The second half of the evening was devoted to a DPI presentation of images entered in a Solihull international exhibition.  In two parts, the first showed entries in the monochrome section whilst the second entertained us with images from the natural history entry.  All of the images shown were digitally produced and any lingering doubts over the ability of digital capture to do justice to monochrome subjects for example should now be discounted.  It is hoped (by the writer anyway) that more club members may now be inspired to get involved with mono work.  Have a go!  It’s not as difficult as is sometimes suggested, in fact, in many ways, the photographer has much greater freedom of interpretation than is possible with colour.   Many of these photographs were of staggering quality and quite inspirational.  In fact some of us left with the firm intention of producing work of similar quality well before the end of the week!  This could be timely because we all have to remember to have our work ready for handing in for the Annual Exhibition on Tuesday next, the 16^th March.    

Malcolm Bowditch

‘It would be very interesting to hear what others think, so please do use the facility to post a contribution for all to see’.

So far the silence has been deep and totally black, with no detail at all.
Why would this be?
Didn’t anybody read it……?
Perhaps you did read it and:
i) Intended to respond but just haven’t found the time yet.
ii) Intended to respond but was a bit nervous.
iii) Would like to respond but don’t know how to get a comment onto the site.
iv) You are shy.
v) You are new to the club and are a bit hesitant about saying what you think.

If any of the above speculation is near to hitting the mark, the following might help.
For those of you who would like to express an opinion and don’t know how to post a comment, I have repeated what you need to know at the end of these notes. If you are still not sure, or have a problem, just email your views to Malcolm or me and we will put them up for you.
If you are not too confident about expressing yourself in writing and not sure whether what you have written is grammatical, don’t worry, Malcolm or I will be pleased to tidy it up. And don’t worry about making a fool of yourself, I do it all the time and it doesn’t hurt too much after a while.

One other thing, those new to the club and the web site, did you know that there are year’s worth of reports and notes in the archive that you can go back to and read, a lot of it is quite interesting. Just go to the bottom of the home page and click ‘older posts’; this will allow you to go back page by page until you get tired or fall asleep.

Posting a comment to the web site:
There is control over entry to the site to avoid spam and malicious content. This is done by allowing access only to those registered and provided with a password. The mechanism for this in the past was by encouraging members to provide profiles and a portrait. This has not been popular. The other way of becoming registered is simply to allocate the status of ‘subscriber’ plus the provision of a password to members who request it. To become a subscriber you only have to ask (but you do need to ask!).
The subsequent entry of your user name and the password gives access to the comment box at the end of each article. It does not give access to the management of the site and the ability to initiate article, edit and delete etc.
In summary then:
If you wish to be able to comment, ask me (by email) to register you as a subscriber.
If you wish to contribute an article or any other input to the site, send it as a word document to Malcolm Bowditch or me.
How to make a comment if you are registered as a subscriber:
Go to the home page and the Login for member’s panel on the right hand side and left click login.
Alternatively: Go to the home page, open the article you wish to comment on and, at the bottom of the article, where it says Leave a Reply, left click on the logged in link in the line of text (You must be logged in to post a comment.)
You then get the login panel where you enter your user name (exactly as it was given to you) and password, left click login. (If you click the remember me box you will not have to enter your password every time.
This returns you to the home page and the article you selected for comment. At the bottom of the article is a box for your comment. Type it in and left click submit comment. Job done! Before your comment is made live on the site it has to be initiated by the moderator (me).
If you intend commenting in the future, I suggest you copy the bit of text above and save it somewhere you can refer to when you forget (as I frequently do….)
I am afraid that is as simple as I can make it.
Note. Any email sent to the club is automatically routed to my in box.

Keith Chaloner

Of the twelve slides entered, there were no tens awarded but Julian Forder, Graham Poynter and Bernard Smith all received nines (out of ten) for their entries. Of the DPI entries (27) there were again no maximum scores but Norman Carey, Graham Raines (who did get a 10 at the 2008 event) Stephanie Selwyn and Jacky Stevens were all awarded nines.  The prints competitions, with eighteen entries, attracted four maximum scores with tens being granted to Peter Gafney and Dionne Horsfall for mono entries and to Peter Gafney (again!) and Peter Watts for their colour entries. 

As on his last visit, Rob awarded marks in a way that seemed very fair to most – and certainly I found myself frequently agreeing with his scores, though I’ll agree that that doesn’t make him any more right – or wrong!  This still-improving judge gave careful and thoughtful consideration to all of the images on show.  We were again encouraged to give our pictures ‘room to breathe’ and I think many of us did.  However, please also remember the views of another of our friends, the self-styled ‘Sheila the Peeler’ when she is our guest!  (As an aside, our next opportunity to welcome Sheila is on May 4^th for our last Points Cups competitions.)   

