Newsletter, 24th September 2026

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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