FOCUS
Newsletter of the North Cheshire Photographic Society
January 2000
Despite earlier reservations, moving the Exhibition forward by a month has not affected the number of overall entries in the Interclub digital print and slide competitions. The finances are also similar to last year (ie. in the black). I am therefore suggesting to the Committee that they plan the Annual Exhibition in 2001 to take place 7th - 10th February next year.
The earlier date has however posed problems for the Exhibition Secretary, but the main problem of judging can be overcome by completing this on one day with a panel of three judges as arranged this year at the Hazel Grove Bowling and Tennis Club on Sunday 16th January.
This was a most interesting and enjoyable day which started for the NCPS team, of yours truly, Gerald Hallworth, Jon Allanson and the "dinner ladies" Dorothy Redford and Joyce Robson at 10.00am in preparation for the arrival of the judges (Graham Johnson, Tony Pioli and David Hemstock) at 11.00am. The prints to be commended and above were sorted by a 1-5 scoring system for each judge and those to be considered further had to obtain a minimum of 10 marks. These were then sorted into two groups, those which obtained 3 green tiles were considered for HC and above and the Judges conferred on the remainder. The aim of the judges was to select about 20% of the total entries for awards with the proportion of C,HC,VHC dependant on the standard of entries in each category. The Judging of the prints was largely completed by the lunch break when Dorothy and Joyce provided a welcome and an enjoyable lunch. Judging of the prints was completed by 2.30pm. The same procedure was then adopted for the slides and the overall judging of the Annual Exhibition was completed by 4.30pm. All in all,an interesting and fascinating day. Mind you, the NCPS Team had to restrain themselves at times and Jon and Gerald were on tenderhooks whilst the judges' deliberated which print should receive the award for the best photo-journalism print! Eventually they decided in favour of Gerald and Jon received a well deserved VHC.The following day Brian and I sorted out the viewing order for the prints and allocated their positions on the display stands.
When the judging on Sunday had been completed Graham Johnson, supported by Tony Pioli and David Hemstock,said that they would have been prepared to carry out the judging in the presence of the club members or alternatively to give their comments over two club evenings.
Would you therefore, please let the Committee know if you would like them to invite members to the judging next year or to arrange for them to give their comments on two successive club evenings either just before or just after next year`s exhibition.
The success of this year`s exhibition is due to a large extent to all the help I have received from members especially from Tony Redford for his splendid presentation "Yellowstone Through to the Rockies" given at short notice to replace Brian Bower`s slide show. We wish Brian a speedy recovery from his throat problem. I must not forget, either, to record my thanks to Rodney for his help in printing all the tickets and for the display cards mounted alongside the Exhibition prints. And thanks to Jon Allanson for printing all the award certificates and the award labels on the back of the prints. A special thank you to Peter Redford for his computer programming expertise and his help at the Interclub events and for arranging the Exhibition slide titles on the computer monitor. Bill Chadband (with Peter Redford) kindly provided and set-up the amplification equipment - many thanks Bill. Finally a big thank-you to all those members who provided raffle prizes, sold the tickets, took money at the door, served the refreshments, set-up and took down the Exhibition, arranged photo-copying of the catalogue and anyone else I have not mentioned. A wonderful team effort - thank you.
My Final thank-you goes to everyone who entered the exhibition. Congratulations to the award winners. The standard of entries was very high so even if you did not get an award do not be too disappointed.
The points scored in the Exhibition and the results of the Interclub competitions are shown elsewhere in Focus and it would appear that we have at least two new potential contenders for Clubman of the Year - thank heavens for that !!!
All the results and award winning prints and slides are shown on our new website - ncps.org.uk (thanks are due to Peter and Tony Redford for setting this up) .All the award winning prints and slides are now on the Internet and we shortly hope to include the winning Interclub Competition prints and slides.
Gordon Robson - Exhibition Secretary
Will no one protect us from progress?
