Author: LPS

This week (22nd April) we held the second of five Open Print competitions. These print competitions allow members to enter images on any subject – with a top six selected by a visiting judge who also critiques the work. This time round we welcomed Harry Gardiner to LPS who gave a thorough and entertaining presentation – despite the smell surrounding Dafen which was being caused by a leaky gas cylinder.

A high standard of images went into this competition and Harry selected a top six but also gave a nod to a handful of entries which weren’t far behind. The winner though was “Sunset” by Jamie Morris.

This unusual shot was Jamie’s first Open Print success – well done to him.

The top six were as follows:

1. Jamie Morris – Sunset
2. Colin West – Machynys
3. Jason Dale – Shells At Sunset
4. Netley Davies – Red Sunset
5. Netley Davies – Graham
6. Tony Collis – Cuba Wash Day

Congratulations to Colin who achieved his best position in an LPS competition and well done too to Netley who picked up two slots in the top six. Our thanks to Harry Gardiner for judging and we look forward to seeing him at LPS again in the future.

The next competition is on the 6th May when it’s our annual Ken Jones Trophy for monochrome prints.

On April 8th Llanelli Photographic Society held it’s annual Audiovisual (AV) competition. This is where a series of images are put together and accompanied with music. They can be on any subject – serious or funny! This year we had AVs featuring zombies, lego men, Mr Happy aka Graham Harries, Wexford Abbey, a rugby tour to France, skiing, a year of images and even Llanelli Town Centre.

All the AVs were shown twice before members were asked to vote for the one they liked the best. It was a pretty much unanimous decision with Phil Worsley winning with his ‘Trials and Tribulations Of A Camera Club’.

The picture above shows Phil (and friend) collecting the AV Trophy from Club President and Chairman, Ray Rees (image by Graham Harries).

Congratulations to Phil for winning the competition and well done to all who took part and helped created an entertaining evening.

The next competition at LPS is on the 22nd April and is the second Open Print of 2015.

The Welsh Salon 2015 acceptance lists have been announced and there’s good news for LPS with six members having work included in the annual event organised by The Welsh Photographic Federation (The WPF). The list of LPS acceptances were: Joyce Mollet (1 colour, 1 mono, 1 DPI), Graham Harries (2 colour, 1 mono, 2 DPI), Peter Francis (2 colour, 1 DPI), Arthur Mallett (1 colour), Jay Harries (1 DPI) and Jason Dale (1 DPI).

The images that were chosen were as follows:

Colour Prints
Peter Francis – Powering Up
Peter Francis – Pre-dawn Lift Off
Graham Harries – Balsamo, Deighton
Graham Harries – London SW1
Arthur Mallett – Evening Glow (Edinburgh)
Joyce Mollet – The Way We Were

Monochrome Prints
Graham Harries – Paolo Nutini
Joyce Mollet – Tribal Elder

Digital Images
Jason Dale – London Lines
Peter Francis – Turkish Bread Makers
Graham Harries – The Festival
Graham Harries – The Undertaker
Jayne Harries – Trafalgar Square
Joyce Mollet – Village Life

Congratulations to all but especially to Graham who managed to pick up 5 successes. Joyce and Peter also did well with three each whilst Jason managed to pick up his first Salon acceptance.

There was further good news for LPS when the Llanelli Star did a double page feature on the club. The spread included images from members of LPS as well as a nice write up about the club’s aims as it heads towards it’s 125th Anniversary in 2016.

It was competition time again at Llanelli Photographic Society (25th March). This time round it was for the Dave Roberts Memorial Trophy – a special competition with a “nautical” theme held in memory of Dave. Entries included fishing boats, abandoned boats, cruise ships, lighthouses and even huge waves – giving visiting judge Rob Mitchell plenty to think about when deciding a winner.

Rob as ever gave a brilliant critique and was thoroughly entertaining all evening. He selected his six favourite shots and these were as follows.

1. Room With A View – Alun Lewis
2. Storm Brewing – John Ellis
3. Bleak House – Clive Martin
4. Done Fishing – Jackie Davies
5. Porthcawl Yeti – Jason Dale
6. Geiranger Fjord – Arthur Mallett

Congratulations to Alun for winning the 2015 Dave Roberts Trophy – and a massive thank you to Rob for judging.

Our next competition is an Open Print one and that will be held on 22nd April (hand in on the 8th). Further ahead it’s the Ken Jones Trophy which has a “monochrome” theme.

The latest presenter to visit Llanelli Photographic Society was Nigel McCall. Nigel was the winner of the Urban View category in the Take a View – Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards in 2013 with his shot of Starlings over Carmarthen so big things were expected – and he didn’t disappoint. He treated us to a collection of landscape and wildlife images under the title of “Home & Away”.

The away images were taken in a variety of locations including Namibia and The Falklands. However the talk demonstrated just how many good photography opportunities are on our doorsteps. Nigel showed some beautiful shots of Pembrokeshire and the Towy Valley – and interspersed these with useful advice and anecdotes.

LPS members gave the following feedback

“Really enjoyed, didn’t know how much planning was needed to get ‘the shot’, have certainly made me me look at landscape photography in a new light”

“Impressive speaker and amazing images”

“A really professional presentation on first class landscape & wildlife photos”

“Good speaker, interesting pictures”

“Enjoyed the landscape photos, birds are not really my scene, but they were outstanding. Good talk and a few hints and tips”

“Informative, entertaining and well a constructed talk emphasising the point that photographers don’t have to travel the world to take good photographs – there are plenty of opportunities on your own patch.”

