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Thursday 23rd October 2025 - Minimalist and Open

Our first Judged competition of the new season saw Robert Mowat from Focus Ryde Club come to Niton to Judge for us. The 2 sections, Minimalist and Open, were well supported by members with some interesting images. Our newcomers did brilliantly with a first place, a second and a third. Well done ladies!

Minimalist was won by new member Suzy with her beautifully dreamy landscape 'Breaking Dawn'. 2nd was Sue B's classically simple breaking waves 'Watercolour' and 3rd was Mike's cleverly seen lines and angles street shot 'The Big Step'.

In the Open, Tracey won with her stunning nature image 'Sunset Deer'. 2nd was Suzy again with her arty surfing picture 'Party Wave' and 3rd place deservedly went to another new member, Clare with her unusual and very well executed sunset shot 'Golden Hour'.

Thursday 9th October 2025 - Summer Outings Challenge

We met again at the beautiful old library building in Niton for our first competition of the new season.  Giving our members another chance to blow away the cobwebs, we had a look at the images we have taken at the various photo outings the club arranged in the summer break - at Osborne, the Round the Island race, a Beaulieu expedition, the Fastnet race and the Havenstreet Steam Fair.

We had 47 quality photographs appraised by the Club's 3 qualified judges; Paul, Sue B and Keith. With 2 new members entering their first event and another attending, it was good to see fresh faces amongst the established members.

It was a close contest with only a few points separating the entries, but the first 3 were;

1. Ali with her dramatic shot of the Fastnet with an RNLI rib racing across

2. Sue C with another fine Fastnet shot

3. and one of our newbies, Suzy with a beautiful aethereal waterfall

Well done all!

Thursday 25th September 2025 - Holiday Snaps

This was our first meeting of the new season. Although several people were still off sunning themselves we had a good turnout with 2 new prospective members. The evening (apart from the break for tea, cake and a catch up obviously) consisted of:

• Video tutorials from the excellent Steve on the subject of minimalist photography...which is the subject of our next competition

• A look at the 8 pictures chosen for our forthcoming  Southern Counties 'Fed' league fixtures

• A lighthearted critique of pictures our members (too many to mention) took during the summer

Friday 22nd August 2025 - Havenstreet Steam Fair

The final outing of our summer programme took us to the steam fair at Havenstreet. Several members visited on a sunny bank holiday weekend and took shots of the magnificently steamy event. The images below are from Mike, Shani and Keith.

Our winter programme of evening meetings begins again on Thursday 25th September with a review of members' holiday pictures and a minimalist photography tutorial.

Saturday 26th July 2025 - Start of the Fastnet Race

The fourth outing on our summer programme was to the start of the Fastnet Race. Ali and Sue C managed to get through the crowds and chaos on the Cowes seafront, Steve and Trevor took up positions on the beach at Fort Victoria and Mike was stationed up high on the Needles Battery looking down on the competitiors as they zoomed past.

Monday 30th June 2025 - Minster Challenge and Exhibition

The Isle of Wight Forum of Camera Clubs sponsored an exhibition of photos taken of the Newport Minster. An invitation was issued to each club member in January and the pictures submitted were printed up by the Forum and put on open display at the Minster through the month of July...to great acclaim. Niton members submitted 8 of the 31 images on show. An A4 poster, advertising the club (what it is about, the type of activities, when we meet) was also on display and business cards were provided for anyone interested to take away.

These external and internal images were taken by Mike, Keith, Shani and Sue B:

...and these were from Norma, Steve, Sue C and Paul:

Friday 27th June 2025 - Day Trip to Beaulieu

Despite the best efforts of the ferry company to shipwreck the event, a happy band of club members spent a delightful day at the splendid Beaulieu Motor Museum and Abbey. Many thanks to Chris for providing comfortable transport.

The photo-challenges for the day were 'Golden Age of Motoring', 'Sculpture Interpretation' and 'Open'. The results will be viewed and critiqued (along with images taken at the other summer outings) on a clubnight in the autumn. (9 Oct)

Saturday 7th June 2025 - Round the Island Race

The Club was fortunate enough to be invited to watch the race from a private garden in Niton. There was a superb view of the action as the yachts came round the southern point of the Island and there were spectacular views of unintended gybes and tangled spinnakers as the more inexperienced crews struggled with the conditions in the shifting wind. Many  thanks to Mike for arranging this opportunity.

Thursday 22nd May 2025 - Outing to Osborne

The Club's first outing of the summer was to Osborne where members enjoyed a day wandering around the extensive grounds while some lingered to take in a tour of the House. Most of the party started in the walled garden which was at its best and proceded to visit the terraces in the bright sunshine. We then walked down to Queen Victoria's private beach where we stopped for lunch at a picnic table before enjoying the walk through the rhododendrons up to the Swiss Cottage. A most enjoyable day out.

Friday 16th May 2025 - All Island Competition

Some of us entered the 'All Island' competition organised by Ryde Focus and open to members of camera clubs on the Island. 57 high-class PDIs were judged by Nick Henry which led to 19 held back with 3 highly commended and 3 then ranked in first, second and third place.

It was a really successful evening for Niton; Tracey was awarded first with her image of 'Spring Tulips' and was highly commended with 'Wild Garlic Spread'. At least two other Niton images were held back; Don's moody seascape and Keith's intriguing interior with two figures by a window. Well done Tracey and well done Niton!

Thursday 8th May 2025 - Chairman's Cup

We held our last meeting of the season at the Library and after the AGM, Paul appraised the images entered for the Chairman's Cup. We entered three images each and the scores were accumulated. Paul waxed eloquent about the need for tighter cropping in several entries; several had quite large areas of wasted/empty space to the left, right, above and below the main subject of the image which once pointed out became 'blindingly' obvious! Definitely something to pay more attention to next season.

