www.ncps.org.uk

Yes… the club is on the World Wide Web.

As from 1/1/2000 ANYONE with access to the internet can download our site and get a full picture of who we are, where we are, when we’re here and why we’re here.

At the end of last year the committee agreed that it was time for NCPS to prepare for the future, as have so many other enterprising societies, by designing a website which will increasingly serve as a vital shop window for the club and its activities. Much hard work over the Christmas period ensured that we entered the new millennium with our site duly registered and online. Already, a great deal of information is stored and available. This will be regularly updated, added to, and improved as YOUR suggestions and contributions are passed on either direct to webmaster@ncps.org.uk or, more traditionally, to any committee member.

  There is insufficient space here to list everything currently appearing on our web pages. If you have access (or can gain access) to the Internet, why not spend a few minutes checking it out. We think you’ll be pretty impressed and probably amazed at the wealth of information and interest there.  Your feedback, positive or otherwise, will be genuinely welcomed.

  Tony Redford

The Print and Slide Battle with South Manchester C C

On Monday 21^st February Dorothy, Gerald and Bill took North Cheshire's Pictures to the Methodist Church Hall in Didsbury to battle with South Manchester's best. Earlier, at the weekend, Bill had contacted Martin Malies about delivering the prints and slides for North Cheshire's 3^rd quarterly  competition, since, fortuitously, Martin was to be the Judge. Martin looked forward to seeing a good contingent from North Cheshire at the Battle. Rather embarrassed, we noted that many of our members were away on holiday and we would thus be thinly represented. We arrived in good time (7.20pm) to meet their chairman (the man putting out the chairs!) and Norman Piper the judge. Thus at this stage North Cheshire outnumbered the opposition. Eventually the room filled to fifty plus people and the competition began. The table of results is given below:

After the print battle NCPS led 83 to 79.5 . A good cup of tea put vigour into South Manchester and they won the slide battle 84.5 to 83. Overall North Cheshire won by just two points at 166 to 164. The Judge did an excellent job and the

N. Cheshire team agreed with all his criticisms of our work.

As South Manchester is relatively close it was a shame that more of our members were not able to join us. Perhaps we need to make more effort to arrange car sharing for such events.

Bill Chadband

Results of the 3^rd Quarterly Competition

3^rd Quarterly Competition Tuesday 29^th February

  "You may have narrowly beaten us last week, but I promise not to hold that against you" was Martin Malies' opening remark when he came to judge our third quarterly competition.  Our rather thin audience nodded appreciatively. The competition started about ten minutes past eight pm, and a few more stragglers crept in to give us a final attendance of 22. Can the rest of the membership all be on holiday in South America, I wondered?

Martin noted that he had no bias against digital work. In perusing the prints he had observed that we had a strong digital contingent within the club. He would judge a print entirely on its individual merit, no matter how it was produced.   

41 prints and 45 slides had been entered for the competition and so there was no need for the competition secretary to even consider reducing the entry total.  But work has a habit of filling the time available and the meeting continued until 10.20pm. The competition results are given above.

It was gratifying to see the portrait of Frank and Marjorie (Good Friends)(taken at the earlier club portrait workshop) achieve a VHC. Unfortunately a similar portrait of Frank and Geoff Robinson (Just Friends) got nowhere. Was this a subliminal  indication of sexism in the judge? Or did Geoff really spoil the picture? I guess we'll never know!

Bill Chadband

10 x 10 battle with Altrincham & Hale P.S. at Timperley Library ,3^rd March 2000

  Five members of our society  were given a warm welcome by the host club and enjoyed a keen battle, albeit in a most friendly atmosphere, judged on the night by the very experienced and knowledgeable Mr Jack Byatt from Romiley.  Shame that more of our members were unable to make it. Our “away” support regularly entered double figures in the recent past.

Despite the lack of support, NCPS scored another notable victory. The final totals were Altrincham & Hale  334 and North Cheshire 343

In the prints section, Bill Chadband scored a maximum with “Footprints in the Sand” In the slides, Steph Clack scored a maximum with “Polar Bear”  Well done to them, and to all who submitted pictures for selection. If it is true that “success breeds success” then watch out. NCPS are about!                                                          

Tony Redford

Syllabus Notes

Once upon a time, when our exhibition took place in March, the activities at NCPS seemed to take a slight nosedive in the run-up to the end of the season and the AGM.

This year however, with the earlier exhibition, the opposite is very much the case. Gerald made a conscious effort to at least maintain the momentum right up to the break, and a look at the syllabus will confirm his success in so doing. Quite apart from our considerable home grown talent, we have more auspicious visiting lecturers in the remaining three months than most clubs manage in a whole season!

