Club News

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.