Skomer 2011

The day started at Burger King in Bristol at 5 am. Kev, Rich, Ian, Simon and me all bleary eyed but eager. A three hour car journey in front of us to get to Martins Haven for the ferry to Skomer. First stop Haverfordwest at 07:30 for a McDonalds breakfast, egg and bacon Mcmuffin for me, TWO for Kevin FB. 30 minutes and a couple of wrong turns later and we arrived at Martins Haven. At this point we were all a bit scepticle as to whether the ferry would cross due to the high winds. The cloud was breaking and it looked like it was going to brighten up but the winds remained. The parking attendant assured us the ferry was still crossing so we grabbed our gear and set off to the ticket kiosk next to the cove. From here we could see the sea, and my god it was quite a swell. The pilot of the boat made his way to the beach past the queue and said he would go out and see what it was like first before he took anyone. Once enough tickets were sold for the first boat full (40) they stopped until we heard from the pilot. Whilst waiting in the howling wind we watched while the sea came rolloing in. Then it clouded over once more and the rain started. What on earth were we thinking of? We continues to watch as the boat pulled out of the sheltered cove, up over the rollers and the bow smacking down in the following trough. We were all looking at each other not saying a word, we didn't have to. The boat disappeared around the headland and we waited. 10 minutes later over the crackle of the radio we the the words we had at first been dreading but were probably quite relieved to to hear, "No go, getting battered by a force 6 here".

That was that. Back up to car and on to plan B. What was plan B. Oh we didn't have one, bugger.

Ok back to Haverfordwest Information centre pick up some leaflets and back to Mcdonalds to discuss. With more caffiene inside us we decided to head for llanelli to the Wild fowl and wetlands trust there. We arrived there at about midday and walked the entire site. Plenty of bird shots were taken with Damselflies and lizards to boot. Ian may well have been converted, as self confessed Damdelfly hater, he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of getting a good Damselfly shot. After doing the wild bird section where we shot Damselflies and lizards because the birds were just too easy we went on to the captive section. Here the birds are much more challenging so we concentrated on this (honest). By the time we finished here it was about 5PM and general concensus was that it wasn't bad but not as good as Slimbridge.

From here we felt perhaps a visit to Ogmore-on-sea was in order to maybe get some beach and sky shots. Arrived here about 6PM and the tide was in, so not much beach there. Not our day. Never the less we still got down onto the little bit of beach and hpefully got some useable shots.

After this it was around 7PM and we were all knackered so felt it was time to head home. Back to Burger King for about 8 ish.

Even though we were up at 5am, had a 3 hour journey, got soaked waiting a a queue, to then drive back to a wetlands centre that wasn't as good as one we could have gone to 30 minutes from home and then go to get some beach shots when the tide was in. We still enjoyed ourselves. It was a day when things were just against us, but we made the best of it and visited places we normally wouldn't have. In the process we enjoyed ourselves had a laugh and Simon was able to catch up on his sleep in the car.

Reflex Awards

All year you’ve been entering our Open Competition. You’ve taken pictures, edited & printed until your fingers bled and now you get to find out who the winners are!

Congratulations to everyone that won and thanks to all of you that took part. This years competition was pretty close and the standard of entries was superb. So start snapping away to get your pictures ready for next season. It’s sure to be hotly contended again.

As usual names that are underlined in yellow are links that take you to that person’s Flickr pages.

 

	Photographer of the Year or, “who can look the most like a rabbit in the headlights” goes to Ian Coombs Congratulations and next year were banning Lumix camera’s & JPG’s!
Novice of the Year Goes to Simon Xu (pictured) and Louise Iddon Congratulations to both of you.
	Stan Scantlebury Shield (Best DPI of the Year) goes to Alison Davies For her picture Unbroken Gaze
John Hankin Shield (Best Print of the Year) goes to Arthur Belton for his print Lily
	Print Photographer of the Year goes to Ian Coombs
Digital Projected Image Photographer of the Year goes to Mark Stone

If you didn’t enter then please consider having a go next time. You’ve seen what everyone else can do and it’s a sure bet that your pictures are just as good. So come on If you don’t try you’ll never know if you could win or not.

