MK City Photographic Society – Central Club Challenge 2026

The annual Central Club Challenge was held at Christ Church Hall, Stantonbury, Milton Keynes on this wet and windy Thursday evening. Despite the inclement weather over 50 people attended, including representatives from 7 of the 9 competing clubs.
This is an open competition with each club submitting 6 PDI’s which were judged on the evening by Alison Jenkins ARPS DPAGB CPAGB/AV BPE1*. Shown below is a summary of Alison’s comments and scores for the A&DCC images:

Dalmation Pelican (Pelecanus Crispus) by Richard North – Score 18
This is a beautiful example of the Dalmation Pelican with great pose and detail in the outspread wings. Perfect choice of shutter speed to freeze the action and the mountains in the background are attractive without being a distraction.

Early Winter Morning, Bergen by Richard Burn – Score 18
This is a fascinating image with lots in it and almost looks like a painting with an ethereal quality. Likes the cloud in the top right which helps to balance the tree in the bottom right. The more you look at this image, the more you see.

Golden Girl by Tim Ford – Score 16
Whilst the dress looks uncomfortable to wear, the model is in a lovely relaxed and natural looking pose. Beautiful detail in the dress, good skin tone and nice slightly softer background. Would have been inclined to tone down the white column on the left which is a little distracting.

Lady in Red by Angela Dunn – Score 17
The colour of the red dress pull your eye in. The lighting is beautifully soft and gentle and the skin tones have been handled very well. The model has been placed in the centre of the image and this works well in this case.

Shape and Form by Paul Tapping – Score 18
Lots of different shapes including the large circle but it is the curve of the fly-over that draws you through the image. The absence of people creates a feeling of emptiness. Exposure has been handled well with the stunning sky and detail in the shadows.

The Station by Paul Wilson – Score 20
This image has got so much motion in it that it makes you feel dizzy but it also gives you a sense of the noise and general bustle of the station. The image has just a hint of colour and that works well. Great to see a creative piece of work.

A&DCC finished the evening with a score of 107 points which left us in a very respectable second place behind Kettering. The full results are:

Kettering 108
Ampthill 107
Rushden 106
Milton Keynes 106
Leighton Buzzard 102
Buckingham 102
Towcester 100
Luton & Dunstable 99
Bedford 96

As we often see in external competitions, there was a high proportion of natural history images with 5 of the 9 images that were “held back” being of this genre. However, Alison also seemed to like the more creative and abstract images with Paul’s “The Station” scoring very well and Keith Millard’s “A Whitby Homecoming” of Milton Keynes winning the best image of the evening.