top of page

Weekly Newsletter, 2026/7

Newsletter, 17th September 2026

​

We had a lively and engaging second club night of the season, with 27 members and 2 guests attending a great critique evening, led by Dave Griffiths. The aim of the session was to cover both the technical and emotional aspects of what makes a great photo and help people understand the techniques that can help develop their photographic skills. The core part of the session was Dave looking through a selection of member submitted photographs and providing a critique of the photo and getting other club members involved in that discussion about ways in which a photograph might be improved. 51 pictures were submitted and not surprisingly Dave didn't manage to get through them all, but we will be devoting a half an hour at the club night next week to cover some of the remaining photos. The slides from Dave’s session can be found in the Members area on the website - https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/members-area

 

We also kicked off our first "Photo of the Week". At club nights we will bring along a print with the idea of evoking feedback and comments, particularly before the session starts or at the coffee break. if you're interested in putting one of your prints forward get in touch with us. For this session we actually had three prints - the winners of our summer competition. Congratulations to Rachel for taking first place! You can see all the winning photos at https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/summer2026

 

Next week’s session on the 24th of September is a club night. In the first part of the evening, Gareth from London Camera Exchange will bring in some of the latest photography gear and discuss what's happening in the world of cameras and give you the chance to ask any questions you want. In the second part of the evening, we'll look at personal projects and explore how you can set yourself a project challenge this year and how that club can help support you.

 

The following week, 1st October, is No Set Subject (NSS) #1 competition.  If you intend to submit any prints please try to bring them along on the 24th. if you can't make that deadline you need to get in touch with Charles and let him know the titles of your prints and ensure  you're there in time to have them up on display on the competition night.

 

The "Introduction to photography" course kicks off on Tuesday 6th October. This course is free to all members. If you are doing the "try before you buy" for September you will need to join the club in order to qualify for the course. More information at https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/intro-to-photography-course

 

I mentioned two local Photography Events that are taking place shortly:

- The first is the Bucklebury Farm Deer Photography Event 27th Sept, £60 - several of us went last October and it was great early morning out. You can buy your tickets here - https://tickets.buckleburyfarm.co.uk/event-tickets/51981?catID=48274. 

- The other is the monthly Thames Valley RPS session at Wokingham on Sunday the 20th of September with Tony Worobiec covering Landscape & Urban.  I've been to many of these and I've seen some fantastic sessions and they are great value - a daylong event £15 RPS, £18 non-members . More details at https://rps.org/regions/thames-valley/presentation-events/

 

This season we're trying lots of new initiatives designed to help support both new and experienced photographers. Please feedback on what you've enjoyed and what you'd like to see us do!

 

Cheers

David Gristwood

Chair & Web Master

Newsletter, 24th September 2026

​

Another packed evening with 28 members attending and a very busy agenda - we sort of ran out of time at the end but for all the right reasons. The first half of the evening was Gareth from London Camera Exchange who brought with him a load of gear and covered lots of aspects of cameras and lenses, from sensor sizes through drones to the latest in trendy compact cameras.  Lots of great questions and as always there wasn’t a single question that he didn’t have a great answer for! He also handed over the voucher to Rachel Smith as winner of the Summer Vibes competition. At the break there was also the chance to have a hands-on look at some of this equipment, and of course, you can always pop in to see Gareth and his team at the Oxford City Centre branch of London Camera Exchange

 

In the second half Andy and I discussed the idea of Club Projects and how members could participate and showcase their work towards the end of the season. As part of this we announced the Mike Parrott Series, a new award that members will vote on for the best projects. Mike loved projects and we were lucky enough to have some of his photographic project books on display that evening for members to have a look at, and Lu showed us some of his work. We managed to grab 20 minutes at the end of the session for Dave Griffiths to carry on is critique session from the previous meeting and again great audience engagement and feedback. The slides for both these presentations can be found on the website in the members area in the “members resource library” - https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/members-area.

 

We announced the Gordon Roberts Landscape Trophy. This will be voted for by members, details to be announced shortly but it will take place early next year to give folks plenty of time to go and shoot landscape photographs for this award.

