The fifth competition of the year took place on 17 April and was a set subject competition. For prints the set subject was Macro/Closeup and for projected images it was Urban/City. The judge was Darren Pullman; a very experienced, distinguished (and quite witty) judge from Carshalton Camera Club. Darren started off by telling us that he would be looking for images which fitted the set subjects well.
The fourth competition of the year took place on 6 March; the images being on any subject. The judge was Paul O’Toole of Littlehampton Camera Club and well known to Storrington Camera Club. Known for his sense of humour, as well as his extensive knowledge of photography, Paul kept us entertained whilst reviewing our photographs.
Paul chose his favourite images and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images. He was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries. He gave us many expert tips during the course of the evening.
Intent on travelling in retirement Mike Cullis, an award winning photographer, sought advice on the one place to visit. It appears that the Falkland Islands was this place. It offered a different experience, was a special place and presented the opportunity to create an audio/visual presentation where the accompanying music would reflect the character of the wildlife portrayed. Just getting there was a challenge. The RAF flight from Brize Norton was not the most salubrious of travel experiences. Guest accommodation on the islands was limited and resources, including water, were scarce.
Peter Merry, a photographer from Guildford retired during the pandemic and, when he was able to travel embarked with his wife on a journey around Europe on an inter-rail pass for 30 days visiting 10 countries and 13 cities. As a consequence we could have been treated/subjected to an evening of holiday snaps, but Peter was into projects and determined on an objective to take 20 photographs that would stand the test of time and remain meaningful for many years. The route was planned with the Inter-Rail app.
The third competition of the year took place on 23rd January. The judge was Paul Graber ARPS, a former chairman of Guildford Photographic Society. Paul was making a return visit, having judged for us before.
Paul chose his favourite images and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images. He was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries. He gave us many expert tips as he went through our images.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening
The judge’s favourites were:
Wildlife photography can be demanding enough at the best of times but doing it with flash is a task that is not for the faint hearted. Wendy Ball, a local photographer from Steyning Camera Club explained its fascination and the journey she took to master its techniques and trials. She began a few years ago with no experience and little understanding and sought assistance from others to begin to learn the requirements and techniques.
Richard Sharman ARPS finds joy in nature by studying and photographing its behaviour and actions. He does not totally eschew the portrait, but whilst illustrating the photographic beauty of some images he pointed out the absence of action. He contrasted a sedge warbler clinging to a reed with a pair of kingfishers sitting on a bank exchanging a fish. He watched for five minutes whilst the male tantalised the female with a fish until he finally surrendered it.
The second competition of the year took place on 28th November. The judge was Ken Scott, known to all for training judges and being president of Steyning Camera Club. Ken is very keen for photographers to demonstrate Expressive Quality in their images – something he would be looking for as he reviewed our images.
Ken chose his favourite images and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images. He was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening:
The judge’s favourites were:
The first competition of the year took place on 17th October. The judge was Richard Sharman ARPS, from Steyning Camera Club. One of Richard’s specialities is wildlife. He started off with an explanation of what he was looking for in a good image – something different which makes him ‘feel’ the image or creates an atmosphere.
Richard chose his favourite images and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images. He was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening:
The first members' meeting of the year delivered four very different presentations that showed that photography is not just a technical craft but an exercise in thought, judgement and questioning. Photographers think about what they and why they do it.
The start of the new season saw an eclectic mix of activities beginning with the customary parade of members eager to show the directions their photography went during the Summer period. The next meeting was a talk by Hugh Gilbert, a seasoned photographer, whose career began as an assistant to a fashion photographer in the Kings Road, in Chelsea. From there he moved on to photographing the work of a colony of artists in studios in St Katherine's Dock, opposite the Tower of London.
The last competition of the year is always the ‘best of the year’ when everyone submits what they consider their best entries from the season’s competitions for the judge to give his or her opinion of the ‘best of the best’.
Our judge for the competition was Caroline Preece; her second visit to the club this year. Consistent with the talk she gave earlier in the year “Tools not Rules” Caroline always encourages alternative approaches and explained that she hoped everyone would take something useful from her comments.
This year’s AGM was affected by a significant number of apologies for absence but about half of club members were present. The presentation of trophies included one to Kathy Drance as the most improved photographer and another to Norman Kirby for outstanding service to the club. All other winners had been announced previously.
