Last night IWDIG photographers and family celebrated Christmas 2009 with a fantastic festive meal at Dimbola Lodge. They were very pleased to have Larry Ellis, former Fleet Street photographer and one of the judges for this year’s Isle of Wight photographer of the Year competition, as their special guest.

Opening with a brief review of 2009 where members learnt that they had completed 17 tasks including an exhibition, 2 studio sessions and 4 shoot and views; 13 photographers had taken-up the member’s challenge and 6 photographers had made presentations to the group. This came to a staggering 2,289 images submitted during the year. Ten of the IWDIG photographers had been shortlisted in the IWPOY 2009 with Anne Dziedzicki and Roger East  each having 4 images selected and Roger being placed 1st Runner-up in the ’Church at the Heart of the Island’ category. Not forgetting David Vennings 2009 Isle of Wight Photographer of the Year with his stunning macro shot ‘Hey Good Looking’.

Four photographers were nominated for the 2009 IWDIG award which is presented to the photographer achieving most throughout the year. The nominations were:

Peter Lake – for winning the mono section of the All Island Picture of the Year
Daphne Williams – for moving up from a compact camera to a Digital SLR
David Vennings – for his outstanding macro photography and winning IWPOY 2009
Tanya Duffy – for presenting the group with such interesting and diverse photographic subjects

AND THE WINNER IS…… Daphne Williams

Daphne was awarded the seasonal accolade of most improved photographer and she is pictured above with her framed print ‘Strictly’ that was kindly presented to her by Larry Ellis. Daphne as  those in the know will know has now overcome her point and shoot ’Cerise Period’  and earlier this year branched out with a Nikon D40 DSLR.

Unfortunately, this month Daphne  suffered a mishap when she dropped her beloved DSLR. Daphne was about to sail off on a cruise and brought it into an IWDIG meeting.  She was hoping someone  would be able to shed some light on the problem. Professional Photographer  David White was eager to help and took a look.  This was indeed a brief look as  when David shook the camera and it rattled he promptly offered it back to Daphne  saying ‘Yup it’s broke all right’.  Happily Daphne visited Newport IPC and she was  able to go off on her cruise sporting another  D40.

The IPC gift vouchers were also presented to the Extreme Macro competition winners. The latest two pictures were Spaghetti won by Peter Lake and A Bee sting correctly guessed by Lorraine Skipper.

As you can see from the photographs above a great time was had by all and the food was fantastic. Thanks to everyone for making 2009 such a great year for the group and we look forward to 2010 and seeing your new work.

A Very Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

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