Change of Speaker

Our speaker for the meeting this Wednesday has, unfortunately, come down with Covid. Instead we're hastily putting together a presentation from last year's Bird Club trip to The Gambia, unmissable for those who went and for those who didn't. 😎

Hope to see you all there. 

Bird Club Photographic Competition - New Rules

It's the time of year when some of our keen photographers start thinking about their images to be entered into the Club's photographic competition in February. Some organised folk will have a folder with photos edited for their final choice nearer the deadline.

To encourage more members to enter we've relaxed the rules to allow photos taken since 2021 and not just the current year in any category. This will allow those who haven't travelled abroad in 2024 to enter photos in the relevant categories going back over the last 3 years. I'm sure some of you may have wished you'd entered a different photo or two having seen the winning category entries and this will allow more flexibility in your final choice.

We've decided to move with technology and allow HDR and stacked photos to be entered across the categories although it's assumed this will be more suited to landscapes, plants & fungi and insects rather than birds. The cloning and editing rules remain the same.

There will be an additional trophy, Bird Club Photographer of the Year for the photographer who has the highest score based on positions gained e.g. if a member entered just 5 or 6 photos and they were all placed in the top 3 positions they would achieve a higher score than someone who'd entered the maximum 24 photos and only achieved one 1st place and one 2nd place.

The rules on the Digital Photographic Competition page will be updated before the next meeting along with a reminder of how to submit entries following a few issues last year, the main ones being;

1. Entries must be emailed as attachments to the email, not imbedded within the mail.
2. The individual entries should be titled to indicate the category they are entered for. Or, a separate text list be included, listing the details of the photo and the intended category.

The 1.5mb file size limit will remain as higher files sizes might not send by email although files slightly oversize won't be rejected from entering. If you have any doubt about how your images will look on the big screen download a few onto a USB stick and try it on the TV at the next Bird Club meeting you attend, (providing it doesn't hold up proceedings) or on your own smart TV. 

For anyone who hasn't entered before, for whatever reason, remember - it's not the winning it's the taking part that counts!