News

14th May 2009

Crewe PS members’ work easily ranks among the best in the L&CPU. With our experienced workers eager to build on their successes, such great promise from several new members and others fired up by our excellent season ready to take the stage I can hardly wait to see what the 2009-10 season will bring.

This Week Was – The Five Towns

Although our Season is over last night’s event for many of us is a highlight of our year.  The Alan Challinor Trophy – as it is properly called struck a note with me when I first heard about it as its alternative title – The Five Towns Monochrome Print Competition. What an exciting prospect – nothing but photography’s oldest and most elemental means of expression.   It was originated in the days of film and, a few years back the question which exercised minds was “should we allow digital prints”. At the time we were struggling anyway to find sufficient number of workers to satisfy the rule of “chemical prints only” and I seem to remember Tom blowing the dust off his darkroom gear and knocking off one or two of the “real” monochromes to make the numbers up!   Thankfully common sense reigned and they let digital in. Now we can remember that with a wry smile. Don’t dismiss this lightly though – the issue has even split clubs in the recent past and many clubs have their origin in a schism over digital photography.

Margaret Salisbury is one of the most highly regarded judges in the region. We love the way she gives us a little anecdote or bit of advice for nearly every picture, we hang on every word as she highlights strengths and weaknesses in the print, we chuckle at her jokes and self-mockery. She is a gem.  Apart from a hatred of “trains” and a penchant for the inclusion of sheep in a picture we have little to characterize her choice in pictures. That is good – there is subjectivity in judging – inevitably, but a good judge will try to suppress it.

Thank you for your patience. Now good news or bad news first?

Bad news – we lost.

Good news? – there is more good news than bad…

Firstly we lost by only ONE MARK!!

Secondly, the two prints remaining on the stand at the end of the evening, from which Margaret was to choose the “Best Print” were both Crewe’s – Carol Cotter’s Leaf Skeletons and Ian Whiston’s Stampeding Zebra – so we were going to win that one.

After a lot of consideration – they are such different images – she chose Ian’s picture.

So, congratulations Ian.

Ian had some more good news this week – he had four acceptances in the Solihull – one of which got a PAGB ribbon – Kori Bustards Fighting.

So, a great end to the Season for us.

The total scores were:-

ALSAGER – 161, CREWE – 175, NANTWICH – 172, SANDBACH – 166 and WHITCHURCH – 176

We had 4 retained as best images for final high scores, Nantwich had 3, Sandbach 1 and Whitchurch 3. All Whitchurch’s came in the first half so we had them marked as the winners at that stage but we and Nantwich came back strongly in the second half and nearly closed the gap.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

I will not be issuing the CPS Email on a regular basis now until we restart on September 10th but I will send you a note from time to time. Keep looking at our website and the L&CPU’s to keep in touch. We will be putting the new programme on the website sometime soon.

The first thing to watch for is the results of the L&CPU Projected Image Annual. The judging takes place on Saturday and the results will be on the L&CPU website as soon as they are sent to me – maybe Sunday, certainly by Monday unless there is some problem (if there is there will be a note on the home page of the L&CPU website).

Let us know what you are up to. Steven Pepper has a website and blog to tell us what HE is doing. We are delighted to have Steven, Tracey and Ian as new Committee members, they will, I know, be a great help in carrying the Club forward.

Steven’s blog and website can be found at..

http://www.pepperartblog.blogspot.com/

www.pepperart.co.uk

Have a great summer – the very best of luck with all your endeavours!


John Royle
May 15th 2009
 

7th May 2009

This Week Was – A Celebration of the Season!

We had AVs of the Awards presentation, Dot’s pictures, Tracey’s pictures and my personal selection of the year’s PDIs.

The highlight for me though was YOUR presentation to me of YOUR versions of my Pink Bicycle. This was in appreciation of my work for the Club and it was really touching how many of you had contributed to it. Thank you very much for that, I will treasure it. You kept the secret very well. During the evening too many people expressed their appreciation of my work and the friendly atmosphere we have a CPS. They said that membership of the club had increased their enjoyment of their hobby and helped them to take better pictures – you can’t do better as a club than that!