I remember as a lad when we all got our first two wheeler bikes, so that we could now escape from our immediate home area. We cycled miles around the countryside, and though I suppose our parents were a bit concerned about us no one as I recall tried to stop us. Of course there weren't so many cars on the road then and rich young kids eventually graduated to motorbikes. But I do recall the arguments we had about whether it was fair (or proper cycling) to have Sturmy-Archer three-speed gears. This arose when one of the gang got a new bike with gears and this seemed to put him at an advantage relative to the rest of us. We did our best to show him that we were better off without gears than he was with them, and fortunately his occasionally seized up and had to be mended which clearly proved our point.
These thoughts came to mind as I read the LCPU Focal Points for this winter. An article entitled "What's Real Photography" by David Coan traces the development of photography over the century, and notes the various adverse comments which have accompanied this development. These have varied from criticism about an "obviously touched up" print which won a prize in 1884 through protests about the use of commercially made dry plates, the need to mix ones own chemicals, the use of commercially developed materials in slides, the use of automatic cameras (you only have to point and click - where is the skill in that?) to the use of trade prints in club competitions.
The article was of course leading up to the controversy about "digital" and the ease with which one can now modify (cheat on?) prints. At its simplest "digital photography" implies putting the image into a computer-type system and printing it out using a colour printer. It is hard to sustain an argument that prints should not be produced this way.
Whilst such prints were clearly inferior to the wet-process prints and thus no threat to the old system no problems arose. Now that we are at the stage where it is difficult to say (when simply viewing a print) which way it was printed (if no-one volunteers the information) it is again hard to see how an argument can start. The problem arises with the ease with which the data in the computer can be manipulated and which gives an apparent (unfair) advantage to those with such equipment. However those photographers with big expensive cameras and dark-room equipment, and the means to travel widely abroad have always had such an advantage. With prices tumbling in the digital world more and more of us will have the opportunity to produce first-class prints with ease. What this technological progress will not do is make it any easier for an individual to spot a great, or prize-winning picture. It is not the equipment which produces the great picture but the brain and eye of the beholder. In this respect we are closer than before to the Artist and his paint box. From the myriad of images about us we have to choose that which will make a desirable picture. Our recording technique continuously changes but this final challenge continues and is surely the basic challenge to all photographers.
Oh, and I almost forgot. I now have a bike with 18 gears and cycling has become a pleasure again.
Bill Chadband
Following Colin Leach's resignation as Newsletter editor, and having a computer, and an email address (bill@chadband.freeserve.co.uk), I agreed to take the job on the understanding that I would get plenty of (material) support from the committee, and hopefully the general membership too].
Being perhaps the newest member of the Club I have little knowledge of its history or evolution. I expect the Newsletter has been through many vicissitudes with high and low points and that many approaches have been tried. I guess that it is best not to know what may have happened in the past: I can then approach the job with an open mind; and one or two thoughts immediately spring to mind. One is that though the competition secretary pins up on the Board the results of each quarterly competition, members do not have a permanent record of these results for their own file. This struck me when I (at last ) entered the quarterly competitions and got a commended! Where was this recorded for posterity? So I propose that we record the competition results in Focus as they arise. If we retain our Focus Newsletters then we will have our own historical records. A similar argument applies regarding the inter-club battles. The selection committee endeavours to select pictures within the rules to beat the opposition but there is no accounting for the tastes of judges. It has been particularly illuminating to observe that pictures which get the highest section mark in one battle, when re-entered for a subsequent battle may not do nearly so well. Only the competition secretary has the full results and I think it would be a service to members to record them for posterity in Focus.
We elect a committee annually to take on the running of the Club and trust them in between times to do a good job. Yet I think it would be nice to hear from them what problems they are facing and how they are responding on our behalf. A summary of the monthly minutes (leaving out any sensitive material) could be published in the Newsletter.
