19th May 2007

Celebrations!

I gather that things went very well last week and that you enjoyed the three AVs celebrating members work in 2006-7 and telling you a little about the 2007-8 Programme.

Bob Rowe at Leek Digital Group

Tom and Mary went to the Bob Rowe talk and found it very interesting – he seems to have covered a lot of ground.  I can heartily recommend the Leek Digital Group. The Leek members are very welcoming and they have some very good speakers. We need to keep an eye on their 2007-8 programme as it emerges next season.

The “Five Towns” Monochrome Print Competition

We were pleased to have secured the services of an extremely well qualified and well-respected judge for this prestigious competition; Peter Clark FRPS EFIAP/p PPSA.  Peter is a member of the EYECON group which was founded by the great Adi Sethna. It was Adi’s idea to bring together a group of top flight club photographers in this special Forum to help each other to further improve their skills and techniques and to be constructively self-critical. Irene Froy and Peter Rees are members too. Peter now chairs the group.  Peter lived up to expectations, with a well-timed and yet meticulous performance.  Peter was telling me that his favourite photographer is Ansel Adams and that he has a print of Ansel Adam’s Yosemite Falls, a work I know. It would have been very interesting to see what Peter would have made of Dave Lucas’s Yosemite Falls had it been an entry this year!

Back to the point – we won! It was always a very close thing and I really had no idea of us winning as I totted up the scores. Peter had kept a lot of work back for a second look and gave us a rapid-fire scoring on them at the end which made it even more difficult to predict the outcome.

The Results were:

Alsager 157

Barn Door Latch was a very well handled variation on a popular theme and Confrontation a nice piece of reportage – undoubtedly from the camera of my fellow Leica enthusiast, John Dennis.

Nantwich 163

The Pool Of London was a good offering. One of their members, who usually has a strong entry, said to me afterwards that most of his mono work this year would have been deemed “creative” and so excluded from the competition. I think it is time we took a serious look at this rule – there is a review meeting on Monday and I hope this matter will be discussed. We were (rightly) careful about allowing in digital work at first. Now that digital images have almost completely replaced traditional silver halide based mono I think the time has come to remove the final barriers which try to keep it restrained to the imagined bounds of traditional work.

Whitchurch 164

I particularly liked Jane, 51, Homeless In Shrewsbury and The Cross. Ancient Yew Tree, which did well in Battle with us, didn’t fare so well.

Sandbach 165

At the time the winners were announced Sandbach were thought to have lost by only one point. Every credit to them for correcting their total to 165.

I liked the elegance of It’s Faster By Tube but found their Thro’ The Bend lacked that particular quality – though the judge liked it. Their winning image, Apricot Blossom was their only other high scorer and also raised in my mind the issue of allowing creative images in. This print had us all puzzled and it precisely that feature which made it difficult to tell whether it was creative or not and it personifies the reason why I think we should now allow anything in provided it meets the FIAP rules of what is “monochrome”.

Crewe 167

Les has every reason to be delighted with the performance of his Train Inspection. Les has had a good year in competition and thanks, Les, once again for organising the day-out of the year too!  Tom’s Texture and Shadow was a powerful image which impressed the judge and Simon’s Surf’s Up – a well framed and well rendered picture of rider and horse in the river at Appleby Horse Fair.   These three images scored 19. This, together with my Jewellery Lady at 18 and Simon’s Castlerigg Circle at 17 were enough to give us a 2 point lead over Sandbach – despite them having the winning print.

L&CPU ANNUAL PRINTS

The results were published in a flash after the judging on 5th May. You can view them on the L&CPU Website. Compared to our other local clubs we sported work from a large number of members, but the judges seem to have got a bit stuck on the “9” button! In fact there were very very few 15s, 14’s and 13’s. I shall ask Ian Aldcroft if he can publish the statistics, as he did last year.

The slides are judged TOMORROW.

Enjoy your summer and good luck with capturing some more winning images.

John Royle

19th May 2007
 

3rd May 2007

Another Casualty In The Development Of The Digital Camera

Leica have announced that they are no longer making the “digital back” for the single lens reflex 35mm Leica R.

Always a special product only of interest to people who already owned the “R” system it was nonetheless a unique solution – allowing the same camera to be used for both film and digital. A solution with a price though - £3000.  Leica’s teaming with Panasonic has now led to a Panasonic/Olympus camera with a Leica badge (!) which is on the “four-thirds” system – an adaptor is on sale which will allow “R” lenses to be used with this camera – so a paddle is available to those “R” owners who find themselves up a creek!

