The club held its first print competition of the season recently. The judge was Rod Fry and what he didn't know about photography, photographers and contemporary photography wasn't worth knowing! He had plenty of useful advice - don't use coloured mounts, 'look up' when taking a shot, get down to throw a subject higher, the identity of self in portraiture and at one time lapsed into a philosophical monologue about the problem of the space/time continuum and no photograph is reality. In between all this he judged 58 images - 29 in each section.

The Open section contained some amazing wildlife shots as well as portraits and images of fast moving planes and bikes. The results were as follows
1st Peter Elliston for 'Balancing Act' - a juggling moment caught at a crucial moment
2nd Ray Maul for 'Catch of the day' - a shot of a fisherman almost submerged as he cast his net
3rd. Paul Carter for 'Mountain Hare in the Rain' – a bedraggled hare looking decidedly sorry for itself.
Other awards were: Highly Commended to Rachel Carter (‘Surfer’ and ‘Cheetahs Masai Mara’) and Paul Carter (‘Kestrel and Prey’) and Commended to Rachel Carter (‘Female Beautiful Demoiselle’) and Paul Carter (‘Bee Eater Display’)

The Theme section was 'Contemporary Life'. Here Rod showed a fantastic knowledge of what made a good contemporary image. In his view the pictorial quality was not as important as the story the photo told. The results were:
1st Frank Colebrooke for 'Digitally Mobile' - a great shot of a modern day Superman digitally linked in to the world
2nd Derek Carpenter for 'Which Bin?' - showing the confusion caused by recycling options
3rd Nick Farnham for 'Moustache Style' - a fine interior shot of an upmarket male hairdressers' shop
Other awards were Highly Commended to Polly Knowles (‘Modern Life in Old Dubrovnik’), Derek Carpenter (‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’) and Frank Colebrooke (‘Accessory Dogs’) and Commended to Peter Elliston (‘Blood Sisters’ and ‘Second Best But Still Going Strong’)