This image was taken by our member Steven farmer for the Illusion Merit
Steven can you tell us a little about the image? This was technically a hard image to take. I used a set of old fashioned bellows, I have never used bellows before so it was quite a challenge to learn how to use them while also shooting for the merit.
How did you shoot this image?
I used my Pentax K1, A 50mm lens and a set of old bellows. I shot in aperture priority, I set the aperture to F22 to get as much sharp as I could. I then set the ISO to get the shutter speed that I wanted. I wanted a shutter speed fast enough to get it sharp but just slow enough to get a bit of sweep on the 2nd hand. One of my biggest struggles was timing it so the seconds hand was at the top before I pressed the shutter which had a 2 second delay as not to introduce a tremble.
Can you tell us a little about you post processing for this image? this image wasn’t hard to edit. I desaturated all the color in the watch apart from the blue in the hands. I also used a levels adjustment layer and some sharpening.
To see more of our members’ photographs be sure to visit their gallery pages via the Galleries menu above.
Dunchurch Photographic Society was founded in 1976, the inspiration behind the formation being an accomplished local photographer called Karl Hughes. This followed an exhibition of Karl’s own photographic work at the Dunchurch fete of that year. Support for the new society was initially canvassed via posters in local shop windows and the response was found to be encouraging – the project therefore went ahead.
On Wednesday 6 th April 2022, Dunchurch Photographic Society hosted the annual awards evening and unofficial ‘Picnic In The Hall…’ The Society Chairman welcomed the members attending and through a sequence of audio-visual presentations, the audience were treated to a number of ‘season highlights’ as the Society silverware was awarded to this year’s winners. The Society Chairman would like to thank Dariusz Chalupka for capturing the wonderful images from the awards presentations, as well as Jean Sutton, the Society President for presenting the trophies to the lucky winners across the 2021-22 season. And of course, many thanks to ALL of the members of Dunchurch Photographic Society who have supported the various competitions this time around with a plethora of fantastic and often thought provoking images. Well done to all of you… and keep up that good work.
2021-22 Awards – Daytripper Trophy for the Summer Challenge 2021 – David Ralph Gerry Coyle Memorial Trophy for Best Colour Print – David J. Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE Wally Mills Trophy for Best Nature Print – Anthony Timmins Toft Trophy for Best Nature Projected Image – David J. Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE The President’s Trophy for Best Open Subject Projected Image – Steven Farmer Jeff Bartlett Memorial Trophy for Best Panel Of Three Prints – Mark Ellis John Hughes Trophy for Best Monochrome Print – David J. Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE
Novice Print Trophy for the Novice Print Merit Competition – Steven Farmer Novice Projected Image Trophy for the Novice Projected Image Merit Competition – Rob Hughes Lanchester Trophy for the Advanced Print Merit Competition – Mark Ellis Walter Heath Trophy for the Advanced Projected Image Merit Competition – Mark Ellis
On Wednesday 9th March, Dunchurch Photographic Society held the 3rd and final round of the 2021-22 season Merit Competition, all on the subject of ‘Narrative.’
Successful images able to earn points depending on whether they were Commended, Highly Commended, Third, Second or First.
The Merit completions tend to bring out a broad range of images and tonight we saw another close competition from members with work that was fun, creative and entertaining.
Our judge for the evening was David Hollis from Daventry. David is an experienced judge and gave a fair, constructive critique of our collective photographic entries across both Print and Projected Image media.
Well done to everyone who submitted work to the competition, it showed the usual variety of subject matter and processing techniques which impressed the judge.
I would like to thank David for being our judge for the evening, and to all our members who entered the competition.
The Results in Placed then Alphabetical order:
Novice Print
1st place, Up and Away By Graeme Webb2nd place, Fighter By Darius Chalupka3rd place, Modern Mod By Graeme WebbHighly Commended, Abandoned By Dariusz ChalupkaCommended, A Bump In The Road By Steven Farmer
1st Place, Runaway By Steven Farmer2nd Place, Homeless By Graeme Webb 3rd Place, Walking In For An Early Start By Rob HughesHighly Commended, Ouch By Dariusz ChalupkaCommended, Driving Into The Night By Rob HughesCommended, Christmas Lights – Winter Covid – November 2021 By Patrick Joyce
1st Place, Let Me Entertain You By Mark Ellis2nd Place, Cold War Scramble by David Bray3rd place, The Chase By David BrayHighly Commended, A Window To The Past By Ian AndrewHighly Commended, Remembrance By Rosemary Gibbs Commended, I Can See Clearly Now By Mark EllisCommended, Persistence By Rosemary Gibbs
1st Place, What Beryl Saw By David Bray2nd Place, Lakenheath Last Chance Checks By David Bray3rd Place, Here Try This By Mark EllisHighly Commended, Is It Safe Out There By David CunnaneHighly Commended, Busy Crossing By Mark Ellis
Congratulations to all the photographers who were successful across the four categories for this final round. A gallery for each section of Round 3 will follow shortly…
The overall winners from this year’s Merit Competition will be announced at the Awards Night to be held on Wednesday 6th April.