Even if you have missed Martin Avery ARPS and Brian Bower FRPS (how could you?) you can still catch Roy Jackson’s 3D AV show, Mike Reed ARPS on Action Photography, Ian Stewart ARPS DPAGB with his Tanzania extravaganza (note* 18^th April), Bob Dennis CPAGB with “Enigma Variations”, with Peter Gennard MFIAP EFIAP as a final brilliant highlight just prior to the all-important AGM.

          If such an array of talent, covering a wide range of styles, doesn’t have you flocking in every Tuesday between now and June, it’s hard to imagine what would!

Tony Redford

The Oldham Knockout Slide Competition Fri 3^rd March

        It was unfortunate that the Oldham Slide knockout Competition coincided with the 10x10 battle with Altrincham and Hale. No member was available to take our slides to Oldham and so Gerald had to post them. Reports of the competition, to date, are sketchy. However I am informed that North Cheshire came 3^rd overall in the competition with Gordon Robson providing the winning slide. Congratulations Gordon!

Bill Chadband

What's the Secret to becoming a successful Judge?

As a Lecturer, when my students ask my advice and then question its validity I respond "Trust me, I'm a doctor!  And this reply …….  Oh dear, wrong article… This is for Focus…    Try again.

As Competitions secretary for the club I have the task of booking judges for the quarterly competitions and home battles with other clubs. After the event I get helpful comments from members, such as:  "Well, he was a load of Rubbish" and "Very good judge that one, well chosen". Unfortunately both types of remark are often offered for the same judge, which is an interesting pointer to members interests but not of great help in selecting next session's judges.

I also find myself telling my wife "That would make a nice picture, but it won't win me any competitions". This is beginning to annoy her and she responds with a remark in the vein. "Forget about the competitions! If you like it take a picture of it"

So for better or for worse these competitions are modifying my view of the world and my photographic hobby. In this situation who else is there to blame but the judges?  Perhaps the only answer is to become a judge myself and change things. So I get to thinking what's so special about a judge, and can it be acquired?

As a newcomer to the club but having experienced three seasons of competitions I am tempted to assert that the art of judging is to be able to justify one's prejudices. One chooses the picture that one really likes and looks for all the good points one can say about it. Conversely, that other picture that you know will appeal to others and is therefore a threat needs to be dealt with by explaining how it fails to live up to your expectations.  So the right vocabulary is a necessity. A subject can be sharply in focus, softly in focus, or out of focus. The judge can commend the fact that the whole picture is sharp, or equally commend the clever way the picture's author has left most of the picture out of focus.

Some judges like to see a figure in the foreground of a landscape, but to others such a figure is an intrusion. I liked the story, told by one judge, of the colleague who carried a life-sized stuffed dog in the boot of his car to add interest to a scene! We have often been told by speakers of how they waited all day for people to appear or disappear so that the shot would have the required impact.

Apparently by common consent the rule of thirds is important; as also is the opinion that subjects should be looking into a picture and not (on the edge) looking out. However rules are there to be broken and an essential phrase for all judges appears to be "Well this picture breaks all the rules, but it works for me ! "

The trouble with judges is that they are photographically old! They have been to too many places and seen too many of the shots.

So a lot of good pictures are now cliche's. The competitor needs a new angle to excite the tired old judge, or the appropriate picture to stir in him/her happy memories of bygone ages. And of course this means that you have to know your judge in advance !  Digital photography and computer manipulation have superceded the need for the stuffed dog whilst the computer can ensure new pictures never before seen by any judge. But you still need to know if the computer excites or frightens them. Will they mark such images up or down?  Photographic

manipulation either in the darkroom or the computer room should be subtle enough to leave doubt as to whether or not it was actually used. Those in the know can then experience great hilarity as the judge pronounces that either "This is clearly a digital manipulation" (and a voice from the darkness of the room shouts "No! it is a straight print from the negative"); or that "This is a great shot of Low Gable at Sunset, I have often witnessed it myself" whilst the half dozen (ungodly) members in on the plot silently chuckle since they were there when the picture was created.

So perhaps I won't rush to be a judge after all. It's such great fun criticising judges from the back of the room; and anyway I quite often agree with them. If any members out there have suggestions for a judge for next year I would be pleased to hear from them.

Bill Chadband, Competitions Secretary

Letters to the Editor

NONE !!  What a shame!  I wonder if the members like the new format?

I didn't write names on the last FOCUS . Does it matter? How many members have accessed the Web site? What do they think of it? Are members pleased to have all competition results recorded I wonder?

Photographer of the Year - results table