Let’s us thank also Tom and Mary, Sharon and Dave, Dave Lucas, Simon and Carol, Rosemary, Alan, Bill, Ian, Mick (i.e. the Committee) plus Les Simpson for organizing our excursions. They have all played a part in making Crewe PS what it is.

L&CPU Print Annual

Marks for the L&C Print Annual seemed low on the whole, though I look forward to the full results to confirm this impression.  Anyhow, we did well.

Highlight of the individual marks was Dot's 13 for "Horse Whisperer" - it also gained a commendation and has been selected for the PAGB comp. Her "Resting Sealion" gained 12 and Peter Rees was one of the judges and said he was disappointed that it and Carol's "Leaf Skeletons" didn't do even better.

Dave's "Jade In Purple", Carol's "Sail Away" and "Leaf Skeletons", Les's "Castle Guards", Stephen Talbot's "RS splash" and Ian's "Patrolling Cheetah Coalition" and "Catamaran Racers" all scored 12 and/or were selected for the Folios.

As a Club we did very well; gaining 4th place in the Nature Section.  The Club results are on the L&CPU website.

NEXT YEAR’S PROGRAMME

We have been able to fit in a THIRD PDI LEAGUE COMPETITION.

We have just a few things to finalise on the programme, which will appear on the website in due course.

We have Ian Whiston, Ron Smith, John Wells, Tony Redford and Graham Dean speaking to us. We will have another portrait evening. All our battles bar one are away next year and we will be dropping the Slide Annual, so there will seem to be fewer competitions on Thursday evenings – despite our one EXTRA comp – the third PDI League.

Our new Committee first meets on August 25th.

We have had a great year. Crewe PS is now one of the best known clubs in the L&CPU and I hope next year we can underline that. With help from Ian Whiston we can enter more L&CPU print and digital competitions. What matters most though is what happens every Thursday night and that we help you enjoy your photography and get out of it what YOU want – YOUR ideas, not someone else’s!

John Royle
May 8th 2009
 

30th April 2009

This Week Was – The PDI KO!

We had 121 images submitted (perhaps we should have 5 or even 4 per member next year). They were excellent – I would not have liked the task of judging them; natural history, sports, architecture, portraits, street photography, landscapes, creative – everything!

I thought we might try simply voting each individual image IN or OUT but quickly realized what might happen – the images were so good you would not be eliminating them fast enough.

So we resorted to the old method of looking at the images in pairs and then voting for them.

In the end there were 3 images left. Carol Cotter’s beautiful Air & Water and two great natural history shots from Ian Whiston; Dark Eyes and Caribbean Flamingo. A straight vote gave Carol the trophy with 16, both Ian’s images scoring 8.

Totalling the scores this morning; with 1 mark for every round survived I arrived at the following author totals… I have only counted totals for people who entered the full 6 images.

Ian Whiston first with 19. Dot Johnson 15, Simon Cotter 14, Carol Cotter 11, Tracey Dean 10, Ken Dickenson and Darren Carter 9, Paul Hill & Maurice Baker 6, John Royle 4, Stephen Talbot and Peter Bainbridge 3, Paul, Kerry, Ken, Les 2. Phil Jones 1. Tom 3 with 5 images.

Another great evening.

Next week – A Celebration of The Season

We will have the prints back from the L&CPU – and the results! The slides and PDIs are judged on May 16th.

So, we will review our triumphs and the take a little refreshment and have a natter.

Don’t forget the FIVE TOWNS MONOCHROME COMPETITION on May 14th more details next week.

John Royle
May 1st 2009

24th April 2009

CREWE PS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING and AWARDS EVENING
 

Here is a list of the AWARDS

    SLIDES

The AGM

We reviewed the changes we made last year – all to do with competitions. They were; reducing the slide competitions to 1, having 2 League and one Final (Jim Harrison Trophy) with PDIs, and reducing entries per member to 3 per competition. All measures worked well – reducing entry number was particularly fortuitous – we did not realize membership was to swell by 14!

