Roger Crocombe ARPS returned to us to give us a very detailed and well prepared talk on how we should approach any subject that we want to photograph by preparing ourselves in advance in a structured way. He showed us a series of slides showing the procedures which I will not try to repeat here as Roger said that he would make his talk available with slides on our website.
“First catch your hare” – the famous recipe instruction applies equally well to Nature Photography – be the quarry animal, vegetable or mineral. Our nature photographers travel the world in search of great shots of elusive prey – some even venturing to Norfolk. Last night’s meeting showcased the club’s nature photography with the first half dedicated to the work of Derek Grieve LRPS with the second half of shorter presentations from four others.
So we met again for the start of a new season, and a new format for competitions.
Ray, our vice-chairman, was in charge this evening as Chris is away with his family for a while.
He introduced our guest speaker, Lisa Beaney, who came to judge one of our competitions last season. Lisa hails from Steyning, and is a Wedding Photographer, together with her Husband Phil, and is an award winner in Wedding photography, Fashion and Glamour, and Portrait photography, together with an ARPS with the Royal Photographic Society. According to Ray she is ‘certified’ to instruct in Adobe Lightroom!
Well here we are again, after what can only be described as a very mixed summer. The first meeting was very well attended and we welcomed six new faces, who we hope will join as members. I would ask them to come to some more meetings before they make their minds up, as the first meeting of the season is hardly typical. New folk are sometimes put off by the sight of big mounted prints. We are a bunch of friendly people who enjoy their photography, but who do not take things too seriously. Photography is to be enjoyed.
The meeting was not very well attended, but we welcomed a new member, David Richardson, who had been a member of the club in the 1990s. I arrived a little sad as I has heard that at least three members were leaving us, but left much happier.
Chairman Chris decided to kick off with the presentation of the cups.They were awarded as follows:
APSA, EPSA, EFIAP/s, ABIPP, ARPS, APAGB joined us to judge our Best of Year. A very highly qualified photographer, he explained that his favourite set of letters was receiving recognition from the USA. He remarked on how many good strong images the club was fielding for our best of year competitions, with a lot of monochrome. There was a good selection, and a relatively narrow band of marks. At the end of the evening Glyn showed us a real variety of his work, which was a real treat.
We had three and a half presentations from club members Ray, David, Martin and Chris.
First up was Ray Foxlee talking to us about different methods for producing Black and White images.
Today turned out to be another beautiful sunny day after a chilly start.
A dozen of us assembled at about 11.30am and set off into the gardens at Highdown. We were met almost immediately by some very colourful tulips in all their glory, and the few of us with tripods!, set them up and the shoot began.
Our final print competition of the season was judged by Roger BathardLRPS. He held back a dozen images, and several scored 18 or 19 straight away as well. With just five of the held backs left to score, Roger decided he wanted to go home, but did manage to make his final deliberations. He did say he preferred to just choose the top three, but managed to give us a good spread of marks from 14 to 20. Common themes were the size of the subject in the frame, and subjects placed centrally, but there was nothing really bad!
