Newsletter of the North Cheshire Photographic Society

March 1999

I started real photography when I retired. A City and Guilds course introduced the art of taking, developing and printing. We showed each other our results and we learned a lot from each other as well as the lecturer.

A year later I joined a club and had lots of prints and slides to enter in the competitions, but which ones? Usually three or four chose themselves in my estimation, then one or two "make-weights" would vie for inclusion.

When it came to judging it was usually the make-weights that did best.

What did the judges want?

Once a more experienced member said, "Hedging your bets again?" on a handing in night.

He was absolutely right. I could never decide what would do well.

I read books and articles on composition saturation spotting and how other people succeeded, but I still could not say what judges want.

One thing I do know. If an idea hits me and I think about it for some time before starting, the judge will like it and talk about author-input and take time to explain how I could "easily" have done better.

If there is a theme in the competition and I take many variations on that theme and then print the ones I like and then arrange them in a print panel, well at least I like the result.

So I will finish where I started, "What do they want?"

Come on you judges – answer the question – in the next newsletter

Stuart

The Annual Exhibition last week saw two evenings of competitions. On Wednesday evening we hosted what we believe was the UK’s first interclub digital print competition, - and very nearly won it with 91 points out of 100 from our panel of five prints! Special congratulations are due to Brian and Jon, whose prints both scored 20. In the end we were beaten into second place by Dumfries C.C. who scored 97 points with three of their panel earning 20’s. Overall, the submitted prints ranged from what might be described as ‘obviously digital’, through ‘manipulated’ and ‘subtle’ to work that was all but indistinguishable from conventional darkroom photography. All in all this was a highly successful evening; and one that I hope will be repeated in future events.

The interclub slide knockout competition saw 23 clubs competing on Thursday evening for the North Cheshire Challenge Trophy. Southport P.S. were victorious on the night, closely followed by Leek C.C. and Wigan 10, with the digital winners, Dumfries C.C. in fourth. Congratulations to Southport C.C., who also had the winning slide. We will look forward to meeting them for a Print and Slide Battle next year.

‘Here and There’, on Friday evening gave centre stage to four of our club members for the evening. Brian Turnbull, Jon Allanson, Frank Hutchinson and George Beaumont combined forces and produced a range of excellent slide sequences that covered all aspects of travel photography.

Finally, I am sure that many of you are aware just how congested the club scene is at this time of year. In deference to that, next year our Annual Exhibition may well be brought forward to February.

Colin

The syllabus seems to be running fairly smoothly. Our guest speakers have been well up to standard, both in quality and variety, while we were given an excellent trip around the world by our own George Beaumont. Thank you George. The theme evening, however, was very poor both in attendance and material. I know that these small room evenings are a problem, but it is up to us to make them into something worthwhile. I must confess that on this occasion I was at fault as much as anybody. Please try to bring something interesting for the next theme evening on the 6^th April when the two themes are night photography and transport.

On 23^rd March we have a 15-15 Print and Slide battle with Sale P.S. After our recent trouncing by North Manchester, we shall need to be at our best – Sale is a strong club.

We have some first-class guest speakers to look forward to. On 30^th March we again welcome Geoff Robinson, a previous and much missed member of NCPS. His prints are always top quality. 20^th April sees a visit from Beryl and Andrew McLachlan with their entertaining AV Roadshow.

Gerald

What do the following have in common? The monkey ghost; King John; Lawrence of Arabia; A three legged donkey; the Cerne Giant.

Answer. They are all visually represented in Dorset.

On April 27^th Fred and Sheila Edwards will reveal some of the Secrets of Dorset, which will be illustrated both by slides and by a set of colour prints done by Sheila. Fred will do the talking, as this is his forte – and incidentally Dorset is one of his favourite topics!