back 3 images, two by EHH and one from Amersham, Mark still only awarded two 20's but this time we got one! Sadly though we also once again were on the recieving end of his 15!! 

I can say though on this rare occasion that we beat Amersham by 2 points.

Final scores for PDI's

  • EHH 89

  • AME 87

  • SPCC 86

Our top scoring PDI's:

  • Up In The Clouds by Annie Hackett 19

  • Kasbah Encounter by John Clare 20 and a Star

Putting together the scores from all the 3 rounds the final result was

  • 1st Amersham 581

  • 2nd EHHPS 569

  • 3rd Stoke Poges 530

So Amersham will go through to the Semi-Finals with their opponents TBC; they are a tour de force and we wish them well.

Congratulations to all our top scorers throughout this hotly contested competition. We achieved a good number of Starred images across the 3 rounds which will get a shot at Best Image of the NWFed Competition on Final Day in February next year in the separate 'Starred Images' Competition

EHHPS Starred PDI's

  • Carpet Of Light by Kris Mason

  • Piece Talks by Paul Mason

  • The Sweet Spot by Rick Beresford

  • Kasbah Encounter by John Clare

EHHPS Starred Print

  • Abandoned Dreams by John Clare

Until then.....

(Amanda Wright)

Rosebowl Round 1: Amanda Wright Reports

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On Wednesday evening Field End hosted our first round of this season’s Rosebowl Competition held both in person and via Zoom. I saw Dennis and Emmanuel made it to the Zoom version but as I was also on Zoom I’m not sure if anyone from EHHPS attended in person.

The Rosebowl is an all PDI Competition with three rounds each of which is with 3 or 4 clubs which are different in each round. Each club submits 15 images two weeks before the actual round and images can be re-used in each round if preferred. The top 12 clubs after  all 3 rounds are completed compete in the Rosebowl Final in Spring next year.

Our first round was held against Hemel Hempstead PS, Oxford PS as well as Field End PS so there were 60 images in total and was judged for us by Damon Guy who organises the Judges Training Sessions where he also trains our judges to be so he knows a thing or two about judging.


By half way Damon had held back 7 images and EHHPS were neck and neck with Field End, behind Hemel although they hadn’t had any held back and ahead of Oxford but they had three held back so as always it was impossible to call. 

By the end of the judging there were 14 held back, 3 by EHHPS, 5 by Oxford and 6 by Field End so I was a tad concerned.

The Final Scores were pretty close in the end with only 3 points separating 1st and 2nd and 3rd

  • 1st Place Field End 260

  • 2nd Place Oxford PS 257

  • 3rd Place EHHPS 254

  • 4th Place Hemel Hempstead 247

Our top scorers on the night were

  • Hide And Seek by John Clare 20

  • Eye Contact by Mike Lloyd 18

  • Crouching Leopard by John Alexander 18

Very well done guys

EHHPS are hosting Round 2 on 5th December where we will be hosting in person and on Zoom to Banbury, Leighton Buzzard and Kidlington

(Amanda Wright)

NWFed Round D2: Amanda Wright Reports

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Last night (Monday 21st October) saw the second round of the NWFed, hosted and very well attended by Amersham with Andy Smith the Comp Sec from Stoke Poges, Paul Mason, Dennis and myself from EHH. It's fair to say the hall was pretty full. Peter Prosser was our judge for the night who kept the mood light hearted and enjoyable. 

Each club submits 5 prints and 5 PDI's in both the second and third round so it's not too long an event.

Images throughout as pointed out by Peter were of a very high standard but EHHPS didn't do too badly at all considering we're up against the might of Amersham.

Prints were judged first and Peter held back 7, 3 from Amersham, 3 from EHH and 1 from Stoke Poges. Up to this point we were neck and neck with Amersham but out of the final 3 x 20's we scored just one which was the fabulous See No Evil by Paul Mason, very well done Paul, with Amersham clinching the other two and those also being awarded both available stars.

Our other high scorers from the held backs were Naked Flame by Kris Mason 19 and Satellite and Dish by Rick Beresford 18

Final Print Scores were pretty close though for us

  • Amersham 93

  • EHH 91

  • SPCC 82

After the coffee break we had a run through of the 15 PDI's of which Peter once again held back 7 although this time Amersham had 4, we had 2 and SPCC had 1 so I wasn't quite so positive about this round.

Our 2 held backs were Vintage by Paul Mason 19 and The Sweet Spot by Rick Beresford which scored 20 and was awarded one of the 2 available stars. Very well done Rick! The 3 x 20's awarded in this round were in the end evenly spread between each club so once again results were pretty close

Final PDI Scores

  • Amersham 92

  • EHH 89

  • SPCC 84

Final Overal scores

  • 1st APS 185

  • 2nd EHH 180

  • 3rd SPCC 166

Close but no cigar and with the running total showing a difference of 11 points between us and Amersham it's a tough ask for Round 3 at ours on 21st November but not unacheivable.