Changes for 2009/10

Committee

We are delighted to welcome Ian Whiston, Tracey Dean and Steven Pepper to the Committee. Ian has such a wealth of knowledge of both photography and competition matters that he will be invaluable to us. Tracey and Steven will be great additions to the Committee because they are new members and one thing they can do is make sure that everything makes sense to new members – it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that “everybody knows” because we established members are used to things! They are both very keen and will have new ideas and perhaps move on to taking a specific role later.
I would like you to know that Dave Reilly would also liked to have joined the committee – he has expressed interest from day one but his business commitments are really too great at the moment. He is keen to help though.

The saddest thing about the Committee changes is that Bill Bailey has stood down. Bill has served on the Committee for a long time and we always valued his wisdom and common sense. He is always very sincere and a true gentleman and I really felt we had done well when he voiced his approval (which I am pleased to say was quite often!).

COMPETITION RULE CHANGES

Members voted heavily in favour of the following changes:

1. We will count TWO best scores from each competition, rather than THREE, towards the LEAGUE totals.
2. We will all PRIORITISE our entries in each competition (1, 2, 3). In the event of the entry being too big the competition secretary will discount your third choice. You will be able to enter that one in the next competition.
3. There will be a NATURE section in the print and PDI competitions. The definition of NATURE will be that of the L&CPU (2009) rules, which does permit animals in captivity but not domestic animals or cultivated plants. Judges will be asked to mark COLOUR GENERAL, NATURE and MONOCHROME separately. In the PDI we will have GENERAL and NATURE. In every other respect NATURE will be counted in the LEAGUES as COLOUR. This will permit you to enter a combination of COLOUR GENERAL and COLOUR NATURE without prejudice to your totals. The prioritizing proposed (item 2) 2 still applies.
4. Ian Whiston proposed that we have THREE PDI LEAGUE COMPETITIONS. This was passed IN PRINCIPLE by a narrow margin. “In principle” because the programme is largely finished and it may not be possible to find a sensible spot for the competition, especially since in the new season I have spread out the PDI comps more evenly through the year.

The AGM AOB sparked some lively discussion and two suggestions were made which we will act on.

Firstly a credit card sized membership card which members may carry with them to give some credence if challenged for taking photographs in a public place (which is, of course, perfectly legal). After the meeting Stephen Talbot told me that self adhesive fold over plastic holders are available and members could insert a passport type photograph too.

Secondly sweat shirts/fleeces with Crewe PS on them might be of interest to members, especially to intimidate the opposition at battles!! We will look into this – I know that it is possible to buy these singly so we should have no trouble ordering a dozen or so. Bob Dennis mentioned this at the last L&CPU Exec Meeting.

CPS MEDALS

After the AGM four more awards were made.

Last year Tom & Mary Seaton were awarded medals to mark their great service to the club. It was fitting that they be singled out in this way but there are others who have made important contributions to the successful management of the club and this year we honoured three of them with medals.

They were our Treasurer, Sharon Barton, our Equipment Officer, Dave Lucas, and our Publicity Officer and Webmaster, Simon Cotter.

Sharon has been very important in several initiatives in the past few years; the Exhibition, the Photo Day and our recent portrait evening to mention just a few. She works hard during meetings – together with her assistant and husband Dave – to check moneys and pay the visitor (a task she does so discretely that I still have to spot it happening!!).

Dave does a superb job in setting up the equipment – which is needed now for most meetings. Sometimes he is also called upon to read out titles etc and he always does his best to help us by displaying prints if it is possible. He does this job efficiently – so efficiently that we often take him for granted – shame on us for that!

Simon has taken a very active part in running the club almost since his arrival here a few years ago. His determination to help newcomers (like himself!) naturally lead him very quickly into being publicity officer and he has done that job superbly well. He took over the website from John Thompson and made it very much his own and a very important advertisement for the club – it is often the way that new members find us and you might be surprised how many people in the region look at it and are impressed by the quality of work they see there. Simon is also a bit of a one-man-ginger-group when it comes to pushing through ideas at committee meetings. I have to add that he and Tom are my first consultants.

