Club News

In the first face to face meeting for many months the new season was opened in the traditional football club venue complete with hand washing, hand gel, wipes and face masks. The Chairman, Martin Tomes, facing a live audience for the first time, having been Chairman for over a year outlined the season's programme that included a couple of Zoom presentations to take advantage of distant presenters, regular photoshoots and hints and tips sessions, the latter in the new Thakeham Village Hall.

The last of our competitions of the 2020-21 season took place via Zoom on 13 May to choose the best print and best projected image (PDI) of the season. The prints and projected images were forwarded to our judge, Peter Rocchiccioli, ahead of the meeting. Peter is a very experienced judge from Chichester Camera Club. Whilst scoring the entries he gave copious suggestions for improvement.

Our 2nd and 3rd print competitions both took place on 6 May, having been delayed from earlier in the year due to covid restrictions. The prints were forwarded to our judge, Malcolm Bull, ahead of the meeting which took place via Zoom. Malcolm is well known to the club and is very experienced in a wide range of genres. He was very pleased to be judging prints which he described as a rarity this season! Whilst scoring he gave some well-considered tips for improvements.

Our 4th competition took place on 22 April and was judged by Rob White; best known for his underwater photography but with wide experience of other genres. The competition took place over zoom and included both prints, previously forwarded to Rob, and projected images (PDIs).  As well as a score, he gave well considered comments on each image, together with useful hints for improvement. Rob was impressed by the standard of photography, as shown by the high scores.

Rebecca Hitchcock DPAGB from Havant Camera Club who specialises in wildlife and landscape shared her experiences of three winter journeys, two in Iceland and one in Yellowstone National Park. The first trip involved a flight to Reykjavik, a bus journey in the rain and a damaged windscreen along the south coast of Iceland. She showed us beautiful photos of a glacier feeding large lumps of ice into a pool that eventually flowed out to sea. Where there is vegetation lupins grow extensively as an invasive species along with mosses and willow trees.

The set-subject competition was judged 16 April 2021 with members attending via Zoom. The set-subjects were ‘Narrative’ (they tell a story) for the projected images and ‘Pictorial’ (an attractive picture) for the prints. Both the PDIs and prints were made available to our judge, David Smith, before-hand. David praised the standard of the images and the quality of the prints. He was particularly pleased to be given prints to judge, as most clubs have given-up on them for the duration of the Covid pandemic.

One of the benefits of lockdown is that speakers can be invited even if they live way beyond any generous interpretation of “local”. We were very fortunate to be able to have a virtual presentation by Phil Savoie BS MS MFA a former BBC Natural History Unit photographer who has worked on many of David Attenborough’s classic programmes. Originating in New York State Paul began as a photo editor for National Geographic in New York City when photographers were given 750 rolls of film for an assignment.

The 2021 League competition came to an end in March with Storrington heading its group of 9 camera clubs, each of whom submitted 8 images that were viewed by 9 different judges over the season. The expectation is that we shall be promoted to group 5 and join 6 new clubs.

Joining us via Zoom from his home in Hampshire Paul Mitchell FRPS introduced us to pinhole camera photography in which he has been engaged for twenty odd years. His interest began in Windsor when a friend would hire a whole room, black it out, create a small hole in the blackout and with a large format camera photograph the inverted image of Windsor Castle projected on to the wall and disappear for 24 hours. Despite the complete blackout an image was produced on the film that was subsequently developed.

The Regnum Crouch group held its annual PDI competition in a virtual format in March with seven clubs competing, each with eight images from at least six photographers. The event was hosted by Littlehampton & District Camera Club with technical support from our own Martin Tomes. The images were judged by Chris Shore FRPS MPAGB EFIAP BPE5* from the comfort of his home on the Dungeness shingle beach in Kent.