Club News

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.

The 2nd and 3rd PDI competitions of the 2020-21 season both took place on 3 December 2020, the print competitions having been postponed because of Covid 19.  The competitions were held via ‘Zoom’ and judged by Keith Gibson; a very experienced judge, well known to most club members. Throughout the evening, whilst reviewing our images, Keith gave welcome and well considered suggestions for improvement. He had been sent the images beforehand enabling him to study them in detail. He praised the quality of the images.

The 1st competition of the 2020-21 season took place on 8 October 2020 and was held via ‘Zoom’. Our judge was Mike Warren from Steyning camera club. Mike is a very experienced photographer and judge, well known for his coaching of photographers new to club photography. Throughout the evening, whilst reviewing our images, he gave welcome and well considered suggestions for improvement. He started by summarising the qualities judges look for when assessing images and the weighting given to each; 50% of the mark is based on imagination, impact and expression.

The Best of Year competition was the final competition of the 2019-20 season. Delayed by the Covid19 pandemic the competition finally took place on 10 September by Zoom. Our judge was Paul O’Toole who is well known to the club. Based in West Sussex and a member of the Worthing camera club, Paul is a keen amateur photographer and a distinguished and entertaining judge. He has a special love of wildlife photography. His comments and tips were well received. Paul had been sent the prints (and PDIs) beforehand so that the actual prints were being judged, not PDI versions.

The fifth competition of the 2019-20 had been postponed from April due to the pandemic but was eventually held by zoom, on the evening of 27 August, the judge having been sent prints and PDIs for his deliberations.  

The judge was Rob de Ruiter, well known to club members, a distinguished and very experienced photographer, senior judge and President of the Bognor Regis Camera Club. He was welcomed by our chairman Martin Tomes.

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