This was a well-attended and enjoyable evening and, as a parting shot, it is especially pleasing to record the success of some of our more recent competitors, including Sally Chaloner and Rachel Cooper for their prints and Stephanie Selwyn for her DPIs.  

Malcolm Bowditch

sapa-page1.pdf

This was a very good evening and it may well be that these events are here to stay – certainly there is much to be gained from hearing what others have to say about one’s prints.  For example, it is possible that the circumstances surrounding the experience of capturing the image can, to a degree, mislead the photographer in his assessment of its quality and potential.  A manifestation of the ‘rose tinted spectacles’ syndrome perhaps?  To this extent, the detached opinion of others can be valuable.   

For beginners, there are the additional benefits of having any suggestions for improvements being backed up by those able – and willing – to explain just how such improvements may be made.   

It seems probable that the quality and value of these evenings will develop as we gain experience of this approach to self help.  Currently, with about four at each table and one change during the evening, a member would hear the views of six others.  If there were eight to a table, fourteen separate views would be expressed.  Would this be an advantage?  Alternatively, tables could be visited according to subject specialisation perhaps.  Maybe tables specialising in portraiture, landscape, wild life, mono, etc would help?  It would be very interesting to hear what others think, so please do use the facility to post a contribution for all to see.  

Malcolm Bowditch

The following slide show commentary encompassed the diversity of Kenyan flora and fauna, its geology and the interactions between. From Mount Kilimanjaro to the Rain Forests and arid desert regions; to the Rift Valley, the Highlands and Soda flats, all and more were referred to and illustrated. The relationships between the animals and their habitat was explored as was the complex interdependence of the species and the food chain.We were shown a bewildering variety of Antelope including the endangered ‘Hunters Antelope’; an animal so rare that the photograph was taken in the company of an armed guard.The temperature regulating posture of lizards, the way that desert animals control their metabolism to survive; the impact of tourists on the hunting habits of Lions were but some of the fascinating details of Martin’s discourse. We saw brilliant blue, cream and black striped Guinea Fowl, learned that Cheetah are one of the most successful predators with a 50% success rate when hunting and saw the beautiful Pied Kingfisher (apparently the worlds largest hovering bird).There were of course, Lions, Elephants, Giraffe, Wildebeest, Vulture and numerous others of the ‘expected’ images; plus many not expected.  

That Martin grew up in East Africa and has enjoyed a continued, and expert, relationship ever since will be of no surprise to anyone who enjoyed this magical evening.

Thank you Martin.        

Keith Chaloner

Our judge for the evening was Bill Aven from Warminster and it was his first visit to the club since he judged our annual exhibition in 2005. On this occasion however, Bill’s job was to award points to each slide from a randomly presented total of twenty-four - twelve from each club - and then to repeat the process with prints.  Our judge found much to enjoy in viewing all of the images but he was still able to discriminate effectively between them and this was reflected in a good spread of marks from six to ten.  Having recently enjoyed the Barry Senior approach, bordering on the avant-garde, it was something of a contrast to experience Bill’s equally valid but more conventional approach.   

The higher Blandford scores were as follows.  In the slides section, Peter Gafney received a 10 for his ‘Viking’, with Dionne Horsfall and Graham Poynter each receiving 9½ for ‘Flower’ and ‘Glimpse of the sun’ respectively.  Peter did remarkably well again in the print section scoring another 10 for ‘Charlotte’ - a fine conventional portrait.  This time he was supported by Colin Cross with 9½ for his ‘Lioness and cubs’ and Malcolm Bowditch with a similar score for his monochrome ‘At Porlock Post Office’.  The other ten awarded during the evening was to Kinson for an impressive environmental portrait of a cheetah.  

And so it emerged that Blandford won both the print competition (by 78 to 73½) and the slide competition (by 76 to 73½) and - since we also won both sections in the away leg - thus ensured a place in both competitions in the league finals to be held at Parkstone on March 24th.  

Malcolm Bowditch

sharpeningver3-3feb.pdf

In the event, the slide entry of thirteen failed to yield any maximum marks but both David Cornes and Julian Forder were awarded nines. The DPI competition, with thirty-seven entries, resulted in one ten going to Evan Jones and with four others coming close with 9½ each.  They were John Burt, Norman Carey, Evan Jones and Marilyn Peddle. The prints competitions (34 entries) lead to the award of three tens, one to Dionne Horsfall for a colour print and one each to Malcolm Bowditch and Peter Gafney for monochrome entries.  Three other entries - by Malcolm Bowditch, Peter Gafney and Marilyn Peddle - came within a whisker and were awarded 9½ each. 

As an aside, it was again interesting to note that although slide entry numbers continue to be quite low, projected images as a class are booming with the numbers of DPI submissions exceeding the numbers of prints entered. 

Malcolm Bowditch

This was a very good evening and we can all look forward to welcoming Dr Barry Senior as our judge for the fifth Points Cup competitions next Tuesday, the 2^nd February.

Malcolm Bowditch