We had our panel competition night which was very badly supported in terms of entries, although quite a good number of members attended the night.
There were only seven submissions which were put up on our deluxe print easel by Alex ably assisted by Vice Chairman/lady Anne. the panels had been laid out so that members could have a good look at them beforehand and then they were displayed in a random order and the members present gave a mark out of 20 on a voting paper provided.
After this the authors of each panel was invited up to explain his or her panel.
First panel up was from Chairman Di and was of three butterflies taken on the South Downs. As she pointed out they are very good at taking off just as you are ready to press the shutter. Obviously these did not fly off!
Next was a panel of owl's faces submitted by me and immediately I saw it I decided that I had put them in the wrong order, a good start for me! The audience agreed and then it was suggested that I had the others in the wrong places as well.
The following panel was from Anne and was three abstract shots of tulips from her garden. They were very pretty and the panel held together very well.
Next was Ruth Calvert-Smith's panel of three doggy pictures taken recently at the Crufts show in Birmingham where she had been assisting in the judging. Ruth is a Dog expert, and she had taken nice shots.
Next was a panel from Audrey Gray of landscape pictures from a recent Photographic course that she attended in Devon to do cloud pictures; but the weather was glorious and there was not a cloud in the sky! Audrey had hoped that the panel would have had a title read out which would have co-ordinated the three shots better. They were nice pictures anyway.
Next was Chris West's panel of some Morgan cars at a Rally. Chris is a lifelong Morgan car fanatic owning one himself. His panel was very well constructed and as the pictures ware taken in the Rain, there were reflections of the cars which added 'je ne sai quoi'
Finally we had a brilliant panel from Martin Tomes which stood out by far as the best panel and got way more votes than any of the others, very deservedly. Martin had noticed mist on the Steyning pond on his way to work one sunny morning and had stopped and taken a shot with his 'happy snappy' which he carries on his belt the whole time, Ruth says it is on the bedside table! So, the following day, Martin went again this time with his SLR and took more shots and the results were really good. Moody and misty, brilliant. Motto. always be on the look-out for photo opportunities and have a camera ready. Very well done Martin.
Chris West's Morgan rally panel was a very deserved second and my badly arranged Owl face panel was third. Anne's tulips were fourth with only a whisker between her and mine and she should have been awarded 'highly commended'.
The rest of the evening was turned into a forum with some very useful comments from our new members present who were asked by the Chairman what they thought the club was doing right and wrong in their views.
It turned out that by and large we did not do too bad a job. Their main observations were that we should have more group activities where those who are new to photography could learn from the more experienced amongst us. To be fair, we do have these, but they have been mainly summer events which of course they would not have known about yet. Anyway, the committee have got some good ideas to ponder and to try and include in future programmes.
The evening was enjoyed by those who attended; but whether we have a panel evening in future will be reviewed.