2020-2021 News Archive

15th April – A45 Competition
A very tight competition in which we came 5th out of 8 clubs each entering 8 images. Congratulations to all the members who’s images were entered. Scores for our images:

TITLE AUTHOR SCORE
Power and Concentration Gary Dean 20
Reflections of the Shard Steve Laws 19
European Roller With Lizard Prey Gary Dean 18
Dewy Latticed Heath Moth Alice Kendrick 17
Brits Abroad Tom Lane 17
Himeji Castle, Japan Jack Roberts 17
Fading Tulips Louisa Christie 15
Perilous Painting Tony Cole 15

Full results are available 2021 BSEPS A45 Score Sheet with Running Totals

13th April – Inside My Head by Janet Haines FIPF ARPS GPSA EFIAP DPAGB
A very enjoyable talk by Janet that took us on her photographic journey from her dreams creative panel for her LRPS, her studio work of art nudes to creative studio photography as she progressed to her panels for her fellowship. Lots of good photography and photoshop work but what elevates Janet’s photography is her imagination!

6th April – Dave Russells A to Z of imaging
Members were treated to a wide range of Dave’s photography as he took us through a subject for each letter of the alphabet. An enjoyable set of photographs with insights into how they were took.

31st March – 6th Monthly Competition with Judge Jonathan Vaines
A good selection of images in the 6th of our monthly competitions. Congratulations to Alice Kendrick for winning tonight with these images:



Congratulations also to Gary, Louisa and Paul Hodson for scoring top marks for these images:




Congratulations to Gary Dean for a clear overall win of this seasons monthly DPI competition with a very close 2nd, 3rd and 4th each separated by only one point to Louisa, Steve Laws and Alice.
Full Results for the evening are available here.
Cumulative monthly competition results are here.
23rd March – Members 10 minute presentations
A very interesting and diverse range of talks from our members:

Product Photography Petros Spyrou
Darkroom Photography Tim Norman
A Brief Taste of Rwanda Marc Human
Underwater Photography Paul Dobson
Sports Photography Gary Dean
Fog and Frost Photography Ian Montgomery

A big thank you to our speakers and if you were inspired why not volunteer to present at our next members presentation session in November.
16th March – An evening with Les Loosemore ARPS AWPF DPAGB
An interesting evening with Les Losemore taking us through a selection of his wonderful images. This included:

  • Fragility & Resilience of Decay
  • Winter Landscapes
  • In-Camera Creations
  • Scotland
  • Storm Brian – Porthcawl Lighthouse and High Seas

Images were beautifully presented often in a square format and presented with a selection of music from Les’s vast collection. Lots of inspiration for members.

9th March – “Camera Raw: What, Why and Should I Bother” talk by Professor Terry Hewitt
A very interesting talk with the first half on the technical aspects of how a DLSR captures a RAW and JPG image followed by a second half on how to process a RAW file and the benefits of RAW vs JPG. The first half divided opinions as it was a very technical discussion and I am sure it went over the heads of some members but other members found it very interesting to understand how the light captured by the sensor is processed in the camera to produce the JPG image we see on the back of our camera. In the second half Terry explained how Lightroom and Photoshop both use Adobe Camera Raw to process the image using its smart previews to process the data quickly in response to the adjustment sliders. Terry explained how JPG limits the colour depth and the dynamic range which restricts what you can achieve in post processing and highly recommended a workflow using RAW photographs.

2nd March – “My Restless Lens” talk by Dr Keith Snell
An enjoyable evening covering a broad range of Keith’s photography including: wildlife, patterns and shapes; people; landscape and creative photography. Keith is a retired biochemist and has travelled extensively including Antarctic, Artic, Africa and Brazil. His wildlife photography section showed some beautiful photos of polar bears, birds, penguins, whales, and many other species in their natural habit. Keith enjoys ICM photography and he shared his passion for the subject with many beautiful creative images and he explained his process to achieve them.

23rd February – 5th Monthly Competition with Judge John Wilcox
A good selection of images in the 5th of our monthly competitions. Congratulations to Gary Dean for winning tonight with these images:


Congratulations also to Nicky cope for scoring a maximum of 20 points for this beautiful landscape:


Full results are here.
Cumulative monthly competition results are here.
16th February – “Its all in the mind” with Kenn Scott
A very interesting and thought provoking evening with Kenn Scott who gave us a wonderful talk on Photopsychology. His talk looked into why we like or dislike certain images and helped to explain why composition rules, choices of colour and contrast can influence how we react to an image. A very unique cameras club talk that received some great feedback from members. To see more of Kenn’s work check out his website: https://touchingthelight.co.uk

9th February – “Wonderful World of Macro” with Victoria Hillman
For this year’s James Bunn memorial lecture we were treated to an excellent talk on macro photography from Somerset based professional photographer and scientist with a passion for nature. For the first half Victoria showed a range of macro photography images taken on mainly Canon cameras with either Sigma 180mm f2.8 or Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lenses. She explained how she tries to use the largest possible aperture to blur the background whilst showing just a hint of the natural habitat of the subject and the results were both technically competent and beautiful to look at. In the second half Victoria gave us an insight into her field craft and post processing. Although competitions restrict what you are allowed to do in terms of post processing, Victoria showed us the affects you can achieve with small cropping and changes to colour balance. Members were really impressed by the talk and if anyone would like to see more of Victoria’s work, then check out https://www.vikspics.com and her social media channels.

