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.
This evening, we had a new idea for a club evening from our Chairman Chris. We were asked to select five PIs that we would like some help with deciding whether they were good enough to enter a competition, because we all have difficulty making our selections, don’t we?
'Two Fellows’, which originally referred to Betty Rackman, who had achieved her Fellowship, and Tony her Husband, a ‘fella’. But when Tony also achieved his Fellowship of course the name was even more relevant
Betty and Tony have been giving slide shows (and having exhibitions) for many years. This evenings show was one of many different ones that they give, this one though had been brought up to date with recent work.
Our first night of the new season was very well attended with over 30 bodies including four new faces who we hope will join us permanently. They will be most welcome.
Chris West, our new Chairman, confessed immediately that he had never been to a first night before as he had always been on holiday. So, not knowing really what had gone before he took matters into his own hands and told us all about himself and his family, finishing with his latest Photographic Experiences.
Two car loads of members visited Hayling Island today leaving at about 2.30pm with the weather looking slightly unreliable.
However when we reached our first stop by the bridge to the Island near Langstone Mill, the weather was set fair. The mill is nearly unique (when working, now a pivate residence) in that it was both a windmill and a watermill, but according to John Goodfellow there is another in Norfolk. Anyway, it made a good subject for some very nice landscape pictures.
On Saturday August 2nd, we held our first summer event. For the last few years now we have had a Barbecue, usually held in the Chairman’s garden.
Our new Chairman Chris decided that for a change it might be nice to have a cream tea this year instead.
And so the call went out to members asking those attending to bring sandwiches, cakes, scones, strawberries, blue berries, raspberries and of course chairs.
After a couple of statutory items, Anne Nagle gave a very comprehensive report of this seasons events and achievements, adding that she felt we were improving as a club with our results. She then mentioned especially how much hard work Glenn Donnelly had put in on our behalf as our first Publicity Manager, and how successful she had been at the job. Well done Glenn. She will be missed and we do need someone to carry on the good work. Anne herself will carry on in the meantime as she is to stay on our Committee.
We were joined by our old friend Walter Benzie ARPS on 15thMay for our Best of Year competition. He started by shaking several peoples’ hands, then telling a story about a photographer in Bombay, who just happened to be Henri Cartier-Bresson. I have since discovered a Cartier-Bresson quote, “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”Perhaps there is something in my 365 obsession!
