AS FRIDAY 3 was Good Friday Barry Camera Club’s April programme started on the April 10 with their annual David Hunt Trophy evening.

This trophy is dedicated to their late member David Hunt, a doyen of Barry Camera Club who served the club over many years in all offices and capacities. David was particularly interested in Natural History and the competition subject was Natural History, split into two sections, one for prints (both monochrome and colour) and the other for projected images.

Their judge this year was Jenny Hibbert MPAGB, AFAIP, AWPF who is herself a natural history specialist and has been a guest speaker on more than one occasion. Jenny expressed her pleasure at both the quantity and quality of the entries and was pleased that the subject is so well supported by the members at the club.

After giving a thorough discussion to every image presented, Jenny gave the following awards:

Prints: First place and 20 points went to Glen Porter for his picture entitled “Swan”. This shot narrowly beat Roy Carr’s “Bee And Poppy” into second place with 19 points and Rob Owens’ “Grey Heron” into third place with 18 points.

Projected Image: This was a very close fought contest but Ken Mayled’s “Arabian Onyx” was judged the pick of the bunch with 20 points and was also awarded the David Hunt Trophy for the best image of the evening. Phil Stillman was awarded second place for his picture “Otter On A Log” and 19 points. Third place was not so clear cut: Mike Lewis’ “Flower Head”, Steve Everett’s “Preying Mantis” and three separate images by Tina Haydon entitled “Turnstone”, “Jackdaw” and “Black Headed Gull” were all awarded 18 points showing just how close the contest had been.

It was obvious that five separate images could not share third place so Jenny made a decision that third place should go to Steve Everett’s “Preying Mantis” with the other four images being classed as Highly Commended. Their thanks go to Jenny for a very informative and entertaining presentation.

Friday 17 saw the visit of Heidi Stewart from Gwynfa Camera Club. Heidi is one of the circuit’s newer speakers and agreed at short notice to stand in for Graham Hodgkiss ARPS, MPAGB, APAGB, AFIAP, who was unfortunately unable to attend due to medical concerns.

Heidi’s presentation was entitled “My Journey So Far” and showed them a range of her work in print and projected image form. They saw some wonderful landscape and seascapes from around Wales, Devon, Cornwall and the Lake District.

There was also street/urban work shown in the form of some candid shots taken of people around London. Heidi finished off the evening with two short audio-visual presentations using the music form ‘The Ugly Bug Ball’ to show a range of insect photographs and ‘Men of Harlech’ to show a further range of Welsh landscape and seascapes. It is rare indeed to see any audio-visual work at the club and full marks to Heidi for a very interesting evening.

Sunday 19 saw the Wildlife Group, headed by Phil Stillman, travelled to Ogmore and Kenfig Nature Reserve for a natural history outing which unfortunately was less successful than was hoped for as the wildlife simply refused to show up. However, summer is on its way so there will be plenty more opportunities.

Once again the month concluded with their monthly competition night. This month the judge was Kevin Thomas MA, FRPS, Hon, FWPF. Kevin gave a detailed and very thorough critique to every shot and despite his opening comments that he was impressed with the strength of the images he had been given and was always pleased to see work from Barry his overly-critical comments concerned some members, nevertheless he did manage to find some images that he liked and he awarded marks and prizes as follows:

Monochrome Print: Kevin awarded 20 points to both Mike Lewis for his shot ‘The British Museum’ and also to Roy Carr for his landscape ‘Salt Cellar Rock’ and 19 points to Jane Clapham for her ‘Sunshine And Rain’. First prize was awarded to Roy Carr, second place to Mike Lewis and third to Jane Clapham.

Colour Print: 20 points were awarded to both Barbra Archdale-Smith for ‘Hop, Skip And Jump’ Frank Clelland for ‘Aqua Alta Reflections At Night’. Both Mike Lewis for ‘The Neglected Fishing Boat’ and Brian Trego for ‘Estuary Chat’ were awarded 19 points. Of these Frank Clelland was declared as first prize winner, Barbra Archdale-Smith second and Brian Trego third. As Mike Lewis had also scored 19 points his print was declared Highly Commended.

The Projected Image section was, as usual, the best supported section and Kevin made the following awards: Glen Porter gained an outright first prize scoring 20 points for his ‘A Cold Day At Llantwit Major’, but 19 points were awarded to both Ken Mayled for ‘Which Bag Are You?’ and Roy Carr for “Severn Bridge At Night”. Second place was awarded to Roy Carr and Ken Mayled was placed third.

Congratulations to all prize winners but in particular to Roy and Mike for multiple successes.

May sees the end of the winter programme with a new programme to start on June 6 with the annual Barrian Cup and Dave Cowdrey Trophy. Approximately 20 clubs from Wales and the West of England will be competing for these trophies and anyone who wants to see some first class photography should come along to this event.

Throughout the remainder of 2015 they have a full programme of talks, demonstrations, photographic expeditions, competitions and inter-club battles planned. New members are particularly encouraged and will be made most welcome with a programme being prepared especially for the new and less experienced photographers to allow them to quickly gain more proficiency and satisfaction from their hobby.

Barry Camera Club meets every Friday evening from 7pm to 9.30pm at St Francis Millennium Centre, Porth-y-Castell, Barry Garden Suburb, Barry, CF62 6NX.

They are a very friendly organisation and new members of all experience and skill levels are always welcome to attend with no obligation to join. Alternatively, for more information visit their website barrycameraclub.co.uk.