2nd February – Quartet DPI Competition with Colin Southgate
A good selection of interesting quartet panels judged by Colin Southgate. Congratulations to Tony Cole with his winning image titled “Two Demos in Four Images”:

Full results are available here.

News Archive

26th January – January Monthly DPI Competition with Judge Naomi Saul
Another good monthly DPI competition with a diverse range of photos and a good range of scores from our judge Naomi Saul. Naomi as usual gave some excellent feedback and encouragement to help members improve their photography. Congratulations to Gary Dean for scoring the maximum 40 points with the following images.

Congratulations to all our other members who scored 20 points on the night: Ian Montgomery, Tom Lane and Tony Cole.

Full Results for the competition are available here.
Cumulative results for the monthly competitions are available here.

19th January 2021 – “The Art of the Portrait” talk by Geoff Reader
Geoff Reader from Alsager Camera Club gave a very interesting talk on portrait photography. Geoff’s enthusiasm for the genre cam across and he showed us many examples of what is possible using both studio lighting and natural lighting. A lot inspiration for members wanting to do portrait photography.

12th January 2021 – “George Dellar” and “Presidents Challenge” Competitions
Last night we had a good range of entries to these competitions with judging from one of our regular judges Richard Houghton. As usual Richard provided some great feedback and kept us entertained with his humour. Congratulations to Tom Lane for winning the George Dellar Cup with this image titled “River Ouse at St Ives”.

Full results for the George Dellar Cup are here.

Congratulations to Gary Dean for winning the “Presidents Challenge Cup” with this image titled “Making a Splash”

Full results for the Presidents Challenge Cup are here.

5th January 2021 – “Wildlife of the Taiga” talk by Sarah Kelman
The taiga a biome encircling the northern regions of the globe was eloquently brought to life by the startling, sensitive and beautiful images of the wildlife that inhabits these unforgiving locations. With a mix of environmental content and description of the wildlife and their behaviour, Sarah’s narration bought character to the animals and birds pictured giving a real insight into the meaning behind a series of images. Sarah is passionate about her wildlife photography and this shone through this evening.

Review by Karen Laws

15th December – 4 Way Competition
A very close competition between St Ives, Ely, March and St Neots Camera clubs with only 3 points separating the winners and losers. At the half way stage we were joint first but dropped back to 4th place in the second half with a total score of 183 points. Ely Camera Club won with 186 points. A lot of our entries this year were from new members and it is great to see them doing so well against the seasoned photographers at other clubs. Full results are here: 2020 4-Way Competition Score Sheet

8th December – Eagle Hunters with Julian Elliot
What an interesting photographer Julian is. His visual depiction and verbal description of his travels in Mongolia to find the Eagle Hunters was inspirational. Jullian unlike other speakers we have had has a much more a journalistic style where all the work is done in camera with minimal post processing. He also wants those candid shots with little interaction from his subjects that most judges don’t rate. His no frills approach gave an honest yet insightful glimpse at this somewhat inaccessible area. Many will want to plan a trip to this enigmatic land other will love the imagery but maybe not the conditions!
Review by Karen Laws

1st December – On Top of the World with David Steel
On Tuesday evening David Steel gave us a fascinating virtual talk about his Motorcycle trip in the Himalayas. Starting with the flight into the small airfield located in the valley floor, but still many thousands of feet above sea level that required David and his wife to rest for 48hours so as not to suffer the effects of altitude sickness. This time was well used with a trip to a local festival where David showed many images that captured the local people and their customs. The trip itself then commenced with David and his wife joining a small group of fellow travellers from around the world who would spend the next few days riding on their Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles on the challenging roads in the Himalayas. Visiting small villages with monasteries, prayer wheels and flags hanging on the hillsides, David’s images transported us into this remote part of the world with some intimate portraits of the local people living hard lives and some interesting definitions of luxury accommodation!
Review by Brian Sibley

24th November – November Monthly DPI Competition with Judge Ron Tear
Another good monthly DPI competition with a diverse range of image and a good range of scores from our judge Ron Tear. Congratulations to Louisa Christie and Gary Dean for scoring the maximum 40 points with the following images. Congratulations to all our other members who scored 20 points on the night: Tony Cole; Phil Rawlins, Paul Dobson, Alice Kendrick, Ise Berridge and Nicky Cope.

