On the 11th August the WCPF held its inaugural club print competition in Dorchester. Members from DCC and the WCPF hosted the event and it was a very successful day. Fotospeed sponsored the new trophy which was won by Torbay Photographic Society.
 
Thirty-nine clubs took part in which the FWCC came joint tenth. A well deserved position seeing the competition. Congratulations to all of our photographers who scored the below mentioned marks.
You will see by this link how we compared. http://www.wcpf.org.uk/media/PrintComp/2019/WCPF%20Print%20Comp%202019%20Ranked
 
The judges were: Glyn Edmunds ARPS DPAGB EFIAP/s EPSA, Jean Brooks EFIAP/b BPE2*, Caroline Colgate ARPS APAGB

Click here to see the winning images from FWCC

DON’T FORGET
Enrolment evening is Friday 6th September 2019, 7.45 pm at Beckington Memorial Hall. There will be a slide shows of members work, refreshments, and an opportunity to see the programme of events that have been planned for next season.
 
Jenny Powell
In the past we relied on volunteers to provide refreshments at break time, but in practise it often meant that members would miss part of the talks or competitions, and it was often difficult to find volunteers to fill the rota. To solve this problem, in a completely new venture, we have engaged Jenny Powell to provide refreshments on club nights. Jenny is a lady who lives in Beckington and was looking for a volunteering opportunity that would enable her to meet new people so it’s important that we make her welcome. As she is also willing to make cakes and biscuits to go along with our teas and coffees, and will use our donations to finance this, although I know that most members make more substantial donations for their drinks and homemade cakes, the committee are suggesting that we make a minimum donation of at least 50p each at break time.
*please don’t forget to bring your own cups!
 
Club outings
Our Social Secretary, Michelle de Mora has come up with a fabulous programme of events throughout the season starting with the Longleat Sky Safari on 13th to 15th September. More than 150 hot air balloons will take to the air over this weekend offering an excellent opportunity for some stunning images. In the past these outings have included a good mix of beginner/less experience members and the more experienced members offering good opportunities for the sharing of photographic knowledge and skills, enabling us all to improve our photography. If you are interested in this first event please let me know and I will pass your name on to Michelle.
 
Christmas at Stourhead
Another event that we will probably need to book up soon is the Christmas at Stourhead event, several members have expressed an interest but until we know if we can get together a group of at least 15, Michelle will not be able to start exploring possible dates. If you think you would like to go along please let me know and I will pass names on to Michelle. If you want to know more go to nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead
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​MOST IMPORTANT
Don’t forget that enrolment evening is Friday 6th September 2019, 7.45 pm at Beckington Memorial Hall. There will be a slide shows of members work, refreshments, and an opportunity to see the programme of events that have been planned for next season.
 
Competition themes
The first competition of the season is the Kingswood Salver and this years’ theme is Flowers. Whilst members took some stunning shots at Rosemoor, it was a beautiful day and the lighting was quite harsh. The Frome Show will be coming up on Saturday 14th September (apologies, I put the wrong date last week!) and this is an ideal opportunity to take photos of competition standard blooms in soft lighting. What is required is 5 photographs from 5 different photographers, and looking at the website it seems that the most successful entries have a theme running through them, so if you want to enter it might be an idea to get together with other members to plan a shoot.
 
Develop Your Photography Group -Affinity photo course
Phil Taylor will be running an all-day course on Affinity photo Basics on Thursday September 12th 10:00 to 4:00pm At Buckland Dinham village Hall –. There are just 5 spare places, so if you would like to join let him know soonest. The course is open to all who intend to rejoin FWCC in Sept. Each participant will be asked to bring their own laptop complete with a working copy of affinity photo + some RAW and jpg images they would like to work on. In the morning he will cover the Affinity RAW development module and in the afternoon look at improving or changing backgrounds, which will include some layers and masking.
There will be a small charge to cover costs.
 
