I submitted these in time for the November 2006 adjudications, but was disappointed to find out that the PAGB had been over subscribed nationwide, so was automatically put forward for the following March 2007 selections.

This gave me more time for choosing my final images and also enabled me to go to the November judging. I was then able to support other club members with their entries and see the standards expected for successful submissions and how the format for the day was run.

This was quite an eye opener and I recommend anyone entering PAGB awards for the first time to go along to one of these selection days for experience, before submitting your own work. Also ensure to submit your entry in plenty of time before the deadline for selection as the PAGB awards are very popular with photographers as I found out to my cost!

The day for selection finally came around and I was naturally apprehensive having seen and known how the day would proceed after attending the previous adjudication. I was also the only person attending from OPS on the day so was alone to face the music!

As my pictures went up one at a time in front of the panel of judges the scores were read out, each picture needing to average 20/30 in order to obtain the pass mark for DPAGB of 300 points. I was delighted to know after my final image was scored that I had obtained the DPAGB award scoring a total of 332 out of 300.

I would like to thank my fellow club members for helping me select my final picture submissions. It was great to know that we have such a wealth of talent and experience to draw on and share knowledge with in our club and that the club standards are so high. Next stop MPAGB? I don’t think so!(not yet anyway!) '