WCPF AGM 2026
WCPF Annual General Meeting 10th October 2026
Date & Time: Saturday 10th October 2026 at 10.00 for a 10.30.am start.
Stover Country Park, Newton Abbot TQ12 6QG
The afternoon Talk will be given
by
Leigh Preston MPAGB, FRPS, EFIAP
"NIGHT WALK"
NIGHT WALK – This is about taking pictures in the small hours, not just of iconic buildings, but of street occurrences, industry, urban landscapes and locations where really long exposure times are necessary – e.g. on Dartmoor, in the Yorkshire Dales, starlight etc. There are also images of events at night. Much of this work is on the theme of walking at night with a camera and a tripod.
Leigh has over forty years of experience and a wealth of knowledge. He is a PAGB judge and lecturer, and is well known throughout the UK for the quality of his work and his lecturing. He has a vast range of material from his travels, and he travels widely not just for his photographs but also to lecture throughout the UK and beyond. He has had many awards and has distinctions to his name.
LEIGH PRESTON F.R.P.S. Bio.
Leigh’s photography is mainly thematic, often using dramatic lighting in wilderness situations, or monochrome in the man- made landscape. Much of his work is about the Urban landscape, depicting a changing industrial landscape or portfolio work in far-flung locations. Over the past 40 years he has travelled in the USA to make images on the empty Prairies or in deserts, to Greenland, Iceland, Norway , the Baltic, the mountainous areas of the UK to find winter landscapes or the exact opposite in Australia. Trips to Cuba, India and Georgia, has given opportunities with a reportage style of portraiture. To avoid being forever known as 'Mills & Gloom', recently work has been about street characters, humour or aspects of absurdity, making images at rock concerts and tackling architectural abstracts. He prefers to work alone, influenced by the environment he grew up with, and the photography of Bill Brandt, John Gray, Michael Kenna and the artists L.S.Lowry and Atkinson Grimshaw. Lyricism and narrative have become increasingly important in the documentary work he is now producing, linking influences such as J.B. Priestly, Jonathan Raban, Beryl Bainbridge alongside songwriters like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Roger Waters, and the composer Vaughan Williams and Sibelius.
He has produced four books of his pictures – ‘Shadows of Change’, ‘Five Essays’, ' Editions' and very recently ' Liverpool, a place apart' which depict the various aspects of his photography as outlined above. He is a double Fellow of the RPS, and holds FIAP and PAGB distinctions, has taught photography for Gloucester and Cheltenham colleges, for Jessops , Permajet and on landscape workshops, both in the UK and abroad.
To see his website Leigh Preston Photography
Follow the link to the - Reports
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 guest 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.
The venue for this meeting in 2024 is Clyst St Mary Village Hall, Clyst St Mary, Exeter EX5 1AA
