Editor’s Notes
Why is it that the various clubs of which I have been a member over the years seem to have an increasingly aged population? When young, I was a member of a camera club where most of us were male and in our twenties or thirties. The sports club to which I belonged was also populated by young people. I am still a member of the sports club (to the extent that I pay a subscription) and now everyone is old. There is no point in mincing words. However, it is true that I now belong to a different camera club, but even here (at BFCC) many are getting on a bit, though the proportion of females is rather higher than at my first club. In fact, it would be interesting to see a list of members broken down by age and sex, as they say.
As one grows older one’s hands tend to be rather less steady, sex notwithstanding, and it is more difficult to hand-hold the camera at slower shutter speeds and more tiring to carry the tripods that become increasingly necessary. Nevertheless, if these tremors are also accompanied by hypertension, there is a chance that beta-blockers may be prescribed and, if they are, improved steadiness of hand can be expected. Indeed, I understand that these are forbidden substances for professional darts players but, as a user myself, I am glad to say that to the best of my knowledge, there is not a problem for amateur photographers, certainly not within SAPA.
Nevertheless and despite all of this, the development of effective image stabilisation techniques have not come a moment too soon for me. Is there a practical person out there prepared to make another contribution in what could become a series dealing with ‘Growing old with photography’? ‘The use of the crutch as an effective monopod’ is just one suggestion. Members will think of others.
Happy snapping!
Malcolm Bowditch
RECENT EVENTS
The Dorset Church competition
Photographs of Dorset Churches, or parts thereof, are produced annually by members in competition for the N K Phillips Cup (prints) and the Secretary’s Cup (slides) and this season’s events took place at the club on Tuesday 19th February. The competitions were well supported with forty-six prints and twelve slides being judged by Mike Weeks of Wareham, who remarked upon the high quality of the work submitted. Mike is no stranger to our club and occasional good natured banter added light relief to the serious business of selecting the winning images. The Phillips Cup was won by Malcolm Bowditch (with a picture of St. Mary’s, Almer) who also came second, whilst Keith Chaloner took the third spot. Highly commended images were by Norman Carey, Keith Chaloner, Colin Sansom (2) and Malcolm Bowditch.
The Secretary’s Cup was won by Eric Langley (with a slide of the Winterborne Clenston Church), who also came second. In this competition, David Cornes was third and Bernard Smith was highly commended.
Adrian’s portraiture evening
The evening of Tuesday 26th February was one of those where senior members of the club take time to pass on skills acquired over many years to younger members, or to those new to a particular photographic genre. This time it was Adrian Oliver who used the evening as a trainee portraiture session. As many will know, Adrian has organised and overseen similar evenings on a number of occasions and they are always well attended and much enjoyed. The wider Oliver family gave support with both Nick and Matthew serving as models together with a young female friend, Hannah. Nick wore his army cadet uniform (he intends to pursue a military career) whilst Matthew appeared in sports kit, which was also appropriate to his interests. Hannah modelled in various outfits, also including sports gear, in order to offer opportunities for action shots involving the throwing and catching of a ball. We expect to see high scoring portraits appearing in up-coming competitions as a result of this successful evening.
Points Cup competitions No 6
Our sixth Points Cups Competitions took place at the club on Tuesday 4th March when our judge was to have been Norman Wiles. Unfortunately however, he had been the subject of a viral infection that had temporarily deprived him of the power of speech and he was unable to perform. Fortunately the Wiles family has strength in depth and wife Carol was able to take over at the last moment and, although it had been some time since she last judged, she quickly settled into her stride and dealt firstly with the slides and then with the prints. In judging and marking a total of seventy-two images, she commented frankly and helpfully and awarded marks consistent with her clear views on what was expected. Although no tens were awarded for any of the slides submitted, Graham Poynter received 9½ for one of his, thus beating an Eric Langley submission by the narrowest margin. Dionne Horsfall was riding high with her prints at this event, scoring two tens, one with a colour print and one with a monochrome image. Colin Cross also received a ten for a colour print.
