General Notes from the Chairman
We have come to the end of another year of photography in our Camera Club and an eventful year it has been. We have seen our numbers grow to nearly double that of the previous year, from 19 to 33. Our finances are now much more secure than they were with the added revenue coming from our new members. Please continue to do all you can to bring new members into the club.
With the grant we have had from the Lottery Commission we can look forward to next year with the magic of a digital projector and laptop and what that will bring to our club.
We did well in the Regnum Crouch print competition if you remember, coming in first well ahead of the other clubs. That was due to all the excellent prints we had to choose from during the past few years. Keep those excellent images coming.
Slide workers also should be congratulated with the “best improved club” shield which is ours for a while especially as there is only a few still battling away with film cameras.
To all the members who won a trophy this year, well done! Especially to new member Daisy Kane with her “leaves” image who won Best Print of the Year. We should not forget the others, Peter Michell, overall winner of the print section, Jean MacWhirter overall winner of slide work and best slide of the year, Photographer of the year jointly to Derek Grieve and Eric Keevy. This particular trophy will have a much wider audience next year once we have introduced the digital imaging section with our new equipment. Finally the enprints with Jane Coward our Treasurer as overall winner, and Sue Worsfold with Best of the Year.
A great year! New faces, new winners, the best AGM auction I have seen raising some £136, and some people willing to help the committee do its work. Thank you to all of you for your help, enthusiasm, and continued support. Until our first meeting in September, keep clicking those cameras.
Peter Picthall
Best Slide of the Year
This competition is always interesting as we get to see some of the high scoring images of the season receiving a second opinion from another judge. Sometimes on these occasions there are major surprises which may reflect the personal preferences and prejudices of the judges; after all judging is far from being an exact science. How can one assess the relative merits of a landscape and a portrait for example and how many of us would like to be a judge?
On this occasion however our “stand-in” judge, Mike Constable, provided no major surprises – the marks he gave broadly matched those the images had received on their previous showing. We had work from our 5 regular authors and the 15 images all received a considered and gentle appraisal. Three slides were given top marks of 20 points and then the problem facing the judge (particularly for this competition) was to separate them and decide the overall winner. “The eyes have it” by Jean MacWhirter was placed third, the superb landscape “Near Braithwaite” by Derek Grieve given second place and “Gentoo penguin and chicks”, another slide by Jean, was declared “Best slide of the year”. Congratulations are due to all who entered, we had a group of slides of high quality from our, sadly, now small number of slide workers.
Ian MacWhirter
Best Print of the Year
Mike Constable very kindly stepped in to judge as Peter Morse had to withdraw. He started by saying how much he had enjoyed looking at our pictures, (most judges seem to say this of our works) and his marks seemed to endorse this.
The winner was Daisy Kane with her ‘Golden Jasmine’ which is a very richly coloured work which our judge really enjoyed. It turned out to be Daisy’s night, as she also got two more 20s with her ‘Agapanthus Blues’ and ‘Hydrangea Hearts’. What a really splendid effort for Daisy’s first Camera Club year. Huge congratulations.
Close on her heels was Ian MacWhirter with two more 20s with two of his lovely Penguin pictures, with ‘I took the short cut’ coming second in the competition, and ‘Black-browed Albatross’ coming third. We have come to expect the best from Ian because as a GOLD medal winner in the RPS natural history competition you really cannot do better than that. Ian is world class.
There was one further very worthy 20 for James Heath’s ‘Illusion’. Again, very many congratulation to James in his first season. ‘Illusion’ is a very complicated but well constructed abstract. I hope people noticed how many pictures from our set subject were in this competition?
Mike awarded five 19s: Sue Jahan’s ‘Beautifully Ugly’; Paul Hayward’s ‘Will you stop nagging me’; Mike Davisons ‘Sand patterns with flower’; Jane Coward’s ‘Last jump safely over’; and Ian’s ‘First venture from the burrow’.