Full results of the competition are available here.
The cumulative results for our first three monthly DPI competitions are available here.

17th November – Cityscape and Nightscape Photography by Steve Hedges
Yet again a positive from this very difficult Covid-19 lockdown. A fantastic and informative evening from Steve Hedges, a photography tutor, based in Essex. His talk Cityscapes and Night Photography proved very informative and enjoyable judging by the comments at the end of Steve’s talk. Steve used an array of different images to illustrate the process or techniques he was describing, before and after, close in or step back, backlit or front lit. He talked about the technical aspects of photography as well as composition and how he had created or prepared to take the images. I’m sure he has inspired many of our members to try new things.
Review by Karen Laws

10th November – Water Photography by Daniel Bridge
Daniel presented to us a diverse range of images on the theme of water showing that you don’t have to go far to get some great photos of beach scenes; rivers; waterfalls, wildlife, clouds, fog, snow etc. Daniel covered the use of long shutter speeds to blur water and clouds using either low light, ND filters or a technique of combining multiple exposures which he can do in camera on his Pentax K3. He also recommended the use of Polaroid filters to reduce the light and reflections in water. Another popular technique Daniel uses is to have a black background to enhance the image and this was particular effective with ice and his images of the swans. Lots of good inspiration for members to try.
Example of Daniel’s work can be viewed on his Website: https://gallery.danielbridge.co.uk/gallery/100things/
Daniel is a professional photography tutor and details of his workshops and tuition can be found on his Website: https://www.danielbridge.co.uk/index.php

5th November – Friendly competition with Swavesey Camera Club
Another close competition with 24 DPIs from each club which were judged by Richard Cobby ARPS, CPAGB. At the halfway stage St Ives were leading by 8 points but Swavesey regained the lead in the 2nd half finishing with 352 points to St Ives’ 346. We look forward to a rematch next year.

3rd November – HDR in a Post HDR World by Steven Galvin
A rather bright and informative moment in these lock down times, specifically as a result of the current restrictions. Steven would not normally be able to present to the club because of the travelling involved however on-line we were treated to his take on HDR in a Post HDR World.
Steven described the evolution of HDR from post processing to in camera, illustrated by before and after images and technical detail for those in the know. His knowledge and humour made this presentation informative, interesting and hopefully showed club members how accessible this type of processing is to improve images.
Example of Steven’s work can be viewed on his Website: https://stevengalvin.photography/
Review by Karen Laws

27th October – October Monthly DPI Competition
An excellent competition with Judge Dave Stewart. A really good variety of images on the night and Dave gave good feedback as usual and recommendations on how images could be improved for the 48 images entered. Congratulations to Steve Laws for a first place result with a top score of 20 for this dusky dolphin photo and 18 for his image of the waiting room:

Congratulations to Gary Dean for his Mountain Hare; to Paul Dobson for his Moray Eel image and to Graham Davey for his Spanish Sunset which all scored 19 points:

A special mention for our newest member, Jack Roberts, who came third overall with these two fabulous images:

Full results of the competition are available here.
The cumulative results for our first two monthly DPI competitions is available here.

20th October – Photoshop by Club Member Petros Spyrou
Petros is a Photoshop professional and he demonstrated using his in depth knowledge of the software how to use the tools, their options and how to work in a non destructive way to achieve a quality image. Petros explained that it is best to use 32bit images and the Adobe colour space to achieve the best results. This was a thoroughly enjoyable session with even the seasoned Photoshop club members learning many new features of the software. Petros has offered to do another session at a later date going into more of the complex features of Photoshop. Let us know if this is something you would like as a follow up session.

13th October – Underwater Photography by Jack Perks
Jack enthralled us with his fascinating talk on underwater photography. Technical detail, personal experiences and amusing anecdotes made this talk accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Whilst many photographers never show less than perfect images Jack showed the difference between different cameras, settings and environments. Based mainly in the UK, with passion and enthusiasm for his craft we saw his work in rivers, ponds, harbours and rock pools. Although I am not sure how ready we are to don Puffin hats and take to the North Sea. I particularly liked the split level photographs showing the animals inhabiting both the water world and the air world. Many thanks to a very inspirational speaker.
See Jacks Website for lots of amazing underwater images: https://www.jackperksphotography.com/portfolios
Review by Karen Laws

6th October – Islands in the Mediterranean by Alice Kendrick
In these difficult and restrictive times what a joy it was to be transported ‘virtually’ to the Mediterranean Islands courtesy of our very own Alice Kendrick. During the year Alice guides many trips to various locations imparting her knowledge to her guests, sadly on hold at the moment.