We’d like to thank Nigel for coming to the club to give his presentation and look forward to seeing him back in the future.

Our next speaker is Gareth Martin from Brigend Camera Club. Gareth will be making the first of two visits to LPS in April as he’s also judging the Ken Jones Memorial Trophy in May.

The featured image for this post is by John Ellis and it’s the 2014 Our Carmarthenshire Winner.

The second digital image (DPI) competition of 2015 was on the theme of Numbers/Letters and saw a variety of entries. These included graffiti, signs, memorial plaques and even a skeleton (as his number was up). Graham Harries provided the critique on the night and was informative and entertaining.

The images were scored by members and that saw Jason Dale come out on top with his crossword image called 23 Across. The top six images were as follows.

Congratulations to Jason and well done to all who made the top six – with a special nod for Alun who had two images in the group. Thanks to Graham for the critique and Tony for the scoring.

The next DPI theme is “Old Things” and that takes place in May!

This week (4th March) members of Llanelli Photographic Society were entertained by Ian Cook. Ian is a sports photographer and has covered prestigious events such as The 2012 Olympics, Champions League Final and The Commonwealth Games. However the life of a sports photographer isn’t all that glamorous and Ian kindly explained about his work, his camera gear and how he goes about getting his shots.

Ian’s talk was both entertaining and informative and gave a wonderful insight in to the world of sports photography. Here are just some of the comments made my members of LPS:

“He gave us a lot to think about as regards our camera settings. He mentioned things that I had not considered previously. They may have been sport pictures but they were quality images and some were extremely creative. Inspirational!!”

“Very interesting and informative presentation”

“Enjoyable, informative and entertaining”

“I am not interested in sport but found it very informative about how to take sport photos that you could use for other kinds of photography. He was informative,interesting and funny.”

As you may gather Ian’s talk went down very well and LPS would like to thank him for visiting us and doing such a fantastic presentation. We look forward to seeing Ian again in the future!

The image promoting this post is not by Ian – it’s by Ed Shum and is in fact last year’s winning image from our Sports DPI competition.

Our next speaker is Nigel McCall and he will be visiting LPS on the 18th March. Nigel won a Landscape Photographer of the Year Award in 2013 and will be doing a presentation called Home And Away.

The annual 5 Panel DPI competition was held at Llanelli Photographic Society on the 25th February. There were 21 different panels with varying themes including horror, spoons, cakes and landscapes. Joyce and Arthur stepped up to critique the vast array of images and both provided useful hints and tips on creating better panels.

The winner however was chosen by the members and Jennifer Williams retains the trophy that she won last year. Jen won with her panel that features a band called The Newly Deads.

Congratulations to Jen and a big thanks to Joyce and Arthur for the critique.

A top six isn’t compiled for this competition but the following panels did well in the scoring.

Well done to all who submitted a panel – next week at LPS we welcome Ian Cook for a presentation on Sports Photography.

This week (18th February), Llanelli Photographic Society welcomed Dave Mason to the club for their first guest speaker slot of 2015. Dave is a Street Photographer from London and he was in the South Wales region giving a number of talks at camera clubs around the area. The title of Dave’s talk was called “I Shoot People” and it covered a number of street photography themes including events, dogs, covers on cars, The Elvis Convention at Porthcawl and The Birquesh Camel Market!

The talk was excellent!

Highly entertaining, full of great anecdotes and all accompanied by Dave’s Street Photography! Everyone enjoyed the night. Comments from LPS members included “Good images, and fun stories, top night”, “Brilliant night” and “A really first class night with great photography of a difficult subject with really great narrative.”

LPS would like to thank Dave for visiting us and hope to see him in club again in the near future. We’d also like to thank Jennifer at Cardiff Camera Club who put us in touch with Dave to arrange the talk.

By the way, the image accompanying this blog is not by Dave. It’s by LPS member Jamie Morris and was a recent entry from our Special Effects competition. It seemed an apt choice for this particular article.

Next week (25th Feb) we will be holding the annual 5 Panel DPI competition and this is then followed by the visit of our second speaker of 2015 – Ian Cook. Ian will be giving his talk on Sports Photography – we’re all looking forward to that one!

However if you want to see more of Dave’s images or find out more (and do try and book him for your camera club) then go to http://www.davemasonimages.com/.

The annual Ray Rees Special Effects competition was held on the 11th February and the standard of entry this year was exceptionally high. Jennifer Williams gave a critique on images that featured toy buses at Llanelli, a Supermoon at Whitby, a man ironing the sea and a man emerging from the toilet.

The entries were judged/scored by members and the winner was Steve Milton with his shot titled Seraphina.

The standard of entry was so high that there was only a handful of points between the top four. Shots from Jennifer Williams, Tony Collis and Ed Shum were close to taking first place.

Congratulations to Steve for the win and his fabulous image. Thanks also to Jennifer for doing the critique.

Our next meeting (18th Feb) will see London based photographer Dave Mason doing a presentation on Street Photography. The next competition will be on the 25th and it’s the annual 5 Panel DPI!