Last night's competition was the last meeting (except for AGM) of the 21/22 season and what a great competition it was! Our judge was Richard Curzon from South Devon. I thought he provided great critiques and helpful tips. He was also knowledgeable about a variety of subjects, particularly planes, trains and plants and able to give supplementary information. The main thing that shone through was the huge range of subject, techniques, both in image capture and in processing. I thought the quality of the images and the judge made it one of the best competitions of the season (IMHO!!). Richard stressed that the choices were his opinion made at the time of judging. We all know that we won't all agree with all of his choices!! He did make what I think is a very important point - what the judge or any one else thinks is not important; - what is important is that we enjoy photography and the images that we produce.

He was very complementary about the administration and organisation of the competition and would suggest other clubs use similar methods! Well done Paul!!

The successful images will be on the website shortly - they are a wonderful selection of images and well worth a second look!

Open Competition
1st Peter Elliston - Ventilation New Delhi
2nd Polly Knowles - Experience versus Youth
3rd Debbie Hammond - Historic Chain Link Bridge
HC Steve Wilcox - A Bad Day to be Second
HC Huw Thomas - Life's Little Dramas
HC Peter Elliston - Sheep Grand National
HC Nick Farnham - Stellar invasion
TT Peter Elliston - Faith
TT Ovi Fabian - Heuou There
TT Debbie Hammond - Mist on the Lily Pond

Themed Competition 'Spring'
1st Martin Cumper - Courting Grebes
2nd Diane Rowe - Spring Composite
3rd Martin Cumper - Frog Spawn
HC Debbie Hammond - Catkin Dispersal
HC Steve Wilcox - Flowers
HC Nick Farnham - Spring Collection
TT Polly Knowles - Polyanthus in Spring
TT Colin Normanton - Spring Colour
TT Mike Barrow - Spring in Sidmouth
TT Martin Cumper - Budding

As it was the final competition of the season, the everchanging league table was all important! The lead has changed over the season, but towards the end it became obvious that Steve Wilcox was going to take some catching, but Peter E was hot on his tail! Excitement mounted as Paul revealed the table - gradually! Peter had had a successful evening, Steve had had a couple of HCs! The result was very close at the top but Steve proved to be the very worthy winner of the 21/22 season with only a few point margin. Huge congratulations Steve, he has submitted some great images over a variety of genres. The full league table will be on the website shortly. Paul has done a fantastic job in providing this table month on month and adding some more tension to the evening!!

League Result
1st Steve Wilcox (93)
2nd Peter Elliston (90)
3rd Nick Farnham (78)
4th Polly Knowles (76)
(The full league table can be found on the Competition Winners Page)

Don't forget the AGM Next week, I will be sending out the agenda, minutes of the last AGM, and map shortly. 7.00pm start for refreshments for a 7.30pm start. We hope to finish in time for some social time afterwards.

Please take Covid precautions, only come if you are Covid free (take a test if in doubt), mask wearing where appropriate is encouraged. There is room to spread out at the cafe.

We are all invited to the preview of Fiona's Exhibition at Taunton Library, on the same afternoon. She tells me refreshments will be provided (with Gluten free options!!)

To wind up the season - a quote I read by Thorsten Scheuermann (not a household name!!) 'Good photographers make plenty of bad images, they just know better than to let anyone else see them!!'.