On Wednesday 2 nd March 2022, Dunchurch Photographic Society hosted a 3-way inter-club battle on Zoom. It was open subject and the clubs involved were Dunchurch Photographic Society, Badby & District Photographic Club and Northampton Camera Club. Each participating club entered 20 images, making for a very comprehensive evening of photographic images across a plethora of different subjects, image capturing techniques and processing techniques. The judge for the evening was Catherine Knee, a photographic artist based in the Midlands and who had the unenviable task of providing a critique of each image before giving each one a score up to a maximum of 20 points. The friendly battle commenced and was actually quite hard fought given the array of images included. As a consequence of this, the final overall scores were quite close. The Results – 3 rd Place with 322 points – Badby & District PC 2 nd Place with 330 points – Dunchurch PS 1 st Place with 334 points – Northampton CC The highest scoring images in this event were as follows –
At The End by Rob Stubbs (Northampton CC) earning 19 points.Folding Space-Time by Andy Carter (Northampton CC) earning 19 points.Hydrangea by Bob Hopkins (Badby PC) earning 19 points.Spoons by James Ballantyne (Northampton PC) earning 19 points.Café Conversations by Terry Mann (Dunchurch PS) earning 20 points.Nature’s Colours by Bob Hopkins (Badby PC) earning 20 pointsPure Gold by Michael Bryan (Dunchurch PS) earning 20 points.
Very well done indeed to Northampton Camera Club for their win in this event and of course well done too for all of the photographers who earned 19 or 20 points. Be very proud.
The Dunchurch Photographic Society Chairman would like to thank our fellow competing societies and all of their photographers who had images entered as part of the event. It was a fantastic and interesting evening. The Chairman would also like to thank Catherine Knee for her detailed and well thought out critique of all 60 images in the event, and we hope that you enjoyed the battle experience on Zoom with us all.
Finally, many thanks to Tony Timmins, the Competition Secretary for DPS who ran the battle to a successful conclusion (for Northampton!!) over the Zoom platform.
We hope to be able to meet again in person for the 2022-23 battle. Take care, and stay safe everyone.
Report by David J. Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE Chairman.
On Wednesday 23rd February 2022, Dunchurch Photographic Society held the 2nd Round of the 2021-22 season Merit Competition, all on the subject of ‘Song Titles.’ It was the midway point of the A marathon competition staged over three different rounds all on a different set subject, with successful images able to earn points depending on whether they were Commended, Highly Commended, Third, Second or First. There are four categories – the Novice Print section, Novice Projected Image section, Advance Print section and the Advanced Projected Image section. That means, four different champions to be declared by the end of the Merit competitions.
It was a hard fought competition with work that was both entertaining, creative and inspirational. It demonstrated the great thought that our members had given to fulfil the brief of showcasing their images with a specific ‘nod’ to their chosen song titles.
Our judge for the evening was Paddy Ruske from Lichfield in Staffordshire. Paddy gave an entertaining and constructive critique of our collective photographic entries across both Print and Projected Image media. Indeed, Dunchurch Photographic Society members can be proud of the fact that Paddy was entertained and impressed by our work. It always means a lot to us as a Society when we are able to make the judge face a tough decision about which images they believe are successful.
Well done to everyone who submitted work to the competition, it showed the usual variety of subject matter and processing techniques. But my key thanks, as Chairman go to Paddy for being our judge for the evening, and to ALL of our members who entered the competition – there is no competition without YOU.
The Results Are In… And As Follows – Novice Print – Commended – Bad Habits – Dariusz Chalupka
Rendezvous At Sunset – Graeme Webb
Highly Commended – Turning To Rust – Patrick Joyce
3rd Place – I Say A Little Prayer – Graeme Webb
2nd Place – Fields Of Gold (Sting) – Steven Farmer
3rd Place – Bohemian Rhapsody – David Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE
2nd Place – Band Of Gold (Freda Payne) – Mark Ellis
1st Place – Magical Mystery Tour – Ken Garside
— Congratulations to all of the photographers who were successful across the four categories for this opening round. There’s still plenty to play for as the marathon continues with Round 3 on Wednesday 9th March… the subject being ‘Narrative…’
Come and have a look at the ‘stories’ being told in our images.
Report by David J. Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE Chairman.