Finally there were eight 18s: Peter Michell’s ‘Carla’ and ‘To the Rescue’, (another new members first season); Peter Picthall’s ‘Artic Eyrie’ and ‘Pink Ice’; Mike Davison’s ‘Cornish Beach’; Audrey Gray’s ‘One in the Eye’( her first season too); My ‘Through a crooked gate’, and finally Martin Tomes ‘Just the two of us’. Very well done to all of them too.
The en-print competition had a very good number of entries and Mike gave all the pictures marks, something which we normally do not get. Our seasons main competition’s runner up got the first place with her lovely picture of some working horses. Well done Sue Worsfold, who also got third place with a picture of a Bee. In second place was our Champion Jane Coward with her lovely Robin picture. Jane cannot enter the en-prints next year, so Sue is the one to beat, if you can!
Next season we are going to see some changes to the competitions, which will be put to the members at the AGM. But this season has been a cracker, firstly with our win at the Regnum, and with so many new members entering our competitions and producing some really amazing pictures. To those who have not done so well yet, keep trying and eventually you will start to get better results. Many of us have taken years before we started achieving. The club has a very nice feel to it with a very friendly bunch of people, which was remarked on by Mike.
I will do one further year as Print Secretary, but I could do with some help_any volunteers? (See AGM Report – Ed.)
Derek Grieve
AGM Report
There were 22 members present at the Annual General Meeting which took place on 17th May.
The Chairman’s Report
Peter reported that we now have 33 members which gives us enough income from subscriptions to put us on a firm financial footing. We have a lottery grant with which we will be purchasing a good quality digital projector, laptop and software. Having this equipment will enable us to put on demonstration, digital slideshows and digitally projected image competitions. We won the Regnum print outright this year, having come equal first the previous year which was a great acheivement. Our performance at slide competitions was also much improved over last year being joint winners of the most improved club at the Sussex Federation slide competition.
There will be changes to the competitions next year. We need to reduce the number of entries to each competition to two and will be changing the scoring system so that all points count (currently only the top nine are used for the final score).
The cups will be presented to the competition winners at the summer party which will be on the 21st July at Paul Haywards house.
Treasurer’s Report
Unfortunatly Jane was ill so I had to step in with some temporary accounts. We finished the year about £100 up on last year and so the subscriptions remain at £35. Full accounts will be produced over the summer break.
Committee
The committee were re-elected en-mass. Peter asked for voluteers to help the current members of the committee with their work and several people volunteered. This was very welcome, as with an expanding club some of our committee have been very busy this year.
Suzanne Charles is going to help Derek with the print secretary post and will also do publicity for us, Di Walker will be helping Peter with the secretarial work, Peter Michell will lend Jane a hand with the accounts and Daisy is going to take over the newsletter from me. Slide Secretary’s Report
Ian went over a letter which Dianna had circulated in which she asked for slide workers not to be overlooked. Given that the Crouch Shield will be digitally project images we are forced to follow and switch to the digital format ourselves. Ian will accept both slides and digital images for these competitions and will scan the slide entries. We still need slides as we will be entering the Sussex Federation slide competition. This change also means that the photographer of the year competition will become more meaningful as there will be a larger number of people entering both the print and projected competitions, this year that cup was fought over by three members. Entries to the projected image competitions will be accepted on memory stick, CD or by e-mail.
Print Secretary’s Report
Derek commented on the excellent entries from our new members which is very encouraging for the clubs future success.
There are two summer events, the disposable camera competition which will take place in Steyning on 28th July in the evening and a visit to Parham house and gardens on 5th August. Details will be sent round nearer the time.
Exhibitions
This years summer exhibition is at Billingshurst library from 8th-20th August, Pulborough library from 20th August until 3rd September and Storrington library from 2nd September for three weeks and again from 10th December until 5th January.
Paul Hayward is organising the manning of a marquee at the Lions show on 23rd June, Suzanne and Di offered to help man it.
Martin Tomes
Full Enprint Results
Best En-print of the Year
1 Sue Worsfold Working Horses 2 Jane Coward Robin 3 Sue Worsfold Bee