A former President of the RPS, Rosemary Wilman HonFRPS ABPE AFIAP APAGB gave us an insight into her experience of taking photos "As she sees it". Prints on a variety of papers, a photobook and a concertina album accompanied her projected images. She has travelled widely and showed images from the Lake District, Wisley, Yellowstone, Norway, India, Santorini, Yorkshire and Iceland. The photos were mainly landscapes but she captured interesting people, as so many do, in India at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and on a tea plantation in Kerala.
The fifth competition of the year is always for set subjects; this year the topics being ‘Low Key’ for prints and ‘High Key’ for PDIs. It took place on 18 April 2024 and was judged by Bob Webzell. A larger-than-life character, Bob is not only a very experienced photographer but also a past president of Brighton & Hove Camera Club, an A-list photographic judge and, surprisingly, an Honorary Maasai Elder, which he describes as the greatest honour of his life.
We came third in this competition, one point behind the leaders, who both had the same score and were separated using countback leaving Southwick as the winning club.
David Seddon's "About to Kick Off" scored our highest mark of 19 points.
Marcus Scott Taggart was an excellent judge, if a little picky at times. He did like an image to be plausible, so one or two images which were composite or heavily modified fell down on that test.
Here's how our images fared.
Disappointed by the lack of emotional connection to a series of photographs Huw Alban, a Dorset "artist using photography", developed his purpose in pursuing photography. He investigated what it was that made him stop after viewing an image to identify what encouraged him to look harder at it. If he could hear the sounds of the image or could see the quality of the image that made him look that little bit harder he could understand the message that the photographer was attempting to transmit.
The annual competition from which the Southern Counties Photographic Federation chooses its representatives in the PAGB inter-club competition was held in Bognor and hosted by Bognor Regis Camera Club. Participating clubs enter 15 prints and/or 15 PDIs to be judged by three eminent judges from outside the southern counties. The scoring method is different to that familiar in club competitions, i.e., out of 10 or 20, but is widely used in PAGB competitions, salons and international competitions and awards. It is a scale from 2 to 5 delivered via an electronic keypad.
Our fourth competition of the 2023-24 season was on ‘any subject’ and took place on 7 March 2024. It was judged by Lawrence Homewood, an experienced photographer, judge and speaker, from East Grinstead Camera Club. Lawrence was careful to remind us that the scores he would give were just his opinion; other judges may score the images differently. Throughout the evening, he gave helpful suggestions for improvement, where appropriate, and kept us all amused will his keen sense of humour.
Members; evenings are an opportunity for us to see the wider range of photographic activities that our members engage in. On this occasion a quarter of members produced a very interesting and well appreciated group of projects.
Photographers in club competitions are familiar with judges criticising their images on the basis that they do not follow the rules. Caroline argues that there needs to be a reason behind a rule and set out to demonstrate that there are no rules just a series of tools than can be used in different ways to enhance the message that the photographer is intending to convey by applying some science to the decision making.
Our third competition of the 2023-24 season was on ‘any subject’ and took place on 25 January 2024. It was judged by Chris Dixon ARPS of Horndean Camera Club. Chris briefed us on how he proposed to judge our images; the key consideration being Expressive Quality, as advocated by Ken Scott. This was music to our ears and this, together with Chris’ sense of humour, set the scene for an enjoyable evening.
Chris chose his favourite images and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images. He was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries.
Virtually all of the time members present single images for comment, discussion or judgement. On this occasion members were asked to present a panel of images and/or an audio-visual presentation and they responded magnificently. Panels tend to follow a theme and can be of any number of images from three to 40. The latter was evidenced by the photographer Iain McGowan who addressed us in 2022. Dean, who masterminded the evening, was first with a panel of monochrome images of folded paper creating abstract shapes in a varied array.
It has been a long time since we attempted the exercise of taking an image and letting members process it in any way they chose but there was an echo of an earlier attempt involving a donkey that will be referred to later. George Reekie provided us with three images. One was of Blackchurch Rock in Devon, another of a dancer and a third of a dog on a wet beach reflected in the water. Without any disrespect to George it is fair to say that the images were not perfect.
Our second competition of the 2023-24 season was ‘any subject’ and took place on 30 November 2023. It was judged by David Smith, whose anecdotes and useful suggestions kept us all entertained. David was particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the entries.
