Rolls Royce Camera Club Wins FIAP World Cup

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I’m delighted to say that my camera club, Rolls Royce Derby, have just become the FIAP World Cup Champions 2022.

The World Cup for clubs is an international competition organised yearly by FIAP, dedicated to photographic clubs from around the world. Each club submits 20 images, with a maximum of 2 images per author. These images are then scored by a panel of international judges and the club with the top score become the champions.

224 clubs from 48 countries entered, submiting 4,385 images, so to come top of the lot is a very big achievement.

You can see all of the images used by Rolls Royce on the FIAP website here: https://www.fiap.net/en/world-cups/17th-fiap-world-cup-for-clubs-2022

Turtle Paradise - Bunaken Oasis

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We’re just back from a week at Bunaken Oasis and what a fantastic trip it was.

Bunaken Oasis is stunning, as you’ll see from the photos below. The owners, Elaine & Simon, have spared no expense in setting up this 5* dive resort and spa. They’re underwater photographers themselves, so the camera room & every element of the diving experience has been designed with care and attention to detail - it really is first class.

The diving is superb, the best reefs I’ve seen in the last ten years. It reminds me of reefs from twenty-five years ago, before 75% of the world’s coral was savaged by global warming. Bunaken still has abundant hard and soft coral and it’s a real joy to see.

My focus this trip was turtles and anemonefish. Bunaken is exceedingly rich in both, so every dive yielded numerous opportunities - few examples below.

We’ll be producing a video in the next few weeks so you’ll be able to see for yourself, but I can honestly say this was one of the most enjoyable & productive trips I’ve ever done.

Thank you to all the staff at Bunaken for giving Libby & myself a truly memorable experience.

One of Bunaken’s many turtles

The infinty pool at sunset

Cottage 5 - what a view!

Got to love a clownfish!

Video of Photographing Sharks Near the Surface in Cuba

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I returned to Cuba in June this year following a fantastic trip I had there in 2019. Whilst it would be true to say that the weather dictated that this visit was not as photographically productive as the previous one, it did still have several highlights. One was a really memorable session photographing Caribbean reef sharks near the surface.

The area, Jardines de la Reina, is very rich in sharks and they are always present on the dives. I’d noticed they had a habit of following us back to the boat and at one particular dive spot there were lots of them. I asked if I could return the next day and instead of doing the planned dive I’d just stay around the boat near the surface. The plan worked a treat & I must have had around 20 sharks circling me - perfect shooting conditions!

I was particularly keen to get a few shots with the boat in the background to give the image context and whilst it was difficult to isolate the sharks because there were just so many, I did get a few.

If you’d like to see what it was like at the time the video is below, with thanks to Alex Beck for the production.

Diving Gannets Selected for Team GB

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My Diving Gannets shot is the gift that continues to give for me… it is without doubt my most sucessful image in competition terms. And it’s just been selected to represent the United Kingdom in the World Photographic Cup 2023 - I’m delighted!

The finalists and best of nations awards will be announced in January 2023 at Imaging USA 2023 and the Winners will be announced at the live WPC Awards Ceremony in Singapore on March 17th 2023.

Website: www.worldphotographiccup.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/worldphotographiccup/

What a Print Stand!

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I take around 35 prints to all my lectures (even though my delivery is via projector using Powerpoint) for two reasons;

  • I’m sponsored by PermaJet and Pinnacle so it’s only fair to display the superb papers and mounts they offer

  • I love printing and always print any image I’m happy with - for me it’s the final, but absolutely necessary, step in my workflow. So given I have so many it’s a shame not to use them

However, it’s rare I turn up at a venue and there’s the means to display them all - sometimes they just have to be laid flat on tables. This is a shame because ideally a print needs to be displayed vertically. This is because it makes a massive difference how the light is reflected by the ink and consequently how the colours are perceived. They just look less vibrant when laid down.

Well, lack of a means to display them vertically was certainly not the case at my recent Leicester Forest PS lecture - what a print stand they had! As you can see below it took all my prints with room to spare. And it was all assembled (and taken down) in less than 10 minutes by just a few members.

Thanks guys :-)