Category: Salon News

Ian Ledgard EFIAP/p GMPSA/b GPU-Cr5 AWPF BPE1

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Ian Ledgard and spending some time with him and his wife Maragret, enjoyng a cuppa and good catch-up. However, this visit had a more important purpose as I was honoured to be officially presenting Ian with TWO top awards. (See the photos at the end of this post and the links to copies of Ian’s certificates in the paragraphs below).

Ian’s stats are amazing and real source of inspiration for us all in Welsh photography circles and in the wider circuit of world photography. He was recently featured in a PSA Journal and has reached the milestone of being a Diamond Exhibitor–Level 1 in the Mono Class. On top of that Ian has also been awarded his 20-year certificate from the PSA for his continuous support.

So two top awards. Congratulations Ian.

I told him he was an inspiration to us all and he calmly informed me that he isn’t too far from reaching his next goal. This man just keeps on going.

I know you will all join me in congratulating Ian on his fantastic success, for putting his photography on the map of the world stage and, of course, for championing Welsh photography and representing our country with distinction.

I’m sure he’d enjoy receiving your own personal congratulations if you are in contact with him. Watch this space for the next honours Ian is due to achieve. That’s all for now.

Gary Shinner
CMD for Wales

Busy Day Sacre Coeur

Like many of you I have thousands of images stored on a number of external hard drives and yes, even on CD’s ! Recently I have been looking through some of these and discovering that some captures which I have overlooked, but not sent to the recycle bin, that are worthy of further work. This often because over the 20 plus years since I started digital photography with Photoshop 5.5 massive improvements have been made and so many more useful plug-ins and alternative systems are available for us to use.

This image was taken 10 years ago when we spent a few days in Paris. I was using a Nikon V1 camera converted to Infra red with exposure 1/800 sec, f5, ISO 200. Bringing it in to my current version of Photoshop I was able to apply a few tweaks especially to darken the sky.  I entered this into the Photo Travel section of a PSA recognised Salon in Bangladesh where it scored top points and was awarded a Gold medal. The image was also accepted in the 2025 PSA International.

So, do you have gold lurking away in folders on your hard drives. I recommend having a look through and see what you can find you may be pleasantly surprised.

Ian Ledgard, GPMSA/b

Below is the list of people who achieved PSA successes from July 2025  to the end of October 2025.

• Ian Ledgard – Gold Medal x6, Silver x2, Jury Choice x1, Chairman’s Award x1, Merit x1, Diploma x2 & 11 HM’s
• Tont Grubb 2 Star Colour Print Level Achieved
• Paul James – Gold Medal x1,  Merit x1, & HM’s x4
• Rhodri Phillips – Best Portrait Award & Ribbon Award.
• Gary Shinner – Gold Medal x1, HM x1.

Congratulations to all members listed above, who reported back to me with their recent awards, medals and other successes in the PSA affiliated salons. If there are any other members of the PSA have some successes – then please e-mail me directly – gary_shinnerlrps@sky.com (Note the underscore)

Anyone out there wants to find out any more about the PSA, please again contact me, I’ll do my best to help you. However you can also go to their website. Good luck to everyone with their photographic journeys.

I wish ‘everyone’ reading this letter, Compliments of the Festive Season, and also a happy, healthy & prosperous New Year in 2026.

I Want to Break Free by Paul James AWPF, CPAGB, EPSA, I.APS/B

Photographic Society of America Gold Medal – Agile Photographic Society, Bangladesh.

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