Category Archives: LSAPS News

1st Open Print Competition (2021/22)

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The 1st Open PDI Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 22nd October by Dave Butler (MFIAP, MPSA, ARPS, BPE5*, Hon L&CPU) from Chorley Photographic Society. Dave’s style of judging was quite rapid, commenting mainly on the quality of the prints and pointing out where these differed from the digital images being projected on Zoom. The featured image for this competition is A Very British Holiday By Peter Cotton, which gained 20pts in the Intermediate Group.

1st Open Print Competition – Image Gallery

A Very British Holiday By Peter Cotton

Queueing Up For The Picture by Mike Halstead

Rydal Water Photo Walk

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Queueing Up For The Picture by Mike Halstead

Queueing Up For The Picture by Mike Halstead

The first Photo Walk of the new season took place on Saturday 16th October. A group of 11 dedicated photographers arrived at 9.00am in White Moss car park kitted out for whatever the weather may have in store for us.

Drizzle was in the air and, as the low cloud lifted, we were treated to pockets of mist drifting across the hills. After climbing a short distance up Loughrigg Fell we traversed the fell taking images of Rydal water as we progressed.

It’s amazing what sights you see on a photo walk. On a plateau of slate outside Rydal caves we came across a bride and groom having their wedding pictures taken! I must admit the photographer had selected an idyllic spot with the bride in her white wedding dress and the groom in his suit complemented by a backdrop of trees, Rydal water and Nab Scar. Certainly a stunning picture, I just dread to think how much the dry cleaning bill for the beautiful white dress would be!

After the distraction we continued to the shores of Rydal to take images of the lake and boathouse on the far shore. The walk is as much about the social side as capturing images and it was nice to see people discussing compositions etc.  After crossing the busy A591 we entered the grounds of Rydal Hall to have our packed lunches and take images of the waterfalls in the grounds.

Having run out of time we quickly returned to the car park. Whilst we’d had drizzle for much of the day it didn’t really matter, you could say it added atmosphere and contrast to the already spectacular Lake District.

2021 L&CPU Novice Cup

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Waiting His Turn by Peter Cotton

The 2021 Novice Cup took place on Sunday 10th October, the first L&CPU print competition since March 2020!

21 Clubs took part and LSAPS did very well in the Mono Section, finishing in joint 1st place alongside South Manchester CC. Congratulations to Peter Cotton who received a Commended for his print “Waiting His Turn“. Unfortunately we didn’t do so well in the Colour Section, finishing in 12th place. This section was won by North Cheshire PS and Heswall PS. The overall winners of the Cup were Bebington PS with a score of 283 and LSAPS finished 10th with a score of 271.

Note that the Novice Cup is to be renamed, recognising that it is not just for novices and will now be known as the Bob Robinson Cup, in honour of the late L&CPU President.

1st Open Digital Competition (2021/22)

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The 1st Open Digital Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 23rd September by Keith Barber (CPAGB, LRPS, FIScT) from Swinton Photographic Society. Keith commented on the high standard of the club’s photography in general, but did make some comments that a simple crop or slight change in position to adjust composition could have significantly lifted some images. His top scoring images from the evening are listed below and our featured image for this competition is Camels In Wadi Rum by Justin Clayton, which was Keith’s top image in the Intermediate Group.

1st Open Digital Competition – Image Gallery

Camels In Wadi Rum By Justin Clayton

Graham Currey Photo Competition

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Overall 1st Place – Good, Bad Or Ugly By Gordon Watson

Following our photoshoot with Graham Currey on 1st August, he kindly agreed to judge and provide feedback on a selection of images. To ensure a good distribution of images, each photographer was restricted to one image per character, though there was some slight relaxation of that rule. The images are shown below, grouped by character, with Graham’s top placed images for each character at the end of each set. It is interesting to see the variety of work produced from the photoshoot, some fairly straight forward images, some strongly processed and creative images and some composites, where the character is transported to a different scene entirely. Congratulations to Gordon Watson who’s image Good, Bad or Ugly was Graham’s overall favourite.