Chairman’s Choice

I had thought for a while that, while it is great to see people getting these trophies and certificates for their work we needed a broader based award. Medals honour work for the club but we should have something which singled out one person for special mention in regard to their photography and in more general terms than competition success.

Last year Carol Cotter took this award because we had seen her emerge almost before our very eyes and develop a style all of her own. That is the kind of thing that the award is about.

This year’s winner is someone who is a true original and an inspiration to us all. Inspirational especially because her subjects are often everyday – things accessible to us all.

But she has a very special way of capturing them. She has an artist’s eye for composition but also the ability to capture that unique moment and angle; Hallmarks of a great photographer.

Chairman’s Choice for 2009 was DOT JOHNSON.


John
24th April 2009

16th April 2009

Tonight was – Portrait Evening

“I’ve just learnt more off that bloke in 2 minutes than I’ve learned in a lifetime”

This was said last night of Ian Whiston. Exaggeration no doubt but it indicates how pleased people were with the sort of advice they were given during a very successful evening organized by Ian together with Sharon and Dave.

Many thanks to them for doing that, and lugging all that gear up those dark steps to the Library. They also brought along an excellent model, Emma.

Member Kerry was our second model and they both did very well indeed – if you haven’t got some good shots the fault is entirely yours! (though, to be fair it may have been the first time you were faced with handling your camera’s flash synch and had to investigate the unknown regions of your camera’s menus)!

Message from Ian – Don’t forget to switch your light balance on your camera back from “Flash”.

John
17th April 2009

9th April 2009

Tonight was – Battle with Nantwich CC

Judge: Chris Kay ARPS

And we won!!

I said to Nantwich that the greatest compliment we can pay them is to say that in all our “battles” they are the ones we hope to beat!

You know from last week that this is very sincerely meant. They have quite a number of very talented established members who are good friends and, like us, they have gained a number of new members some of whom have shot right to the top!

It was very close indeed. 2 marks in the end – which in 300plus is very close.

Chris did a very good job (“he would say that wouldn’t he!”) – no honestly!– he and his wife Barbara had just returned from a fabulous holiday – so he did well to keep focused on the job in hand!

Well done Nantwich, some great work there – and seeing it is all part of the night.

Well done to Crewe, of course.

Next we have the 5-Towns!!

Take a look at these two sites. Thanks to Ken Hewitt for these. Ken is a professional photographer, fellow Leica fan and recipient of this email!

http://www.ntprints.com/pics_3377/Edward-Chambre-Hardman-Collection.html?pn=1&so=1&sci=1232038989&gid=3377

http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/ 

Expensive Tea

I cannot help wondering if there is a bit of confusion over our attendance fee. It is just that – it is NOT for the tea and coffee. We cannot charge for the tea and coffee but we can ask an attendance levy and that’s just what we do. So please remember to pay.

New people giving us the “three-meeting-trial” are still expected to pay the attendance levy too.

John Royle
9th April 2009

2nd April 2009

Jim Harrison Trophy – Judged by Christine Widdall

What a great evening!

Jim’s daughter Jean was there to present, as it turned out, Ian Whiston with the Jim Harrison Trophy for 2009.

Congratulations to Ian who has had a very successful season with us. I’m pleased to say that he has agreed to join our Committee next year. His contribution will be very valuable indeed because he probably has a wider knowledge of competition photography than any of us. You will also know how generous he is with his extensive technical knowledge – most of my best tips of the year have come from Ian!

It was not just the occasion which made last night so special. It was a privilege to welcome as judge Christine Widdall AFIAP, DPAGB, BPE3*. I do not have to explain to you now why she is one of the most sort after judges on the circuit; she has a ready understanding of what the photographer is trying to do and is very adept at articulating a picture’s strengths and weaknesses. There is a charm and confidence about her which makes you readily accept an “11”!

