42 Images was submitted, and judged by Peter Markwick. Once again we had a lot of high scoring images with 7 photos achieving a maximum score of 20. Stella Fagg managed the impressive task of scoring a 20 on all of her images, and was the clear winner of the competition. David Childs were runner up, while Drew Malloch secured the 3rd place.
| Member | Overall Score |
| Stella Fagg | 60! |
| David Childs | 56 |
| Drew Malloch | 55 |
| Dorothy Wood | 54 |
| Janet Marshall | 54 |
Doors and Entrances was the set topic for this season’s Brian Hodgson Trophy competition. 17 members took part and were judged by Daan Olivier. Out of the 51 images submitted Daan held back 15 images, which indicates the high standard of the photos submitted. In the end 2 photos got commended and 2 highly commended in addition to the top 3 places.
This year’s winner of the Brian Hodgson Trophy was Janet Marshall LRPS with Deliveroooxford. Runner up was Steven Day with Church Gates, and Stella Fagg’s Making An Entrances secured her third place.
| Member | Title | Place |
| Janet Marshall LRPS | Deliveroooxford | 1st |
| Steven Day | Church Gates | 2nd |
| Stella Fagg | Making An Entrance | 3rd |
| Bo Hansen | Shame About The Plain Doors | HC |
| Bo Hansen | Park Gate | HC |
Robert Harvey has been in touch after last Friday’s talk. He wanted to thank us for the warm welcome he received. He continues:
I would be very pleased for Reading Camera Club members to join Inspirational Outdoor Photography on Facebook.
I have wildlife, landscape and astrophotography tours which will be operating again from June. Details can be found here.
I would also welcome club members on my mailing list to receive my newsletter four times a year. Subscribers will be invited to a pre-publication offer price on my next book “Britain’s Best Landscapes and How To Photograph Them“. To subscribe, members may visit my website.
48 entries by 16 members was entered into the competition. Julian Tubb rated our images very highly, 20 of the entries scored a 18 or above. Len Quinn and Stella Fagg were joint winners with Janet Marshall securing the third place.
| Member | Overall Score |
| Stella Fagg | 58 |
| Len Quinn | 58 |
| Janet Marshall | 55 |
| Keith Hull | 54 |
| Bo Hansen | 54 |
| All Clubs | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 |
| Reading | 72 2nd | 65 3rd | 69 3rd | 65.5 1st | 63.5 6th | 67.5 5th |
| Dorset Light | 67.5 6th | 63.5 6th | 65.5 7th | 57 9th | 59 9th | 66.5 6th |
| Burghfield | 69 4th | 53.5 7th | 69.5 2nd | 60 7th | 63.5 5th | 65.5 7th |
| Focus Ryde | 67.5 7th | 61.5 8th | 63.5 8th | 61 6th | 61.5 7th | 70 3rd |
| Hungerford | 73 1st | 69.5 1st | 72.5 1st | 61.5 5th | 71.5 1st | 71 1st |
| Lambourn | 66 9th | 65.5 2nd | 66 6th | 64 2nd | 64 4th | 70 2nd |
| Woolston | 68 5th | 60.5 9th | 58 9th | 60 8th | 69.5 5th | 64.5 9th |
| Boundary | 67 8th | 64 4th | 69 4th | 63.5 4th | 65 3rd | 69.5 4th |
| Cricklade | 70 3rd | 64 5th | 67 5th | 63.5 3rd | 67.5 7th | 65 8th |
Although we came 5th in the last round, we’re in 2nd place overall after Hungerford, who seem to be on a bit of a roll. Three competitions to go, so keep your eyes peeled!
| Rd. 1 | Rd. 2 | Rd. 3 | Rd. 4 | Rd. 5 | Rd.6 | ||
| Judge | Keven Sandell | Carl Reeve | Martin Pickles | Jim Owers | Paul Bradley | Zaid Meharall | |
| Abandoned at Pin Mill | Nigel Holmes | 8 | 8 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7 | 8.5 |
| Harris Hawk | Ian Marshall | 10 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 9.5 |
| It’s That Time of Day | Drew Malloch | 9 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 8.5 | 8 | 9 |
| Kings Cross Station | Janet Marshall LRPS | 8.5 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 9.5 | 8 |
| Beach Patterns | Dorothy Wood | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7.5 | 7 | 9 |
| Midnight Skyline | Drew Malloch | 8 | 9.5 | 10 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 8 |
| Millennium Bridge | Steven Day | 10 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 8.5 | 8 | 8 |
| Wake up the Judge is Here | Janet Marshall LRPS | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7 | 8.5 | 7.5 |
| Total | 72 | 65 | 69 | 65.5 | 63.5 | 67.5 | |
| Position | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd | 1st | 6th | 5th |
21 members gathered via zoom to witness Caroline Colgate judge the 39 entries to this open competition. The new SCPF judging guidelines were reiterated by Caroline and she proceeded to explain that images are now marked with are wider ranges of scores than in past years.
