The next distinction on the FIAP ladder to stardom is the EFIAP (E the stands for excellence) this pushes the criteria to the next level with more awards & acceptances  required from  more salons & countries. Ive already met some of these but have plenty more work  to do over the  next 2 years before I’m allowed to apply…….But for now i will sit back and enjoy.

Below is a scan of my certificate

Best Wishes  Jon.

2009 Northern Counties International  (UK International ) 1 accepted
“Night Train”

2009 Guernsey national exhibtion  (UK BPE National) 1 accepted
“90773_26″

Maitland 2010 (NSW Australia International) 1 accepted
“Common Toads Mating”

7th Holland International Circuit (International) 2 accepted
“Great Crested Newt”
“Black Tailed Godwit”

GASO Southern Circuit (Georgia U.S.A International 6 salons) 4 accepted including, 4 honourable mentions ribbons
“Black Tailed Godwit” HM
“Male Little Grebe”
“Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary”
“Male Banded Demoiselle” HM x3

46th Fresno International (California U.S.A International) 4 accepted
“Red Kite in Flight”
“Black Tailed Godwit”
“Water Reflections”
“Last Run of the Day”

53rd Saguaro International (Arizona U.S.A International) 4 accepted, 1 honourable mention
“Black Tailed Godwit”
“Male Banded Demoiselle”
“Black Veined Whites” HM
“Common Toads Mating”

47thAnnual MCPF Exhibition (UK for PAGB affiliatedClubs) 1 accepted
“Great Crested Newt”

64th Bristol International Exhibition of photography ( UK international) 2 accepted
“Emperor Dragonfly”
“Night Train”

 33rd Solihull Open Exhibition of Photography (UK BPE National) accepted
“S” Bend
“Barrow Hill Roundhouse”

Wisconsin Circuit 2010 (4 exhibitions around the State of Wisconsin  U.S.A.) 2 acceptances  (1 image)
“Red Kite in Flight” (Meno Falls & Milwaukee  exhibitions)
3rd International Salon Foto Club Quilmes (Argentina International) 1 Accepted.
“S Bend ”

Leicester & Leicestershire Photographic Society 125th Anniversary Exhibition 2010. (UK) 9 Accepted +1 HC & 1C
Open Projected Image Section
BlackTailed Godwit
Common Toads Mating
Emperor Dragonfly
Marsh fritillary
Red Kite in Flight

Great Central Railway Projected Images section
Approaching Rothley
Dub-Dee @ Loughborough (Highly Commended)
Foggy Morning @ Loughborough (Commended)
Tornado Passing Kinchley Lane

Glasgow & District Photographic Union 2010. (UK BPE National Exhibtion) 3 Accepted
Black Tailed Godwit
Male Banded Demoiselle
Marsh Fritillary

2010 Accepted images

Images that have been accepted into national & international exhibitions or Salons.

19 Photos

1) Taken from the Compo clubs 6435 Charter on the Pontypool & Bleanavon Railway – My first visit and it blew me away with its industrial look but set in a fantastic natural environment. This is a railway to watch!  It has bags of potential. Simon Hopkins added some added interest with vintage vans & tractors. Weather was naff to start but by mid afternoon all hell let loose as the sun came out………There were so many i could have used as a  favourite.

2) Taken from the Night shoot with Oliver Cromwell on the GCR in Nov, It was the end to Russ Hilliers charter, they had glorious weather all day and i had to suffer from the confines of the office as id run out of annual holidays…….But i did manage to get to the night shoot so i wasn’t to disappointed. I have found memories of the Britt when it was running on the short demo track @ Bressingham when Dad paid for us to have a short ride on the footplate! This is my fav image from the shoot.

3) Comes from my first visit to Barrow Hill Round house…It was on my hit list for the year and the massive LNER Spring gala was just the reason to visit! Once again Russ Hillier organised the day with a night shoot in the yard & roundhouse.  I returned home absolutely knackered and filthy but grinning like a Cheshire Cat! What a place!

4) Taken from a superb Charter with one of the little quirky Beattie Well Tanks (30587) Organised by Don Bishop @the Bodmin & Wenford Railway. This line has some serious gradients all around the 1:40 region……The Weather was lovely in the morning and right at the end of the day for the last run. I’ll never forget this one as i went to day surgery the next day to have some stubborn soot removed from one of my eyes that was scratching my eyeball. ahh the joys!

5) A holy Grail for so many people involved with the steam preservation was to finally see the Bluebells Dukedog 9017 back in 1950′s BR black livery and on its old stomping ground the Cambrian Coast  line @ Llangollen….This had to rank as the top of my most wanted in 2009….Weather was OK but not brilliant. Once again this was Run by Don Bishop.

