Photographers across the globe are expected to celebrate World Pinhole Day 2010 - due to take place on Sunday 25th April 2010. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the event and everyone is being encouraged to take a photograph using a simple pinhole camera and upload the resulting images to www.pinholeday.org.

Last year as in previous years Isle of Wight Digital Imaging Group  pinhole enthusiasts took part in Eric Mitchells Pinhole Day at Dimbola.  Pinhole expert Eric celebrates World Pinhole Day by running a special course at Dimbola Lodge every April. Quite a few IWDIG photographers try to put down their DSLRs for a few hours to experience the origins and art of Pinhole photography.

‘The purpose of the event is to show that from a device as simple as a cardboard box you can discover the wonder achieved through the simple act of capturing an image through a small hole.’

Eric get’s creative with Pinhole Photography and is more than willing to help anyone that has an interest, to experiment with cake tins, baked bean cans and his own preferred medium beer cans. Read more »

Equestrian photographers are raising thousands of pounds in a 20/20 Auction for the Disasters Emergency Committee Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

Bids are being made on images donated by 20 photographers in an Ebay auction.  All cash raised from the equine pictures is to go to the Disasters Emergency Committee Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

‘The auction provides a rare chance for members of the public to get their hands on some amazing original images taken by a plethora of award-winning photographers,’

If you want to donate or do something for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal visit Island Pulse for news of the Isle of Wight Haiti Appeal Concert here: For details of the ongoing auction visit 2020 Auction or visit Twitter  here:

Twenty-four photographers (around half the members) from the IWDIG turned up for the Quarr Abbey photoshoot kindly arranged by Lorraine Skipper on Saturday the 30th January.  The group were met, in the car park, by a one-eyed ginger cat named Cruikshank who led them to the assembly point at the Abbey’s Bookshop.

Divine intervention or luck who knows but the light was perfect or according to Cruikshank purrfect!

The tour started with a very informative talk from Father Luke about the lifestyle of the monks and a brief history of the buildings backed-up of course by Cruikshank and a little Robin who had just decided to join the tour.

We are very grateful that our photographers were allowed to snap away to their hearts content throughout the visit and we are very much looking forward to seeing the results.

Although we had hoped for greater access to the Abbey we still had plenty of opportunity to take photographs of the Chapel, the Church and the grounds not to forget Cruikshank, the Robin and a Red Squirrel that had now joined our party. 

Thanks to Father Luke, the cat, the robin, the squirrel and  the photographers for turning up and making this shoot so successful, we look forward to seeing your images and to our next photographic outing. A very Special thanks to Father Luke for allowing us access to the Abbey.  View IWDIG Photos of Quarr Abbey Online click here:

“Abbey” photograph above copyright IWDIG – “Statue & Robin” copyright Lorraine Skipper (all rights reserved).

We guess that the novelty of heavy snowfalls is beginning to wear a little thin for most of you by now. Still a prisoner in your home, suffering from cabin fever and running out of snow photographs? So we thought now would be a good time to set the first Extreme macro competition for 2010.

As before IWDIG members may have as many guesses as they like, emailed in please. The competition winner to be announced at the 27th January meeting. Thanks again to David for the photographs and Island Photo Centre for the Gift Voucher prizes.

We have been trying unsuccessfully since 6 a.m. this morning to book a sleigh for this evening to collect you all for Dimbola. Unfortunately, all forms of snow transport have already been booked and so we have no alternative but to cancel this evening’s meeting due to lack of sleighs and the adverse weather conditions.

On the brighter side this does give you the opportunity to shoot some wonderful winter scenics which we thought might be nice to look at next week along with your Christmas task shots – email in if possible please!

We hope you are all safe and warm and not stranded! Take care, we look forward to seeing you all next week…

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.

Tonight Isle of Wight Digital Imaging Group members attended the annual Jessops Cup 2009, hosted this year by Sandown Shanklin & District Camera Club at the Pavilion, Watery Lane, Newchurch.

Once again the event was well represented with seven photographic groups from across the Isle of Wight, and in the region of 60 photographers in attendance.  The Judge for the evening was Rosie Armes FRPS, who gave valued comprehensive consideration along with an impressive account of how each photographic print could be improved.

Congratulations to our hosts Sandown Shanklin & District Camera Club as they once again retained the Jessops Cup for another year by scoring 86 points.  The excellent photographic skills from 10 IWDIG amateur photographers, who have never entered this interclub competition before, ensured the panel of ten gained 81 points out of a possible 100.

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