Last night our speaker was club member Steve Wilcox, who gave us a fascinating talk on judging. He has recently attended a seminar put on by WCPF on judging. He passed the course and was himself judged to have reached the level required to become a WCPF judge. He outlined how the event was run and gave us an insight into how the prospective judges are taught to critique and judge the images in front of them.

Our evening started with 28 images that had been submitted by some 'willing' volunteers being 'judged' by the audience. We were asked to judge our top 10 from the images viewed. Steve then showed the images that he had entered into our recent competitions and commented on the quality of judging that they received. Steve told us that he felt that his photography had improved and the way he critiqued his own images and those of others had changed as a result of attending the course/seminar. He also stressed that judging was subjective, was the judges opinion, there is no right or wrong, purely a matter of opinion. He felt that photography was moving away from technical correctness towards the story telling element of an image.

When Steve's lovely assistant (Barbara ) had collated the results of our vote on our top 10 images, the results endorsed the fact that opinions vary. Every single image received at least 2 votes and there was no clear 'winner'. About 15 different images all receives a similar number of votes at the top of the voting!! He then picked 10 images to discuss with us, emphasising that there was no right or wrong way to edit an image and that there are always differences of opinion.

He asked us not to berate judges if we had received some unfavourable comments and not to whinge (as if!!!), what is said is one person's opinion on the night. The important thing is to enjoy and stretch ourselves to improve our photography! He also recommended anyone interested should attend such a training day, even if they do not wish to become a judge.

I found it a really interesting presentation and learnt lots from it. - Thanks Steve.

Steve asked me to apologise that in the heat of the moment he omitted to thank those who submitted images for us and him to 'judge' - Peter Elliston. Nick Farnham, Martin Cumper, Diane Rowe and me - so thanks from Steve and all of us to these people who helped make the evening such a success. (imho!!)

A few notices. Tonight (Thursday) is our annual battle against Chard CC, at Chard; it would be great if some people could attend and support the club - details previously circulated.

Martin, our treasurer, asked if anyone felt they could act as auditor to the club accounts. Any volunteers see Martin or email me and I'll forward your name to Martin. This is as a result of the sad death of Richard Fox, whose funeral was held last week.

Peter E said that there was still one place left on the Studio Day to be held at Rawpics Studio, near Ilminster. Again, details previously circulated.

Next week we have Dave Jordan FRPS and Joan Jordan ARPS giving a zoom talk on 'The 5 Cs of Photography'. Composition, cropping, cleaning up, clutter and care. There should be something for everyone but especially the less experienced photographers.