Tony Redford and Peter and others spent part of the Christmas vacation setting up a web site for the club. It has been well thought out and stands comparison with any of the other sites I have visited. One decision made was to publish our more recent news-letters on the web. This has the advantage that we can speak to the world (at least those with the right ears, and who are listening!) via our newsletter. Thus when we record our club or inter-club battles we are now speaking to the great photographic community outside. Of course it beholds us to get our facts right, and to remember who is listening when we put forward our views and opinions. I mention this because I would like to include a letters section in the newsletter open to members to air their views/let off steam. I am pleased, and grateful, to John Smith for taking the trouble to write to me, commenting upon my articles in the last Focus. John did not know that I had taken on the editor's job when he wrote the letter but has agreed that I can publish it as my first letter. Perhaps you, the readers, have other ideas about how Focus should evolve? If so please let me know.
Bill Chadband
The 15-15 Battle with Bramhall P.S.
The Print & Slide battle with Bramhall P.S. (the other local club) raises the interesting (delicate?) question of which club uses the slides or prints of certain members who are "common members" to both clubs. Of course we solve this problem by barring such members from entering their work for such competitions. This gets the said members out of a difficult position and gives more opportunities to other club members. For the battle, which took place on Tuesday 25 January 2000, Mike Reed ARPS of Chester had agreed to be the judge.
Although coming from afar Mike put us all to shame by being the first person to arrive at the Hall. Your competition Secretary arrived at about 7.15pm to find this lone figure walking around an empty and bare room. Imagining that he was probably an advance guard from Bramhall (perhaps the man with the pictures?) Bill asked in his jocular way "Which side do you support?" "Neither, I hope," said the man," I'm the judge." So it was that I got to meet Mike Reed for the first time.
A small contingent from Bramhall club came next, at about 7.30pm, followed by early arrivals from NCPS. Mike Moreland arrived with the Bramhall pictures and we proceeded to put the two sets together in a suitable random order. We had agreed to provide two pictures each in each of the five sections (pictorial, portrait, record, natural history & photojournalism) plus any five others. By eight o' clock all was ready and battle commenced. Because of the unequal numbers of pictures in each section it was hard to discern who was in the lead until all the prints had been considered. For fun, as the battle progressed, your competition secretary amused himself by working out the averages for each of the sections. The prints were taken first.
We had six prints in the pictorial section scoring an average of 15.8, our best print being Jon Allanson's Dubrovnik with 18 marks. Bramhall's six prints averaged 16.8 marks including four marks of 18! Our two portraits Grahame's Ms Crysty Peverley and Dorothy's Lady in Red both scored 17 marks. Bramhall's three portraits averaged 18 marks with the "lady standing by the car" (What was its real title?) scoring 20marks. Did the fact that the judge admitted to once owning a similar classic car subconsciously influence him? At this stage Bramhall were well ahead. We tend to do well in the Record and Natural History sections. Both Trevor (Memorial to Pike Watts) and Gerald (Pulpit detail) scored 18 but a Bramhall "Carved Panel, Tideswell" Beat them both with 19. However the Bramhall average was 17.5 in this section. Dave Clack's Pied Kingfisher scored a maximum 20 and Stephanie's18 for "Vultures at a Kill" gave us a 19 average against the Bramhall 15 average. In the final Photo-journalism section both sides scored 17 average, Dorothy Redford's "The Right Reaction" leading our side with 18 marks. The grand totals for prints were an exciting 254 for each side, and an excellent launch for the Slide battle following the tea break.
Bramhall had eight slides to our five in the pictorial slide section. Their average of 17 got them off to a flying start. The NCPS average was 15 with Jon Allanson's "Gentian Landscape" at 16 being our highest score. Bramhall could only muster a single portrait which scored 17 marks. Our average of two was 16.5, Trevor Harrison's" Old Contemptible" achieving a 17. We averaged 16 in the record section against a 17.5 for Bramhall. "Reredos Panel, St Tidal" by Gerald Hallworth was given 18 marks. The Clack's again came to our rescue in the Natural History section. An average of 18.75 for four slides, with Stephanie Clack's dripping "Polar Bear" scoring a maximum 20 compared well with Bramhall's 16.5 average. But Bramhall fought back strongly with an 18 average in the final Photojournalism section, a monochrome entitled Despair scored 19 points. Our best of two was Tony Redford's There goes my Pension scoring 17 marks. The grand totals for the slides were 247 to NCPS and 257 (and victory) to Bramhall.
