It's been a busy time at Tenby Camera Club, with internal and external competitions and interesting talks.

There is always something of interest and things to learn.

At the end of January the entries for the PAGB Nature GB Cup (digitals) were judged. There are three top independent judges who each score an image out of 5, to give a total out of a maximum of 15.

Tenby Camera Club did very well with their entries scoring 145 (max 180) and achieving joint 26th place amongst 56 clubs.

The Brian Jennings Trostre Competition 2024 was held on January 23. A six way battle judged by Gareth Martin with five prints for each club.

They were marked out of 100, and 2 of our entries scored full marks. They were Alan Brown with ‘Wasp’ and Gary Mayhew with ‘Mountain Dawn’.

Tenby came second with 483/500 with Llanelli getting the top spot with 485/500.

The Gary Jenkins Macro and Close up Competition 2024 was judged by Paul Branchflower on January 25 with 14 prints and 20 digital entries.

There was a variety of subject material of a high standard, from insects, ice and fungi.

In the Print section the awards were as follows:

Gold award - Jan Sullivan ‘Striped Hawk Moth’

Silver award - Jan Sullivan ‘Clinging on’

Bronze award - Charlie Kidd ‘2 tiny field mice’.

There were Hithreeghly Commended images from John Whitehurst ‘Lesser Bee Fly’, Dave Bolton ‘Damoiselle at rest’ and Cheryl Hewitt ‘Pollen Patch’.

A Gold award went to Dave Bolton's ‘Woodlouse - King of the Castle’
A Gold award went to Dave Bolton's ‘Woodlouse - King of the Castle’ (Pic supplied)

Two commended were given, to John Whitehurst with ‘Four spotted chaser’ and Dave Bolton ‘Fungi Lit from below’.

In the Digital Section the awards were as follows:

Gold award - Dave Bolton ‘Woodlouse King of the Castle’

Silver award - Rob Cox ‘Robber fly with Prey’

Bronze award - Charlie Kidd ‘Asian Dead Leaf Mantis’.

Three Highly Commended were given to Alan Brown ‘Free at Last’, Cheryl Hewitt ‘The Ant & the Ladybird’, and Jan Sullivan ‘Colourful Painted Lady’.

There were three commended images, one from Liz Wallis ‘Common Darter’, and two from Gary Mayhew ‘A Splash of Ice’ and ‘Miniature World’.

On .February 1, the Club warmly welcomed the return of Gareth Martin to deliver his talk ‘A Taste of Wales’.

Gareth is a very active Camera Club member of several South Wales clubs and runs a variety of Facebook pages and competitions. Gareth has a unique style of presenting his excellent work by recounting anecdotes of the situations at the time.

His amusing storytelling had members chuckling throughout! His love of photography and Wales go hand in hand and was very clear to see.

Members were treated to a tour around Wales from Capel Curig to Port Talbot but it was not only landscapes shown.

Gareth said there is a photograph to be taken in most situations and he certainly showed that! There were streets, people, houses, quarries, churches, the odd toilet, captured unusually with different angles and in colour and monochrome. It was good to see the difference when viewing the same photo in colour , black and white and also sepia and with grain.

Gareth also gave members a preview of his new Mono Talk hot off the press. Images with clever simplicity and style but thought provoking. Good examples to learn from that less can be more.