(Amanda Wright)

Northwest Fed Round 1: Amanda Wright Reports

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Last night, Tuesday 1st Oct, saw the first round of the NWFed with our group (D) this year consisting of Amersham, Stoke Poges PC and EHHPS. Stoke Poges were our hosts and the competition was ably judged by Martin Patten. Not such a great draw for us as he had been at The Ron Wake Competition just over a week ago in Harrow and had therefore seen all our images, as I had entered the same prints into both competitions. 

The atmosphere was lighthearted and friendly with Terri Adcock, the NWFed organiser and Martin’s partner and a small number of Amersham members in attendance too.

We started the evening with prints 6 from each club so 18 in total and Martin’s comments were mostly pretty fair and accurate I thought. He held back 4 prints, 3 from Amersham and one from EHHPS, Abandoned Dreams by John Clare which went on to score a 20 and was awarded one of the two allocated stars. The other star went to Gillian Morgan of Amersham for Racing Through The Sea.

Final scores in the prints were

  • Amersham 111

  • EHHPS 107

  • SPPC 96

In the PDI competition, again 6 PDI’s from each club, we also did rather well in that of the 4 PDI’s Martin held back 1 was from Amersham, 1 from SPPC and 2 were from EHHPS. Both Ealing’s images went on to score 20 and both were awarded a star. 

  • Carpet Of Light by Kris Mason 20 and a star

  • Piece Talks by Paul Mason 20 and a star

So of the four stars top awarded across the evening we were awarded 3 of them!! Despite this though it wasn’t quite enough for us to beat the mighty Amersham.

Final Scores in the PDI’s were

  • Amersham 106

  • EHHPS 104

  • SPPC 96

Total scores then

  • Amersham 217

  • EHHPS 211

  • SPPC 192

(Amanda Wright)

The next match involving EHHPS takes place on 21st October in Amersham.  If anyone has anything for consideration, please let Amanda know.

Jenny Fenton Featured in Outdoor Photography

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Once again, an image from Jenny Fenton graces the pages of Outdoor Photography magazine..

Author: Jenny Fenton

“I like to create my floral imagery by using abstraction. I layered three images, two of alliums and one of my own stock textures. I also experimented with exposure compensation and selective focusing.”

Olympus OM-I with 6omm macro lens, ISO 200, 1/20osec at f/3.5, focus stack of three images

Ron Wake Memorial: Mike Lloyd takes the Trophy

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The Ron Wake Trophy Interclub print competition took place at Harrow Camera Club on Monday 23rd Septembr. EHHPS members in attendance were Amanda Wright, Dennis Durack and Kristin and Paul Mason.

Amanda Wright Reports:

Last night (Mon 23rd sept) saw the annual Ron Wake Trophy Competition which has changed format over the years, having started in 1968 with 10 clubs participating and the quota set at 48-50 prints. Last night we were down to just four clubs with a total of 39 prints submitted, quite a sad sign of the times.

Our judge for the evening was the very competent and extremely fair Peter Cox from Tring who started the evening by explaining that he was looking for something creative and unique and where he would be excited by colours shape and form. He didn’t disappoint.

By the break I have to admit it was starting to feel like the 'Watford Show’ as expected with 8 of the 11 images held so far being by them and a quietly confident Martin Patten and I discussed that we both barely disagreed with Peter's remarks. I also had a quick chat with Peter during the break who told me he was conflicted between the technical quality of many of the Natural History images he had held back and the creativity of others. He was after all looking for something unique, and the birds and animals whilst fantastic shots, didn’t quite hit the mark.

By the end of the evening though it felt a little like David versus Goliath and Watford must have thought they had it in the bag with 9 prints held back, Field End 2 and EHHPS 2. Harrow didn’t have any held sadly.

Commendeds were awarded:

  • 4 to Watford

  • 1 to Field End 

  • 1 to EHHPS - very well done Paul Mason for The Artist

Highly Commendeds were awarded

  • 4 - all to Watford

Places:

  • 3rd Place went to Watford

  • 2nd Place to Field End

  • 1st Place to Mike Lloyd from EHHPS for On Brighton Pier

A fantastic result  which means we have won the Ron Wake two years running with Paul winning it last year, very well done! We’ve only won it 5 other times since 1968.