Dr Davies Cup
On Tuesday !8th March, the club held a slide competition for the Dr Davies Cup. This is for sets of three related slides featuring any subject. Twenty sets were submitted on the night to receive critical appraisal from Martin Weston of Bournemouth P.S., who was the judge for the evening. He gave the time necessary to ensure a fair result, to provide helpful comment for the photographers involved and instruction and entertainment for the rest of us. From a very good quality entry, Martin gave both first and second places to Julian Forder. Julian’s winning panel comprised semi-abstract, semi-macro pictures of patterns formed by ice and the light reflected from it. His runner-up set featured beautifully lit woodland scenes. In third place was Graham Poynter (mountain scenery) while both Norman Carey and Eric Langley were highly commended for their entries. This competition was followed by two short illustrative AV presentations by Chairman Colin Sansom showing cars that he has owned over the years and his fiftieth birthday experience driving cars at Brands Hatch.
‘Get your kicks on Route 66’
On Tuesday 25th March we were invited to get our ‘kicks on Route 66’ when Jacky and Mike Smith took turns to give their very entertaining, slide-illustrated talk on the iconic, but now relatively little used, North American highway from Chicago through eight states to the Pacific coast at Santa Monica in California. Even though many of us have never travelled this road, we most of us felt a sense of nostalgia as the names and images of towns, made familiar in the popular western culture of the middle of the last century, were displayed and described. The last time we got our kicks with Jacky and Mike, we enjoyed their presentation on ‘The Tarrant valley’, a title making much more sense locally perhaps than ’Get your kicks on, and adjacent to, the B3082’.
EVEREST
As many of you will be aware, Sir Edmund Hillary died recently. It was 1953 when, accompanied by Sherpa Tensing, they reached the summit of Everest (29,035 feet). Hillary instantly became a hero of his homeland, New Zealand, and known throughout the world; an amazing achievement for a bee keeper. This event brought back happy memories for me of two treks (not mountaineering) I did in 1998 at the age of 66. The first trek was from Pokhara towards Annapurna South, the highest point we reached was Ghorapani (9,400 feet) with clear views of the mountain. The second and more memorable trek was towards Everest. We flew in a Russian ex-army helicopter (20 passengers, 40 ton payload) to Lukla airport (9,200 feet) in the foothills of the Himalayas and started our trek towards Everest. After two days we reached Namche Bazaar (11,300 feet) where we stayed two days to acclimatise to the altitude. We trekked on with overnight stays at Sanasa (11,800 feet), Thyanboche (12,700 feet) and Panboche (13,100 feet). The highest point we reached just beyond Panboche was approximately 13,500 feet, where we were only 12½ miles from the peak of Everest in a straight line. We had excellent views of Everest and adjacent Lhotse (27,900 feet) and Lhotse Shar (25,100 feet) from both Namche Bazaar and Thyanboche. At our highest point we were 3 days trekking from base camp (17,600 feet), but there is no accommodation above Panboche and we weren’t camping. We had excellent weather most of the time providing excellent views. There were four of us in the group, one Canadian girl and two lads from Holland, all less than half my age and hence fitter. The trip was organised by Exodus and on the treks we had two local guides and either 1 or 2 porters carrying our 12-lb packs. Some of the climbs were tough going, such as up to Thyanboche, a rise of 2,000 feet and steep - 2½ hours to go up and 1 hour to descend. Although overall we achieved an elevational climb of 4,300 feet, there are a number of deep valleys to cross, greatly adding to the total climb. In addition there are those long suspension bridges to cross – five on one day alone. You don’t attempt to cross when the Yaks are coming the other way! Likewise you don’t pass Yaks on the outer edge of the tracks, otherwise you could easily be pushed over the edge. After 1953 Hillary became a great friend and benefactor of the Sherpa people. They are a group who live in the high Himalayas and he helped build many schools, hospitals, etc. and the rebuilding of the big monastery at Thyanboche. On one trek we visited a hospital at Kunde (12,600 feet) which Hillary had been involved in building. It was staffed by an English couple, both doctors, and we had an interesting talk by the lady. At that height there is a third less oxygen in the air, so climbing is a slow process. Hillary visited this area about 40 times but in latter years could not get up to the higher villages. The opportunities for photography are great but as you need both hands free it means carrying your camera in your day pack, which entails stopping and taking off your pack each time you wish to take a photograph. As I was always at the back I wasn’t keen on stopping. However, there were opportunities at the lunch and night stops. In order to minimise the weight I was carrying I only took my print camera on the Everest trek and ever since have regretted my decision. If you are reasonably fit and love mountains I strongly recommend this Everest trek; the memories will stay with you for the rest of your life.
Bernard Smith