6) The Great Central Railways Autumn Gala had a very heavy freight feel about it in 2009. One of the visiting engines was the WD 90773 from KWVR, Russ offered a charter with mixed Freight & Minerals…I stumped for the mixed freight. Terrific light in the morning gave us some magical stuff South of Quorn…The light tailed off badly in the afternoon. This loco is very functional and very basic but looked so at home on the GCR…My Dad said he remembers them clunking over the Rugby GCR Birdcage whilst standing on Rugby platform. 

7) Another charter on the GCR this time with the NYMR Q6 63395 on the Minerals, the loco came down for the Winter Gala (January) The charter i attended was organised by Don Bishop. A wet morning first thing gave way to some lovely spells of Winter light….Lovely day with a short night shoot to round off the day.

’8) My second year at the annual Severn Valley Railways Autumn Gala. Once again we were blessed with superb weather, the list of locos on display was amazing but the main one most came to see was the freshly restored Ivatt 4 43106 “The Flying Pig”. But one of my fav shots came from the MPD @ Bridgnorth at around 2am Sunday morning! With the GWR “Taffy Tank” 5643. I was joined for the duration by great buddy Andy Gamble and we also hooked up with the ever present Rick Eborall…..Terrific 24hours. Cant wait for the 2010 event!

9) The Severn Valley Santa Specials make a very welcome addition to the photters final flurry of the year, trains every 30mins means your never short of action, many will be bunker first but in the landscape shots with locos that were designed to run bunker first this is OK by me especially if the light is amazing  It was, but bloody cold. We drove past fields covered in snow but upon arrival @ Bewdley all we had were frosty fields!!!!   Buggar, bloody good though……My fav shot came from the Pig @ Northwood lane.

10) My final offering comes from my last day out with the camera in 2009. Once again its the SVR on another very cold day during the festive period – the 28th to be precise. The image is a funny one really…..Its the Swanage Railway’s 56xx 6695 powering up the Northwood Lane bank as it approached Orchard Cottage. All went well i did some zoomed shots on my spare Nikon then swapped to my D300 and 28-70 in the excitement i knocked off the grad filter, that got covered in water off the grass and this is the result! A nice loco front with a soft diffused back drop! Id normally have to mess in Photoshop to get this effect….Hey ho next time chuck the filter  into the undergrowth and your in business!!

A very happy new year to all my friends old & new, thanks for the banter & advice. A big thank must go to the Charter organisers my best images come from these now…..  Its been a terrific year Ive got somewhere near to where i want to be with my steam photography. Juggling work, a young family and all that goes with that makes any day out a major feat of organisation. My final word goes to my lovely wife…without her understanding and encouragement  id never be able to do it! Thanks  a million!

So what have in store for 2010 to date?

• Llangollen’s Riddles Std4 tank 80072 @ the ChurnetValley Railway on mixed freight  in Feb - both firsts for me.
• Tornado back at the GCR  in March.
• Hopefully Black fives 45231 & 45407  running a double charter on the GCR in Jan.
• SVR Spring Re-union Gala in March
• A day at the Red kite feeding station in Wales in Feb.
• T9 Charter at Bodmin hopefully!

And what would i like to see happen??

• A charter with the flying Pig @ SVR
• Jubilee 5690 Leander painted into BR green
• A charter on the Swanage railway with a Bullied pacific
• A certain Blue King come to the GCR for running in………..
• A night shoot & Didcot for the GWR 175th celebration.

Oh im sure theres some pie in the sky with some of these but i hope a few come true……;-)

Best Wishes for 2010

Jon Bowcutt.

The B.P.E. stands for British Photographic Exhibitor, and the number (actually a Crown) reflects the number of images that you have had accepted in salons. The BPE circuit runs all year and includes 15 camera clubs such as Solihull, Southport & Dingwall, each acceptance equals 1 point. the table below outlines the number of acceptances required for each “Crown”.
1 Crown = 25
2 Crown’s = 50
3 Crown’s = 100
4 Crown’s = 200
5 Crown’s = 300

When you reach each target you then apply and upon acceptance you then get a certificate with the appropriate ribbon and the initials which are recognised by all salon exhibitors in the UK. For more info and a list of all the salons with entry forms to download click the link below:-
B.P.E website Click Here!

As well as salons for UK only based exhibitors you can also venture out into the Rest of the World, the best way to find these is to go to the F.I.A.P ( Federation International Art Photography) & P.S.A (Photographic Society America) web-site’s which have listings on all affiliated salons.
The PSA is a club which you can join annually and work towards your star ratings in any chosen area, my PSA3 was in Natural History. As for F.I.A.P this is an association which affiliates as operational members, the national associations of photography. The FIAP distinctions are highly regarded and can only be applied for once you have reached a certain level of acceptance’s in salons around the word and won awards in these. AFIAP & EFIAP are the prized initials.
Click here for the FIAP website!
Click here for the PSA website!