Christmas at Stourhead
For the very first time Stourhead gardens are going to be illuminated after dark for the Christmas period. Attractions include a Tunnel of Light, illuminated with 100,000 pea lights, a fibre optic lawn, laser garden, fire garden. The price for entry is £18 if booked in advance, but there are group prices for 15 or more. I suspect this might be something that will get booked up quickly, but Michelle de Mora has agreed to organise this, if enough members are interested. Several members have already expressed an interest so if you think you would like to go along please let me know and I will pass names on to Michelle. If you want to know more go to nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead
 
The Great Dorset Steam Fair
David would like me to remind you that this is on from 22nd-26th August and is a great place to take photographs.
 
Finally, Harvard would like to thank all those who turned up for the evening shoot at Bristol on 11thAugust and he hopes you enjoyed it, despite the rain there have been some great shots on the club Facebook page

Competition themes
The first competition of the season is the Kingswood Salver and this years’ theme is Flowers. Whilst members took some stunning shots at Rosemoor, it was a beautiful day and the lighting was quite harsh. The Frome Show will be coming up on Saturday 14th September (apologies, I put the wrong date last week!) and this is an ideal opportunity to take photos of competition standard blooms in soft lighting. What is required is 5 photographs from 5 different photographers, and looking at the website it seems that the most successful entries have a theme running through them, so if you want to enter it might be an idea to get together with other members to plan a shoot.
 
Develop Your Photography Group -Affinity photo course
Phil Taylor will be running an all-day course on Affinity photo Basics on Thursday September 12th 10:00 to 4:00pm At Buckland Dinham village Hall –. There are just 5 spare places, so if you would like to join let him know soonest. The course is open to all who intend to rejoin FWCC in Sept. Each participant will be asked to bring their own laptop complete with a working copy of affinity photo + some RAW and jpg images they would like to work on. In the morning he will cover the Affinity RAW development module and in the afternoon look at improving or changing backgrounds, which will include some layers and masking.
There will be a small charge to cover costs.
 
Christmas at Stourhead
For the very first time Stourhead gardens are going to be illuminated after dark for the Christmas period. Attractions include a Tunnel of Light, illuminated with 100,000 pea lights, a fibre optic lawn, laser garden, fire garden. The price for entry is £18 if booked in advance, but they are group prices for 15 or more. I suspect this might be something that will get booked up quickly, but Michelle de Mora has agreed to organise this, if enough members are interested. If you think you would like to go along please let me know and I will pass names on to Michelle. If you want to know more go to nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead
 
Finally, for all you bird photographers out there, I know members have taken some fantastic images of puffins over the years and the RSPB are looking for your help. They are running a Citizen Science project to find out how the diets of puffins are changing and how this has contributed to their catastrophic decline in recent years. What they are looking for are photographs of puffins with beaks full of fish. They can have been taken any year, so long as you identify that year, and all they need to be able to see is the beak and food clearly. So if you are interested in taking part in this project please visit the RSPB website at rspb.org.uk/projectpuffin
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​In early June twenty two club members, along with partners and some visitors from other camera clubs, spent a delightful week at Sennen Cove. Not only did we have a sea view from our accommodation, but we could easily walk to the beach for a paddle or swim. Although the planned night shoot of the Milky Way above St Michael’s Mount was curtailed by cloudy skies, members found plenty of beautiful places to photograph. The disused tin mines at Botallack proved to be a favourite along with Godrevy lighthouse, St Ives, Porth Nanven and, of course, Land’s End itself.

Highlights included a trip to the famous Minack Theatre to see a dazzling production of “A Swell Party”, a celebration of the life and work of Cole Porter, and an invitation to photograph the launching of the St Ives lifeboat followed by a fish and chip supper. A new venture for the club was a singalong evening during which several members displayed hitherto unknown ability as singers! Click here for the singalong video
 
An engaging and highly successful part of the trip was a theme-based photography competition. Only images taken on mobile phones were permitted, and participants each nominated one topic. They then went on to judge this and award a prize on our final evening together. Although the weather could have treated us more kindly, this trip was a resounding success both socially and in terms of providing a range of photographic challenges.
 
John Bishop