Thank you very much Christine for adding so much to this special evening.

The shots I took of Ian, Jean and Christine will be on the L&CPU website next week. Always assuming the pictures “come out”, of course, and I will not know that until I get them back from the chemists.

The 15+ results are listed at the end of the email. Natural history ruled again, hardly surprising with the talent we now have in the club for this area. Three people had 3 each in the awards; Paul Hill, Patrick Whalley and Ian Whiston. Two members had 2 each; Dave Barton and Darren Carter. Both Dave and Darren have had a very successful season – and it is Darren’s first with us. I hope Darren can manage some prints next year!

Congratulations to those 5 especially, yes but I think every one of the 34 of you who entered the PDIs this year has something to look back on with pride. A very successful and enjoyable year.

JIM HARRISON TROPHY RESULTS
 

John
3rd April 2009
 

28th March 2009

The Maurice Ashwin Trophy – Judged by Alan Towse

What a great evening! Alan Towse was on great form with his breezy anecdotes and ready advice.   The great thing was the pictures – I found them tremendously exciting - you felt that you really didn’t know what was coming next.   The Maurice Ashwin has been a bit of an afterthought in recent years – perhaps because we saw a lot of portraits in our normal competitions and the Maurice Ashwin tending to be a bit of a re-run with only perhaps Dave and Sharon entering new material.  Last night proved that it can delight and surprise and provide us with a very entertaining evening.

I hope the older members didn’t mind me going on about the successes of the new members but I was delighted to see Paul Stringer, Steven Pepper, Tracey Dean and Dave Reilly do so well.   Carol Cotter’s two mono portraits of children I thought were a delight. We also had a lot of new pictures from Sharon and Dave Barton with good marks and successful entries from Ian Whiston and Howard Edwards.

But the winner – Simon Cotter’s Split Personality was a worthy one. Everyone gasped at its originality. It was technically very good being very detailed (some very expert sharpening!) but the split outfit was amazingly well executed. We all knew it was a stitch up but you could not tell – even on the closest examination. We must get him to tell us how he did it.

Results

18s – Beth – Paul Stringer, Carly – Paul Stringer, Connor – Peter Robinson, Peterson’s Revenge – Ian Whiston, Kate – Sharon Barton, Catherine – Dave Barton, Forgotten – Carol Cotter, Liz -Ken Dickenson, The Scrutineer – John Royle, I’m ready For My Close-up – Carol Cotter, Close-Up – Dave Barton and Fair Sax – Ian Whiston , Windswept – Sharon Barton.

19s – Natashe – Paul Stringer, The 5am Fisherman - Steven Pepper, Kirsti – Paul Stringer, Liz – John Royle, Little Ray Of Sunshine – Carol Cotter, The Princess – Howard Edwards, The Glance – Ian Whiston, Give Me Attitude – Dave Barton, Shropshire Bedlam – John Royle, Jade In Purple – Dave Barton, Nonna – John Royle.

20 and winner of the Maurice Ashwin Trophy – Simon Cotter for Split Personality.

Well done to you all for a superb entry. Any question of dropping this competition – forget it!

Next week - The Jim Harrison Trophy

The Judge is Christine Widdall AFIAP DPAGB BPE3*. Christine is a highly respected judge and international salon medal winner. Her serene Still Lives, captivating street photography and beautiful landscapes have appeared in many nationals. We all sincerely hope that she will become President of the L&CPU in 2010.  You can see her work at www.steelorchid.co.uk  Look at the blog to get a flavour of her competition work.  She knew Jim Harrison because he belonged to Oldham PS (Christine’s home club) for many years – in fact was a life member – he was only at Crewe for about 12 years. Chris came to our Centenary Celebrations for Jim in 2006.   Some of the images may be the same but the results may be quite different. This highlights what should be obvious about judging – it is subjective and you will always get different opinions – and thank goodness for that!

