Category: Salon News

Below is the story of Susan Rees’ Photo ‘Do Not Tell Mummy’ and its path to a PSA Gold Medal.

Susan tells us “don’t work with Children and animals especially trying to get award winning pictures” this is the general advice given to, and by most photographers. That is unless the child is a wonderful young girl who loves posing and dressing up then you have a photographer’s dream, a delight to photograph.

Some of you will know that I have developed my photographic skills with a great deal of assistance from Paul James. I love taking portraits, and have my own studio lights but owe most of my knowledge and skill to Paul.

This session was however conducted without Paul’s assistance and so between myself, Meg Bhular and this little’s girl’s Mum, we set up the session and took many many photos of this young girl and her equally delightful sister. I used my Canon  R6 with 24-105 lens

This photo has received 4 acceptances including the gold, a second photo with 3 acceptances and a third with 5 acceptances- Not bad for 1 morning session!

A massive thank you to both children and their Mum for the help.

Now I only wish I could get my grandsons to pose as willingly as these two did but I have a feeling that that is a pipedream!

Susan Rees

Info provided by Gary Shinner MPSA2 BPSA (PSA CMD for Wales).
PSA Website: https://psa-photo.org/

“Trees of many shapes” – by Ian Ledgard GMPSA/B

Award – Salon Gold – CMYK Circuit – Mono Section – Montenegro – October 2024. Camera Data:   Panasonic DMC-G80, 1/100 sec,   F13,  ISO200

The Story
With my working life having been spent in Forestry Management it is no surprise that many of my images are of trees. This one was taken in late February 2024 whilst walking around the National Botanic Garden of Wales. On the skyline I spotted this group of trees and pressed the shutter.

I always shoot in RAW and the colour image was unremarkable so I turned to Nik Silver Efx Pro 3 seeking for a mono version. After trying various pre-set options I opted for this which after a little tweaking shows a grainy sky reminding me of early days with black and white film.

The image has gained a number of acceptances in International Exhibitions and I was delighted to be awarded a Salon Gold.

Ian Ledgard, GMPSA/b

Here is the list of people whom have had continued successes from December 2024  to the end of March 2025.

• Ian Ledgard  – Gold Medal / Merit awards x2 / Ribbon x1 & HM’s x 3
• Kev Robertson – Gold Medal x2 / Ribbon x 1 / Certificate x 1 & HM’s x 5
• Mike Bray – 1 Jury choice & 1 HM
• Rhodri Phillips – Jury choice x 1 / 1 Ribbon x1 / Certificate of Merit x1
• Paul James – Gold Medal x2 / HM’s x 6 also 2 star application approved in Photo journalism and also a Galaxy 4 level achieved in Open Colour division
• Gary Shinner – Jury choice x1 / Salon Diploma x1 & 1 HM

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 go to their website here.

Good luck to everyone with their photographic journeys

Gary Shinner MPSA2 BPSA – CMD  for Wales

“And They’re Off!!” – PSA Gold – Rhodri Phillips EPSA – Triumph Circuit – 2024-1397.

I had set myself a goal way back in BC (Before Covid) and that was to get my QPSA. Thanks to the support of Gary and Mike I managed it…. but was bitten by the bug. This meant that I went on, through 4 and 5 Stars to PPSA and finally my EPSA.

Having reached these milestones, and the AFIAP along the way, I fell into a bit of a lull, not entering any Competitions and in truth not taking many photographs at all. However earlier this summer I caught the bug again and started to get out and about again. In August I even started entering Salons and Circuits again, using mostly new images, I had no great hopes but thought that maybe I would eventually enter the rarified atmosphere of the Galaxies!!

One of the competitions I entered was the Triumph Circuit, PSA 2024-1397, finding myself short of recent images for the Journalism section I decided to look back at images I had never used. One such was, “And they’re Off” which was one of a series I took at the Richard Burton 10K event in 2023. I had been taking images at this even regularly and had managed to get many acceptances with some.

The winning image was taken on my Nikon Z6-2 with my Z27-70 Nikkor lens. I shot at 1/1000, f16 with a high ISO, as it was a dull day. This was then processed in LR and resized in PS.

I was looking to capture that first second as the gun went off and they were all setting their watches! I was also trying to capture the two previous race winners, Dewi and Olivia as they set off to defend their titles.

I was pleasantly surprised and very happy for the image to gain a PSA gold, on its first outing! As a side note in that particular Circuit, it gained a PSA Gold in one salon and was not even accepted in another!

Rhodri

Here is the list of people whom have had continued successes from September to the end of November.

• Paul James 1 Gold Medal / 1 Ribbon / 2 Jury choice awards & 6 HM’s
• Angela Bonner 1 Silver Medal
• Kev Robertson I gold Medal
• Ian Ledgard 1 Gold Medal / 1 Silver Medal / 1 Diploma / 2 Ribbons and 2 HM’s
• Mike Bray 1 HM
• David Edwards – Has gained his MPSA
• Rhodri Phillips Has gained his EPSA certificate and pin in November.

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 go to their website: https://psa-photo.org/

Good luck to everyone with their photographic journeys.

Gary Shinner MPSA2 BPSA
CMD  for Wales

“A Sporting Win” (by Kev Robertson PPSA EFIAP BPE1 APWF)

I bought my first camera which was second hand in 1995 and it was it was a Minolta digital and then I started taking the usual holiday snaps, and for the next few years that was all I used the camera for.

Continue reading “PSA News from Gary Shinner”

Here is some information of Welsh photographers gaining notable successes in the last few months. The list is in no particular order.

Sian Davies EPSA – Achieved EPSA (E = Excellences) and two awards.
Susan Rees – Achieved her first Star in Colour Division.
Mike Bray EPSA – Achieved 1 award
Tony Grubb QPSA – Achieved a Gold Medal & 1 Award.
Paul James EPSA – Achieved 2 Gold Medals and 7 awards.
Ian Ledgard GMPSA/B – Achieved a Gold medal, a Silver medal, 2 bronze Medals and 7 awards.
Andy Polakowski  – Achieved 2 Gold Medals, a silver medal and 3 awards.
Kev Robertson PPSA – Achieved 6 gold medals
Gary Shinner MPSA2 BPSA – Achieved Galaxy colour 8 level, 1 Gold & 1 Silver Medal.

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 go to their website: https://psa-photo.org/

Good luck to everyone with their photographic journey’s

Gary Shinner MPSA2 BPSA (CMD  for Wales)