Haslam Park Photo Walk

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LSAPS Members at Haslam Park

On Saturday morning, 19th March, a group of 9 met at Haslam Park to explore and enjoy taking images in the spring sunshine. The Lancaster canal bounds one side of the park. We joined the towpath to follow the curves of the canal beyond the park to reach the junction with the Ribble Link. The two deep locks linking the canal with Savick Brook provided some good photo opportunities. We continued the walk to re-entry Haslam Park at the ornamental gates at the western entrance. Two hours quickly passed enjoying the tranquillity of the park. As always it was a pleasure to meet up with members to talk, walk and take pictures along the way.

3rd Open Digital Competition (2021/22)

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The 3rd and final Open Digital Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 17th March by John Riley from Atherton and District Photographic Society. John had obviously spent some time studying the images before the competition, but he did comment on a number that had blown highlights, so that is something to check before submitting images into competitions.  The featured image for this competition is Red Kite Hunting by Grant Douse, which scored 20pts in the Intermediate Group.

3rd Open Digital Competition – Image Gallery

Red Kite Hunting By Grant Douse

2nd Set Subject Competition (2021/22) – Contre Jour

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The 2nd Set Subject Competition of the 2021/2 season on the subject ‘Contre Jour’ was judged on 17th February by Alfred Brown (CPAGB) from both South Manchester and Branhall Photographic Societies. There were 100 PDI and print images to get through, but Alf kept his comments short and to the point so we finished in good time. Recurring comments were about controlling specular highlights, achieving good black and white tones in mono images and sometimes cropping to a letterbox shape for added impact.

The featured image for this competition is Celestial Dawn by Chris Taylor, which scored 20pts in the PDI category.

2nd Set Subject Competition – Contre Jour Images

Celestial Dawn by Chris Taylor

Dublin Inter-Club Competition

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Kingfisher With Catch By Kuli Virdee

On Tuesday 25th January LSAPS took part in an inter-club competition against Dublin Camera Club. This competition followed on from last year’s Photoshow PDI competition, which was judged by Dublin club member Pauric McGroder.  Pauric thought that LSAPS would be a good match for Dublin, so we agreed to hold a competition. The format was for 30 images, including between 5 and 10 Mono and Nature images, with no club member being represented more than twice.

The judge was Ann Francis (FIPF, EFIAP/g) from Cork Camera Group, and after a close competition, Dublin were the narrow winners with a score of 486pts against 483pts for LSAPS.

LSAPS scores and images are shown below. Congratulations to Kuli Virdee whose Kingfisher With Catch was the highest placed LSAPS image with a score of 19.

2nd Open Digital Competition (2021/22)

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The 2nd Open Digital Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 20th January by Nick Berentzen (CPAGB, BPE2*) from South Manchester Camera Club. Nick laid out his criteria for assessing images at the start – looking for impact, emotion, story telling and atmosphere, and only placing technical competence at the end. During his critique he mentioned placing of subjects within the frame as important, such as offsetting subjects in a landscape, or providing looking space for nature shots, and also talked about the right lighting conditions for landscapes.

Congratulations to Brian and Tim in the Intermediate Group and Gordon and Sheila in the Advanced Group who all scored 20pts for one of their images. The featured image for this competition is Flooded Forest by Sheila Giles, which scored 20pts in the Advanced Group.

Flooded Forest By Sheila Giles

Salford Quays Photo Walk

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The Quays At Night by Mike Halstead

The walk took place on Saturday afternoon 15th January. A clear blue sky and bright sunshine greeted us as we arrived at Salford Quays, however there was a distinct chill in the air. We quickly set about the task of seeking out interesting images. There was little breeze, so we were able to capture some nice reflections in the water. Sunset, unfortunately, did not provide the glow in the sky we hoped for and so we took the opportunity to take a break.

After a quick visit to the Lowry Outlet Centre, to have a cup of tea and get warm, we resumed our walk as darkness, and the lights of the buildings and bridges, transformed the landscape. The challenge for the remainder of the evening was to select the appropriate exposure settings to produce pleasing images of the Quays at night.

At about 6pm we retraced our steps to the car park and made our way home. By now we’ll have viewed the images on our computers and evaluated with the results.

On a cold afternoon / evening in January it was a pleasure to get together and enjoy photography.

A selection of images from the day are shown below.

Mike Halstead

2nd Open Print Competition (2021/22)

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Lower Sweden Bridge By Tim Amphlett

The 2nd Open Print Competition of the 2021/2 season was judged on 16th December by George Steele (CPAGB, LRPS, BPE2*) from Bury PS. George also had the task of selecting the Christmas Hat and Jumper winners. Congratulations to Carol and Kuli, who scored 20pts in the Advanced Group, and to Tim Amphlett whose image Lower Swede Bridge scored 20pts in the Intermediates, and is the Featured Image for this competition.

Christmas Hats And Jumpers

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At the meeting on Thursday 16th Dec, members were encouraged to turn up in their best Christmas jumper or hat, with prizes for the best outfits. 

Well done to Margaret Broughton and Peter Cotton, who won the Lady’s and Men’s Hat competition, and to Sheila Giles and Mike Halstead, who won the Lady’s and Men’s jumper competition. 

Hat Winners - Margaret Broughton And Peter Cotton
Lady's Jumper Winner - Sheila Giles
Men's Jumper Winner - Mike Halstead

The 2021 Seaside Invitation

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The Seaside Invitation competition against Southport PS was held on Thursday 9th December, hosted by LSAPS. The competition was judged by Adrian Lines (MPAGB, AFBPE, AFIAP) who provided a number of feedback points such as cropping to either give space to the subject or cropping close to create some tension, and attention to small points of detail like highlights, distracting elements or slight halos around objects.

LSAPS were trailing slightly after the first Print round, but came out ahead after the PDI round, with a total score of 674pts against Southport’s 666pts.

Congratulations to Carol Watson whose Vestrahorn Reflections was the only LSAPS print to score 20pts, and to Bill Breckenridge, Kuli Virdee and Gordon Watson who all scored 20pts in the PDI competition.

Vestrahorn Reflection By Carol Watson

LSAPS Scores

2021 5-Way Battle

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Dickensian by Kuli Virdee

The 2021 5-Way Battle was held on Tuesday 23rd November, hosted by Garstang PS on Zoom. The competition involves LSAPS, Poulton, Bispham, Garstang and North Fylde, with 15 images being entered from each club. Judge for the evening was Erica Oram from Sheffield, who judged our Photoshow a couple of years ago. Erica provided good detailed critique of each image to justify the scores.

At the end of the evening, LSAPS scored 242pts which placed us in third place by just one point behind North Fylde, with Poulton winning with 255pts. Garstang and Bispham placed 4th and 5th respectively. All the LSAPS image scores are listed below – congratulations to Kuli Virdee and Gordon Watson, who each scored a maximum 20pts for one of their images.