Bob Rowe at Leek Digital Group

One of the best Photoshop tutors around is Bob Rowe and he is at Leek Photographic Club Digital Group on Monday 14th May. They meet at the Community Centre in Cheddleton (Hollow Lane). 7.30pm £2.

I have built up some contacts with Leek PC and they are expecting a contingent from Crewe PS.

Have a look at their website – it is nearly as good as ours!! – for more details http://www.leekphotographyclub.org.uk/

Colin Douglas ARPS CPAGB BPE 3* - Castile & Extremadura

We had a good attendance tonight for Colin’s talk, which was very enjoyable. He had shots taken in Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca & Segovia. It was very interesting to see how Colin, a highly respected and successful photographer in our area, tackled the problem of taking shots as he walked around these towns, mainly at times when the lighting was fierce. He went for details, the lamp on the wall, the gateway, the steps, patterns. He confessed to favouring the 70-300mm type of zoom and used it to great effect when taking shots of people in the street. The person at one time might be a feature in the composition, another time the people were the subject. He also had some night shots of the towns and, with only a monopod for support he confessed to a high failure rate. I say all this as encouragement to take a leaf from Colin's book and always be on the lookout for pictures – don’t put your camera away because the light is not best in the middle of the day – you can only take the shots when you are there!

Next year’s programme is sorted but I will be asking Colin back again – perhaps this time to show us his Cuba pictures.

Next Week – A Celebration

Remember that you can bring partners – and even wives and husbands – to next weeks “do”. Thank you to all who have contributed to the food and drink. I have prepared some AVs, similar to the ones we had at Jim’s Centenary Celebration. They are (1) Members Work 2007 (2) The Annual Slide Exhibition 2007 (3) The CPS Programme for 2007-8. The Vale Of Evesham National Exhibition (Photo 2007) may also be shown.

I hope you all enjoy the evening. Janis & I will be with you for the “Five Towns” the following week. There will be no email next week and the final one of the season will be after the “Five Towns” – here’s to me having something really good to report.

John Royle

3rd May 2007
 

27th April 2007

CREWE PS AGM and AWARDS EVENING

Our AGM was the scene of lively discussion about a number of topics. The first arose from Tom’s reference to the last AGM, where we made a few changes to the competition rules. It was the number of entries allowed in the Annual Print competition. It went down from 6 to 4 last year. The members were now concerned that even that was too many. A proposal to make it 3 was passed with a large majority. This should give the judges more time to comment on the prints, which will be to everyone’s benefit. We also decided to reduce the entry for the Jim Harrison Projected Digital Image Comp for the same reason. We decided not to have a theme for the digital KO.

The proposal to increase our attendance levy was passed. This should put our finances on a sound basis.

Two new Committee members were elected. Rosemary Cheetham as Assistant Competition Secretary, Rosemary has a great deal of experience as a committee member for other clubs and will be very welcome help for Mary too. Dave Barton will fill the long vacant role of Assistant Treasurer – he should have little trouble getting in touch with the Treasurer – he’s married to her!! Thanks to them both for volunteering (start saving the 50p pieces, Dave!).

The President, Alan Goodin, who chaired the meeting expressed great optimism for the club’s future, saying how the atmosphere had changed over the last two years to become so open and friendly – quite the opposite of the closeted one you find in some clubs.

In the Awards, which were made before the AGM, it was good to see that new and “nearly new” members had made their mark. Who knows what they have in store for us next year!

Established names were not to be outdone though, and it has been interesting to see that they have been branching out. Without naming names a certain natural history worker has submitted prints as well as his customary slides. A certain antagonist of digital images has submitted digital prints. Another has done well with his first “creative” treatments in his prints.

Some of our increasing number of lady members figured on the leaderboards too. I think the ladies have contributed a lot to the great atmosphere we have now.

The prizes were awarded by individual, which was so much more efficient than filing through the awards individually. The presentation was by our President Alan Goodin. Alan made a splendid job of chairing the occasion and was in high spirits having just got his driving licence back after suffering an eye problem.

          
I’ve rarely seen anyone so delighted as when Bob Dennis picked Ken’s slide as the winner.
 

Jean and her confederate Dot joined us about halfway through last season. Good to see her do so well. Perhaps next season we will see something from Dot too, I know has some good pictures up her sleeve!
 

Rosemary and husband Gordon have been submitting some great pictures ever since they joined us a couple of years ago. They both have a good eye for a picture and have been steadily getting printing sorted. Watch this space!

We are very proud of our natural history specialist at Crewe and this year he has started submitting prints. This has caused fear and trembling amongst the rest of us!
 

