Last night a few of our members had an outing to Old Bolingbroke village. Initially visiting the Lincolnshire Wildlife Reserve of Sow Dale, off Spilsby Hill at the village entrance, I was a little hesitant at first at entering the reserve because of the grazing cattle. When the cattle herd moved up the hill we climbed over the stile and entered the reserve, as we began to take some photos around the reserve though, the herd returned, but seemed quite docile. Later in the evening we moved on to Bolingbroke castle, and took several photos of the castle, fauna, and flora. It was a lovely evening, good to get out with cameras, and socialise with others.

Good Morning All Last week I went to the Lincoln cathedral to see Queen by candlelight, a great night of music and some different lighting in the cathedral. Last week at the club we held our 1 st round of the LPA Battles against Grimsby and Scunthorpe. Members from the two other clubs attended making it a very full room with some excellent photography on show. Scunthorpe won on 255 points, Louth 2 nd with 250 points and Grimsby 3 rd with 245 points. This week there is a 2 nd round LPA Battle at Grantham on Tuesday evening, if any member wants to attend, please contact me for more details. We did decide to have an outing on Wednesday 10th June, I had thought of Donna Nook, but Derek has come up with another idea, Sow Dale and if time permits Bolingbroke Castle both out Horncastle way. Derek is going to see if it's worth visiting Sow Dale and will let us know. Don't forget to send your print titles to Dave Turner. Regards Graham

It was the LPA Battles last night, with Louth hosting Scunthorpe, and Grimsby. Diane Seddon was the judge for the evening, and gave excellent critique of all the the prints presented to her from the three clubs. Our club room was packed with our members, and representatives from Scunthorpe, and Grimsby clubs. At the break the points scores appeared fairly evenly matched. However, it was the highest scoring prints that swung the competition in favour of Scunthorpe, their still life prints of "Sunflowers", and "Weights and Measures" scored 20 points each, taking their cumulative score to a winning 255 points. None of Louth's prints achieved 20 points, but ended with a respectable 250 points. Grimsby produced some strong prints, "The Road to Talmont", and "What's Your Name?" received 20 points each, their overall score was 245 points. As Diane Seddon said the submitted print entries were of a very good standard, resulting in a closely matched contest. Congratulations to Scunthorpe for securing the lead in this LPA Battle round contest.

Good Morning All I did go to Chambers wood last week, not too much around but the Marsh Fritillaries are back again in the meadow. We had a good turnout for the meal on Friday, hope you all enjoyed it, thank you to my partner Jane for organising all the food orders. Everything went to plan until the chef dropped the roulade, hopefully your replacement was just as good. This week we have our first round of the LPA Battles against Grimsby and Scunthorpe. The judge for the evening is Diane Seddon. There should be a good turnout for this one with the other two clubs attending. The print competition with the categories of "Trees" and "Open" is to be held on the 24th of June, please email Dave Turner your titles and then bring your prints in on the night. Regards Graham

It’s been a fairly mundane May photography wise for me. I’ve visited Gibraltar Point, Messingham Sand Quarry, and Far Ings nature reserves, and taken some reasonable photos, but nothing really competition quality. The West Lindsey Open Churches Festival has been on for a couple of weekends, and I climbed the bell tower at St Peter, Scotter, had lunch at Kirton in Lindsey, and dropped in on a couple of churches in Caistor. My model photography has taken a back seat, I’ve not had a model shoot all of this month, I’ve had enquiries from a couple of models that I’ve worked with before, but not been able to arrange anything. Instead, I’ve been concentrating on wildlife, landscapes, and insect photography. My OM Systems cameras have been with me every day, the OM-5 is my daily carry, and the OM-1 is my heavy hitter, especially with the OM 100-400mm lens, or the 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens. I’m continuing to take images for the “Water” project, that’s one image of water for each month, providing twelve images to show on “Project Night” in January 2027. The May photo is an indoor creative image taken on a wet day. The trees, and horses were taken at Gibraltar Point, the Heron, and swans were at Messingham Sand Quarry.

