General Notes from the Chairman
Hopefully you will all have received my note already about our successes so forgive me if I include this briefly in my notes for this issue. I think the facts are worthy of being recorded in our official newsletter.
During the past few months we have had some serious successes in our inter club competitions. The first one was the Crouch Digital Projected Images competition held at Steyning on 12th March. There were nine clubs entered from the surrounding area including Bognor Regis and Chichester plus of course Steyning which excels in Digital Imaging. We came second to Horsham P.S. who deservedly came home with 88 points out of a possible 100. We scored 82 points which was a superb effort considering that we have only been fully “digitalised” for a year or less.
The SCC selection committee entered the following images:
- “Perched” by Jane Cooper;
- “Little Lois” by David Burns;
- “English Roses” by Peter Michell;
- “Danko Coast” by Jean MacWhirter;
- “Inside Chartres Cathedral” by Martin Tomes.
The second competition was a much larger affair being the Sussex Federation Print Competition held at Hailsham on Sunday 16th March. There were 19 clubs which meant 95 prints for the judge to look at. For our newer members a few words on how competitions work most of the time. Each club submits five images or prints. The prints are randomly split into five groups, one print/image per group per club so in each group there are, in this example, 19 prints for the judge to look at. He allocates marks just as is done at our domestic competitions. So as each round passes you can see your clubs cumulative score displayed at the end of each round and therefore its position in the field.
Battle were clearly in the lead at the start of the final round with some 74 marks ahead of the nearest club by some 5 points. We were 6 behind on 68. To have a chance to win we needed a 20 and Battle needed a poor score such as a 14. We got a 19 and Battle a 15. So it was a close finish and quite exciting. That means we came in joint second with Seaford both clubs on 87 against Battle with 89. Again a superb performance.
The selection committee entered the following prints:
- “Ray of Hope” by Paul Hayward;
- “In the Shade” by Mike Davison;
- “Gentou Penguin Diving” by Ian MacWhirter;
- “Scary Movie” by Daisy Kane;
- “Stranded Iceberg” by Ian MacWhirter.
What made the afternoon complete for us is that Ian won the Portman Building Society cup for best print in the competition with his Gentou Penguin, we won the Martlet cup for the most improved club over the year, Derek Grieve and I won something from the raffle so it is clear that we had a good time and were very pleased to be there. We owe a big thanks to Derek and Ian for their administration work and effort in getting the prints and images properly prepared and in good order to the venue in time for judging, and for organising a selection committee to choose the entries.
We must now count ourselves as being one of the best clubs in the area. Our successes over the past two years proves this and we are a camera club to be accounted for when it comes to competitions. There is no doubt in my mind that congratulations are due to all of you because without your images on competition days we would not be pushing up the quality of our work so that we can have many fine pictures to choose from when it comes to selection time. Well done to all of you and well done to the above members for their excellent work.
At a recent committee meeting we have decided to ask you for your opinions on how the club works again, what you feel we need to do to make the club better and so on. Some of the things which you should be perhaps thinking about are as our membership gets bigger, on competition nights more and more prints must be judged with an ever widening ability of photographers for the judge to asses. Because the judge then has to be very quick in his assessment of the image we get less and less quality feedback on the picture and the author will not be able to advance as quickly as she or he wishes. How can we solve this problem? Also we need to have a presence in the minds of the public if we are to attract more members. One of the things we do is run exhibitions, talk to the press, run a stall at the Storrington show which is held every year. We need to have more contribution from members in this area to organise and run these events so please think about volunteering to do some of this work. There is an enormous amount of personal satisfaction in a successfully run show. Please let us know what your feelings and comments are once you have received the questionnaire. We need your feedback and your prompt response will be much appreciated.
From the results last week we already know who some of our cup winners are for their work this year. First we have Peter Michell, the clear winner of the Print competition, second Mike Davison, joint third were Paul Hayward and Derek Grieve. Next we have Paul Hayward who is not only the PI winner for the year but also the Photographer of the Year winner. Second in PI is Jane Cooper, and third Jean MacWhirter. In the en print competition we have Max Burns, second Jane Cooper, and third Susan Worsfold. Well done to all of you especially so as several of you are relatively new members. The only thing left to do is establish who the winners are for the Best of the year in the Print, PI, and En Print images. Finally we hope this year to be able to present the cups to all our winners at the AGM instead of at some future Summer event which we may hold. So would all the cup winners from last year please get your cups to Jane Coward our Treasurer by the evening of our BEST of YEAR Competition on 24th April.
Peter Picthall
2007/08 Projected Image Competition No 5
After the problems of the two previous competitions, the judge Tony Higham, was carefully briefed on our requirements and his time was equitably shared among all the images entered. However he restricted his marks to the range between 15 & 20, awarding eight 15s, twelve 16s, seven 17s, three 18s, three 19s and one 20. It seems to me (and to some others) that if a wide range of marks is available then more of it should be utilised.