And the Winners are……

This Thursday is our Annual Social & Prize Giving evening. We get to have a few drinks, embarrass ourselves at Skittles and mingle with all the friends we’ve made at the club. It’s a great night and you should definitely come along. If it’s not really your thing, still come along. You’ll be made to feel more than welcome and I’m sure you’ll have a great time. As well as the Social side of it we’ll also be announcing the winners of our Annual Open Competition.

You get to find out who has won Photographer of the Year, Best Digital Photographer and Best Print Photographer. Not forgetting for the first time in Several years we have brought back our Best Novice Photographer award. Don’t forget we also have to give Arthur & Alison their Trophies for winning the Stan Scantlebury & John Hankin Shield Competitions.

So if you’ve been desperate to know whose won or think you need to clear a bit of space on a shelf for one or two of the trophies, make sure to come along on Thursday and enjoy our very own award’s show.

How would you have done it?

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised last night. That has to be one of the most well attended AGM’s we’ve ever had! Now come on admit it. You lot didn’t realise it was the AGM and that’s why you turned up! But it was great to see so many of you and even better that you actually made suggestions, asked questions and put across your views on the running of the club. So on behalf of the Committee I’d like to thank all of you for being there and making this last season one of the best ones we’ve had in ages.

OK so now I have a question for you. Feel free to email me your thoughts on it or drag me to one side at a meeting. It’s a very simple question, nothing too taxing for a Friday. All I want to know is…..

Would you have changed anything we’ve done over the last season?

It’s not a trick question. We’re not going to come around to your house with baseball bats if you didn’t like something. We honestly want to know if you would have done anything differently to how it happened. I’m not just talking about at meetings, if you think this Blog needs to be written differently, the email needs to change or Hanneke needs to stop obsessing about chocolate. Anything at all, no matter how big or how small, tell us. You don’t have to come up with a solution to it, although that would be great, just let us know what it was that you would have changed. So if you didn’t like something but aren’t sure what would be better that’s fine. It might take us a while longer to figure out a new way to do it but we’ll have a go.

Thanks Arthur

Last night Arthur Belton performed his last official duties as Programme Secretary. He’s been doing that job for at least the last 10 years! Every season he’s faithfully negotiated dates with speakers and wrestled with the need to keep the programme varied and interesting to everyone. I’m coming up to the end of my second season at the club and during that time I can honestly say there has only been 3 speakers that I didn’t like any of their work or subject matter (yes 2 of them did involve trains).
So I hope you’ll all join me in thanking Arthur for his superb work in keeping us fickle folk entertained over the years and we hope you’ll enjoy all that extra free time your going to have now.

Arthurs retirement from the committee means that we now have a new Programme Secretary, Hanneke Ter Veen. She’s spent the last year learning the ropes from Arthur and we’re expecting a great season of fantastic speakers and wonderfully planned events. Not that we’d ever put her under any pressure of course, but we’re working on forfeits if a speaker fails to live up to expectations!

I’m getting there… eventually

 

I’m a bit late this week as this post should of been made on Friday but as the title says “I’m getting there..eventually”

Ann Cook FRPS, came along last Thursday and talked about the Art of Make Believe. It really was a fantastic evening of great Portraiture photography. Even better was Ann’s obvious enjoyment as she talked about her pictures. The talk was informative, entertaining and fun. How many times have you been sat at a club meeting wishing the speaker would just get on with it and talk about the pictures rather than the fact they were taken on their 25th trip to Africa and then get a 15 minute lecture on where Africa is in the world! Well you certainly don’t get that at one of Ann’s talks. I’ve never heard so much laughter or seen such obvious enjoyment on the faces of everyone attending. It was great to get a speaker that captivated their audience. It’s also the first time I’ve known that I have been looking at pictures taken with continuous lighting and I was impressed by the results. It also helped that Ann was obviously a master at using her equipment.

