Jul
27
2026During the summer months OCC doesn’t usually meet indoors, but arranges a series of ‘Out and About’ sessions for members to take photographs.
On Thurday 16th July seven members of OCC went on a photography expedition to SMJ Falconry in the heart of Brontë country, and what a great time was had. There were 11 different birds of prey for us to photograph, including a White-faced Owl, an American Kestrel,
and a Gyr Falcon.
At least one member took over 3,000 images!
Jun
14
2026
Recently, OCC was approached by David Ebden, one of the volunteers at Millgate Arts Centre Delph, seeking assistance with photography for an upcoming production “Blue Stockings”.
OCC is always keen to forge links with the wider community and offer assistance where and when we are able.
Millgate is an arts centre and theatre in Delph, Saddleworth. It is a registered charity and run entirely by volunteers. They contacted OCC in May to see if anyone within the club was interested in helping with cast shots and photographs of the dress rehearsal for a forthcoming production “Blue Stockings”, to help with their publicity, website and promotion.
This was an ideal opportunity for the club to link up with a charity-based organisation within the wider community as well as providing invaluable photography experience in a theatrical, event based environment.
Roger Donallon, one our most experienced photographers, was pleased to help them with this, and produced a large number excellent images. Roger writes:
“I am pleased to advise that David and The Millgate Arts Centre have been delighted with the work produced and the images have featured in their pre-show promotional material on their website, on social media and in their programme, with credits back to Oldham Camera Club.”
“Blue Stockings” runs from 13-20 June at The Millgate Arts Centre Delph. A link to their website is here:
Blue Stockings – MILLGATE ARTS CENTRE
May
10
2026A number of Oldham Camera Club members visited Pennington Flash Country Park recently to practice bird photography. With a great number of different habitats for birds, and several well-sited hides we had a good and productive time, photographing a wide variety of species. We can look forward to seeing quite a few of the photos taken in upcoming competitions.
With plenty of parking and a good cafe I think this will become a regular outing for the club!
Pennington Herons
Mar
13
2026In last week’s L&CPU Club Competition OCC finished a very credible 4th in the DPI Nature section behind Chorley, Poulton le Fylde, and Oldham PS (who only beat us by 1 point).
Because the club only entered 3 of the possible 5 sections we didn’t do so well overall, but we still achieved a top ten finish in the overall dpi section.
In the print competition, we only entered the Mono section, where we finished 10th equal.
The results are readily available on the L&CPU Website – just navigate to the Portal Tab and then to Competitions.
Alternatively, you can read the post on the front page of the site and navigate through the tabs for each section.
Many thanks to all club members who entered prints and images.
Feb
12
2026In 2026, Oldham Camera Club members looked beyond the usual club photography activities and rather than just use their images to enter club and interclub photography competitions they decided to answer an invitation to help Dr Kershaws Hospice in Royton, Oldham and provide them with a selection of images to use to produce their 2026 Calendar, the proceeds from which go directly to help fund the hospice.
Members were asked to provide landscape and townscape images of locations across the town’s various boroughs, from which Dr Kershaws would select 13 images to use in the 2026 Calendar.
The resulting calendar proved to be more successful than expected and to date sales have raised some £3,724.00 for the hospice and the club has been invited to help Dr Kershaws produce their calendar for 2027.
Jan
05
2026Five intrepid OCC members met (at 8am!) at Daisy Nook Country Park – very cold but dry and bright, and only a little frost.
The sunrise wasn’t as good as hoped for, and wildlife was scant to begin with but when they woke up and started exploring, we were able to photograph a few.
One of the stand-out birds was the water rail, which Gail bribed out with some mealworms.
Frosty morning (Steven Birds)
Solid water (Steven Birds)
Nuthatch (Heather Birds)
Water rail (Heather Birds)
Dec
14
2025The club’s final round of ‘Photographer of the Year’ (POTY) for 2025 was held on Thursday (4th December) night at the Moravian church, judged by Steve Proctor from Chorley. Steve gave some excellent constructive criticism for members to build on.
Below are the 23 held images with the name of the image and author.
Heather Birds colour image ‘Willow Emerald Damselfly’ was chosen as the judges favourite, scoring 20 points and the judge’s favourite mono image was ‘A Tender Moment’ by Steven Birds, scoring 20 points. Two of Roger Donallon’s beautiful portraits, Roby and Gloria, came second, also scoring 20 points.
All other held images scored between 17 and 19 points.
The photographer with the highest total score over the year is deemed to be the Photographer of the year – as soon as the final results are known they will be posted here.
Round 4 was held in December
Round 4 Colour section
Willow Emerald Damselfly – Heather Birds
Today, I Shall Mostly Be Using The Straight Perch – Steven Birds
Roby – Roger Donallon
On Frozen Pond – Steven Birds
Large White Butterfly – Steven Birds
Harvest feast – Gail Johnson
Green Veined White Butterfly – Heather Birds
Eurasian Wren – Roger Donallon
Elgol Sunrise – Philip Livesey
Chaffinch – Gail Johnson
Beware The Learned Man – Steven Birds
Round 4 Mono Section
A Tender Moment – Steven Birds
You’ve Got To Hand It To Wednesday – Heather Birds
Walking the Dog – Philip Livesey
Views Of Whitby – Gail Kelsall
These Hands Were Made To Work – Steven Birds
Storm over the Cuillins from Elgol – Phil Livesey
Mamma Wagg – Steven Birds
Little Owl – Gail Johnson
Hello you little Thing – Phil Livesey
Handrail – David Hall
Gloria – Roger Donallon
Carrie And Rob – Steven Birds
Dec
09
2025As we near the end of the year, so does OCC’s Photographer of the Year competition. The competition is held over 4 rounds over the year. This year has been especially close over the past 3 rounds, the final round will take place on Thursday 4 December at the Moravian Church in Royton.
The competition requires each photographer to enter 4 images into each of the 2 sections Colour & Mono, these are then viewed by an external judge who both gives critique and a score out of 20. The scores from each section are then totted up and these then get saved to be added to the future rounds, at the end of the year the best 3 out of 4 rounds are then used, the photographer with the highest score is then deemed to be the Photographer of the year. The 4 highest scoring images from each round are shown below.
Round 3 was held in September
Round 3 Colour section
Ellie
Northern Gannet
Surreptitious Break
Little Owl
Round 3 Mono Section
Floral Elegance
Wind Swept Little Egret
Gnarled Tree
Woman’s Best Friend
Round 2 was held in June
Round 2 Colour section
Imogen – Mike McArdle
Immature Common Darter Dragon Fly – Heather Birds
Eurasian Kestrel – Heather Birds
Kestrel with mouse – Gail Johnson
Round 2 Mono section
Doing A Bailey
Seen Better Days
Manchester Arches
Just the Bones
Round 1 was held in March
Colour Section
Manchester Cathedral – Heather Birds
Carrie & Rob – Steven Birds
Leaving Home – Brian Parkin
Foraging Blue Tit – Phil Livesey
Round 1 Mono section
There’s Something About Alice. – Roger Donallon
Ruslana – Brian Parkin
Girls Having Fun – Brian Parkin
Jessica – Heather Birds