The winner was Len Quinn, who had the top 3 high-scoring images of the evening. Runner up was Janet Marshall. Drew Malloch and Stella Fagg shared the third place, followed by a group consisting of Richard Keating, Marianne Chandler and Bo Hansen in joint 5th place.
| Member | Overall Score |
| Lenn Quinn | 58 |
| Janet Marshall | 51 |
| Drew Malloch | 49 |
| Stella Fagg | 49 |
| Richard Keating | 47 |
| Marianne Chandler | 47 |
| Bo Hansen | 47 |
On Friday 11th of December we had the pleasure of a zoom talk from Adiran McGarry, on photographing / editing purely uses a smart phone. It was a well attended and appreciated talk. Adrian has shared some links to the tools he uses below:
The promised links to the list of iOS apps that I featured in my talk (and a few others) which can be found at: https://www.adrianmcgarry.com/iphone-takes/my-top-iphone-photography-apps
Some Android alternatives to consider are:
An alternative for photo-resizing is https://www.image-size.com/
Filmic Firstlight is a newer camera app on Android and iOS. It’s a full manual camera with exposure compensation, ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance, and more. It also supports RAW photos, has a live histogram, and more. https://www.filmicpro.com/products/firstlight/
Long exposure app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.longexposure2
I cannot vouch for the compatibility or quality of Android apps.
I was asked if Snapseed was available on Surface Pro – I promised to look into this and I still think the answer is no. There appear to be ways to run it as a Chrome extension or with an Android emulator but I can’t provide further information.
I promised a link to the Shoulderpod S1 combined grip and tripod mount. It is compatible with virtually any smartphone model with or without a case. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoulder-S1-Smartphone-Photography-Tripod-black/dp/B00MAARLT6/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=shoulderpod&qid=1583878455&sr=8-2
My Zoom WorkshopsLearn iPhone Photography At HomeTo show my appreciation for booking me to present to your club, I can offer an exclusive 25% discount for all members on the above workshop. The voucher code of RDG25 will be valid for use until 13/12/20 and is based on availability of spaces.
How To ArticlesI publish regular articles on my iTakes blog.https://www.adrianmcgarry.com/iphone-takes
Hungerford are currently in the lead, and we’re just 1 point behind.
| Title | Photographer | Burghfield 12/11/20 | Reading 13/11/20 | Cricklade 17/11/20 | Boundary 7/12/20 |
| Harris Hawk | Ian Marshall | 10.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 | 9.0 |
| Abandoned at Pin Mill | Nigel Holmes | 8.0 | 8.0 | 5.5 | 8.5 |
| Wake up the Judge is Here | Janet Marshall | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7.0 |
| Midnight Skyline | Drew Malloch | 8.0 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 8.5 |
| Kings Cross Station | Janet Marshall | 8.5 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 8.0 |
| It’s That Time of Day | Drew Malloch | 9.0 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 8.5 |
| Beach Patterns | Dorothy Wood | 9.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 |
| Millennium Bridge | Steven Day | 10.0 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 8.5 |
20 Members attending the zoom meeting for our third PDI competition of the seasons. Maria Leekblade, our judge for the evening, commented several times on the high quality of our images awarding 11 of the entries a score 18 or above. Maria was very knowledgeable and was helpful, providing tips and tricks on how we could improve our images. The competition was an open subject topic and there were 42 entries.
The overall winner, with two images scoring 20, was Nigel Holmes. Second was Janet Marshall LRPS and Len Quinn. 4th place went to Drew Malloch, while Stella Fagg and Bo Hansen shared 5th place.
| Member | Overall Score |
| Nigel Holmes | 56 |
| Janet Marshall LRPS | 55 |
| Len Quinn | 55 |
| Drew Malloch | 54 |
| Stella Fagg | 53 |
| Bo Hansen | 53 |
| Title | Photographer | Burghfield 12/11/20 | Reading 13/11/20 | Cricklade 17/11/20 |
| Harris Hawk | Ian Marshall | 10.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 |
| Abandoned at Pin Mill | Nigel Holmes | 8.0 | 8.0 | 5.5 |
| Wake up the Judge is Here | Janet Marshall | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 |
| Midnight Skyline | Drew Malloch | 8.0 | 9.5 | 10.0 |
| Kings Cross Station | Janet Marshall | 8.5 | 9.0 | 10.0 |
| It’s That Time of Day | Drew Malloch | 9.0 | 7.5 | 6.5 |
| Beach Patterns | Dorothy Wood | 9.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Millennium Bridge | Steven Day | 10.0 | 8.5 | 9.5 |