Georgie was great fun to work with and even though it was her first ever shoot, her professionalism and effort paid off big time!

The 'Look'!

A crowd of us headed down to South Beach last night ‘cos Aber Sailing Club, the Archery Society and the Dancesport Society had all got together to arrange a display of their own. Various other groups had also bought a large number of fireworks so the whole length of the beach was lit up at one point.

I’d offered to get some pictures of Ella and her parents and so on Sunday night after the Ffotaber thing was done and dusted, we headed off to Clint and Izabela’s. I was worried about little Ella coming into contact with too much light from my strobes so we kept the session short.

“Be at the Morlan Centre on Queens Road for 5pm” we were all told. The results and prizes from the photomarathon were due to be announced so Ayesha and I headed down and met up with Matt, Mark and Tony to find out how everyone got on.

I don’t generally ‘do’ competitions but even I couldn’t help feeling a little apprehensive as the results were announced. Halfway through the proceedings and they got to the award for the best picture on the theme of ‘secret’ and guess what, I won! Apparently, my ugly mug will be in tomorrows Cambrian News which is something I could have done with avoiding! I hate being in front of the camera so I guess it’s lucky that I’m a photographer!

On a far more important note, there were 37 other images that were short-listed as ‘highly commended’. Of the six of us who entered as a kind of ‘group’, every one of us had at least one image in that list. For Natty, Ayesha, Matt, Tony and Mark, I’m really chuffed!

According to the Ffotoaber organisers, there’s going to be a meeting soon to decide how the festival goes forward next year. I’m hoping that next year I can be on hand to help the people who want to learn a bit more about photography and I’ll only shoot the marathon for a bit of fun. As far as I’m concerned, there’s a serious lack of assistance available to anyone in Aberystwyth who wants to enjoy the art. Aberystwyth Camera Club were conspicuous by their absence and only one current member got involved. I can’t believe that only ONE member was available that day!

I think there’s a need for a more informal (and therefore a more inclusive) club within the area that’s more welcoming to people from absolute beginners right through to professional photographers. We need a club where there’s no such thing as a ‘stupid question’ and where as many people as possible can be involved!

Maybe one day soon!

The photo-marathon consisted of six unknown themes given to us two at a time at two-hour intervals. The themes were; ‘Patterns’, ‘Community’, ‘Secret’, ‘Move’, ‘Age’ and ‘Freedom’. All images had to be taken between 10:00 and 16:00 and the themes were to be shot in order of their release. All images had to be shot in JPEG format and no post-processing was allowed… All images had to be right ‘in camera’.

The six images below comprise my entry into the competition. I prefer to edit my work (‘cos it’s fun), so I’ve included my final variations rather than the in-camera versions.

A friend of mine emailed me to say that his daughter was getting married and asked me if I’d be able to cover the event. It gave me an opportunity to finally meet someone I’d known on Flickr for over four years so I readily agreed.

With a seriously dodgy weather forecast looming, I was worried about how I’d manage to get everything done but after a visit to the venue, a wet-weather plan was agreed. As it turned out, we dodged the bullet and managed to get all of the group shots done outside… Phew!

Here’s a taster from Nichola and Rhys’s wedding…

If you don’t know what the deal is with CadWest and the low-fly scene; it’s essentially a bunch of photographers who climb the side of a mountain (or hill) in order to get above some of the best front-line fighter aircraft.

This is apparently the ONLY serviceable Tornado GR4 currently in the UK… All the others are on front-line service at the moment!

The chimps were fascinating to watch… In some ways, their behaviour is so similar to our own. I shot a short video clip on my iPhone that shows just how intelligent these guys are.

It’s been so long since I got the time to put a post on here that I’ve decided to start over…

Si