Another of the club’s old friends, Walter Benzie ARPS cameto give us a talk on how and why he went about getting his Royal Photographic Society distinctions. Walter is a member of Guildford Camera Club and said he very much likes coming to SCC as we were the first club at which he judged a competition, we in turn like him coming to either judge or talk as he has such a relaxed, honest and straight up way of talking, which is also very amusing and downright funny. He is also very modest as he is not only the Treasurer for the RPS but is a trustee and is on their Council, facts which slipped out during the evening.
Walter said that he had started judging because he really likes to look at other people’s work, but increasingly he felt that as a club judge he ought to have something to indicate that he knew a bit about what he was talking about. He also said that he really does not like giving marks for people’s pictures since this can really send people home after receiving a bad mark in a competition ‘with their tails between their legs’. He told us that he recently judged at Horsham CC where he went through the pictures passing comments and holding back maybe 10 or 12 before finally awarding the first three places and then giving ‘Highly commended’ to about three more. As I slowly sink in the ratings, I think that this is a system well worth looking into any thoughts from others?
Walter started by showing us the sort of pictures that he enjoys taking covering quite a diverse set of subjects, apart from landscapes. He had had the opportunity to take pictures of Guildford Cathedral with access to places within it not normally open to the public. He showed us a picture, taken from right up near the roof from one of these places, which is quite unique and which eventually found its way into his LRPS panel.
Having taken his images of the Cathedral, it was suggested that he might like to mount an exhibition in the Cathedral along with another lady who was showing her work on a different subject. Some important people from the RPS came to see her work including Rosemary Wilman FRPS, the current President of the RPS, who suggested to Walter that he should try for his LRPS. She suggested that he bring some of his pictures to show her, which he did, but she was a difficult lady to please and she proceeded to tear his images to shreds, metaphorically speaking.
Anyway, undaunted he set out to improve his efforts and with the help of some other people he submitted his panel of 10 prints, which passed very easily, and he laid the panel out for us to have a good look at them in the tea break. Walter emphasised how important it is to consult with people who know and understand the very high standards expected before entering a panel.
After the tea break, Walter started to tell us his story building up to him getting his ARPS. He has always had a very strong interest in elderly and expensive cars and has been taking pictures of them at Goodwood and in museums and elsewhere for many years. He likes to take parts of them, headlamps, badges and details from just about anywhere. Anyway he got a panel together and had them printed (and sometimes reprinted several times) until there was sufficient detail in the shadows and no burnt out areas. He uses an organisation called Pro Am Imaging (now SimLab) to print his pictures. You send them a CD with your images thereon and when they receive them they are projected onto photographic paper and then printed and are returned to you flat packed by the end of the week and they only charge £1.27 for a 16”X12” print.
Much to his great dismay, his first submission failed ’due to lack of attention to detail’.
So he ‘re-thought out the panel’ and this time he made sure that there were no ‘odd bits’ and I must say the panel did look much better and it passed with flying colours.
Walter has since had a bit of further fun by resubmitting a panel in a different category this time with black borders printed as part of the prints, mounted on board and them laminated. As he had got his distinction he had nothing to lose and the judges commented on the high merits of the panel, but did not pass it as they said it was in the wrong category!
Walter finished up by giving us some facts and figures about the pass rates in all the different categories and left us with plenty to think about.
Thank you Walter for a very entertaining and informative evening.