As can be seen in the results, Paul Hayward had another very successful evening getting the only 20 and a 19. The other 19s were given to Derek Grieve and Peter Michell. 18s were awarded to David Burns, Jane Cooper & Tim Hulbert. The combined scores for the season’s competitions show that Paul Hayward has blown away the opposition, with 182 marks he is way ahead of his nearest rival, Jane Cooper with 175. Jean MacWhirter is third with 174 and David Burns and Peter Michell are 4th equal with 173. It has been a close contest throughout the season with the leaders only being clearly defined by the final competition.
I have been pleased at the success of the PI Competitions in our first season “going digital”. The number entering has rivalled that of the prints, and on average, has been more than four times that of the previous slide competitions. The problems encountered during projection have not been as severe or quite as embarrassing as I feared and to a large extent have been overcome. However the preparation of images for submission by authors has emerged as a major problem. For the latest competition 70% of images needed some correction in order to comply with the simple requirements. Correction of all these anomalies is very time consuming and really should not be necessary, especially as authors have had the experience now of five P I competitions. Fresh efforts will be made at the beginning of next season to get the message across.
The Crouch Competition was held on 12th March at Steyning. This is an annual competition for Clubs in West Sussex, previously for slides but this year for PIs for the first time. Nine clubs took part; we came second, an improvement on last year when we came third out of eight. Life at home would not be worth living if I did not mention that Jean’s image was one of only 2 images given 20 marks in the competition. However, it was a team effort and the team did very well considering the strength of the opposition. SCC is punching above its weight in regional competitions at the moment.
Ian MacWhirter.
2007/08 Print Competition No 5
At last a trouble free competition – and a set subject as well!! Our judge, Tony Higham, is an old friend of Storrington CC, and all the proceedings went smoothly.
We started with the en-print competition and all the entries had a proper assessment as we have always striven towards. Relative newcomer Max Burns took the honours with a very eye catching B&W picture of two shadows of a tree and a human form side by side. Second was Susan Worsfold with a very clever picture of a leaf with the shadow of a similar leaf on its surface; and finally Max again got third place with a shot taken at Canary Wharf of the clocks on the concourse I think?
This ensured at a stroke that Max gets the cup for this year’s competition with Sue Worsfold and little Jane second equal. Very well done to all of them and to all other entrants during the year.
The Main competition was won by Mike Davison with his untitled print of a Bicycle and its shadow (one of several bike shadow pics; but this one was certainly the best). Congratulations to Mike who always makes a fuss about how hard the set subjects are to do and then ends up winning them!!!
There was one other 20 – for Paul Hayward’s very colourful picture of some Arab traders set in desert dunes. If I could influence Pat, I would persuade her to have it framed and put on the wall.
There were just two 19s – Tim Hulbert’s ‘Earth shadows’, which was a very clever sequence of shots of the Eclipse, taken on a tripod, showing the Earth’s shadow gradually passing over the surface of the Moon, presented on a diagonal – very dramatic. Secondly, James Heath’s ‘Magic Mushrooms’ which was the best of several table-top pictures, this one of two wooden carved mushrooms and their shadows which had been very carefully set up indeed, with a dramatic resulting picture. Very well done to both authors.
As he was leaving, Tony remarked on the very high standard of our prints and their presentation. This high standard no doubt contributed to the award of no less than Nine 18s: Robert Mitchell’s ‘Carriage man’; Roger Stevens’ ‘Shadows in a Church’; Jane Coward’s ‘Groyne with shadows and her ‘Sunlight and shadows’; Jim Hutchin’s ‘Shadows in the park’; My ‘Ancient boat’s cockpit’; Martin Tomes’ ‘Rosé’; Peter Michell’s ‘A glass of Rosé’ and finally Denis Mace’s ’...on castle’s walls’. Well done to all of them. I secured the services of Peter Michell (he’s good with figures – joke! – got it?) to record the scores as they were given to make quite sure that I had got them all right, and he double checked my figures to determine the top results for the total of all the Competitions together. This confirmed, Peter himself as this year’s Cup winner, with Mike Davison a worthy second and Paul Hayward equal with me in third place.
I must draw the club’s attention to one very important thing: Ian MacWhirter failed to enter any pictures in this last competition. I have a theory that he wanted to spare Jean from having to clean too many silver cups, for he was in the lead after the fourth competition by 3 points from Peter Michell. Even if he had got lowish marks (hard for him to do) in this last comp., he still would have been up there with the leaders, if not still in the lead. So, I think that you will agree that all the top people all owe Ian a Pint or two. Looking at the results, you will see that both Ian and Peter got four 20s; Martin and Mike Davison got both got three 20s, and Paul, Daisy Kane and Roger Stevens got one each.
I think that it has been a great series of competitions, with one or two ups and downs along the way, with some really first class prints produced by more and more members. I am sure that Chairman Peter was absolutely right when he said that the very high standards set by Ian, Peter and Mike in particular encourages everyone else to improve.
Derek Grieve