Committee Membership

I am delighted to say that we are getting interest from people in joining the committee. I think we really need a representation from the new membership to help us keep the club on the right track for the future. I shall say something more about this when the nominations are in – but suffice it to say that, if the suggestions which are in the air do come about it gives me great confidence in the Club’s future.

John
27th March 2009
 

19th March 2009

This week was – The Print Annual
 

Superbly well judged by one of the most respected photographers in the region – member of EyeCon and FRPS, MPAGB EFIAP/b – Peter Rees. (http://eyeconphotogroup.users.btopenworld.com)

Why have you not heard his name before? He is from the Midland Federation – not the L&CPU.  I said afterwards that we have the ideas and inspiration in abundance but we sometimes fall down on the technical side and the twiddly bits – not that Peter is obsessed with the technicalities – I would not have such regard for him if he was!

The overall result was that Dot Johnson got our Print Of The Year with “Male Seal At Rest”. Dot’s pictures often give you that something extra which turns a very good shot into a very special one. She does this time and again which can mean only one thing – she has real talent. Well done Dot!  The winner of the Mono section and runner-up was Carol Cotter with a print which I expected great things of the moment I saw it at the beginning of the season – Leaf Skeletons. Well done Carol!  It was a real ladies night, wasn’t it – we even had two lovely lady assistants for Peter. But don’t tell Dave Lucas!

RESULTS – COLOUR

17 –

Castle Guards – Les Simpson
Immature Bald Eagle – Ian Whiston
Follow My Leader – Ken Dickenson
Black Swan – Ken Dickenson
Glaucous Gull Feeding – Paul Hill

18 –
Brown Hare – Patrick Whalley
Heron – Maurice Baker
Tar Tunnel – Simon Cotter
Horse Wisperer – Dot Johnson

19 –

Atlantic Seal – Maurice Baker
Female Sothern Hawker – Patrick Whalley (HIGHLY COMMENDED)
(Sorry folks but I failed to record the “Commendeds” fully)

20 –

The Lion Stare – Ian Whiston – THIRD
Nonna – John Royle – SECOND
Male Seal At Rest – Dot Johnson – FIRST

MONOCHROME

Peter’s speciality and I was especially interested in his comments here.

17 –

Elephant In Close-Up

18 –

Common Gull – Ken Dickenson (Commended)
Avenue D’Lena – David Reilly (Commended)

19 –

Tea For Two – John Royle (Commended)
Stampeding Zebras – Ian Whiston (THIRD)

20 –

Two’s Company – Ken Dickenson (SECOND)
Leaf Skeletons – Carol Cotter (FIRST)

NEXT WEEK – The Maurice Ashwin Trophy – Judged by Alan Towse.

19th March 2009
 

13th March 2009

THIS WEEK WAS – Battle With Sandbach

Congratulations to Sandbach for their win last night; 337 points to 333 (Results appear at the end of this News item)

We should have won – for a moment I assumed we had! But all credit to Sandbach for beating us because I know that they are struggling to make an entry in the PDIs and we had lots of choice – plus a sight of their PDIs beforehand!  However, we did deliberately use images from 10 different workers – although a  second one of Simons crept in at the end of the PDIs somehow!  It would be good to get more of you involved in the selection process somehow.

NEXT WEEK – THE PRINT ANNUAL

The judge is Peter Rees FRPS EFIAP MPAGB – a monochrome specialist and a chap with an avuncular style which I think you will enjoy very much. He is a member of the group EYECON http://eyeconphotogroup.users.btopenworld.com/– a founder member of which was the highly regarded Adi Sethna who died in 2006 but is fondly remembered for his stage set constructions which typified some of his later work.

GOSSIP

Watch out for two more newcomers Tim and Phil. Tim was there for his second week last night so perhaps we have a new member there.

Quite a few of you have said how much you appreciate ALAN TOWSE style of judging and the wealth of tips he passes on. I just worry that newcomers might be put off by his rather rough treatment of his poorer scorers. Last week, though I thought he had some very helpful tips – and he is thorough – he had obviously studied the entry very carefully. Just be careful about entering the arty, fuzzy ones!