I’d like to thank Ann for such a wonderful evening and tell the rest of the world if you want an enjoyable, entertaining and fun evening full of anecdotes and wonderful photography , go along to one of her presentations. You won’t regret it.

John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield Results

A.K.A. That’s a bloody good picture!

Last Thursday we had the pleasure of meeting David Southwell for the second time when he judged our Best Print and Best Projected Images of the year competition. His style of judging was superb instead of just describing what was in the picture (we can all see what it is so why do judges do that?) he actually went into great detail about what he saw when he looked at each photograph. Not just “that’s a nice picture” but why he thought it was good. He talked about how his eye travelled around the composition and if it seemed to get caught on any of the detail within the frame. It was probably one of the best explained and detailed bits of judging we’ve had for quite some time. So on behalf of all of us at Reflex I’d like to thank David for doing a superb job.

The winner of the Stand Scantlebury Shield wasn’t present, so she got sent a text message. Her reply was

“Oh my God! You poor proper photographers and to think I don’t know an F stop from a bus stop”

To get our own back we’re going to make her organise every social event for the next 20 years!

Now onto the reason you’re here. The photographs that have won our John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield’s. As you, hopefully, know these are for the Best Print and Best Digital Projected Image taken by a club member this season. Only pictures that had been entered into a previous round of this season’s open competition (including the Trio)  were eligible and I’m glad to say we saw some superb Images.

Congratulations to the winners and a huge thank you to everyone that’s entered picture’s into this year’s Open Competition. You should all be proud of the images you’ve created.

John Hankin Shield (Best Print of the Year)	Stan Scantlebury Shield (Best DPI of the Year)
Winner Lily by Arthur Belton(Previously entered: Round 2, Print)	Winner Unbroken Gaze by Alison Davies(Previously entered: Round 4, DPI)
2nd: Leopard by Barrie Tovey  (Previously entered: Round 3, Print)	2nd: Kilve by Adrian Cook (Previously entered: Round 2, DPI)
3rd: Hats & Tails by Ian Coombs (Previously entered: Trio, Print)	3rd: Liverpool Waterfront by Adrian Cook(Previously entered: Round 3, DPI)
HC: The Mating Game by Joe Scudamore (Previously entered: Trio, Print)	HC: Patterns in Glass by Roy Williams (Previously entered: Trio, DPI)
HC: Charlotte by Ian Coombs(Previously entered: Trio, Print)	HC: Horned Frog by Mark Stone (Previously entered: Round 3, DPI)
	HC: Waiting by Ian Coombs (Previously entered: Round 2, DPI)
	HC: The Eye by Mark Stone (Previously entered: Trio, DPI)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In deepest darkest Wales

It’s guest post time again and we have an account of the Club’s day trip to the Élan Valley and Gigrin from our Chairman Kev Spiers.