There’s also the PAGB (photographic Alliance of Great Britain) Which coordinates specific activities for Camera clubs & Societies around the country by 15 regional federations. There’s merits up for grabs here as well:-
CPAGB (Credit)
DPAGB (Distinction)
MPAGB (Master)
All are bound by certain entry conditions which you have to meet…..But they cost nothing and stay with you for life.

Click here for the PAGB website!

I hope this has helped you understand a little about salons and the benefits from entering them, it can become very addictive, the more you get accepted the more you want…..

Good luck
Jon.

Last week Dave took me through this alternative method for converting an image to Mono….I like it but the jury’s still out on whether its better than my current method or not.I like the way it converts the dark end but you still have to adjust your levels etc before you start.

So i thought id see what you lot think!

Here’s the step by step guide:-
1) Open the image you want to convert.
2) Create a duplicate layer
3) Then De saturate the duplicate layer (shift+Ctrl+U)
4) Go into the channels (RGB) bottom right hand corner & then do a Ctrl+left mouse click (this highlights the 50%greys.
5) Select Inverse (the select tab in the top tabs)
6) Then click “new fill layer” (7th selection down the layer tab) & select solid colour
7) Select the darkest area of black in the bottom LH corner.

8) Then go back to the RGB Layers tab in the right hand corner and change the mode from normal to either Overlay or softlight. You might want to play around with the opacity if you think the blacks are to dark………

That’s about it but you still need to adjust your levels and colour balance and mid tones in the curves if required…….

I like it and think it might work well with certain images….

What do you think??? Ive added two copies of the same image below with each method for guidance….

Cheers
Jon.

This image has had my normal mono conversion applied.....

This image has had Daves alternative conversion applied.........as described above.

Daves method ceratinly makes the blacks very black and creates a mono with more mood, but maybe theres trade off in foreground & shadow detail?? i hope some of you will give it a try and let me know what you think. As ever if you get stuck give me a bell and we can go through it in more detail……

Cheers

Jon Bowcutt.

Follow the link below for the step by step guide…….

Link to great Digital Mono’s

But having said that if theres some definition (ie you can see some cloud formation even though the sky is over exposed) then all is not lost you can make it acceptable.

The best piece of advice i can give you on this subject is to take a deep breath & purchase a set of Lee Filters amazing Neutral density Grad filters they make them in full & half stops, they fit onto the front of the lens with the Lee filter adaptor & filter holder. Yes they cost £50 each but there worth every penny……I have 3 filters ranging from 1stop(0.3)to 3 (0.9). Get the hard grads the soft grads are very gradual so you don’t get the full effect until the last 1/4 of the filter. These hold in the sky but leave your foreground still correctly exposed. You can slide them up and down to match your composition and rotate them if required. As a rule of thumb i use a 1stop (0.3) for bright sunny days to enhance the blue sky, 2stop (0.6) for cloudy bright days & 3stop (0.9) for dull cloudy days. Believe it or not there can be up to 4-5 stops difference between correct foreground exposure & the sky!!!!!! Todays current cameras have no chance.

Anyhow here’s how photoshop can help you. The examples at the bottom show what can be done by opening the same image in camera raw but underexposing  one image upto 2stops. Then you open both in Photoshop and move the underexposed shot over the original image, add a “reveal all” mask to the underexposed image that you’ve just moved (you will see it in the layers palette as a second image) Once done the image will look very dark,but don’t worry, select the eraser or brush and with it set to black you can remove the darkness from the foreground and other areas that were correctly exposed, but your left with a sky that’s looks pretty good!!! The same rule can apply to a dark image that needs to be brought up by a stop or 2…..i know there’s not pictures to guide you here but I’m assuming you have a pretty good  understanding of photoshop….If you get stuck please ask and we could go through it via skype whilst your sitting in front of the image…. There are other slight tweaks you can do but there minor compared to this one…Have a look below and you’ll the effect it can have…….

I hope this helps anyone who suffers with this horrible problem, it can make a great shot look very naff.

Further info on this topic can be found in the May2008 edition of Steam railway magazine, where Ed Hurst describes this method with step by step assistance….Pay your local preserved railway a visit and find the emporium and slip them a quid for the May2008 Beano! It really helps.

Cheers

Jon.

Modified shot using the method described as above…..

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Original image with no processing……see the difference but you can just make out cloud & smoke definition!

My summary for what its worth is Thank god i made the switch when i did, God knows why people still think film is better…………….Oh and did i forget to say digital photographers don’t have to wait a week to see their results….we just delete them on the lineside ready to have another shot with the corrections made  in seconds to the camera!

Anyhow heres 2 images….1 Digital & 1 slide scanned in….Which ones which?

Anyhow what ever you think heres my favourite picture of the day i attended.

If you want to see more pictures then click here…..

 Great Central Railway Autumn gala 2008….click here.