COMPETITIONS

Speaking of change. Here are some things to consider…

1. Is it time we had a Natural History section? We have 9 or 10 members capable of scoring 20 for a natural history image – perhaps they would like their own competition within our present structure? Their marks would go towards the COLOUR PRINT League score in the prints and the PDIs would be simpler because we only have one category. Difficulty – what IS natural history?
2. Do we scrap slides?
3. Do we continue with the Maurice Ashwin?
4. Do we keep the present League/Final structure?
5. Do we have at least one League comp with a named subject – NOT Open?

 Regards,

 John

12th March 2009

5th March 2009

2nd PDI Competition

The judge was Alan Towse and as we've come to expect from Alan his comments followed the BBC's remit to "Inform, Educate and Entertain"! .  Alan used his journalistic skills, along with sneaky peeks at some of the image's EXIF metadata to provide us with excellent feedback both on areas for improvement and  well taken and produced images.  We really have a very strong group of Natural History workers in the society  was evidenced by the fact that all four of the top images and over half over the top 31 scoring images were Natural History shots!  Congratulations to Paul Hill , Ian Whiston and Bob Bradshaw  who all scored 20/20 (Paul had two 20's!).  Alan said it was very difficult to pick a winning image as all 4 pictures were of exceptional quality but  if he had to it would have been Bob Bradshaw's "Reeling In Dinner" for the unusual subject of chameleon caught in catching its dinner!

The top scoring images were (all of these images are in the member's galleries):

Battle with Sandbach next week.

Print League results..

COLOUR

Ist       Ian Whiston 159
2nd    John Royle 156
3rd     Dot Johnson 155

Paul Hill 152, Stephen Talbot 152, Ken Dickenson 148, Carol Cotter 146, Mary Seaton 143

MONOCHROME

1st     Ian Whiston
2nd    Ken Dickenson
3rd     John Royle

Carol Cotter 145, Stephen Talbot 140, Tracey Dean 124, Tom Seaton 122, David Reilly 118

Congratulations to Ian for a Double Whammy. Congratulations also to the new members who figure there; Tracey, Stephen, David and Paul.

You HAVE to get a full entry in - David and Tom both had one print missing - they could easily have moved up a place.

Remember though that the rule will change next year - only TWO marks from each competition will count. This will be better I'm sure.

Regards,

John
 

26th February 2009

THIS WEEK WAS

The slide folio from the L&CPU Annuals 2008. The commentary was by John Smith and it was a bit of an object lesson in what judges look for. John has a lovely sense of humour which I think he should have made even more use of in his commentary but it was well paced and he did well not to make a big thing of the fact that the images had been cropped during copying.

NEXT WEEK IS

Our Second PDI competition. The judge is Alan Towse. I hope that we will be able to run the evening in our usual way; preview, judges comments and results, review of the top scoring images.

SURELY IT’S “SPIDER”?

No, it is “Spyder” as in the Alpha Romeo.  At Focus On Imaging I bought a SPYDER 3 ELITE on behalf of the club. We agreed at the last Committee Meeting that we should get one. The fact that we were even able to consider it is down to our increased membership now.  It is used for calibrating your monitor. It ensures that the colours and other settings are standardized so that what you see on your calibrated monitor is what the judge will see when he looks at your image on his calibrated monitor.  We haven’t worked out how we are going to pass this round to you all, so more later. Running through my head is the idea that we should start with those of you most familiar with computers and monitors so you can “cascade” your experiences to those you hand it on to. We should probably make a small charge to eventually recover the cost. Some of you who tend to work together could help each other too.  The other thing is that the firm I bought it from – Native Digital – give two vouchers for “profiling” your printer with each machine. This is not directly connected with using the Spyder. It is to make as sure as is possible that what you see on the screen (assuming that your monitor has been calibrated) is what you get when you print.  Every printer, setting and paper needs its own “profile”. For example, when I bought a Spyder 3 last year from the same people I used one of the vouchers to get a profile for my favourite gloss paper – JESSOPS GLOSS.  You download two “pictures” from the Native Digital website. The images are standard test prints made up of lots of little boxes of different colours. You print these on the paper you want a profile for and send it off to Native Digital. They email back your profile for that paper. In Photoshop the profiles are easily stored and you select the right one before you print.  The profile consists of the settings needed on your printer to get the colours on your original test print correct.  We may raffle these two vouchers; the proceeds will help to pay for the machine.

