WICKHAM MARKET PHOTOGRAHIC
CLUB
NEWS
LETTER
Chairman
:Terry
Goodchild, 01394-388102
Hi everyone,
JOAN EMMENS - It is with regret that I
have to advise you of the death of former club member Joan Emmens
who many of you will know well, Joan died on April 26th aged 55
after a long battle with cancer.
ROSE BOWL - We didn't do too well !
Felixstowe won easily and East Ipswich were also way ahead of us
but the quality of the images presented by those two clubs was
really very good and it made the Wickham Market members who
attended aware of how far we have to go to compete at that level.
But let's put this in context before we get too depressed.
Felixstowe have a membership of about 66 including several really
top amateur photographers and we caught them in the run-up to their
bi-annual Print Exhibition (that's once every two years, not twice
a year as we do) and I suspect that most of the prints we saw at
the Rose Bowl will form part of that exhibition. East Ipswich also
have two or three exceptional photographers and whilst our club
rules relating to inter-club battles limit us to two prints or
slides (each) by each 'author' that is not necessarily a rule which
is applied by our opponents. We take the view that is better for
more members to show work in these batttles rather than confine
entries to just two or three photographers. Having said that
there is no way that we could have done better in this one on
the night, our images, slides in particular, were just not good
enough in this rarified athmosphere. As a club we have decided at
this moment of time to restrict our slide entries to original
images taken in that format. I know for a fact that some (most?
all?) of the images we competed against in the Rose Bowl were
slides produced from digitial images subject to Photoshop
manipulation so we were hardly playing on a level field
but rather kicking towards a goal at the top of quite a
steep hill in the slide category. Nothing illegal in that of
course, many clubs have already gone down that route. But if
we regard the evening as part of a (fairly steep) learning
curve we will have gained something from the event, and we did at
least win some of the prizes in the raffle so ably run by
Sue ! Thanks to all who attended and to those who
brought food and raffle prizes, thanks to Mary Morris and Pat for
organising the the refreshments, to Mary Harden for taking care of
the scoring, to Sue for her work on the raffle (assisted by Brian
who acted as 'Bingo' caller), to John Bygrave and John James for
displaying the prints, to John Cheney for his work with the
projector and certainly not least to Pauline and Brian for acting
as the judge's 'assistants' which allowed me to sit and rest my
painful foot. And to those who helped set up and put away of
course. An excellent evening with much food for thought for
the future I think.
CRITIQUE/SELECTION SESSION - FRIDAY 16TH
- This is the selection evening for the battle with Halesworth and
Greshams on July 4th and is being held early to avoid 'losing' to
many members to holidays. Three prints and/or up to six slides per
member please. and please, PLEASE, PLEASE trawl
back through your prints, images and slides to offer some new
material. Previosuly submitted images are not excluded of course,
but it would be nice to see some new work too. We will look at the
slides first and hopefully have the result for you after the coffee
break, then look at the prints but will not attempt to sort out the
results on the spot, rather we will take the voting papers away and
collate and total the scores over the next couple of days and
advise the results. This is to avoid trying to do this too
quickly and making mistakes, while everyone is kept waiting,
So an earlier finsih is anticiapted this time. If Zimbabawe can get
away with 5 weeks before the results are declared I'm sure we can
be given 48 hours or so ! It was encouraging to have so many
members participating in the Critique part of the last session,
this is the way we will learn to think more about our own images
and to 'plan' them more carefully, the need for this is
something which came across very strongly at the Rose Bowl. Please
try to attend if you can.
CLUB MEETING, FRIDAY JUNE 6th
- This is 'SOMETHING DIGITAL' a
presentation by Mike Trendell, ARPS. A good evening for anyone
even remotely interested in digital photography, which covers just
about all of us I think. Hope to see a full house for that one.
NEW MEMBERS - An offiical welcome to two
new members, Valerie Chandler and Allan Hall, both of whom you
have probably already met at the Rose Bowl and the
Critique/Selection evening proceding that. Welcome Valerie and
Allan and we hope to see you both at all our meetings and events
and look forward to seeing some of your work in due course. As
new members you are automatically qualified to enter the
Lambourne Trophy at the November meeting, in addition to all
other competitions, selections, etc.
PHOTOGRAPHIC OPPORTUNITIES
- I run a series of outdoor summer shoots with
models throughout the summer and although this is not an official
Wickham Market Photo Club activity memebrs of all local clubs are
welcome. The first of these for 2008 is on Sunday June
1st when we will have two (maybe three) female models to
photograph at various locations in Woodbridge. Hannah and Anna have
been 'signed up' so far (some will know either or both of these
girls as we have used them in the past) and the theme will be
'Nautical'. This is a 10am to 2pm shoot and the cost will be
£5 plus a committment to provide at least two prints or images on a
CD for both girls for their portfolios. Please conatct me if you
are interested. Apart from the challenge of this type of
photography (the girls are easy to work with so no problem there)
this is an opportunity to meet other photogrpahers from local clubs
and these shoots are usually very well supported.
THE WAY FORWARD? - Some members were
very disappointed at our showing in the Rose Bowl and have
expressed concern about how we can improve our performance in these
inter-club battles. I think we need to temper our disappointment
with the realisation that Wickham Market Photo Club exists for
things other than cmpetitions. I would like to see us doing better
in competitions of course, but not if that was at the cost of the
friendly nature of the club and sometimes ambition can take too
much of a hold in the minds of members fo some clubs. Believe me
I've been through that scenario. Yes, we all want to improve our
photography, yes, we need to think more about just what we are
doing before we press the shutter, but let's not forget that most
of all we need to produce images that we are happy with, and
that isn't always the same as taking 'competition' shots. What
appeals to one person doesn't appeal to another, how one judge sees
an image is definitely not the same as another may do. I hope
no-one intends jumping off the Orwell Bridge as the result of
Friday's Rose Bowl - but if they do please let us know, it would
make a great shot according to Peter Espley !
Terry