 

Our “Photo of the week” was from Dave Griffiths, who brought along an aluminium print, to give people the chance to see what it looks like to print on aluminium rather than the more traditional materials and it is very impressive. Charles Smith brought along one of his images with some AI generated critiques, picking up on one of the themes last week around Options available to get feedback online using AI. If you want to bring one of your photos along with a story to tell, do please let me know.

 

We have our first “Photographic video of the week”. As was mentioned, there are lots of great tutorials and photography guides online and we want to help members find the best of these so they can learn and improve their photography. My choice for this week is Aristeidis Sfakianos, who is a fantastic street photographer, and one video that particularly caught my eye was “The Light Secret That Will Transform How You Compose Every Shot” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IZztO7es9Y. If you like him follow, his channel for more material: www.youtube.com/@AristeidisSfakianos. If you have a favourite video or on-line photographer, do please send me a link so we can feature it as video of the week . We want to try and avoid material that is camera or software specific and more about photography skills and techniques.  We will be putting them up on the website as a learning resource.

 

Goodwood Japfest, Saturday 3rd October. As Andy mentioned, we’ve managed to secure complimentary tickets for this event that give access to all areas. There’s drifting, jumping trucks, fire-breathing drag cars and everything Japanese car wise – as well as the iconic Goodwood space with its art deco buildings, airfield and more. So even if you’re not into cars there’s plenty to see. Lunch is not included but depending on numbers we could book a table in the Aerodrome Café. Please email Andy (wpcprogramme2526@gmail.com) if you’d like to go and he will organise tickets, and create a WhatsApp group to co-ordinate travel etc. More info about the event - https://japfest.co.uk/goodwood/

 

The session overran so we didn’t have time to announce the winners from the photography display at Bunkfest, as voted by the public:

  • 1st (joint) : Silver Studded Blue Butterflies – David Marsh & Winter Sea Houses – Charles smith

  • 2nd : Walking in Father’s Footsteps - Gaynor Roberts

  • 3rd : Solar Eclipse 2026 from the Ridgeway at Bury Down – David Marsh

 

A reminder that it’s the NSS#1 competition next week with Judge Steven Galvin. DPIs need to be submitted by Sunday midnight to wpc.competitions@gmail.com. If you are submitting a print, then you must send a digital copy of the image to the Digital Image Bank at wpcimagebank@gmail.com before the competition. If you are intending to submitting prints and were unable to bring them along to last Thursday’s meeting, then you need to get in touch with Charles Smith (charles@1355winecellars.co.uk) and let him know the titles of each of your mono and colour prints and ensure sure you arrive on time next Thursday so they can be put on display. For more information check out the newly re-vamped Competition section on the club website - https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/competitons

 

The Introduction to Photography course will be run again this season after last year’s great success. The first session will be online on Tuesday 6th October. It is open to all members and is aimed at people new to photography or those with more experience looking to refresh their knowledge with a structured approach to the fundamentals of creating great images. The programme will be adapted as we go along to needs of the members and will also include two practical sessions in the field. Please email Andy (wpcprogramme2526@gmail.com) to register your interest and he will email you with an outline of the first session and what you need to do to prepare for it.

 

The club "Try Before you Buy" ends this week so if you want to continue attending these sessions, talks, competitions, and of course the Introduction to Photography course, then do please join the club before the first of October. Full details at https://membermojo.co.uk/wpc

 

Cheers

David Gristwood

Chair & Web Master

Newsletter, 1st October 2026

​

Another great evening with 26 members attending our first competition of the season, NSS#1 (No Set Subject) with our judge Steven Galvin, who has judged at the club before. He has an good informal style and was very willing to engage in discussions and to focus on making constructive comments and highlighting some of the smaller details that in some competitions could be important. He had a tough job to try to judge 33 prints and 33 DPI’s, and we had to have a really short coffee break in order to make up time and it was perhaps a little rushed towards the very end but nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The competition results and photos will be up on the website shortly. Anyone who submitted prints needs to ensure they have send a digital copy to the Digital Image Bank. More information about the process can be found on the competition page - https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/competitons

 

As we had a competition, we didn’t do a "photo of the week", but we are looking for your prints for future club nights. We’re want images that perhaps have a story behind them, or something that makes them a little unusual - perhaps the techniques that were used to capture the image, for example. Please email me if you’re interested – we would like to try to get one at every club night.