The event was enlivened by the strong contingent of Bramhall supporters. We thank them for their support and their important part in producing a successful evening. Mike Reed was thanked for his excellent work, and he in turn expressed his pleasure at being invited to judge the event. As Mike reminded us, we shall be seeing him again on the 11th April when he will talk to us on the topic "An Introduction to Action Photography"
Bill
The First Committee meeting of the Millennium recorded significant changes. Secretary Jon Allanson agreed to continue in post but stated that family circumstances meant that he would not be able to attend many of the committee meetings. It was agreed that committee members would take it in turn to act as minutes secretary whilst Jon would continue to deal with correspondence and other matters. Colin Leach had resigned as Focus editor at the previous meeting to be replaced by Bill Chadband. Following his move to Macclesfield John Ade felt he was no longer the appropriate person to act as L&CPU folio contact, though he would continue for the rest of the season. Gerald Hallworth was congratulated on organising an excellent Christmas Party and the committee recorded its thanks to Milly Chadband and Fred Edwards who together made it so. Thanks were also due to the people who provided the refreshments on the night.
Battles were reported with South Manchester Camera Club on 23 February; Hale & Altrincham PS on 3 March; and a digital competition at South Liverpool on 13 April The treasurer reported an increased grant (to £60) from Macclesfield Borough Council. A commemorative plate had been added to the new Leitz projector donated to the club by Dr Alan Wild. Gerald reported on the Oldham Slide Knockout Competition which un-fortunately is on the same date as our battle with Hale and Altrincham.
Gordon Robson, the Annual Exhibition organiser, noted that 52 clubs had been invited to participate in the Digital, and the Slide knockout Competitions. Gordon reported that ill health had forced Brian Bower FRPS to cancel his Friday night show. Tony Redford ARPS had agreed to provide a three projector show "Yellowstone to the Rockies" instead. Tony (our new syllabus secretary) also reported that he had exchanged club dates with Ian Stewart who could not make the original 15 February date, but could manage 15th April 2000. Peter Redford was thanked for his help in setting up the club Web site. Those who had visited the site were most impressed. The committee agreed to a request from the Poynton Millennium committee to use our display stands on Saturday 5th February in the Civic Hall. It was agreed that NCPS would contribute both to this display and the later display planned by the Millennium committee.
The next committee meeting was set for Wednesday 22nd March 2000
Dear Bill,
In response to your remarks in the December newsletter on the subject of competions. The 10.30pm finishing time allows adequate time for the room to be put to rights before we leave, so if the judge or speaker over-runs a little this is no great problem. As competitions secretary you can prompt the judge to speed up as and where necessary . Those who wish to retire earlier to the pub should perhaps consider what club night are about.
The situation regarding beginners /intermediates is not new. The present absence of any other entrants in this section means that there is actually no competition but since this might discourage members from entering we carry on hoping the situation will resolve itself. That the rules prevent 5 points being awarded for a 1st position in the beginners section is quite academic, but it also occurs quite often in the Adv slide portrait category.
The continuation of the existing arrangement will mean that Joyce's entries accumulate points which will lead to her being promoted to the Advanced section next year whatever her standard. She can of course opt to move up now, as others have done in the past. The situation really questions the point of having separate sections and perhaps one open section doing away with beginners/intermediates/advanced would make more sense today. Not an arrangement, I suspect, which would gain much support in view of the many Pots available and to be won!
Our Federation doesn't have this difference and it has been known for a North Cheshire beginner to win best colour print at the L&CPU and then , as the new season starts, to continue in our beginner section.
Your other comment re quantity should recognise that for the Clubman of the year, and print/slideworker championships there is a maximum number of entries permitted in each year., and one very large entry in , say quarterly 3 , resulting in a reduction in individual entries for that quarter might affect the overall standings at the year's end.
Best of luck anyway!
John Smith