LSAPS Photographers at St Annes

St Annes Pier Photowalk

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LSAPS Photographers at St Annes

LSAPS Photographers at St Annes

For the final walk of the summer season we meet by St Annes Pier. As you can see from the group photograph, the storm clouds were gathering. The rain kept away until about quarter to nine, but there was only a tiny bit of colour in the sunset. So, it was a matter of capturing the cloud formations, patterns in the sand, the pier or the red balloon.

As always it was a pleasure to meet up with fellow members and enjoy the fresh air, although there was a distinct chill to the wind, a sign that autumn is approaching.

Graham Currey Photoshoot

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Friendly LSAPS Photographers

On Sunday 1st August, a group of 11 LSAPS photographers enjoyed another photoshoot with Graham Currey, starting early in the morning at Lytham Jetty, then moving on to Lytham Hall for the rest of the day.  As usual, Graham arrived with a number of different outfits ranging from an 18th century Poldark type character, through Gandalf the wizard to a 1920s newsboy. He has kindly offered to judge a small competition of images taken on the day, so once we have the results, we will post some of the images. In the meantime, the picture above taken by Graham shows the photoshoot from his point of view.

Cleveleys Photo Walk

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LSAPS Photographers at Cleveleys by Mike Halstead

On the evening of Thursday 22nd July, a group of LSAPS members attended a photo walk to Cleveleys promenade, which started on the promenade overlooking Mary’s Shell. The beach was still busy with people taking full advantage of the sunny, hot weather. With the tide out we took the opportunity to photograph ‘The Sea Orge’, which is normally covered at high tide, then made our way along the promenade taking images as we went. 21 members attended the second of four photo walks planned over the summer break and it was good to be out in the fresh air, meeting up again. By the time we returned to Mary’s Shell the tide had come in, the sun was setting and the sea was calm. We lingered a little longer to talk and watch the peaceful scene in front of us before bidding farewell.  

Let’s hope we have similar weather for the next photo walk at Stanley Park.

2021/22 Print And Digital Photographer Of The Year

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Reynisfjara Church Iceland By Carol Watson

With the announcement of Photoshow results, we also have the annual Print and Digital Photographer Of The Year awards. First, an explanation of how these are calculated.

Points are awarded for performance in each of the In-Season competitions, with 5 pts for coming first (based in the combined score of both images entered), 4pts for second etc. Points are also awarded for performance in Photoshow, again with 5pts for coming first in a category, 4 for second etc. Finally, pts are awarded for scores achieved in the L&CPU Individual competition, with 5 pts for a score of 15, 4pts for a score of 14 etc. Marks are added separately for print and digital competitions to establish the Print and Digital Photographer Of The Year.

Note that this year, there was no Print element to Set Subjects, and there was no L&CPU print competition, which restricted the points available for print competitions.

After all the calculations have been done, the placings were:-

Print Photographer Of The Year

  • 1st – Carol Watson (53pts)
  • 2nd – Sheila Giles (22pts)
  • =3rd – Andy Dickson (15pts)
  • =3rd – Ian Mulroy (15pts)

Digital Photographer Of The Year

  • 1st – Carol Watson (71pts)
  • 2nd – Gordon Watson (61pts)
  • 3rd – Kuli Virdee (37pts)

So, congratulations to Carol, for winning both categories.

 

Best Digital Image - Golden Silhouette by Brian Clarke

2021 Photoshow Results

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Best Digital Image - Golden Silhouette by Brian Clarke

Golden Silhouette by Brian Clarke – Best In Show – Digital

Photoshow results were announced on Thursday 15th July, when we had the pleasure of inviting our two judges to provide comment on the images they had selected for Awards. The Print competition was judged by Rod Whelans (MPAGB, MFIAP, FRPS, FIPF) from Dumfries Camera Club, whilst the Digital competition was judged by Pauric McGroder (ARPS, AIPPVA, FIPF) from Dublin Camera Club.

All the Awarded images are listed below. Congratulations to everyone who received an Award, but in particular to Brian Clark who received Best In Show – Digital and to Carol Watson who achieved multiple first places and also Best In Show – Prints.

2021 Photoshow Print Awards

2021 Photoshow Digital Awards