Peter has submitted some excellent work. He has a very imaginative approach and some of his street photography has been very memorable.

Next a group of members who gained well earned 3rd place certificates

Dave has submitted some images with strong lines which make good mono images. Last year we had “Upper Yosemite Falls” from him which you would have taken to be Ansel Adams!

Simon’s business commitments kept him away tonight. We have seen some top quality images from Simon this year. I have to say that I think he has been unlucky – Speedbird's Sunset and Winter Blues were memorable images which seemed to pass the judges by.

Good to see Les in there. He has put the 20D to some good use this year.
 

Ian was one I had in mind when I said some established members were introducing some creative effects into their work. Music Man was a good one for him.
 

Husband Simon once joked that he was sorry he ever brought her along to Crewe PS! This, I think, was when she won the Jim Harrison earlier in the year. Carol’s Pink Perfection also did well as a print but all her work has fared well this year. A good eye, excellent presentation and courageous use of effects have given her the edge with her images. Well done.
 

Tom’s work is nearly always instantly recognisable. He picks simple compositions and then prunes them down to their basic elements, then uses his vast experience of PS techniques to emphasise the right features to produce images of instant appeal. It was good that he submitted more prints this year, we had more to enjoy and he collected more gongs!
 

Least said about this guy, the better!
 

Chairmans Report CPS AGM April 2007

Our excursion to Bradford Media Museum on Saturday was hugely enjoyable; fascinating visit, good photo shoot and great company (thank you to Les for organising it all).

What a sharp contrast to the beginning of this season when we first found ourselves homeless and then lost our much loved centurion member Jim Harrison!

Well, we are ending the season on many happy notes, I’m pleased to say. We may not have been quite as successful at the North Cheshire but it has been very gratifying to see new faces in the club, new names on the leaderboard and some of the more established members now beginning to master digital photography.

Competition is not everything. We are all here to enjoy our photography, gain inspiration and learn from each other. We have a very friendly and good humoured atmosphere in the club which is conducive to these aims and makes our meetings that much more enjoyable too.

Next season we have our 60^th birthday which we hope to celebrate with a Club Dinner with the L&CPU President as Guest Of Honour and also some kind of exhibition.

We also have a cracking programme next year, so let us see if we can recruit some new members – personal contact is a very powerful medium! I hope too that we can also get our finances on a sounder footing. (Theatre exhibition could have been a reality).

I would like to thank most sincerely, firstly Tom Seaton, who is always ready to use his long experience to help your nascent Chairman through occasions such as this. Tom, and Mary are central to this club’s functioning and I thank them both for their hard work and generosity – on your part as well as my own.

Then we have Simon Cotter who has done a wonderful job in creating a website which is widely admired  - one which people will return to and one which we can all be proud of. He also keeps us on our toes with new ideas and quick witted contributions to our Committee Meetings. It is a shame that his business commitments are keeping him away from meetings more just recently.

Sharon, Treasurer, who does her job at meetings so discretely that I have never ever seen her pay anybody yet!

Dave Lucas, who makes every competition run like clockwork and has also given some excellent presentations this year.

All other Committee members for their support and wisdom.

Rosemary Cheetham – for volunteering to be assistant competition secretary! Rosemary brings experience on several club committees and I am sure will be of great help to the Club.

One thing which has helped greatly this year has been the fact that a large team of you have helped with the tea. Thanks to Janis, Sandra, Mary and Rosemary for acting as catalysts on this – you’ve turned what was a bit of an issue into quite a social occasion!

Finally, thank you all for your support in making this a really great club to belong to.

John Royle

Programme Secretary’s Report – CPS 2007

Another good year! We have had first rate speakers and many examples of excellence in the folios and exhibitions. We also had a number of presentations from members and little self-help tutorials targeted at members needs.

Of course we had the set backs already referred to, but it is worth echoing what Jim’s daughter, Jean, said; that coming to Crewe PS helped to keep Jim going all those years. The reason is not something unique to CPS but certainly valued by it – lively companionship and joint purpose and interest. That beats sitting in front of the tele on Thursday evenings anytime!

Well, what did we have which was better than the tele this year?

Toni Pioli – on Madiera. He gave a better taste of what the island is like than any travelogue.

Margaret Salisbury. Inimitable Margaret! Great stories, great pictures, great evening.

Also inimitable – our own Ron Smith. We really look forward to his talks which are informed with over 60 years in photography. Full of incident, his talks are a veritable roller-coater ride of everything from pathos to hilarity.

Ian Stewart had us marvelling at the way he has scoured the Globe for items and techniques to improve the wedding photos he takes – lucky bride & groom!