(Amanda Wright)

First Place: On Brighton Pier- Author: Mike Lloyd

Annual Awards Evening: Results 2023-24

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Following the AGM on 13 June, the winners of the Monthly Aggregate Competitions were announced by Internal Competitions Secretary Emmanuel. This season saw a changed format, with Print and PDI results being combined. An author’s top 10 scores from the 4 Print and 12 PDI competitions were totalled, for a maximum of 200 points. In addition, we inaugurated the ‘EHHPS Photographer of the Year’ award, based on a weighted total of all externally judged competitions.

Results - Monthly Aggregate Competitions

Print Open

Open

First : Annie Hackett (196 pts)
Second: Jenny Fenton (193 pts)
Third: John Alexander(188 pts)

Print Set Subject

Set Subject

First: Paul Mason (198 pts)
Second: Emmanuel (192 pts)
Third: Kristin Mason (188 pts)

Print Portrait

Portrait

First : Paul Mason (196 pts)
Second: Mike Lloyd (194 pts)
Third: Kristin Mason (190 pts)

Results - EHHPS Photographer of the Year

First : Paul Mason
Second: Annie Hackett
Third: Emmanuel

The basis for calculating the outcome of this award, based on a weighted total of all externally judged competitions over the year, can be seen here

AGM: New Committee Elected

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At the AGM on 13th June, the 2023024 Committee stood down but all offered themselves for re-election.

In addition, two members put themselves forward for election to the committee:

  • Annie Hackett

  • Nilou Darvish

Kristin Mason’s term as President came to an end after two years.  Burgess Taylor put himself forward for a new term as President and will, as is traditional, be supported in his first year by Kristin undertaking the responsibilities of Vice President, with a new Vice President being elected for the second year. Jane Arnold-Forster, at her own suggestion, has relinquished her role as Exhibitions Secretary, but will continue her responsibilities for BEAT.  Responsibilities for Exhibitions will be revised by the incoming committee in a manner which seeks to leverage the talents of the new members.  Similarly, the committee seeks to utilise our expanded membership to increase the profile of the club in the community with a view to revitalising our membership numbers.

In addition, Jacqui Sinnatt has offered to assist the committee in areas such as Programme and Exhibitions

 The 2024-25 committee was elected unanimously and comprises:

President: Burgess Taylor
Vice President: (year one) Kristin Mason
Secretary: Paul Mason
Treasurer: Dennis Durack
Internal Competition Secretary: Emmanuel Papadopoulos
External Competitions Secretary: Amanda Wright
Programme Secretary: Kristin Mason
Membership Secretary: Dennis Durack
Publicity Secretary: Paul Mason
Exhibitions Secretary: tbc
Webmaster: Burgess Taylor
Jane Arnold Forster: BEAT liason
Nilou Darvish
Annie Hackett

Responsibilities will be revised by the new committee.

EHHPS Visit to Cheltenham 2024: Amanda Wright Reports

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What a fantastic trip we had to beautiful Cheltenham for our second “Battle” (their term for external competitions), hosted by our good friend, EHHPS member and CCC Chairman John Clare. Our first stop was the very lovely Waterperry Gardens, just outside Oxford which kept us occupied for a couple of hours, then in the evening John and his wife Maxine generously hosted Paul, Kris, Ania and myself with a fabulous evening meal.

On Tuesday John had meticulously planned a day out for us all on some very fine steam trains, having previously recce’d the route from Cheltenham Racetrack Station to Broadway Station to make sure everything ran smoothly and we were able to get the most out of the day which we certainly did. One member of CCC Andy, even turned up in costume which led to some very interesting and amusing photo shoots, with the guards and firemen taking in the “paparazzi’ style spirit and happily posing for us, seemingly enjoying the attention. Expect a lot of train themed images to come.

After a fabulous Thai meal at The Giggling Squid it was time for battle to commence. The evening was judged for us by the very confident and popular Louise Hill MPAGB of the infamous Smethwick PS (check out their website smethwickps.co.uk) who always do very well in National Competitions. It very quickly became apparent that her preferred style of image was grungy and gritty portraits and birds and that a keyline was required on all images regardless of whether there were dark edges or not - a practice we ditched as a Federation many years ago as it was considered dated. Her scores were, however, very evenly balanced as she awarded 5 x 15’s, 7 x 16’s, 7 x 17’s, 9 x 18’s, 6 x 19’s and 6 x 20’s. Sadly though all 6 20’s went to CCC!

Our top scorers on the night were with 19 were:

  • A Moment of Peace by Annie Hackett

  • An Anxious Wait by Mike Lloyd

  • Catherine Wheel by Paul Mason

  • Lady of The Manor by Paul Mason

And with 18

  • Cloud Forest by Annie Hackett

  • On Pointe by Dennis Durack

  • It’s About Time by Emmanuel

  • Homage To It by Emmanuel

  • Red Kite by Rick Beresford (Rick I checked out Louise’s Gallery where she has a red kite, yours is better I think)

  • The Sweet Spot by Rick Beresford

Well done all

Final Scores were

  • CCC 358

  • EHHPS 344

We spent Wednesday exploring Cheltenham, mooching around the antiques and a favourite gift shop in Winchcombe and finally enjoying an outdoor pub lunch at The Hollow Bottom in Guiting Power. What’s not to like?

