General Notes from the Chairman
You will all have received my email or message relating to the problem we had with the marks for our prints in the last competition! I realise that for some this would have been a bitter pill to swallow, because in some cases it meant losing several marks. The judge, Andrew Perry, did not discuss his marking methods with us before the start and it came as a big surprise when he began giving half points. Well done to the winners who came out on top. Once more Peter Michel scooped the best photo with his Eve and the Apple but others worthy of mention are Ian MacWhirter and his Chinstrap penguins, and Martin Tomes with A Frosty Morning all getting 20’s.
In the PI section Paul Hayward really has the bit between his teeth now and is coming up with winning shots each competition. His “Our Breakfast” shot is superb and well deserved the best PI accolade. Di Walker and Jane Cooper also did well with 20s for their Hellebore Bells and Living Tapestry, both great images and deserved high marks. It is nice to see new faces winning in our competitions.
I feel very proud to be the chairman of a club which has so many new excellent photographers, so many new and different ideas of what makes a good image and an environment where Peter Michell’s nude photographs are accepted for what they are, excellent images of beauty in many different poses. I applaud all of you in your endeavours so keep it up and we will be the best Camera Club in the region before you know it, if we aren’t already.
A small reminder to pick up your memory sticks from Ian after our competition evenings or else you will have to go round to his place to pick them up which could be an inconvenience to Ian and to you.
I am away for a small break during the next Club night so don’t forget your “Shadows” inputs ready for the Set Subject competition on 27th March and try to get to our inter club competitions on the 12th at Steyning Community Centre for the Crouch Shield PI Competition and on the 16th at Hailsham for the Sussex Federation print comp.
Peter Picthall
2007/08 Projected Image Competition No 4
This Competition evening proved to be an interesting event – but not for the right reasons. There was a large entry for both Print & Projected Image sections (42 images in each) plus a handful of En-prints, so there was only going to be a short average time available for each image.
The judge managed to throw the Print Competition Secretary into total but temporary confusion by starting to award half marks!
The detailed results of the PI Competition are available elsewhere. In summary, there were 11 images awarded 16 marks, 14 given 17 marks, 11 gaining 18 marks and 3 getting 19 marks. The 3 images achieving the top 20 marks were by Jane Cooper, Paul Hayward and Di Walker – well done all. Paul’s image “Our Breakfast” was declared ‘best in show’.
Ian MacWhirter
2007/08 Print Competition No 4
Our Judge for the evening was Andrew Perry ARPS who had 84 prints and P.I.s to judge, plus the en-prints – a mammoth task. Unfortunately , he got behind with the prints, and this gave very little time for him to judge the en-prints. Also, about a quarter of the way into the competition, he started to give ‘half marks’, which we discovered later could not be handled by the software on our website.
So, unfortunately, the Chairman had the difficult task of deciding how best to resolve this matter. He decided to get Martin to reallocate the marks in whole numbers to preserve the difference, as best as he could, between those given by Andrew. We hope that nobody feels ‘hard done by’. It was not an exact science!
Four 20s were awarded: to Roger Stevens for his lovely B&W print ‘Two horse power’; to Ian MacWhirter for his ‘Chinstrap Penguins coming ashore’; to Martin Tomes for his ‘Frosty Morning’; and finally to Peter Michell for his very clever ‘Eve and the Apple’, which was awarded the winning place. Two prints got 19 marks: ‘High View 2’ by Tim Hulbert and my ‘The setting sun _ Ireland’.
Next were those originally awarded 18.5 marks (now 18). These were Paul Hayward’s ‘Sunrise’; Suzanne Charles’ ‘Single pink Hellibore’, very well done on her first entry in this competition; and finally Tim Hulbert’s ‘High View 1’.
Unfortunately, Andrew gave out the marks for all those 9 prints that he had held back all in a rush, and I was like a headless chicken trying to ensure that I had the right marks for the right people; and so the Chairman had to cope with putting up the en-prints, and as we were very late for the break, there was no time for comments on them, which I had my knuckles rapped over by a member later. Anyway, Max Burns was first, Sue Worsfold second and Anne Nagle third. This means that in the years’ results to date, Max is now in the lead with 7 points, followed by Jane Cooper with 6 points and third is Sue Worsfold with 4 points.
If I might be permitted, I feel that the club has reached a crossroads as far as its size is concerned, and we need to decide if we want to allow it to grow further, in which case we might soon need a bigger venue and the competition formats would need to be changed, since we could not cope with more entries on one evening than we had last time. If we had say 50 members and they all wanted to enter the competitions (and why not), we would have to have the competitions on separate nights and we would need twice the number of judges. It would also divide the club membership between the two factions, as it does at Chichester. Or,we might have to restrict the number of entries per person down still further, or allow entries to one or other competition, but not both. These are all things that we need to start thinking about before the AGM, so that we can decide how we want the club to operate next season.
Derek Grieve