On Tuesday Alice toured around islands including Sardinia and Sicily showing us the landscape and the amazing flora and fauna that her guests would experience. Alice’s brilliant knowledge of the Latin names provides expert knowledge but I love her descriptions of the images and the more common names and how they came to be. The additional information about location, habitat and photography made the evening, entertaining, informative, relaxing and inspirational for future trips when the world reopens.

Thank you Alice

Review by Karen Laws

For anyone interested in joining one of the tour companies that Alice works for here are the links
Greentours main site – http://www.greentours.co.uk
Or Sicily – http://www.greentours.co.uk/Wildlife-At-Leisure/SICILY-23
Sardinia and Corsica – http://www.greentours.co.uk/Europe/SARDINIA-AND-CORSICA-1
Next year Alice is due to do Sicily, The Gargano peninsula on mainland Italy and a private tour to Corsica with them.

Greenwings main site – https://greenwings.co
Or Cyprus – https://greenwings.co/our-holidays/botanical-holidays/cyprus-in-spring
Next year Alice is due to do Poland, Norfolk Swallowtails, Southern Greece butterfly tour and the Vercors in southeast France with them.

29th September – September Monthly DPI Competition
An excellent competition with Judge Ben Pike. Ben gave good feedback and encouragement for all 52 images entered. Congratulations to Louisa Christie for a first place result with these two wonderful images both scoring 19 points:

Congratulations to Kim Human for scoring the only top score of 20 points with this image titled “Shoes in the wrong place”:

All results are available here.

22nd September – India Land of Contrasts by Roger Reynolds
Tonight we were treated to a wonderful tour of India with some excellent photographs from award winning photographer Roger Reynolds. Roger runs a photographic tour company and has visited India on many trips. The photographs included fabulous photos of local people in their environment; amazing landscapes; wildlife; local rituals as well as famous landscapes like the Taj Mahal and the Golden temple. If you are interested in joining one of Roger’s trips you can find details here.

8th September – Danube Delta and its wildlife by Gary Dean
Gary’s talk first took us through a map of the delta area. The lower reaches of the Danube spread out in a series of lakes and smaller linking water ways creating a large area of wetland enjoyed by a huge variety of wildlife. It’s into this environment that Gary and his wife went to see and photograph the wildlife, which is predominantly birds.

The trip was well organised with a set of hides used by the hotel distributed over a diverse range of habitats. The small group of enthusiasts on the trip would plan what they wanted to see and then choose which hides they wished to visit for the day. Over the course of the holiday they would thus be able to visit the majority of the hides to hopefully catch the wildlife they were interested in. The hides varied considerably in construction dependent on the location, one was a metal shipping container raised high to allow for shots of birds flying in towards nest sites, set up on the container for this very purpose. Staging post trees had also been set up a short distance away to give the best chance of catching the birds prior to their flight to the nest. Other hides were more of a traditional construction overlaid with grass to blend in with the surrounding landscape and set overlooking a lake or open area allowing the birds to be viewed and photographed.

The wildlife photos Gary presented during his talk were to the usual high standard we’ve come to expect from Gary with a wide variety of birds, mammals and invertebrates all being included. Some of the birds were known to us as winter visitors, but most were unseen in this country. The majority of the shots were with his go-to Canon D7 Mk II with 100-400mm L lens which always seems to provide some fantastic results. As well as adding interest by telling us what each of the subjects photographed were, Gary was also able include some anecdotes of his stalking skills; for example  when he successfully managed to crawl out, commando style, over some rough ground to get some shots of some rather timid creatures but having arrived at his chosen spot realised that his camera battery had just ran out and the spare was back where he’d left his gear. Thankfully his stalking skills were good enough to let him reverse the manoeuvre, retrieve the battery and crawl out again to capture the shots he was able to show us.

As one of our early virtual sessions using MS Teams it went very well. The comms were stable and there were very few problems during the talk, boding well for our future presentations. Gary had just one comment; he felt it a little strange talking to just the screen as he was unable to see any of his audience.

Many thanks Gary, we’re looking forward to the next outing.

Review by Ian Montgommery
1st September – Adobe Lightroom Classic Talk by Steve Laws
To kick off the season Steve gave a presentation on Adobe Lightroom Classic. Further information is available here. SIPC Lightroom Talk

Annual DPI Competition
A good virtual competition tonight using Microsoft Teams hosted by Brian and Alice with Judge David Steel. Congratulation to the winners:

CATEGORY WINNER
Creative Nicky Cope
Natural History Gary Dean
People Alice Kendrick
Sports Action Louisa Christie
Travel Ivan Barrett
Landscape Steve Laws

Congratulations to Gary Dean for getting the best overall score winning this years Annual DPI competition.

Congratulations to Steve Laws for the best image of the evening “Reflections of Chiriguano Bay”.

For the full results see here
For anyone who couldn’t join the call the images presented that we can share are here.