 

Brian Forde has been kind enough to send us a photographic video of the week from The Photographic Eye – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8enfj6Qv2nsEn79UuiNPVirrkxqpega-.  It’s called “The Focus Mistake That's Holding Back Your Photos” and it can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbaH6CYqmq8&list=PL8enfj6Qv2nsEn79UuiNPVirrkxqpega-&index=5&t=31s. Do please send me your suggestions for videos – there’s a lot of great material out there that can help us all become better photographers so we’re trying to curate a list of useful videos.

 

The "Intro to Photography" course now has 10 members signed up and starts on the 6th of Oct – if you want to sign up and haven’t done so, please email Andy at wpcprogramme2526@gmail.com before the start date.

 

Just a reminder that next week is an Online Talk - Landscape Photography with Jack Lodge – so please don’t turned up to the clubhouse! You’ll be sent a link to the session. For more information on Jack and his work see our website blog - https://www.wallingfordphoto.club/post/landscape-photography-with-jack-lodge-8th-october-2026-7-30pm

 

Our first photographic “day out” of the season is Saturday 7th November, and we would welcome suggestions. We want to get a few options and let Members vote on which they would prefer, so do please think of places we could go to.

 

Cheers

David Gristwood

Chair & Web Master

Newsletter, 8th October 2026

​​

Call to Action:

  • DPIs for next weeks “You are the Judge”  need to be submitted by midnight this Sunday to wpc.competitions@gmail.com.  There is a maximum of three images per person, please list them in order of preference in case we have too many submissions

  • We need your suggestions for our club day out on the 7th of November. it needs to be a place that is easily accessible by rail or car from Wallingford and ideally less than an hour and a half away. It must also have broad appeal to a wide range of photographic interests (e.g. not a racetrack, bird's sanctuary, etc). We will have a vote on the 22nd of October at our Club Night.

 

Last night's online session "Chasing Light in Wild Places" with Jack Lodge was excellent. We teamed up with Abingdon for this session and had 50 people on the call. Jack is a brilliant photographer who has presented to the club before - this was a new presentation focusing on light and his stories about how he achieved some of his fantastic shots were amazing.  Jack gave us permission to record the session and it's on the website in the Members area in the Resource Library under "Talks". It will be deleted after two weeks at his request so do, please take the time to watch the session if you missed it before it's removed.

 

The next club night is the 15th of October with our ever popular "You Are the Judge". We break up into small groups to review images submitted by members in order to provide feedback. Do please submit any images you want judged before the Sunday deadline. When submitting them do please list them in order of priority in case we have too many to cover

 

On that theme we need to apologise for people who submitted images for Dave Griffith's Critique Evening who didn't get their work critiqued - there was just too many submissions. In future we will put a cap on this to ensure everyone gets their fair share.

 

The “Intro to Photography” course kicked off on Tuesday with ten enthusiastic members who brought some great examples of the sorts of images they’d like to be able create across a wide range of styles and genres. It’s great to have such engagement!

 

The Royal Photographic Society are holding their monthly Thames Valley session on the 18th in Wokingham. As I have mentioned, I think these are great and I hope to be at this one. More info - https://events.rps.org/en/4LrdQ66/thames-valley-region-janey-devine-oct-2026-5a2NN2B7tO1/overview

 

​

Cheers

David Gristwood

Chair & Web Master

Newsletter, 15th October 2026

​​

There was a real buzz at last night's "You are the Judge" club night - 28 attendees, 29 images and lots of great discussion. These sessions have proved very popular in the past and last night was no exception. In the first half of the evening the six teams looked at each image and awarded it a score, very much like a judge would in an external competition, and then in the second half, we went back through the images, sharing the group scores and exchanging comments designed to help critique and provide feedback.

