On Wednesday 4 May, we reviewed the results of our third location challenge of the season.

The location was selected this time by John Curd – the winner of our last challenge in February.  His chosen location was Woburn Village Centre.

The brief added

“Woburn Village is a 4-way crossroad.  Woburn Village Centre is defined for this purpose as being within Woburn’s enclosing 20mph speed limit signs BUT with a short extension along Park Street up to and including the gate and cattle grid into Bedford’s estate.  This extension is designed to include St Mary’s Church and grounds (for those who haven’t yet had enough of churches).  Images must be taken anywhere within these confines or from just without as long as the main subject of the image is within.

All types, subjects, and processing styles of images are acceptable.

Woburn offers a mix of subject matter including architectural, detail, window reflections, night, and street perhaps.  Building interiors are fine.  Being springtime, there should be some botanical interest.  The 3rd Sunday of every month (April 17th – Easter Sunday) hosts Woburn Farmers Market in Market Square from 10:00am until 2:00pm (for those who haven’t yet had enough of markets).

The purpose of a location challenge of course is to get us out with our cameras taking new pictures.  This location was announced on 13 April and the deadline for submitting our three best images was 29 April.  We therefore had a relatively short time to visit the location, take, select and process our images, and get them in.

48 images were submitted.  And Amanda Wright, the External Competitions Secretary of Ealing & Hampshire House Photographic Society kindly provided a critique of all the images.

Through her first pass, Amanda “held back” 19 images for further consideration.  She then reduced these to her top ten.  And finally, after careful deliberation, she selected her five favourite images.

  • “Woburn Old Town Hall Windows” by Mike Kitchingman
  • “Woburn Twin Towers” by Paul Needham
  • “No 10” by Clive Rayment
  • “No Parking” by Tricia Meers
  • “St Mary’s” by Paul Needham

Congratulations to all five authors.  Great images!

In addition, John Curd selected his winning image of the evening, with the author being rewarded with the dreadful responsibility of selecting the location for our first Location Challenge next season.  And John’s winner was

  • “The Ale House Window” by Patrick Linford

Congratulations also to Patrick.

Woburn Village Centre was an excellent location.  Everyone enjoyed exploring all the nooks, crannies, and fascinating architectural details among the historic buildings and found all sorts of things to photograph.  Accordingly, the images covered a wide variety of subjects, approaches, and styles.  These, together with Amanda’s thoughtful appraisals, provided a delightful evening’s viewing.

So, what will the next Location Challenge have in store for us?