May 2010

IRB Rugby Sevens - World Series

Emirates Airlines Edinburgh Sevens Festival 2010 - On the weekend of May 29th - 30th, I was lucky enough to attend the series finale in Murrayfield, Edinburgh.

The overall Cup winners and overall Series winners were Samoa, but victories were also recorded for:-

Scotland - Plate final, Wales - Bowl Final and Russia  - Shield Final.

For more info and images click.

April 2010

I had a good year in the local Photographic Society competitions, winning several rounds of competitions in the Hexham Colour and Monochrome competition. However I won the Annual Monochrome Trophy and the Overall Photographer of the Year Trophy in Consett Photo Society.

December 2009

I've joined the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and elected onto the Northern RPS Committee. Hopefully over the next year I will work towards gaining an RPS Distinction.

June 2009

Gibside Chapel Exhibition

02/06/2009 - 29/06/2009
I'm teaming up with friend, Richard Nixon and staging our second  joint photographic exhibition.  The exhibition, still un-named will reflect our different but (hopefully) complimentary styles and include wildlife, landscape and abstract images all taken in our Native North East. 

The exhibition will be housed in the Tea rooms at the entrance to the National Trust's attraction and remember entry to the tea rooms and gallery is free - so go along have a cup of your favourite tipple and let me know what you think of the images.

Click here to visit Gibside Chapel

January 2009

I joined fellow Hexham and District Photo Society members, Danny Brannigan and Barry Turnbull in judging the BBC Look North January 2009 Calendar photo. We were accompanied by weather presenter Paul Mooney on a short walk along Hadrians wall before making our choice in the Twice Brewed Inn.

Congratulations to the winner Ian Snowdon for his tremendous winter scene.

To see the winning photo click here

PAGB Awards for Photographic Merit

I successfully gained a Distinction (DPAGB) in the Associations assessment panel held at the Caedman Hall, Gateshead on 23rd November 2008.

All applicants must pre-qualify by supporting their own Federation photographic events for a specific period, for the DPAGB it is three years. 

For the DPAGB, I had to submit 20 prints to be assessed by a panel of 6 judges. The pass mark overall is 300, each judge awarding marks individual prints as follows :- 

5 Well above the standard required. Likely, but not of course guaranteed to score 4 at the MPAGB level. 

4 Up to the standard that is likely to do well in Open Exhibitions, achieving a high rate of acceptance .

3 Only used when the Adjudicator is not quite sure or where the photograph has just missed the standard - only very close misses would be marked as 3.

2 Not likely to be accepted very often in Exhibitions and will probably be rejected more often than it is accepted.  May have some potential but does not meet the criteria for a pass mark.

I scored 326 points.

Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI)

Grace Darling Museum

I was contacted by the RNLI and asked to take some photographs for the Museum, which was under renovation as part of their Heritage Trust financed initiative. 

Several images of the local seascapes have been printed large (6' x 8') to act as the backdrop to the museums new display cases. Whilst other images form part of the wall displays.

To read more about the museum and Grace Darling click here.

The museum re-opened in December 2007, whilst the official opening will be in March 2008.

Photographic Society of America (PSA)

ICIC – INTERNATIONAL CLUB IMAGE COMPETITION

 I took part in this annual competition representing Hexham Photographic Society. This took part over 4 rounds with 6 entries per club, Hexham P.S. won the outright winner in its group. 

Each of the images gaining an "Award of Merit", which were those scoring top marks in any of the four rounds, were entered into the "Best of the Best" competition in June. The top 5 images in this competition were then awarded PSA (Photographic Society of America) Gold Medals. I was lucky enough to win one of these medals for the following image.

"Curlew" 

Search and Rescue Dogs Association (England) SARDA

July 2007

I was approached to help the local Search and Rescue Dogs Association at their annual training day. So with a number of friends we attended Thropton, Northumberland and spent a full day with the teams, capturing many images of the Dogs and their handlers in action. We also took numerous portraits (of the dogs) and staged images of the handlers with their dogs. To read more on this and view the images click here.

The images were also used by the Association in the production of their 2008 Calendar.

National Police Photographic Exhibition

Police Family Album 2007

I had a number of prints accepted and awarded commendations:-

Abandoned Lorry - Commended in the Open Colour Print 

Saltwick Bay Wreck - Commended in the Mono Print

Love - Commended in the Open Mono Prints

Lamplight Arts Centre Exhibition
04/12/2006 - 05/01/2007
Together with Richard Nixon, we staged our first  photographic exhibition.  The exhibition called "Northern Elements" and is best described as a reflection upon the landscape, wildlife and history of the North East, from the bird colonies of the Farne Islands to the relics of the North's Industrial past. 

The exhibition ran from 4th December 2006 until 5th January 2007, at the Lamplight Arts Centre, Front Street, Stanley, County Durham. 

The PAGB Inter Federation Colour Print Competition - 2006

One of my Colour prints, Curlew was selected to represent the Northen Counites Photographic Federation in the annual PAGB competition. The print was commended and awarded a green ribbon. The image can be viewed in the Flora and Fauna gallery.

Northern Counties Photographic Federation Colour Print Competition - 2006

I was lucky enough for one of my Colour prints, Curlew to have gained third place in the Northen Counites Photographic Federation annual club competition. The image can be viewed in the Flora and Fauna gallery>Birds gallery.

National Police Photographic Exhibition

Police Family Album 2006

This was my third year of entry and I had a number of prints accepted and awarded commendations:-

Curlew - Commended in the Open Colour Print 

Grebe on nest - Accepted in Colour Print

Ken - Certificate and accepted Open Mono Prints

Dandelion - Certificate and Accepted Open Mono Print

Tallaght Photographic Society
International Open Competiton & Exhibition 2005

This was the first international electronic entry competition that I entered. I was therefore very happy and surprised that I won first place and received a gold medal for my entry - 

'Artic Tern in flight'

National Police Photographic Exhibition

Police Family Album 2005

This was my second year of entry, I won the Open Colour print and received a gold medal for my print ' Swan Snoozing in Evening light', I also had a number of prints accepted and awarded commendations:-

Tern in flight - Commended in the Open Colour Print

Poppies - Commended in Open Colour Print

Tanfield Carriages - Commended in the Open Mono Prints

Banburgh View from the North - Certificate and Accepted Open Mono Print