General Notes from the Secretary
First of all please let me apologise for being absent for the third meeting as well as the second. I had an unexpected duty call from Switzerland (where I am writing this) in the form of baby sitting, where my grandchildren live, and I could not refuse as it concerned my daughter in law’s 40th birthday, swimming with dolphins in Egypt.
I understand that Paul did a fine job as Chairman on both occasions I was away, so thank you Paul, and a job well done.
The Nigel Chote slide show has had some mixed reactions I understand from various sources but since I did not see it I cannot comment. I am sure we will discuss it at our next committee meeting.
Our first competition night of “Any Subject” gave a much deserved print winner in Paul Hayward. Paul has been threatening to contend the top slot and gave you some images which pleased the judges at his first attempt. Two 19’s and a 20 is superb, and a well deserved score. It shows us what can be done with only a few years experience, perseverance and some dedication. Well done Paul and may it continue.
Jean MacWhirter has kicked of in good style in our slide section, nearly a perfect score, two 20’s and a 19 for her slides, but we expect nothing but excellence from her anyway and she really does produce it. Keep going Jean. You give all of us an example in consistent photographic excellence in what is one of the most exacting of mediums.
I am planning to be present at our members meeting in two weeks or less and for the rest of the year. Thank you all for your support of our club and see you soon.
Peter Picthall
Mid-summer madness
We had two summer ‘days out’. The first was on a dull evening in Storrington armed with throw-away cameras. The winners somehow managed to get some very creditable results (more than I did) and Peter Ashley our judge thought that we had done very well, especially Mary Crabbe, a new member, who won.Very well done Mary and welcome.
Secondly, we met in August on a Saturday in Arundel which was heaving with people, (very good for getting candid shots). Our honourable member Eric Keevy took the honours here, as judged by the membership with a show of matches at our first meeting.
If anyone has some ideas for other things for us to do in the summer months please let me or any other committee member have them.
Derek Grieve
Slide Competition
2006/07 First Slide Competition
There was an unusually large total entry on this occasion and the judge, Walter Benzie, gave a sound assessment of each image. In fact he appeared to give more time to the images he intended to give lower marks to than to the high scorers – the reverse of the usual situation. This is all to the good as his remarks were constructive. For the first time the en-print entry was given proper consideration, which should give encouragement to that section of the club membership which often includes newcomers to photography. The measured treatment of the large print and en-print entries together with a delayed start (the judge was late arriving) meant that there was little time left for the small slide entry (15 images). This unfortunate situation will have to be considered by the Committee. However the slides may have been small in number but they made up for this by their high quality. Jean MacWhirter got a good start to the season with 2 slides being awarded 20 (‘Blue Ripples, Antarctica’ and ‘Gentoo Penguin & chicks’ – the latter getting a loud ‘aah’ comment from the audience) and 19 for ‘Evening, East Greenland’. Derek Grieve got 19 for ‘Reading the News’ and 18 for ‘Early morning work of art’ (a dew-soaked spider’s web). Eric Keevy made a very welcome return to club competition getting 18 for ‘Watching’, a superb image of a Grey Heron. The whole competition was an excellent start to the season with quite a few new faces in the audience and a judge whose performance will certainly ensure that he will be be invited to return.
Ian MacWhirter
Print Competition
Any Subject, Judge: Walter Benzie
Wow; what a night it was! Our judge Walter had a few of us panicking a little as he arrived a touch late. Anyway, he more than made up for that by doing a really splendid job judging more than 80 images altogether. I think that we all learnt a few tips during the evening, as he explained exactly why he gave his marks to our pictures. He also spread the marks instead of giving them in a very narrow band, as a lot of judges do. Having said that, he was quite generous with his top marks, giving four 20s, five 19s and four 18s. I think that he really did find our work to be of a high standard and he said how much he enjoyed seeing it.
In the main print competition we had a very high entry with 43 pictures. Top honours went to Martin Tomes with a really splendid shot of a Catalina Flying Boat, full of colours and shapes. Well done Martin. Other 20s were awarded to Paul Hayward with his ‘Ray of Hope’, Mike Davison (good to see him again) with his ‘Cornish Beach’, and my ‘Red Legs’.
19s went to Paul Hayward with ‘Tranquillity’, Peter Michell (great to see a new member getting amongst the winners) with ‘Carla’, Eric Keevy (great to see him back competing) with ‘Waiting for the balloon to go up’, Martin with ‘Going to Seed’ and finally my ‘Small Blue Butterfly’. 18s were awarded to Eric with ‘Millefore’ and ‘Village Pub’, Ian MacWirter with ‘Icelandic Horses’, and my ‘Supermarine Spitfire’.
I hope everyone was happy with the extra time spent on the en-prints. The main problem with this competition is that nobody behind row three can really see the picture being discussed. So, we must all make sure that we get a good look at these prints in the interval.
First honours here went to Sue Worsfold with her lovely image of a bee. Well done Sue. Second was Jane Coward’s picture of the town crier at Arundel, no doubt taken on our summer day out there. And third was John Goodfellow’s picture of some railway lines disappearing into the mist. Well done to all of them.
I, along with several others, felt that Walter really was an exceptionally good judge and hopefully we will have him back again.
Derek Grieve
A note from your webmaster
All club members should be subscribed to the club mailing list. We use this list to send out newsworthy items and to discuss things photographic between meetings. It is also a place where you can get help from other members. It would great to see members make more use of this facility. Audrey asked about printers last week and Mike Davison spent some time with her working out what she should buy.
If you are new to the club and you haven’t received any e-mails from scc at tomes dot org then please point your web browser to the club website at http://www.storringtoncc.org.uk/, find the “Club Mailing List” box on the home page, click on the link and add yourself to the mailing list.