The season opened with a Quiz, set by Peter Phillips and tested the memories of the participants with some very tantalising questions - The answer was on the tip of the tongue but would it come in time - There were only a few seconds to answer and by the end of the evening, everyone's knowledge of photography had been extended in some way!
The Annual General Meeting followed on the 20th January and there were no changes to the Club Executive. It was unanimously decided not to increase the subscriptions for 2006. There was a healthy turnout for the AGM which had some lively debate between the members.
On 2nd February, Felicity Jenkins took a few steps back to look at "life before photoshop". She entertained the members with slides which she had taken for her own pleasure, rather than competition subjects, and outlined the reasons which had attracted her. One of the slides was a petrol forecourt and most of us wished that the price of the petrol was the same now as when she took the picture!
On the 16th February, the Club took part in an away match against Wallingford Camera Club. The judge had a novel approach to the commentary on the images and asked the audience to participate. This made for a very enjoyable evening, even if Abingdon didn't win the Battle.
On the 2nd March Ivor Porter from Oxford Photographic Society came and showed stunning images of wildlife, some taken during the migration of buffalo and wildebeest in Africa. The standard of photography was excellent and all present enjoyed the evening immensely.
The 16th March saw the league competition entitled "People at Work" and Peter Upton came to judge the entries. There were some very unusual entries and some excellent photography.
On the 30th March the Club made a visit to Swindon Camera Club and the competition was fierce. Abingdon are looking forward to a return match with Swindon sometime next year.
The 13th April was an open evening and members of the public could pay £2.50 and enjoy the Royal Photographic Nature Group Slide Exhibition. Anyone who aspires to be a photographer could not fail to be inspired by the images selected by the RPS judges. As ever, the quality was superb and the judges had made a very good selection which balanced all types of wildlife photography.
On 27th April, Lynda Pasquire described her love affair with photography and her continuing search to master the intricacies of Photoshop. Even after three years of digital imaging, there were still elements of photoshop which were a mystery.
There was a record attendance for the Competition Evening on the 11th May, and if we get as many members for regular evenings, we shall have to consider hiring the bigger hall. Roger McCallum from Woodley Camera Club judged entries which he said were exceptional from such a small club. The fact that our Vice Chairman's entry had featured on the front page of Digital Photographic Art Magazine sets the standard to which some of us will, with practice, aspire.
On the 25th May, we went to Clifton Hampden Village. About a dozen of the Club Members had a wander round the village and took photographs which can be put together as a set of 6x4 prints on a board to capture the essence of the village.
On the 8th June, Malcolm Taylor was presented with an exceptionally good entry for "Fur or Feather" He was hard-pressed to separate the entries, and marked accordingly. There were some very worthy winners as a result of his deliberations and Malcolm said it was a pleasure to judge such good quality wildlife photography.
On the 22nd June, we had a lively evening in East Hendred. A lovely village with loads of photo opportunities. Everyone who came enjoyed the hospitality at the Wheatsheaf Pub afterwards.
On the 6th July, Chris Gibbins took us on a historical tour of Egypt and showed some beautiful images and was complimented on his ability to remember the place names and the names of the various Egyptian Gods and Pharoes on which his talk touched. Chris let the cat out of the bag at the end of the meeting - he had a crib sheet on the computer he was using to present the digital images!
On Sunday 9th July, the members who had not previously visited the Santago Leopard Project, along with some who had, visited again to get some beautiful photographs of the Leopards in captivity whose offspring are released back to the wild.
On the 20th July, the photographs taken at the Village Visits to Clifton Hampden and East Hendred were tabled. Five 6x4 size prints on a single board portrayed each individual members' photographs they had taken whilst walking round the villages.
There were some subjects which each member had picked similarly, but the variety of images was amazing. Never let it be said there is nothing to photograph in your back yard!
After a break during August, the Club recommenced regular fortnightly meetings on the 31st August, when a good turn out of members brought images to describe their activities over the summer. Some of our members are exceedingly well travelled, which led to some interesting photographs. Others stayed at home but their photographs were nonetheless just as interesting and enjoyable to view.
Meetings now resume their regular fortnightly interval.
14th September saw the trial run of the digital projection system as well as the conventional equipment and prints for the Three on a Theme Competition. The drawback was that the digital slides were viewed consecutively as there was only one digital projector, but the 35mm slides were viewed side by side with three projectors and three slides which made for some beautiful panoramic images. Shelagh Roberts was a worthy winner with a stunning set of prints gaining top marks from the visiting judge, Marylin Ward.
On the 28th September, we had a fascinating insight into the flowers and mountains of Switzerland, led by David Mazey, and David Illingworth showed his slides of Wivenhoe which were long on quality if short on quantity.
Vic Attfield visited the Club on the 12th October to give a talk on Life begins at 40, or does it? As usual the quality of Vic's images was inspiring.
On the 23rd October, the Club went off to Sutton Courtenay to do battle with them and Wallingford. Sutton Courtenay were delighted to win the slide section but Abingdon had the edge with the Print Entry.
Shelagh Roberts gave some very good advice on the 26th October to photographers thinking about getting into digital imaging and showed some of the ways in which she could combine images on different layers to good effect. Everyone there whether beginners or talented amateurs gained something new from the evening.
The League Competition on the 9th November entitled "The Sportling Life" was judged by Ken Lyndon and a surprising variety of images were put up for judging.
On the 23rd November there was a chance for Photographers to test their practical abilities in setting a tableau for a Christmas Card. Peter Phillips brought a series of useful props as did other members which were then arranged in various set ups to allow everyone to have a go.
On the 7th December 2006, the President's Cup Competition and Image of the Year Competition were held. judged by Colin Harrison, who did a magnificent job sorting out a high standard of entries in three categories, Slides, Digital Slides and Prints. Shelagh Roberts was a worthy winner in the Print Competition, Lynda Pasquire won the Digital Slide Competitions and Peter Phillips won the 36mm Transparency Competition.
For the 2007 Programme click on the link below:
http://www.communigate.co.uk/oxford/adcc/page4.phtml
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