natural history photographic competition

TENBY AND DISTRICT CAMERA CLUB The judging of the natural history photographic competition on Thursday 24th October was well attended by members for this the first visit to the club of Malcolm Kingswall who travelled from Tredegar. Malcolm told members he was a generalist in photography but his passion was natural history, and was pleased when he first looked at the images, to see the approach, freedom of expression and composition which was refreshing. The standard of photographs and digital images varied, but on the whole the standard was very good. In the print section there were over 20 entries with the subjects varying from sea birds, seal pups, caterpillars, Robins and Gold Finches, a stag, monkeys and fungi. Malcolm gave excellent critiques to every image commenting on both good points and failings of the photographs, good composition but poor contrast of light, strong image poor composition. He went on to say photography in the club is certainly up there with the best in Wales. 3rd place was awarded to Paul Richards for his ‘Pied flycatcher’, 2nd place ‘Tipping Point’, Gary Jenkins and in 1st place ‘The Stag’, Andrew Baxter. Following the coffee break Malcolm then continued his judging of the 32 digital images, once again the subject matter varied from all varieties of birds, Red Kites, Sparrow Hawks, Puffins, Mute Swans, Pheasants, Kingfishers even a Brown Pelican, a Hedgehog, Dragonfly, Bluebells and fungi; once again Malcolm gave constructive and useful comment on the images such as how the light plays on the subject, he continued to say that all images have merit, but of course some are better than others and this was evident in the final placings. Malcolm awarded joint 3rd to three members, Ann Batty, Mike Cullis and Gary Jenkins, in 2nd place Neil Thomas ‘Kingfisher with Catch’ and in 1st place Paul Richards ‘Barn Owl with Prey’. The overall winner of the competition was Andrew Baxter’s image of the ‘Stag’. 31st October – A Talk by Tom Dodd – More than Mountains. 7th November – Nigel McCall – The Falkland Islands – Wildlife and landscapes.