This evening saw the 2nd Round of the LPA Battles, with us Louth head to head with RB Foto, the judge for the evening was the knowledgeable, and competent Martyn Wrigg. The room was packed as the competition began, and it was good to see many RB members attending. About a third of the way into the competition, many of our best prints were being awarded lower points than expected, and RB had 9 "holdbacks", as opposed to our 7 "holdbacks" at the break. After the break Martyn the judge "demoted" English Rose, and Under the Glacier, 2 our "holdbacks" to 17 points, to be fair Christmas Visit to Lincoln Cathedral, and Cleaning Windows "holdbacks" from RB were also demoted to 17 points. The only print of ours to achieve 20 points was Roydon Common Morning by Dave Turner. Overall it was a great competition, with some amazing high quality prints submitted, with the final scores of Louth 258, and RB 265. Congratulations to RB Foto for a well deserved win in the 2nd Round of the LPA Battles. The 3rd Round of the LPA Battles will be held at Barton, on the 24th July, which will see us matched against Barton, and Lincoln.

Good Morning All I had a walk around Red Hill last weekend, there's very little about just yet though, a few insects and flowers but should be a few more about soon. Last week we held our monthly print competition judged by Grahame Dunkin, there were nearly fifty entries and of a very high standard, all the results are on our website. There are no more competitions now until September so plenty of time to get out with your cameras. It will also soon be outing time, an opportunity to go out as a group and share knowledge and with luck some good photographs. This week, Wednesday 12th June, at the club we are holding round two of the LPA Battles against RB, and our judge for the evening will be Martyn Wrigg of Barton. Regards Graham

A print competition was held last night with the categories of “Something Red”, and “Open”. Our judge for the evening was Grahame Dunkin, and he gave a comprehensive, and detailed review of each submitted print. The standard of prints was again very high, the level of competence, and skill of our members seem to be improving with each competition that we hold. A photographic print is a very tactile thing, and when the standard of submitted prints is as high as it is then details matter, an improved or more considered crop of the image, removing, or avoiding busy backgrounds, ensuring that verticals are straight, and toning down bright areas in the background, may have resulted in the print being awarded more points. In the “Something Red” category Graham Harrison was awarded first place for his print titled “The Red Boat”, it is in this image that photographic skills come into play, the boat is deliberately placed in the bottom third of the image, providing the viewer with a contextual view of the Morecambe Bay mud flats, on what appears to be a very dismal day, another photographer might have used a telephoto lens to take a closer image of the boat, but this would have lessened the visual impact of the final print. In the “Open” category Graham Harrison was awarded first place for his “Sand Racer” quad bike print, this time the drama, and speed of the quad bike on the sand is played out against the blurred spectators in the background, again giving a sense of time, and place. Thanks go to our judge Grahame Dunkin, our members for participating in the competition making for an enjoyable evening, Dave Turner for compiling the prints, and Dave Mann for the refreshments.

I have been asked to circulate the attached poster about the NELPS latest exhibition which has just opened in Grimsby. The exhibition is open for the next 3 months from 10.00am to 2.30pm daily at the Canopy Community Hub in Grant Thorold Park, Durban Road. Grimsby. The only alteration to the opening times is that the room is in use by another group on Monday and Friday mornings between 10.00am and 11.00am. The Centre has an excellent café where you can get a wide range of light meals, drinks and cakes!

Good Morning All I have not really taken many photos lately, hence a bit slow pressing the shutter. Last week at the club Colin Lusby gave us a talk with prints, Colin showed us prints on many different subjects including panels of three prints. A very good evening and there is a report on our blog. This week Wednesday 5th June, we are holding a print competition, with the categories of "Something Red" and "Open" judged by Grahame Dunkin of Dunholme club, all the prints have now been submitted. Don’t forget the annual subscriptions are now overdue and any more deposits for the meal to me please. Regards Graham