Good Morning, All, Last week at the club we held our monthly competition, a PDI competition, with the categories of "Landscapes with Water" and "Open", there was a very good entry with a high standard of photography. Congratulations go to Tony Gaskins for 1 st place in the Landscapes with Water and Paul Twomey for 1 st place in the Open. The results are on our website with the winning images. This week there is no meeting on Wednesday as it's our annual meal on the Friday. For those attending it's at the Royal Oak (Splash) Little Cawthorpe, to meet up around 7pm for meal at around 7.30pm. For those doing the water project, it's getting towards the end of the month if you haven't already taken your photograph. Regards Graham

We held a PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition last night with the categories of "Landscapes with Water" and "Open". Our judge for the evening was the highly experienced Jorj Malinowski, and his skills were very much needed in judging the 33 quality images in the "Landscapes with Water", this almost monochrome blue atmospheric image of an approaching storm on the Isle of Harris was taken by Tony Gaskins, and deservedly was judged to be 1st in the competition.  After the much needed break, Jorj judged the 26 images in the "Open" category, Jorj held 7 images back for further consideration, and to award for higher points, following a process of elimination Jorj was left with 3 images, he awarded 20 points to each of the 3 remaining images, that left the cliff hanger moment when he had to decide the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. When you have 3 exceptional images of different subjects how do you chose? After what seemed like minutes it was the Blue Wildebeast Migration by Paul Twomey that took first place. It was an amazing evening with some impressive images, thanks to our judge Jorj, and well done to all the photographers who entered the competition, and Dave Mann for the refreshments.

Good Morning All Last week we had an excellent speaker on the Lincolnshire coast, Steve Dixey. Steve showed us his photographs taken at all times of the day and night, many early morning, Steve also gave tips on safety and helpful information regarding our local coastline. There is a full report on our blog page. This week, Wednesday 20th May, we are holding a PDI competition, I did try and confuse you with the wrong subject, but you were having none of it, so the categories are "Landscapes with Water" and "Open", all entries are in and scoring sheets have been sent out. I considered this photograph I took in the dales, but thought the water was too burnt out. Our next competition to be held on the 24th June, is prints with the categories of "Trees" and "Open", we are out and about prior to this competition so if you can send an email with the titles to Dave Turner as usual, you can bring prints in this week or on the night of the competition itself. Thank you I have all your meal choices for the annual dinner. Regards Graham

Our speaker last night was Steve Dixey who specialises in coastal photography. Steve showed some incredible photos, during his immersive, and engaging talk. Apart from the stunning images, three things stood out for me from his talk; the first is you don’t need the latest camera to take great images, Steve’s older Fuji camera has stood the test of time and produces excellent image quality. There are photographers who chase after the latest camera gear in the hope that it will make them a better photographer, thankfully not in our Society. The second thing that I noticed was the meticulous planning that Steve undertakes before venturing out onto the beach, noting the weather, tide times, sunrise / sunset, and moonrise / moonset. Steve uses maritime maps to determine the best locations along the Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire coast. As with any photography there is an element of luck, but the planning will get you 90% there, one of his coastal photos included a view of a beach lit by the moon, and a passing cloud had lightly obscured the brightness of the moon creating a lovely atmosphere. Thirdly, and perhaps this is the most important is his personal safety. The coast is an extremely dangerous environment, some people wander out onto sandbanks in trainers, and shorts oblivious to the tide circling in behind them especially at Cleethorpes. Steve ensures his safety by selecting correct clothing, wellington boots, or waders, he also has a GPS scanner, and emergency beacon, he is essentially a “lone worker” on an isolated beach in the small hours of the morning, or late at night, so much better to be safe than sorry. Steve produces several publications, and is able to provide guided coastal walks, for more information his email is: hspadventures@protonmail.com, and there’s a website: https://stevedixeyimages.wordpress.com/ Many thanks Steve for an excellent presentation.