To view more pictures click here

AGM & Council Meetings 

The WCPF hold the AGM usually on the second Saturday in October and the Council Meeting on the first Saturday in March.

The AGM meeting takes place in the morning leaving the afternoon for an invited quest speaker(s).

Each club is invited to send two delegates to both meetings but other club members are welcome to attend and enjoy the afternoon lectures.

Election of executives members is held annually at the AGM. To download a nomination form, click;-  executivenominationform.doc 

To download a booking form for the 2010 AGM, click 2010 AGM Booking Form.doc

Attendees at the 2010 Council Meeting

This year for the first time, reports from the executive committee were sent to the clubs in advance and this allowed more time for questions and discussions from the club members.

2010 AGM 

The guest speakers for this event will be Steve and Sylvia Wilbur. 

Steve is now retired from London Uni where both he and his wife Sylvia were professors in the computing department. Sylvia is recorded as the FIRST person to ever send an email from London Uni to one I believe in New York . They will both be speaking. Sylvia designed the Dicentra programme that we use for our competitions.

To download a booking form for this event, click 2010 AGM Booking Form.doc 

2010 Council Meeting, Knightshayes Trophy & a joint presentation from two great wildlife photographers. 

The Knightshayes trophy with a set subject title 'Ground Level' was judged by acting President, Brian Galbraith. Brian chose a number of prints to award certificates to and selected his favorite print. To read more about this competition, click here. 

In the afternoon two very enthusiastic wildlife photographers from Cornwall were our guest speakers.

Adrian Langdon from Wadebridge Camera Club and David Chapman from Penwith Photographic Group gave their presentations following the Council Meeting.

Adrian is a keen wildlife photographer who is very active in many conservation groups within his native Cornwall. A proud Cornishman, much of his photography reflects his love of the county and its wildlife.

He is the warden of the Walmsley bird sanctuary on the Amble Marshes near Wadebridge, and Chairman of the Cornwall WildlifeTrust Photographic Group. His work from hides set up on the muddy shores of the Camel Estuary has yielded many stunning images.

He is a active member of Wadebridge & District Camera Club, and has held several posts within the club over the years.

Adrian gained an Associateship in Nature with the RPS and also the DPAGB

through membership of the WCPF.

Over the past few years he has greatly enjoyed travelling abroad, both with family and friends, and has done some seriously good wildlife photography in Iceland, North America, Africa, India and Costa Rica.

David Chapman who was born and brought up in Blackpool, he attended university in Sheffield and after achieving a degree in Mathematics he trained to teach.  This enabled him to work in areas of the country that satisfied his birding desire so initially he moved to Norfolk.  After two years he gained promotion and moved to Bridlington, adjacent to the birding Mecca of Flamborough Head!  Three years later he moved to Cornwall where he was soon promoted to Head of Department at Helston School and there he still lives many years later. 
 

It was during his time in Cornwall that his passion for bird photography really grabbed hold and when he married Sarah they bought a small holding near Hayle.  This plot of land is excellent for wildlife with quite varied habitats for its modest size of five acres.  David and his wife keep a small number of animals but they are most proud of their achievements in attracting and keeping some interesting wildlife species including Cetti's Warbler, Water Rail, Badgers, Adders as well as many 'common' species.  It is sometimes difficult to tell David's hides from the animal shelters but he has taken some lovely images from them (the animal shelters and the hides!), some of which you can see in the gallery on this web site.  His photographic subjects have now expanded to all aspects of British wildlife.

David's wildlife photography is well respected in Cornwall and beyond, he was chairman of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust's photographic group from 1998 until he resigned his post to enable him to concentrate on developing his new career in 2002.  He still plays a major part in the photo group's organisation, and in 2004 he has become a council member and trustee of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.  His images are often used in local newspapers as well as leaflets and on interpretative panels.  In 1999 he started to write nature diaries for Cornwall Today and these proved to be very popular, so much so that he has expanded his writing to include monthly features for the Caravan Club magazine, Devon Life, Smallholder and a regular wildlife travel feature for Motorhome Monthly Magazine (David and his wife also have a motorhome!).  A recent increase in the demand for David's writing have seen him contributing to The Countryman, The Lady, Home and Country, Birds Illustrated and Bird Watching.  The ambition to see his images published more regularly has seen his work used regularly in Bird Watching magazine, Natural World and BBC Wildlife as well as other birding and wildlife journals, he has also had work used in calendars each year since 1998.  David has now produced five books about Cornwall and has taken all the photos for a sixth such book written by his wife, Sarah, for further details of these books click here.

In 2003 David left his post of Head of Maths at Helston secondary school to work on his photography and writing.  David joined the Outdoor Writer's Guild in 2001 and in his first full year of membership he won two of their prestigious awards, one for photography and one for his writing of nature diaries.  He is the first person in the history of the guild to be awarded two honours in one year.  In 2004 David repeated this feat with another double honour from the guild this time he received one for his photography of conservation in the Outer Hebrides and the other for his writing of a series of articles published in the Caravan Club magazine.  David is always looking for opportunities to expand his photography and will always consider taking commissions for wildlife and environmental projects.  In 2005 he took a one year commission from Cornwall Enterprise to photograph the Gardens of Cornwall.

Among his other projects David leads photographic workshops and guided walks, gives illustrated talks as well as making and selling photo based products around the country.  To find your nearest store click here.

In 2009 David will be a guest speaker on the luxury cruise ship, The Hebridean Spirit, sailing from Corsica to Barcelona in October.  For further details about this trip please click here

2009 AGM

Our speaker for the 2009 AGM was Nigel Cheffers-Heard. His entertaining talk showing a mixture of all sorts is entitled The Eternal Amateur.