Nigel Richards led a very relaxed evening when he showed us some of his collection of Victorian Optical Toys. Such a pleasant change.

Ian Aldcroft took us through some of the techniques of studio lighting and showed us his lovely portraits.

Bob and John presented the Bebington Salon slide exhibition; with the Wirral Slide Exhibition too what a fantastic amount these two guys put into club photography. They are part of a whole group of judges and lecturers who give up their time to help us to put on our programme of talks and competitions for you. A big vote of thanks to them and to the L&CPU, its officers and Executive Committee, who organise them and provide so may other services to the Clubs. All volunteers. Hats off to them!

This year’s programme is a hard act to follow – but I believe we have done it – and more. We have Peter Gennard – platinum EFIAP winner and a great speaker, Ron Smith will entertain us again, Irene Froy – a wonderful artist with her photography and a truly fascinating speaker, multi-medal winners and World Champion Team Members Gwen & Phil Charnock. New to us perhaps but another wonderful artist with her camera Dianne Owen will speak to us and also David Foster on that great holiday destination, Tuscany.

More details on May 10^th.

We haven’t finished yet we still have Colin Douglas (next week), the Celebration Evening and the Five Towns.

Thank you all – looking forward to next season.

John Royle CPAGB

Programme Secretary
27th April 2007

21st April 2007 - Bradford Trip

CPS in Bradford

It all started when Alan Towse told us that they will show you prints from their archives at Bradford Media Museum. By the next meeting Les had everything organised for a trip over there.

We made a list of photographers whose work we would like to see and we were all set.

 Saturday April 21^st saw our group of 12 boarding the bus outside Crewe Library. Within seconds Les produced a quiz sheet for us – the wise cracks started and the tone was set for the whole day! 

At the museum curator Toni Booth took us through to a viewing room where the work hade been put out for us, in glass cases. Apart from Ansel Adams, James Ravilious, Henri Cartier Bresson and Chambre Hardmann which we had requested she had put together a collection which took us practically through the history of photography. She talked us through the dozen or so prints and then led us to the first archive room where she showed us some daguerreotypes and some early “photography jewellery”. She was excellent and Les has since written to the museum to thank them and say how much we appreciated Toni’s help.

I have to say that lunch at Morrisons was an item on the itinerary which I was not expecting to be a highlight – and it wasn’t! Just a cheap practical way to get a quick lunch.  

On to Howarth. We each made our own way down the cobbled main street and I quickly discovered what a delight the church was – every window stained glass. Outside the massive tombstones lay like scattered dominoes; another likely subject – for a moment I was wishing the lighting was more dramatic – it would have been “Chiller” all over again. 

After a whistle stop at Hebden Bridge we were heading for home and a great meal at the Bear’s Paw in Warmingham, where we were joined by Ron & Margaret.

Who won the quiz? It was initially a tie between Sandra and Sharon so a tie breaker had to be devised and Sandra won. The prize was an amazingly detailed knitted “photographer”. He was immediately christened Bradford Morrison by (I think) Dot and I would not be surprised to see him turn up as a club mascot!

Dot said that she couldn’t remember when she had enjoyed a day out so much. That summed up the way we all felt. Great photographs, great photoshoot, great company.

Thanks Les for organising it.

 John Royle 

20th April 2007

14th April 2007

7th April 2007

	Texture & Shadow - Tom Seaton
	Arched Way - Tome Seaton
	Tunnel Vision - Carol Cotter
	Castelrigg Circle - Simon Cotter
	Surf's Up - Simon Cotter
	Train Inspection - Les Simpson
	Courtyard Basilica Of St Francis - Dave Lucas
	Orangery Window Lyme Park - John Royle
	Jewellery Lady - John Royle
	Late For The Sky - John Royle

	Sophie by Peter Robinson 17/20 and Highly Commended
	The Jewellery Lady by John Royle CPAGB 18/20 and Highly Commended
	Mohammad by Peter Robinson 18/20 and Highly Commended
	Christina by Howard Edwards ARPS 19/20 and THIRD PLACE
	Maasai Warriors by Jean Dickenson 19/20 and SECOND PLACE
	The Proprietor by John Royle CPAGB 20/20 and WINNER of the Maurice Ashwin Portrait Trophy.

31st March 2007

23rd March 2007

17th March 2007

PHOTO 2007

Go to www.photo2007.net to see the accepted images for this year’s digital only national competition.

Click on Authors on the right hand panel to see images by Simon Cotter, John Royle, Ian Whiston (Mid-Cheshire), Colin Douglas (speaker in May), Irene Froy (speaker next year), Keith Suddaby (past president L&CPU), David Butler (Wigan 10) and others.