Hopefully more EHHPS members will be able to make it next year 😃

(Amanda Wright)

Rosebowl Day: Amanda Wright Reports

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Sunday 21st April was the Rosebowl Final where the top scoring 12 clubs from the three round matches (each round with different clubs) battle it out to take overall best club in the CACC. Although once again Stoke Poges didn’t enter the final so it was out of 11 clubs. It was fairly well attended with Rick, Dennis, Annie and myself and a couple of Northfields members were there too.

In the morning the Rosebowl Stars Competition was very ably judged by Naomi Saul ARPS DPAGB EFIAP BPE4 ASINWP APAGB from the East Anglia Federation who didn’t shy away from creative images and applauded all genres equally I thought, although she wasn’t giving marks to these images, just 3 Highly Commended and a Best Image, which was won by Neil Jackson of Field End with Morning Light In Newlands Valley.

Naomi also judged the second competition, The Phone Photography Competition and seemed to be extremely impressed by the quality achievable on a mobile phone. Here she awarded marks as well as 8 Highly Commendeds. The Best Image went to Ian Nock of Maidenhead for Sunset In The City. All the images from both these competitions can be found on the CACC website.

After the CACC AGM and lunch it was the Rosebowl Final Competition judged by Graeme Wales ARPS CPAGB BPE2 from the Surrey Photographic Association. As you can imagine several of the images in this competition were also in the Stars Competition so it was interesting to see them judged by someone different. I did pick up a pattern of leaning towards Natural History images for the top scorers so felt we were once again at a bit of a disadvantage. Our top score was 18 which went to 

  • Homage to It by Emmanuel

  • Lady Of The Manor by Paul Mason

  • Eastern Eyes by Dennis Durack

Very well done guys, he was very harsh on creative and portrait shots. Nevertheless, EHHPS came 6th overall and Northfields were delighted not to have come last! Yay!!

The 8 top scoring images can be found on the CACC website.

(Amanda Wright)

NWFed Final and Starred Images Competition: Amanda Wright Reports

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The final of the NWFed competition, together with the Starred Images Competition took place on Saturday 24th February, hosted by Watford. Here is Amanda Wright’s report:

I’m fresh back from Watford where Kris, Paul and I saw the final of the North-West Fed. As the organiser, Terri Adcock, had been away until recently many of us didn’t know who the two finalist clubs were - Amersham and Croxley - until this morning when we printed the scoresheet. 

Each club supplied 9 of their finest prints and 9 of their finest PDI’s and it is fair to say that judge Tim Morland from Kingston CC, had quite a tough task on his hands as the standard was indeed extremely high.

Tim held back 8 of the 18 prints, awarding three 20’s, all of which were from Amersham ,with final Print Comp scores being:

  • Amersham 164.5

  • Croxley 149

He went on to hold back 7 of the 18 PDI’s, awarding two 20’s this time, both being from Croxley. The final PDI scores were:

  • Amersham 152

  • Croxley 158

Total combined score:

  • Amersham 316

  • Croxley 307

So, fairly close.

After the coffee break The starred images were judged by Kevin Day

There were 24 PDI’s and Prints too, judged in two separate competitions. Much to Kevin’s relief, no scores were required - just a First Place and two Highly commended.

In the print competition Kevin held 5 back, with First Place going to David Manning of Leighton Buzzard with one of my favourite images of the year Tin Man Alley.

Both Highly commended images were from Watford: On The Naughty Step by Sam Jenkins and The Right Time Of Day by Mike Brankin.

We only had one print in which was Annie Hackett’s Winskill Tree but sadly it wasn’t held back for final selection.

In the PDI competition we had a bit more of a chance with 4 starred images:

A Moment Of Peace by Annie Hackett
An Anxious Wait by Mike Lloyd
Homage to It by Emmanuel
Eastern Eyes by Dennis Durack

Kevin held back 7 of the 24 images with Homage To It being the only chosen image from EHHPS.

Final placings were

  • First Place Samual by Sanjay Mistry from Harrow another of my favourite images of the year

  • Highly Commended Homage To It by Emmanuel, very well done Em, it’s a stunner!

  • Highly Commended Finnish Wolf in Cotton Grass at Dawn by Chris D’Netto from Imagez

Should you be interested I’m sure these images will be available to see on the individual club’s own websites but should be available on the NWFed website when it’s updated.