I'll Be Presenting on the Canon Stand at the Photography Show

I’m really honoured to have been asked to do a presentation for Canon at the Photography Show (NEC, 17th to 20th September). I’ll be talking about my underwater work - I’m on at noon on Saturday and 3pm on Sunday. Apparently they have never used an amateur photographer before for these slots.

They have also asked me to do a Facebook Live presentation as part of their Wildlife Week. My talk will be hosted by Carmarthen Cameras at 7pm, Friday 20th August.

I’ve only ever used Canon equipment and to be honest the fact that they have recognised my work, and value it highly enough to want to be associated with it, makes me very proud. Happy days.

Top Image at NEMPF

I heard yesterday that my club, Rolls Royce Derby, had taken top spot in the print championships for my Federation (NEMPF). I also took top image with Diving Gannets 1 & a Selectors Award with At Full Stretch.

I’m on a bit of a roll at the moment :-)

At Full Stretch

Top Image at the PAGB PDI Championships

Each year the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) holds 2 championships - one for projected images (PDI) & one for prints. The PAGB organises national events and competitions for more than 1100 photographic clubs with over 40,000 members all over the UK and clubs compete in preliminary heats to get to the final. It’s usually held at Warwick University, but of course it was via Zoom this year.

My club, Rolls Royce Derby, got to the final and battled it out with all the other top clubs in the country…. & won!

I believe it is the first time in the clubs 60 year history they have done so, so it’s a great achievement & congratulations go to the photographers whose images the club used.

It was made particularly special for me because one of my high board diving images was awarded top image on the day. The project that led to me getting these images was probably one of the most complicated I’ve ever undertaken, so it’s great to get this reward.

If you are interested in the set-up I used to get the shots here’s a very short video clip showing how I did it.

MPAGB Qualification Achieved

I was delighted to find out yesterday that I have been awarded the Masters qualification (MPAGB) by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain. This is the highest qualification the PAGB offer and represents the “Highest Standard of UK Amateur Photography”

It is achieved by submitting 20 images which are then anonymously judged by 6 assessors. Each assessor awards each image a score between 2 & 5, meaning a perfect score would be 30 for an image.

To quote the PAGB “Scores above 24 are relatively unusual but can be achieved by the very best images”. I’m delighted to report that 18 of my images scored 24 & above, with 2 getting the maximum possible 30 marks. A total score of 450 is required to gain the award & I scored 525.

The images I used are below... or here is the PAGB News showing them a bit larger.

Needless to say I’m a happy boy this morning :-)

Gold Medal for Nature in PAGB Masters of Print

I’m taking a break from competitions for a while but I did make an exception for the PAGB Masters of Print. Only 60 prints are selected each year & I’ve been lucky enough to get in every year since it was launched (5 years I think). I was particularly pleased to be awarded the Gold Medal for Nature for this image - Cormorant Hunting in Sardine Shoal.

If you’d like to see how I captured it you can watch a video here.

Framing Your Images for £12

If I produce an image I really like, I never feel it’s finished until I’ve printed it - it somehow feels more “real” then. I’ll admit that I also frame my favourite images and display them in my home, particularly the underwater ones. A quick glance at any time of day takes me straight back to the place where I took the photograph… a real memory jogger. So I’m going to produce a series of articles on how I go about it, in the hope they might encourage others to get the added enjoyment from their images that I get by printing and framing my own.

There’s no doubt that a printed image is really only displayed at its best when it’s mounted and framed, so that’s where I’m going to start - that way even if you don’t print yourself you can still use a printing company and get the same end result.

For mounting my images I use Pinnacle mounts. They sell lots of different sizes and colours in various card thickness, so it can be very confusing. I’ve tried several but this is the one I’ve settled on and now use for every image (click on the text & you’ll be taken straight to it);

PRE-CUT 500 X 400MM, TEXTURED CHALK WHITE WITH BLACK CORE, MOUNT BOARD 1400MIC

I think the exposed black core really sets off white paper nicely. The 40 x 50cm overall size meets standard camera club competition requirements and also fits these IKEA Ribba frames, which are only £7.

You can see the finished result on some of my dancing images below. I do my own printing (which I’ll cover in a later post), so by my reckoning the mount is £3, the paper £2 and the frame £7 - I think it's a pretty good end result for £12.

To get the white border around your image; you will find that the pre-cut aperture fits A3 paper perfectly. But I like to allow an 8mm white border around the edge of the image - together with the black core of the mount I think it gives a really professional look. To get the 8mm border crop your image to a ratio of 1:1.454 - this will give you a printed image of 384 x 264mm, and that leaves the 8mm border around the edge of the image.