Now, finally, look at Ken Dickenson (Jean’s husband) – he’s gained a PAGB Ribbon for his Impala with New Born. This is an image which positively sparkles and captures not only the beautiful light but the bond between mother and calf in a very touching manner. Now look at Natural History and marvel at the quality of the images selected and Ken’s achievement looks all the greater.

Well done Ken.

BATTLE WITH SANDBACH

Sandbach had some really good work and I felt relieved at half time for us to be ahead by 6 marks on the prints.

The judge was Graham Johnson APRS. It is very hard to judge “on the night” and be fair but Graham’s mathematical brain was put hard to work and I think he got us there in the end – even using the device of awarding a 21 in the slide section to make the marks suitably spread (who would have thought of that?).

With slides to come I was feeling fairly confident but Sandbach had a good field and we finished 4 down.

It was good to see Bill Bailey’s Sky Walker and Peter Robinson’s Athen’s Flea Market truly appreciated for once because I have always had faith in these two images.

NEXT WEEK

Slide Knock Out – A rescheduling. We also want suggestions as to what you would like for the Open Evening the week after.

John Royle

16^th March 2007

9th March 2007

This Week Was – Ian Aldcroft ARPS - Studio Flash

Ian is the L&CPU Webmaster and I know Simon Cotter was disappointed that his work prevented him from meeting Ian and comparing notes! Ian is also the “number cruncher” for all the L&CPU Competitions, he was awarded an L&CPU Medal last summer.

Ian took us through some basic lighting angles, showing us the effects of modelling. He then showed us a selection of his prints, many of them competition winners. After the break we saw a lovely collection of his DPIs.

One point that Ian was keen to make and I would certainly underline is the value of seeing other people’s work. The ideas and inspiration you gain is immeasurable.

Thanks Ian for a very informative evening. Thanks too to Sharon who acted as his model.

Entries In For SLIDE ANNUAL NEXT WEEK

PLUS any extra entries for the Maurice Ashwin Portrait Competition for prints. (Let Mary know if you want to use any prints already handed in for the Print Annual.)

Battle with Sandbach Next Week at CREWE

Graham Johnson is the judge.

COMMITTEE MEETING 20^th March

Please let Committee Members know of any issues you would like to see discussed.

SLIDE KO now 22^nd March

With the postponement of the Print Annual we swapped these events, so the Slide KO is the meeting after next. 6 slides, bring them on the night.

Next L&CPU BIG DAY may be in Crewe.

L&CPU are in negotiations with MMU to hold October’s BIG DAY at their Crewe Site.

John Royle

9^th  March 2007

3rd March 2007

This Week Was – L&CPU SLIDE FOLIO

Lancaster PS did the commentary. They were rather critical. Some people seem to like this but I prefer the informed description of the images which we got from the Chorley PS commentary for the last folio. It is also surprising that the commentators do not know the more successful photographers in the region.

First bulb failure in 20 years on the projector, but did you notice how much brighter the pictures were?

Next Week – Ian Aldcroft ARPS – Studio Flash

Ian is L&CPU webmaster and medal winner. Together with Gordon Jenkins (now our President) he manages all the number crunching at the L&CPU Annuals. They are both members of Chorley PS.

Ian will require at least one volunteer model and will be projecting the results immediately using a digital projector.

L&CPU AGM Report (Saturday 24th February)

There has been a bit of kafuffle over photography in public places. You are free to photograph in public places (but don’t make a nuisance of yourself) and no one can ask you to forfeit film, equipment, delete images etc. Councils can ban photography in parks (and “professional photography” in certain other places may be restricted) and schools may interpret the law over cautiously but otherwise you are free. All the pity then that the RPS has sought to approach the Government about “passes” for photographers. This may result in us losing that freedom, involve a lot of time, trouble and expense and make it far more likely that you are challenged.

24th February 2007

This Week Was – Third Print League Competition

The judge was Alan Towse. Alan is a freelance photographer and a stickler for quality – he has to be in his own work. I think some of our work had been done in a rush and met with a fair bit of criticism from Alan.  However, overall there were some excellent images – the “Annual” is going to be a hot contest.

During the evening Alan mentioned some ”Focus-Stacking” software which allows a number of shots of the same subject taken at different focus settings to be combined into one shot – so creating an enormous depth of field. If you want to investigate this Simon Cotter has emailed me with the web address of its developer. It is:

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/combinezm.htm

Plus the following tutorial on using the software:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/163367/”

Thanks Alan for some excellent advice and an entertaining evening.

Results