PROGRAMME CHANGE

Please note this change to the programme. . . . .

March 26^th will be the MAURICE ASHWIN TROPHY rather than an OPEN EVENING.  The OPEN EVENING was to have been a PORTRAIT SESSION.  This will now replace the SLIDE KO on April 16th.

So, 26^th March is the MAURICE ASHWIN TROPHY, Apiril 16^th  is a PORTRAIT EVENING. 

The Maurice Ashwin is for PORTRAITS, PRINTS and you can enter up to 6 each.  You may use any portraits that have not been used in the competition before and this INCLUDES prints from your present year’s entries into the Leagues and Annual.  Any prints you want to enter which you have entered in the ANNUAL may be handed straight to Mary on the Annual Competition night (March 19th).

ANY OTHER ENTRIES MARY WOULD LIKE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE PLEASE – to avoid a lot of print handling on Annual night.

John

27^th February 2009

19th February 2009

PRINT LEAGUE COMPETITION THREE

Darryl Giles was the judge and here is a brief outline of the results 

COLOUR

20/20

Time For Bed – Patrick Whalley – FIRST

Male Sealion At Rest – Dot Johnson – SECOND

19/20

Topi In Rut – Ian Whiston

RS Splash – Stpehen Talbot

Patrolling Cheetah Coalition – Ian Whiston

The Lion Stare – Ian Whiston

18/20

Love Rocks! – John Royle

Bathtime – Patrick Whalley

Glaucous Gull Feeding – Paul Hill

Door To Knolwedge – Mary Seaton

Full Throttle – Ken Dickenson

Reflection – Simon Cotter

Avocet – Paul Hill

Nonna – John Royle

Atlantic Seal – Maurice Baker

MONO

20/20

Catamaran Racers – Ian Whiston

19/20

Masterpiece In Metal – Stephen Talbot

18/20

Common Gull – Ken Dickenson

Martial Eagle – Ian Whiston

Bye for now…

John

12th February 2009

NCPS INTER-CLUB

It was good to see so many of you on one or both of the nights this week. The print competition was marred a bit with indecisive judging but this was more than made up for by the superb quality of the images. The PDI last night was superb – Mike MacNamee is a very entertaining judge, throwing in all sorts of snippets about technique, composition and so on from his vast knowledge of portraiture, sports photography etc – we do usually expect him to be right up-to-date with the technology since he edits a photographic magazine. He was decisive, reliable and clearly heard. Great evening. Oh, and there were some good pictures too.

We did quite well on the prints night but were a bit more successful with the PDIs. Congratulations to Darren Carter and Paul Hill for doing so well with their first entries in this competition in the PDI and Bob Bradshaw did superbly well in the prints with a 19 for the immaculate Emerald Damselfly.

PRINTS

1. Sail Away                   Carol Cotter       15

2. Emerald Damselfly     Robert Bradshaw     19

3. Olive Grove               John Royle          16

4. Motorcross Jump         Ian Whiston         17

5. Tickle behind the Ears           Dot Johnson    17

Good marks, but the judge gave so many 19s that is skewed to marks to the high end!

We were 13th

PDIs

1    Flamingo Bathing       Patrick Whalley      ROUND 1

2    Grounded                  Simon Cotter         ROUND 2

3    Moto-Cross Rider       Ian Whiston           ROUND 1

4    Oyster Catcher           Paul Hill                 ROUND 3

5    Moray Firth Sunset    Darren Carter         ROUND 2

We were 12^th

The full results are at the end of the email.

 John

12^th  February 2009

 NCPS RESULTS