Club News

It is 5am and I am awake from natural causes. I try to go to sleep again, but I start to mentally do my report on last night’s meeting; and so I decide to get up, arm myself with paper and pen, and start to write this!!

Last night it was our turn to hold our round of the Southern Fed. P.I. competition. We appointed the judge who was Carol Speight ARPS from Chichester CC, who lives in Billingshurst. Carol has been a judge for us in the past and was favoured by Chairman Chris as he got his first 20 from her.

To start 2015 we welcomed John Read, Managing Director ofMarrutt Ltd., to talk to us about all aspects of printing. John started the evening as a session of “Photographers Anonymous”. He held an amusing (but alarming) group therapy session which asked us to reveal how much we had invested in camera equipment to feed our habit. On the basis of this he conjectured that a £500 investment in an ink jet printer of photographic quality was something of a bargain.

As I said as I started the report on our last year’s meeting, this last meeting before Christmas was always called 'The Chairman’s Evening’ until recently, and tonight was very definitely Chris’s evening. He had prepared a very good quiz, which was very informative to those of us who did not know some of the answers. It was about local ‘celebs’ and in addition to this, he made the most delicious fruit cake so far known to man. It was magnificent. Is there no end to our Chairman’s talents?

My fellow 365-er Malcolm Bull stepped into the breach when our booked judge developed a sore throat and was concerned his voice might not hold out, indeed he subsequently needed 2 days off work, so I guess we have to let him off!

It was nice for SCC members to meet Malcolm without the moustache he was growing for Movember when he last judged for us.

Arriving early after a couple of photo-a-day opportunities in the clear frosty dawn, I was glad I had picked up a free coffee at Waitrose, as the tea and coffee volunteers weren't ready to start selling, although to be fair it was before “doors open time”. I stayed out of the way chatting to a 365 friend. Proceedings got under way fairly promptly with an introduction from Ken Scott of what is the first exhibition style inter-club competition in Sussex with the entries grouped into two divisions, the Development and Open categories (probably the first in the UK).

We welcomed Tony Baverstock LRPS last Thursday. His background is in landscape, still life and infrared BW photography. Having spent 25 years on the Surrey judging circuit, this was his first in Sussex. He reminded us that there was only one person we had to please, and that was not him, it was ourself. Overall, he commented that we had so many gorgeous prints, and he was impressed with the way they were mounted, saying that this was the window through which you look at the images. He often suggested a slight crop of parts of the image that weren't adding to the overall effect.

An amateur photographer from Portsmouth, Barry Day started out working in colour slides, becoming an ARPS in 1987. Establishing a darkroom over 15 years ago, he began making monochrome prints for club competitions and exhibitions, gaining a Credit distinction with the PAGB in 2001. At this time he switched to digital monochrome, and adding colour in 2009. His main interest is “Faces and Places”. We were privileged to see many of those faces, he knew the name of every one of them, and each image came with a story.

There's a breathless hush in the close tonight,

Ten to make and the match to win ....

So it was at Midhurst on Wednesday when Storrington did battle with 9 other Sussex Clubs for the prestigious Regnum Print Shield. Midhurst were the hosts and had their priorities right, the home made cakes were excellent, the technology less so.

It was very interesting to have a different viewpoint on our images from Lisa Beaney. She is a professional photographer who was invited to judge for us after a chance meeting with Martin Tomes in a Steyning pub! She specialises in wedding, portraiture, commercial and boudoir photography. All in all though, it was an evening of post-processing, whether it was something that added to the image, or was lacking!

Paul O'Toole joined us on 16thOctober for our first print competition of the year. Coming from Worthing Camera Club, he described himself as one of the “baby judges” who have graduated from the Ken Scott judging academy. He asked us to expect a wider range of marks (14-20 in practice), where the message counts for 50-60%, the content 30-35% and technical aspects just 15%. When asked how important the title was, he admitted that it should be secondary to the image, but could be useful. Here are some of his comments.