A great time was had by all, the one opportunity in the year that we can all become judges.
I was personally shocked by some of the comments made, lampooning some of the Judges we have had this year, showing a total lack of respect. Hopefully next season we can raise the standard of judging and have some more insightful comments to help us improve our pictures.
We co-hosted this competition with Southwick CC. They were responsible for setting up the seating, manning the entrance, making the teas and coffees and running the raffle. Park Cameras sponsored the event and provided some raffle prizes.
Mike Davison ARPS, who was a member of our club for a number of years, returned this evening to give us a presentation about trying for an RPS distinction.
Whilst still a member with us, Mike was awarded his LRPS; but he was already a member of Chichester Camera Club, which is a much bigger club than ours and is stuffed full of photographers with RPS distictions, feeling that they offered him more, as he is an exceptional photographer himself.
I have belatedly been asked to write this report as both our Print and PI secretaries are away on holiday - lucky devils missing all this gloomy weather!
Our old friend Eric Burchell (steam engine enthusiast) judged this competition for us in his own experienced style giving mostly quite high marks. There were Four 20s; Eight 19s; and Fifteen 18s out of a total entry of 54 PIs.
Southwick hosted this Mix n' Match evening between Southwick, Steyning and Storrington Camera Clubs.
An evening of fun was had by all, as Eric Burchell judged whether our images matched the image put up by the leader of each round, and which was the best image offered.
Tonight we had a welcome return visit by Derek Forss. He has been a professionallandscape photographer for many years working for, amongst many others, the National Trust and Ordnance Survey. Derek also teaches photography at Earnley (south of Chichester) and leads photographic walking holidays for HF holidays, who have a house locally - Abingworth Hall at Thakeham.
This evening's meeting kicked off with some of Derek's slide shows. We were shown several collections of images, starting with a couple of short ones. The longer sequence which followed contained aneclecticmix of pictures, I don't think I have ever seen the Eurofighter Tornado and mating damsel flies in the same sequence before. Derek then picked out some of the images and explained what they were and how he had gone about shooting them.
The second half of this evenings meeting was a very comprehensive instruction by Martin Tomes showing us how he deals with his digital images from downloading the camera's card to having it ready for printing. Sadly time did not allow him to show us fully final preparations for printing.
Our last meeting of 2009 found us with Christmas Fare - nuts crisps mince pies and mulled wine brought by some members (who I will not name as I do not know who they were sadly; but thank you)
We started the evening with the presentation of a cup by Paul to Chairman Peter which he won at the recent Sussex Fed P I competition for the Best Image_his study of 'Katie'. Peter could not come to the competition as he was away and this all came as a complete surprise to him. Very well done Peter.
Chichester triumphed yet again! But enough of them, what about the team that came second? You guessed, it was us!
A great effort against the giants of the competition, we were ahead at the half way stage, but were pipped at the post with their last print which scored a 20, giving them victory by 2 points.
Star of our show was Derek with his “Golden Eagle with Kill” that won great praise from the judge Liz Boud. Honourable mentions went to Daisy for “Upper Cast Neighbourhood” and Ian with “Male Broad Bodied Chaser”.
