Well, that was exciting.
Our third competition of the season and natural History was on the agenda. A lot of us (me included) were having difficulty getting shots together, so we decided to relax the rules a bit to allow flora and fauna not in their wild state (step forward garden flowers and farm/zoo beasties) We realise that this would be unacceptable outside of our walls, but hey, it's our club and we want to encourage, not scare away 'togs.
So the person we invited along to adjudicate was a lass called Jane Barrett. Not her first visit to our hallowed halls, and a very capable judge she turned out to be, praising even my meagre efforts and pointing out where I should be looking to make improvements (in her humble opinion, and we did ask her along to give her humble opinion)
Our raptor evening produced a few shots as did some zoo and farm animals. Insects, birds and fungi also, gave Jane a varied tableau, and with anecdotes and gentle nudges to better shooting, she whittled down the initial 64 to 22 that she requested to see again. These she liberally sprayed with nines and nine ana halfs and held back just six images. (two of them mine .. eeeeeee .. that's me with my knuckles in my teeth)
Another run through and David picks up second place with his Garden Toadstools, next I pick up a highly commended for my Magic Mushroom. Then Spencer scoops third place with his Humming Bird Moth and Chris gets a highly commended with his cute Robin. Two left ...
and the lovely lass chose my Spider's Web to be first over Katherine's Highland Cattle. I am a God, at least for tonight.
Thanks to Ms Barrett (you can deffo come again) and her comments. Don't take it too hard when she says 'perhaps a bit closer' when you're on the other side of the valley with a 600mm plus a X2 converter, she knows, she's been there.
Now, excuse me whilst I gloat a bit.