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Sue Dunham Chairman BCG
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There were lots of stalls, traditional games,activities and entertainment in the arena areas including Maypole dancing by the children of Beaulieu Village School, a fancy dress parade, a dog show and of course the Beaulieu Brass Band.
Beaulieu Camera Group was again delighted to be invited to show a display of prints with a total of 65 images on show representing nearly every one of our members. Beaulieu Camera Group also held a prize draw again to help raise funds for the Common Good Foundation. Three images from our members were selected as the prizes. They were "Frosty Sunrise Northgate" by Sue Dunham CPAGB, "Hilltop after the Fire" by Alan Price ARPS and "Supermoon over the New Forest" by Edna Phillips. These photos were all of locations in and around the New Forest and were kindly printed, mounted and framed by Alan Price, A total of £85 was raised with the three winners of each draw delighted to receive their chosen print.
Maggie was the winner of "Supermoon Over the New Forest", Jenny won "Hilltop After the Fire" and Lynn's ticket was drawn for "Frosty Sunrise, Northgate" which was delivered to her after the Fete.
Traditionally the celebrity who opens the event is invited to choose their favourite print from those on display. The winner this year was Maggie White CPAGB with her image "Delayed Start of the New Forest Pony Auction", who was presented with a trophy by Sophie Ward.
Each year we ask members of the public to vote for their favourite picture, with the winner being awarded The Bob Grier Trophy. The total number of votes overall this year was a record 356..
This year's winner was Vanessa Bateson for her stunning image "Vic Shoreline" Unfortunately Vanessa left the Fete just before the final votes were counted but she will be presented with the trophy when we next meet at the school. In 2nd place was Ian Hutchinson with "Meadow Pipit with Grasshopper" and there was a tie for third place between Linda Dunham with "Mid Summer Sunset" and Hilary Flaxman with "Dawn Breaks in the New Forest".
Thank you to all the members of Beaulieu Camera Group who helped with the setting up, stewarding, and taking down the display on the day. Particular thanks to Ian Bateson who mounted eleven prints for members to enable so many to take part.
It was as always, a lovely, sociable occasion and such a great way to be involved with Beaulieu Village and all the other organisations who take part in the Fete.
To see more photos of this year's Fete please click on this link to the Beaulieu Fete website: Photos from Beaulieu Fete 2026
Sue Dunham Chairman
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The images for each year's competition portray a different genre and the one chosen for 2026 was "Shadows and Silhouettes, Here is one of Alan's images which illustrates this so well:
The judge for this year's event was Maria Leekblade LRPS DPAGB who has visited BCG on many occasions and whose judging is regarded as second to none, We were also very pleased to welcome the new President of the Southern Counties Photographic Federation, Suzie Kirkby and wish her great success in her new role.
There was an excellent entry of 46 images which Maria did an excellent task of assessing. She held back seventeen images from which she selected the following for the awards:
1st place and winner of the Alan Cooke Memorial Shield was Alan Price ARPS with "Cognition".
Seven Highly Commended Certificates were awarded: Bob Abbott "Dragonfly Silhouette", Vanessa Bateson "New York Skyline", Linda Dunham "Flying Home at Day's End", Sue Dunham CPAGB APAGB "On the Boardwalk", Ian Park "Race to the Top", Alan Price ARPS "Seated Female Figure" and Maggie White CPAGB "Cow Parsley and Sunset".
To see the PDF of the entries, please click on this link: 
The Alan Cooke Memorial Trophy 2026 "Shadows and Silhouettes" Entry List
Sue Dunham Chairman
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The subjects were: "Abstract", "Reflections", "Contrasting Colours", "Architecture", "Slow Shutter Speed", "Yellow", 'Sharp Front to Back", "Eye Level" , "Street Lights", "Leaves"and "Numbers".
The Teams spent the first part of the evening finding and photographing the images. Afterwards, we met at the White Horse for refreshments and the teams chose their ten images which were uploaded onto the MacBook, Ian Hutchinson once again made a great job of putting them into separate folders ready to be scored at the competition on 27th June.
The images were all "as taken" as jpegs with no post processing at all. Each set of images for each subject were shown as PDIs with Barry Armstrong, a past member of Beaulieu Camera Group as our judge for the event. Barry placed the images in order from 1st, 2nd and 3rd and the cumulative scores were added together to give a total overall score. The images were excellent and showed the proficiency and skill of our members in producing such good results straight from the camera.
After a very close competition, the winning team was "Isle of Photography" made up of Linda Dunham, Sue Dunham, Ian Hutchinson and Emma Port who were each awarded a pack of Maltesers.
Here are the winnings team's images:
Sue Dunham Chairman
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This year's Fordingbridge Challenge took place on 29th April at The Avonway, Fordingbridge. Eight clubs took part in this annual event each with with an entry of eight PDIs. These images must not have been used before in external competitions and be produced by eight different authors.
The eight clubs were: Beaulieu Camera Group, BH PC, Blandford Forum CC, Fordingbridge CC, H & I PC, Ringwood CC, Salisbury PC and Wimborne CC. As always, there was a very good turnout from members of the clubs and Fordingbridge CC supplied us with delicious home made cakes at the interval.
The judge for the evening was Maria Leekblade AFIAP, DPAGB, who had the unenviable task of scoring what was a superb set of images. She certainly rose to the challenge with enthusiasm and a great knowledge of the genres and techniques on show.
The final totals were quite close, showing the high quality of all the entries. The winner of the Challenge Trophy was Ringwood Camera Club with a score of 73. Beaulieu Camera Group finished in 7th place with a total of 66.5 with just one mark between 5th, 6th and 7th place.
One of of our images scored the maximum of 10 "Sir Bob" by Linda Dunham with "In Off the Deep End" by Vanessa Bateson scoring 9.5.
Maria chose her top three images whose authors were each awarded a bottle of wine. In 3rd place was "Storm Light at Vestrahorn" by Tony White of Highcliffe and Infinity PC, in 2nd place was "Royal Danish Air Force F16" Trevor Podgson of Ringwood Camera Club, and in 1st place was "Ouch" by David White of Wimborne Camera Club.
To see the Gallery of BCG's entry please click on this link: TO BE ADDED SOON
The scoresheet with all the marks can be viewed using this link: Fordingbride Challenge Results 2026
Sue Dunham Chairman