The points totals at the end were very close with Shani and Tracey equal 1st with 28.5 and SueB 3rd with 27.5

Thursday 24th April 2025 - Spring Cup Competition

We held our annual Spring Cup Competition on Zoom and Zaid Meherali of Basingstoke CC appraised the 39 images in his own unique style. Keith scooped both 1st and 2nd place with his 2 dramatic mono shots. Norma was 3rd with her semi-abstract of curved seating on a cruise liner.

Two more maximum 10s were awarded to Don for his atmospheric tunnel shot at Fort Nelson and his train reflections. Sue B scored 9.5 for her 'Soft and Subtle' shot of Sidmouth beach.

Thursday 10th April 2025 - Edit-Swap

The Club met in the library for a lively review of edited images. Members had each initially supplied an original image. These were then redistributed back to other members who postprocessed and re-submitted edited images. On the night, the originals were projected, then the edited images and finally a composite to allow a compare and contrast discussion. The editors described how the images were amended.

Paul converted Shani's shot of a dinosaur exhibit to monochrome, cloned out intrusive notices and blurred the background. Tracey converted of Keith's image of brutalist architecture to black and white, bringing detail out of the shadows and replacing the sky. Steve took Sue B's woodland shot, flipped it and joined the sections together to make a psychedelic forest cathedral. Don used artificial intelligence to remove fencing and other clutter from Steve's shot of Concorde at the Brooklands Museum.

Thursday 20th March 2025 - 'Music' and Open Competition

The Club held a 2-part competition in the library judged by Carol Walker from the IWPS. The 'Music' section proved very interesting to see how members interpreted the set subject. Steve was placed first with a clever image titled 'Staccato' (short, sharp, detached notes of music) and was second with 'The Viola Lesson'. Tracey was third with a moody 'Music Man'.

The Open section also had a lovely mix of images; Sue C won with her super sharp dynamic 'Red Arrows', Keith was 2nd with a subtle sunset at Compton Bay and Tracey was 3rd again with her delicate flower image.

Thursday 20th February 2025 -  'Patterns' and Open Competition

The Club met on Zoom for a 2-part competition evening and were joined online by Carl Reeve who kindly judged for us despite feeling unwell. There were 38 images entered in the 'Patterns' section and a common encouragement from Carl was 'get in closer'! Shani's winning close-up image of stacked metal chairs created a very dynamic impression. Paul was 2nd with his geometric ceiling shot. Ali was 3rd with another even closer shot of stacked chairs.

The second part of the evening was the Open section with 24 entries. Trevor won with his beautiful sunny shot of Great Dixter - roll on summer! Mike was 2nd with his derelict boat and Ali 3rd again with her redwoods shot.

Thursday 6th February 2025 - SCPF PDI Competition

Members from the other clubs in SCPF Digital Image League Division 6 joined us on Zoom for our home fixture. Paul Hendley was the judge for the evening and gave an educational critique for each of the 64 images. He wasn’t afraid to use full range of marks and awarded several 6’s!

And yes, it was a fine team result for Niton when we came first even though none of our images scored a maximum 10. Our top scorer was Tracey's blueberries with a 9.5, followed by 9s from Don and Paul.

Thursday 23rd January 2025 - Arreton Barns Photo Challenge

We met to discuss and review a very varied selection of the images from the Arreton Barns trip on 9th January. The images were shown anonymously and we all tried to work out the authors. Sometimes correctly – but often not! The first challenge was set to take a straight image of a scene there; there was a minimal stark tree from Keith, beautiful light in the church from Sue C, dramatic shadows from Mike and a the glass artisan from Steve.

The second part of the challenge was create a 'wacky' image from something at Arreton. This produced some very interesting work; Shani played around with the organ pipes, Paul spotted a sign and 'edited' it, Sue B played around with the church door handle and Don created more and more Trevor's!

Thursday 9th January 2025 - Welcome Back Lunch at the Arreton Barns and Photo Challenge

We welcomed the New Year on a chilly but sunny and bright January day while wandering around the scenic buildings at Arreton Barns...followed by a warming lunch at the Dairyman's Daughter. There were plenty of opportunities for taking interesting and/or wacky images to enter the photo challenge which will take place at our next club evening on the 23rd January.

Thursday 12th December 2024 - Mix and Match Challenge

There was a full turnout for the Club's annual Mix and Match Challenge. Carol Walker (from IWPS) entered into the spirit of the competition and was a splendidly impartial judge. It was a fun evening and after 3 years in the wilderness, the ladies were victorious. Well done the ladies!

...It was a festive evening of overdue presentations; Keith was presented with the Autumn Cup trophy. On behalf of the Club, Sue B received the certificate for winning League 7 and Tracey received a Highly Commended certificate awarded to her at the SCPF Finals Day.

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 - Brighstone Christmas Tree Festival

Thursday 21st November 2024 - Autumn Cup

The Club held its annual Autumn Cup competition on Zoom and was joined by Ashley Francis from Fordingbridge who appraised the 45 entries. Keith's striking minimalist mono image of a boy with a scooter taken against the light was judged to win.

2nd place went to Jon with his atmospheric shot taken in Bonchurch and 3rd was Sue B with an ethereal shot taken in Norwich cathedral.

Thursday 7th November 2024 - 'Pot Luck'

There was a good turnout to discuss and appraise the 45 entries from members on their 'Pot Luck' subject as drawn at the start of the season. We ran through the images and held back 13 to award higher marks by way of a show of hands for 10, 9 or 8. This worked well and produced just one 10 for Ali with her kingfisher shot, shown below with a selection of those that scored 9.

After tea we viewed an excellent video on 'Light' and learned amongst other things that there is no such thing as 'bad light'.

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