The last of the summer 'evening's out' and we went to Westonbirt for the "Festival of the Tree" There were some stunning tree carvings and it was fascinating to see the sculptors at work with their chainsaws. Just one of those pictures here:

Friday 6th August saw the visit of Maureen Toft EFIAP, MPAGB, BPE5* and husband David Toft AFIAP, MPAGB, BPE4* They displayed an extensive range of superb pictures, including Nature, travel, people and landscape

On Friday 30th July, a small group of members took advantage of the opportunity to visit Bristol Temple Meads Station where we had been given permission to use cameras and tripods on the platforms. We all had to read the safety instructions, sign the log and wear special badges before being allowed loose! No flash, tripods at least six feet from the platform edge! Seeing possible pictures wasn’t easy, but I felt that “Pigeon’s eye view” was probably my best effort!

On his second visit to Kingswood Photographic Society, ROBERT LLOYD FRPS, DPAGB enthralled us with his superb landscape pictures of Wales and Switzerland. A most enjoyable evening when we were joined by four prospective members!

On Friday evening ten members of Kingswood Photographic Society met at the Marina in Portishead. We wandered about as usual, and many of us were attracted to a series of "standing stones" I later found out (courtesy of Google!) that The "Standing Stones" are known as FULL FATHOM FIVE by the artist Michael Dan Archer. One of the largest sculptures recently installed in the UK, the Seafarer’s Sculpture, it consists of a forest of granite columns running across a large earthwork by the sea in the new Port Marine development in Portishead near Bristol. The 108 granite columns vary in height from 1m to 3m and are arranged in serpentine aisles which the spectator can walk through to the crest of the mound where a stone has been set to sit on and contemplate the sea. From land or sea, the view reveals that the columns form the profile of a wave.

Kingswood Photographic Society welcomed Mel Gigg FRPS and Antonia Cox on Friday 9th July with their joint presentation "Deep Blue to Far Red". Antonia gave lots of information about underwater photography then projected some wonderful underwater images. Mel followed on the subject of Infrared photography, and projected many beautiful images created with a camera which had been converted for infrared photography.

On Saturday 10th July, the society took part in the 100 year Celebration at Page Park, Staple Hill. We had a display of photographs and welcomed many visitors to the stand. It is hoped that this will result in new members to Kingswood Photographic Society.

Friday 2nd July was the first of our "Evenings Out" and about 10 of us braved the shower of rain and wandered around the Harbourside. Some picture were taken including portraits of Lawrence, a character who agreed to pose for us. See a full report on our Social Page.

We were fortunate to get a three week display of our work in the local library. The prints were changed mid-term, and this is the current display

Friday 25th June was a sunny evening, so our Portrait evening took place outdoors. It was very ably led by STEVE COX one of our own members, who gave those present considerable help and instruction on using off-camera flash creatively. Our model for the evening was Helen (picture by John Long)

Martin Russell ARPS was our visiting speaker on Friday 18th June. Martin is a prolific photographer and entertained us with both darkroom and digital prints, and subjects ranging from from Venice faces to Natural History!

On Friday 11th June the meeting was an evening of Audio Visual brought to us by Sheila Haycox & John Perriam We were entertained by a number of sequences, including Street Photography, pictorial images from Slovenia, bicycles in Amsterdam and the tragic tale of a teddy bear!

David Bathard FRPS seen here (centre) together with two KPS members, Steve Bridgen and Derek Dorsett. David visited us on Friday 4th June with his talk 'Keeping up to Date' which consisted of many sets of prints illustrating Cathedrals, Thailand, India and the West Pier at Brighton!

For the full list of awards, click here Results Qtly No2 2010
The competition was ably judged by Howard Warren who had the task of commenting on 53 print entries and 39 DPI entries
Prints: 1st 'Lorena' by Mike Witcombe
2nd 'Dunstanburgh Castle' by Mike Challenger
3rd 'Cold & Misty' by John Wooley


DPI's 1st 'Apple Still Life' by Shirley Britton
2nd 'Nikki(1)' By John Long
3rd 'Waiting' by Alan Searle

Paul and Bob were completing a week-long tour of clubs in this area and their final talk to us on Friday 21st May made a evening of contrasts. Paul Damen BA, ARPS with his landscapes and excellent monochrome prints, followed by Bob Norris EFIAP, APAGB with colour prints, many of which were expertly manipulated to great effect.