 

Bryan Sutton discussed his idea to organise a Skomer Island Photography Trip in June next year. If you are interested please fill out the following form:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAN__rsBtSlURTRaRDhZSzk2OUhNSUtTUFFHRTNQNlMzWC4u 

 

For the club night "photograph of the week" Bryan brought in a fantastic western high-stakes poker game photo that he took at Laredo Town (https://www.laredouk.com/) and discussed Timeline and other companies that stage events and some of the challenges and opportunities sessions like that present for photographers.

 

Rachel Smith made an impassioned plea for more folks to get involved in the coffee and tea rota, helping set everything out at the start of the evening and tidying up at the end. It's a small amount of work but makes a big difference to helping meetings run smoothly, so please sign the rota and do your bit to help the club.

 

Glyn Dewis is our “photographer/creative” of the week. He's an interesting guy and great photographer - I've known him for several years and have hired him to run a workshop. He focuses on portraiture and whilst he often discusses Lightroom and Photoshop, a lot of it also understanding how to engage with people, lighting, photographic equipment etc - https://www.youtube.com/@glyndewis

 

Next week, 22nd October, is a practical evening:

  • Part 1: Long exposure, including fireworks, with Lu Parrott

  • Part 2: Macro photography with Brian Forde

 

We will also be taking a vote on our day out on Saturday the 7th of November. There is still time to make your suggestions - here are some of the ones we have so far:

  • Birmingham

  • Winchester

  • Windsor, including the Great Park

  • London (not Paddington or the photo walk)

  • Deer in the New Forest (no public transport)

​​

Cheers

David Gristwood

Chair & Web Master

Newsletter, 22nd October 2026

​​

We had 24 members and one guest on Thursday and it was the first of our new format practical evening. Based on feedback from last year, practical evenings this time will typically feature two or three sessions per evening. This should mean the club nights will have a wider appeal and we can make better use of the skills and expertise within our club. A smaller slot is also less intimidating for a presenter - we can make sessions as short as 15 minutes if required. This is very much “by the club, for the club” - if you’d like to do a session or have ideas, do please let me know and we can have a chat.

 

Part One was Long Exposures with Lu Parrott. A great interactive session, with lots of questions. She took us through the equipment that she uses to take long exposures and then showed off some amazing photos that she has taken over the years. She has some great examples of where long exposure can make a photograph really dramatic, including water, waterfalls and fireworks. We will upload the slides into the members area.

 

Part Two was Light Sculpting with Brian Forde. It’s a form of macro photography that has more akin to painting. You take a long exposure and then use a torch to illuminate areas to bring out their texture and create a painterly effect.  Brian talked about the pioneer in this space Harold Ross and showed some of his work and then with the help from Elaine did a live demo in which he showed how you actually “brush” with light and then use Photoshop to bring the multiple images together.

 

This week’s video is An Introduction to Light Painting from Harold Ross, which Brian used during his session - https://youtu.be/Kj6uppRPL9A?is=P7RJGneR3V2WAIb9

 

Rather than a physical photo this week for our story behind the photo, I am including a link to Klick Magazine (an independent magazine with a focus on Street Photography)  who have a blog with a section called "The Story Behind the Photograph"  - https://www.klickmagazine.com/blog

 

Next week is "Local landscapes - Wittenham Clumps" with Chris Harrison. I am away then so Andy will be hosting the session

 

There is no meeting the following 5th Nov, as we have out day out Sat 7th of November.  At the meeting we took a vote. Member could vote for multiple locations. But we wanted to focus on people who are likely to be going for the day out. These are the results:

  • Birmingham (Gas Street Basin canals, lots of grand old buildings, street art by the custard factory, historic Jewellery Quarter) - 7 votes

  • Winchester (magnificent cathedral, city mill, medieval buildings and streets) – 3 votes

  • Windsor (including the Great Park, looking round the castle optional but there's no photography allowed inside) – 1 vote

  • London (not Paddington or last year’s photo walk) – 8 votes

  • Deer in the New Forest (no public transport option) – 3 votes

 

As you can see at his stage it’s very close between London and Birmingham. If you weren’t at the meeting on Thursday, you can vote online before the final decision.  You must be vote before Wednesday so we can announce the results on Thursday.

​​

Cheers

David Gristwood

Chair & Web Master

bottom of page