Judges are asked to choose their favourite image and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening
As always at Storrington, the standard was high. The judge’s favourites were:
Ken Scott ARPS, a local photographer, planned a 5000 mile walk in 2017 around the mainland coast of Britain over the period from February to October. His presentation of photos, audio visuals and narrative was inspiring on a number of levels. It was primarily a walk. There was not time to make his photographs to his exacting standards but his selections from his 6,000 images were nonetheless impressive.
The Regnum Print competition is one of two conducted by the Regnum Crouch group between 6 camera clubs from Henfield, Littlehampton, Mid-Sussex, Southwick, Steyning and Storrington. In the print competition 8 prints from each club is presented and judged in a series of rounds. This year the judge was Paul Graber ARPS from Guildford.
This talk was originally commissioned in 2019 when she was artist in residence at Parham House. A confident, enthusiastic and entertaining Elizabeth Zeschin delighted members with a life in photography presentation. Born in the USA she studied theatre in Chicago before becoming an assistant to a leading theatre and film photographer.
Our first competition of the 2023-24 season was ‘any subject’ and took place on 19 October 2023. It was judged by David Hughes of Godalming Camera Club and an accomplished wildlife photographer.
Throughout, David gave copious feedback which was helpful to all and made for a very enjoyable evening. He was particularly impressed by the quality of the printing.
For this season the scoring system has been changed; judges are being asked to choose their favourite image and then a number of Highly Commended and Commended images.
Influenced by the radio programme 100 Best Tunes John Bradshaw FRPS brought 100 interesting images to the club covering his over 30 years of photography. A member of Chichester Camera Club and the Arena and Focus groups of leading photographers, John talked about five different genres of photographs that were far from being "snaps".
Although generically called critique the term is not universally popular and an alternative of "critical assessment" was introduced by the chairman as four groups of members sat down to peer review 12 images from four of their peers. We have held critiques before where the whole audience is free to comment on the presented image but this time the format was changed.
The first meeting of the new season began with both a welcome and a farewell. Some new members joined returning stalwarts for a welcome to the club only to be followed by Janet Brown, the chairman, explaining that she was standing down on health grounds. Fortunately Chris West, a former chairman, had agreed to fill the role until the end of the season. He then proceeded to outline the programme of competitions, talks and experiences. Members then provided some examples of their activities during the break since the end of the previous season in May.
As is traditional the final meeting of the year was the Annual General Meeting. After the formalities of apologies and previous year minutes the chairman Janet delivered her report on an eventful year with its usual mixture of meetings, competitions, photoshoots and hints and tips. In external competitions we held our own and had particular success in the SCPF PDI championships where we came sixth out of thirty eight clubs.
Based in Dublin Joe Houghton is a professional photographer with a day job as a professor of management at a Dublin university. He runs a photography training business and was Nikon’s trainer in Ireland for 10 years. He began his talk with the Henri Cartier Bresson image Behind the Gare St Lazaire, arguably the earliest street photograph. It would be panned by judges today but is one of the 100 best photographs of all time according to Time magazine.
Our final competition of the year, “The Best of Year”, took place on 27 April and was judged by David Eastley. A welcome visitor, David has judged for us a number of times before. His photographic interests are wide ranging and he loves to “push the boundaries and promote creativity” in photography. He described how photography is evermore becoming ‘photographic art’. He shares the view of many club members that what is important is the end result, the impact on the viewer, and not how the image has been achieved.
Our fifth competition of the 2022-23 season took place on 13 April 2023 and was judged by Paul Graber ARPS, from Guildford Photographic Society. Paul was a welcome visitor who has judged for us before.
This was a set subject competition: ‘Abstract or Experimental’ for prints and ‘People’ for projected images. Paul explained what he would be looking for in these set subjects.
Abstract / Experimental: is there an air of mystery and do I have to think hard about what the image is?
The 2023 Crouch Shield took place at the Barn Theatre, Southwick, which is an excellent venue for this competition. The images were projected big onto the theatres screen and looked great. There were some excellent images to be seen, and the judge, Cherry Larcombe EFIAP ARPS DPAGB BPE*5 gave a good critique of the images. She could be picky at times, but that is to be expected when so many good images are on display. We came third, which is a respectable position us in the competition. Geroge's "Wasp Drinking" scored our only twenty.