Choosing a lens for a camera system is never an easy task, selecting the right focal length for your needs, whether to buy a zoom lens, or prime lens and then what aperture is required. For some camera systems the manufacturer may even provide a different aperture in the same focal length as an example a Canon RF 50mm prime lens f/1.8 can be purchased for around £200 but choosing the 50mm f/1.2 version might cost ten times this. Many cameras when purchased new will be available with a “kit” lens, these are very often good value for money, and get you started with the new camera. The “kit” lens supplied with a camera system can often be of an inexpensive build quality, sometimes the widest aperture will be f/3.5, and have a lower optical quality than more expensive offerings. I used the Sony 16-50mm PZ compact zoom lens for many years on my APS-C cameras. At that time Sony did not offer much in the way of E-mount APS-C lenses, just a longer zoom 55-210mm, and a 35mm f/1.8 prime, and this is where a third party lens can be of a real benefit, I bought a Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5 – f/6.3 zoom lens, (when Sony introduced a 18-200mm f/3.5-f/6.3 lens it was rumoured that it was manufactured by Tamron), and a Sigma 60mm f/2.8 prime to add to my camera kit. Tamron, and Sigma dominated the third-party lens market for many years and provided lenses that often filled gaps in a propriety manufacturers offerings. Sigma has produced a widely acclaimed trio of f/1.4 lenses the 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm available for many APS-C mounts. As an example when Canon introduced the M mount mirrorless series of cameras, such as the M50, as far as I am aware Canon developed only 2 zoom lenses, and a nice 22mm prime pancake lens, this system had a lot of potential, but Canon dropped the system in favour of the RF mount digital mirrorless cameras, all three of the Sigma f/1.4 prime lenses are available for the M mount cameras, filling the gaps that Canon left in the system. Samyang manufactures a wide range of lenses for various mirrorless camera mounts, the 12mm f/2 APS-C wide angle lens is well renowned for build, and optical quality, and I’ve used this lens on my Sony A6300, and now on the Fuji system, I’ve created some incredible images with it such as at Mam Tor, Whitby, the night sky images, and all of the last years churches project. For full frame cameras I used the Samyang 45mm f/1.8 on my Sony A7 ii and took some amazing portraits with this lens. Chinese lens developers have come to the fore with some very inexpensive third-party lenses to fit various mirrorless camera mounts. Viltrox, 7 Artisans, TT Artisans, Meike, and Pergear are some of these Chinese brands, initially a lot of lens offerings were, and still are manual focus, but many more autofocus lenses are now being produced. Sigma, and Tamron manufacture quality products in Japan, and Samyang are a South Korean company. Currently, I’m using the TT Artisans AF 27mm f/2.8 pancake lens with my Fuji system, the lens is on sale for around £160, and I’ve just purchased the TT Artisans AF 56mm f/1.8 bought for £130, which I’m very pleased with. I replaced my Fuji 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens (the optical quality of this Fuji lens was superb) but the Sigma 18-50mm lens has a constant f/2.8 aperture, is smaller, lighter, and focuses closer making it a great little travel lens. In summation then a third-party lens may have the advantage of providing more choices of lenses for different camera mounts, at a competitive price point. The disadvantages of choosing a third-party lens could be a reduced resale value, less reliable product support, and may have inferior image quality, but if I can get 90% of the image quality at a third of the price then it’s a choice I’m prepared to make.

Our speaker last night was Colin Lusby, who presented his eclectic collection of superb prints through the evening. Colin is a prolific, and highly talented photographer, he prints all of his own photographs, choosing the photographic paper carefully to match the subject matter, he demonstrated this by showing a monochrome image on one paper, and the same image on a paper designed for monochrome printing, and the difference in contrast, and detail was remarkable. One of Colin’s specialties is producing a “panel” of three prints related to each other, that’s not something that many of our members are accustomed to, so it was interesting to see this style carried out in a proficient way. The talk for tonight by Colin, was delivered in a humorous, and also highly intelligent manner, I am sure that many of our members will have been inspired by Colin’s prints. Many thanks to Colin for a hugely enjoyable evening.

Good Morning All Last Sunday Derek took our prints to Nettleton for the LPA Individual print competition, I put the Hayburn Wyke print in and it just shows what our decisions on cropping make to our images, I thought it would be good to leave the rocks in the foreground in even though under water but judges think it is two images in one so I have cropped it but I still quite like the full length one myself. Last week we had no meeting in Louth but an away LPA Battle at Pinchbeck, a long way to go to support our club but we live in a big county. Dave Turner took our prints and we finished 2nd on the night with 254 points, Cleethorpes had 260 points and Pinchbeck close behind with 253 points. The next round is at Louth so we can be more involved in that one. This week, Wednesday 29th May, at the club we have a speaker, Colin Lusby with Art for the untalented, a print lecture which will make a nice change. Don’t forget if you have not yet paid your subs, please pay by the end of the month and any more deposits for the Splash ASAP please. You will also have to bring your prints along this week for the monthly print competition, with the categories of "Something Red" and "Open", you also need to send Dave Turner an email with your titles, six entries allowed but put an (R) after one of them in case we have too many entries. Regards Graham

On Thursday 23rd May our first round of the Lincolnshire Photographic Association Print Battle took place at Pinchbeck, between us (Louth), Pinchbeck and Cleethorpes. Paul Gray and Dave Turner attended to represent the club and were warmly welcomed by the members at Pinchbeck. There was a good attendance from Cleethorpes and Pinchbeck which added to the evening. The standard of images was very good and the judge for the night, Richard Houghton SWPP SINWP, gave a good review of each image, holding a good number back and marking the others out of 20. The held back images where then further reviewed and a mark given between 18 and 20, four images gaining the max mark of 20. The final result being Cleethorpes 1st place with 260 marks, Louth came 2nd with a mark of 254 and Pinchbeck came 3rd with a mark of 253. Thanks went to Pinchbeck for a good evening and their hospitality.