Well with the Royal Wedding happening of Friday 29th of April and the leaders of the land giving us an extra day off, plans were hatched for a trip to deepest darkest mid Wales. I should mention we are not against Kate and Williams big day quite the contrary. We wish them the very best in their new life, every happiness for the future and peace from the paparazzi, heaven knows they will need it! Oh and many thanks for the free day off :)
So the plans took shape in the form of an early start for the Élan Dams then off the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm and back to the Dams for a sunset shot (very brave for April in Wales as its not the driest place in the UK) With the weather not looking that good we all meet at Sandy Park Burger King at 7 o'clock. This is where the wolf made its first appearance and scared the life out of Simon, Rich and Geoff who had not meet the beast before! What else did Ian have up his sleeve or in that bag of his? You never know till he wants you too. So, the group was there and briefed with how to run in convoy we set off passports and £5.70 bridge toll in hand. We dispatched the M32, M4 and Tolls almost incident free, Rich's car had a small mechanical gremlin getting on to the M4 but with a quick twist of the key and threatening it with a large hammer and screw driver it behaved it’s self for the rest of the day. We made it to the Élan Visitor Centre for 09.15 gagging for a coffee, no such luck! Doors open at 10. We had a little wander around the car park then grabbed our gear and headed for the dam, I don't think anybody counted the steps to the top but it was to many! We all made it legs burning and hearts thumping, who said taking pictures was easy? This is where Ian decided to let us meet his second pet for the day, a rat (an Ikea soft toy). The water was 6 feet from the top of the dam, very graphic evidence of the dry winter and spring we have had. We took a few pictures with the hope that a bit of post production may make the grey sky look better and headed back down those steps for refreshment. This came in the shape of coffee's, tea's, pasties, crisps and sausage sandwiches. As we ate we looked at the Red Kit images hanging on the wall, the general consensus was they weren't sharp. Ian decided to pull out his Lumix and snap one as a banker just incase!
Dam two looked much more photogenic (I think it was Pen-y-Gareg Dam) This one I estimate the water was 10 to 15 feet below the high tide line, even the fly fishermen could wade from side to side. This lead to thoughts of returning with better light as the graded shore lines would look fantastic. We climbed over the fence and slithered down the bank to the rock shore for a few more pictures. Ian disappeared only to return once we were all back at the cars. He was very happy with pictures of some ducklings, patterns in the water and a dead buzzard!
Off to Dam number 3, Craig Goch. This one you can drive across, we made the crossing to the far side and split up to take photos. The sky was still grey with the occasional shaft of sunlight peeping through. Rich Price waited with the patience of a saint for a shaft of light on some trees on the far bank. Barrie busied himself with some candid shots of a couple who arrived on a Harley to admire the view and some shots of the local feathered wildlife. Kev scurried off up a steep bank to get a lofty shot of the dam, Rich headed off looking for a different angle on the dam only to return to take shots of Chaffinch's with the lens cap on!!? (did we not teach him anything?) Simon wandered to the far side snapping as he walked.
Time was getting on as we needed to be at Gigrin for 2 o'clock so we decided to make a rushed visit Dam number 4 Claerwen. This one is pretty spectacular, its huge! Well not Hoover Dam huge but for Wales trust me its impressive. After a very quick look at the base we drove to the top scared Ian with a look over the edge and headed off to Gigrin.
Once paid and parked we all made off to our hides. Barrie and Rich P in the £15 seats with Rich, Simon, Geoff and Kev in the £4 seats. We sat and waited the 45 minutes to feeding time spotting the odd Red Kite and hoping we would see the fabled White Kite. Ian got a little bored at this point as his bum went to sleep and started snoring!! Then we heard the tractor and so did the Kites it was the equivalent of banging the food gong! they appeared from everywhere, circling above us. The tractor entered the field stopped right in front of us and dumped some its 40 kilos of fresh meat. I was like the rest camera glued to my eye trying to make a shot. Honestly it was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds I have no idea how many Kites were there but am quite confident it was 100+ Suddenly there was a quiet shout through the hide its the White Kite! Every camera in the hides snapped in the general direction and pressed their shutter, it was tagged number 51 not the best for a photo opportunity but a record of a White Kite nonetheless. Then drama struck massive problems, memory full card!! Rich, Kev, Barrie :- Kev and Rich set about deleting images Barrie called it a day, well it was 5 o'clock! 5 O'clock where did those 2 hours go? Just ask the bursting memory cards 700+ for Kev 500+ for Rich P
Next a little confusion home, food, sunset? home was called then changed to pub to discuss further. A small detour via a luck encounter with a very large bracket fungus and the pub was entered beers ordered and a comfy sofa for us. It was decided to go our separate way’s. Barrie and Co. had another beer, Rich's crew headed off for a possible sunset at Dam number 3. It turned out OK, Kev and Rich P messed with off camera flash to highlight foreground while Rich finally got to grips with that flipping Chaffinch and Simon used the centre of the Dam as foreground for the sunset. That done we headed off home dodging frogs and Welsh drivers, feel free to ask!
Still enough rambling, just to say thank you to Barrie and Rich for driving and to all who made this another great Reflex Camera Clubs day out.