Our fourth competition of the 2022-23 season took place on 2 March 2023 and was judged by Roger Mendham, LRPS, from Bookham Camera Club in Surrey. Roger was welcomed by Janet Brown. Though a very experienced judge, this was Roger’s first time at Storrington. Whilst judging he gave frequent suggestions for improvements and entertained everyone with anecdotes drawn from his wide knowledge and experience. All present thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening
In 2019 Chris Philipson of Eastbourne Photographic Society and his wife made a return visit to the US and embarked on a 1,000 mile journey. In a debut presentation he showed us photographs of his trip but not in the form of a travelogue but by focussing on four themes.
A lifetime with photography and a current project illustrated the latest members' presentations on their photographic interests. George Reekie and Kevin Harwood, both wildlife enthusiasts showed examples of their work.
Our third competition of the 2022-23 season took place on 19 January 2023 and was judged by Paul O’Toole who was welcomed by Janet Brown. Paul is a very experienced judge, a member of Littlehampton Camera Club, and is well known to most members. He entertained us all with interesting and often funny anecdotes as he reviewed our images. He frequently gave suggestions for possible improvements based on his wide knowledge and experience.
Judge’s favourite images of the evening
As always at Storrington the standard was high. The judge’s favourites were:
Our second competition of the 2022-23 season took place on 24 November 2022 and was judged by Caroline Preece LRPS who was welcomed by Janet Brown. Caroline introduced herself and described what she looks for in an image. “Photography is a visual language with no rules” she said. As she reviewed the images her feedback was often refreshingly different and very animated. She gave the photographers numerous suggestions to increase the impact of their images, both visually and to reinforce the narrative.
Iñaki Hernández-Lasa FRPS FIPF AFIAP is one of only seven people in Ireland who has obtained Fellowships of both the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) and the Irish Photographic Federation (FIPF). His two fellowships were both obtained with panels of architectural images. In a Zoom presentation from Limerick Iñaki treated us to a confident, informative and delightful insight into his approach to architecture photography.
Our first competition of the 2022-23 season took place on 27 October 2022 and was also our first competition in our ‘new home’ at Thakeham Village Hall. The judge was Malcom Bull, from Steyning Camera Club, who is well known to our members and was welcomed by Sarah Beard. Malcolm did us proud, giving advice as he reviewed our images and adding numerous amusing anecdotes into the process. This all made for a very enjoyable evening.
We had an eclectic mix for our first members' evening of the season.
Martin Emmett, a member of Bognor Regis Camera Club lives near Pagham Harbour and during the Covid 19 pandemic when going out was restricted he decided to explore and photograph Pagham Harbour. Especially in 2021 he photographed the harbour through the seasons and presented his work through a month-by-month review of what the harbour has to offer photographically in terms of both landscape and wildlife.
Our first meeting in a new venue, the Village Hall in Thakeham was held in a bright airy room on a site with adequate parking. Along with regulars some new and potentially new members were welcomed by Janet Brown the Club Chairman who also reminded members of the club's Flickr sites for members' photographs. Displays of seventeen members' photographic activities over the Summer with commentary then followed. A diverse range of images from landscapes to townscapes, birds, people and vehicles as well as examples from a photoshoot of the Milky Way led to lively discussion.
I know, everyone can't wait to attend an AGM, and this year we had an excellent turn out, thank you to those who came. The usual business was conducted, but this year we also had to decide how we would run competitions. It was a choice between continuing to mark out of twenty or abandon scores and have highly commendeds and a judges pick. Given the somewhat contentious nature of this ths discussion we had was very constructive and the move to abolish scores was passed by a large majority.
Prior to the proceedings I presented the trophies.
Our final competition of the 2021-22 season was our “Best of Year Competition” in which members submitted their best entries from throughout the year. It took place on 28 April; a physical meeting with additional Covid precautions, instead of being a virtual meeting on Zoom. The judge was Bob Webzell ARPS EFIAP, a past president of Brighton and Hove Camera Club and a member of the “Nature Photographer’s Portfolio”.
As might be expected, the standard was high, with everyone doing their best to achieve “Best of Year”.
Graham Devenish ARPS knew Chris Peet, a resident of Hove and an internationally renowned photographer who photographed Sussex landscapes amongst others in a distinctive monochrome style. A contemporary of Bill Brandt he had a similar style and was influential to many current photographers including Iain McGowan FRPS, who spoke to us recently. After his death in 1997 Chris's images were seemingly lost until on a chance encounter at Gatwick airport; in 2015 Graham's colleague Frank Bull met a couple who had 150 of them and gave them to Frank and Graham.
