The Committee Meeting Wed 23rd October

David reported that the Digital meeting on Sunday 13th October had attracted 60 participants and had adequately covered the costs of running the event. He noted that the Spyder device for helping to accurately reproduce colour prints from the computer screen was much more expensive than we had initially thought and so it was agreed that we would not therefore pursue the purchase. He reported that there was possible confusion between "visitors" (who paid £1.50 on a club night) and "invited guests" (who were free!), and it was agreed that the latter column should be removed. It was re-iterated that "invited guests" referred only to members of other clubs who came to support their club in competitions held at Poynton.

Colin reported that 20 Club members had signed up for the Barcelona long weekend, plus two from Bramhall Club. The balance of the payments would be due in February. The minibus would leave the Civic Hall at 8.00am on Sunday 10th November for the day trip to the Lakes

Sheila noted that, to date, no-one had responded to her request for members suggestions regarding next year's syllabus. Did this mean that everyone was perfectly happy with all that she did, or were members all illiterate?? A few hastily scribbled notes were handed to her that same evening, but she still awaits the thoughts of the membership generally.

Contacts with Dysynni Club had revealed that they were keen to keep up the annual competition begun by Gerald several years ago. They had suggested that we might wish to consider the Conway Valley Hotel as an alternative venue It was agreed to ask Gerald if he was willing to pursue this on the club's behalf. Bodnant Gardens are close by this suggested new venue.

Joyce Streets suggested that the club could consider the purchase of a modern epidiascope which would allow members to project A4 and smaller sized prints onto a screen for all to see. Agreed that the first step was to consider availabilty and prices of such equipment. To help members remember the day on which the Annual Exhibition entries would be judged Joyce Robson gave the useful tip that it was the same day as her Birthday.

The Bramhall P.S. Annual Exhibition

NCPS member Dorothy Redford was runner up to winner Sheila Goodyear in Bramhall's Creative Digital print competition on Wednesday 6th November 2002. The next evening saw the Inter-club Print Panel Competition followed by an Inter-club Slide Competition.

In judging the print panels judge Bob ? of Leeds commented on the various strengths of the four separate prints of each panel. In general he picked out the weaker prints of panels explaining that either by different tonal quality, or by differing degrees of sharpness they reduced the overall effect. However there was no such criticism of the NCPS entry "Castlefield Connections". For sheer impact the "Rust" panel (from S. Manchester club?) seemed a likely winner but when the judge noted that its top left component was weaker, and the bottom left component was not as sharp, the many NCPS members present had their hopes raised. The "Bouquet" selection from SLIC was hurriedly re-arranged just prior to the judging, leading to wry smiles and worried looks from some of their members when the judge commented that he would have preferred a re-arrangement of their entry. When it was confirmed that he could only pick one winner the judge chose the "Bouquet" panel. NCPS felt confident that, had he been asked to name a runner-up we would have been the most likely choice. A lot of work went into producing our panel, including reprinting images to help match tones and remounting on a common mountboard. My thanks to all involved in this work. It was of interest to note that one panel was on "Metal Structures Over Waterways" (Bridges to the uninitiated!!) This had been an alternative possible theme for our panel so it was fortunate that in the event we chose Castlefield Connections.

In the inter-club slide competition each club was allowed six slides. After an exciting contest S Manchester were declared winners with 100 points, Wilmslow Guild came second with 96 points and NCPS third with 95 points. The winning slide was "Out of the Mist" by Martin Malies. Sixteen NCPS members attended including two who are also Bramhall members. Full results of the Slide competition are given below:

NCPS Scores
Buttermere, Jonathan Bawden - 16
Pillar of Light, Estelle Broomhall - 10
Fight of Fancy, Dorothy Redford - 19
Leaves Under, Torrent Tony Redford - 15
Vultures in Ndutu, Stephanie Clack - 18
Co-existence, Gordon Robson -17

Club Scores
South Manchester - 100
Wilmslow Guild - 96
NCPS - 95
Chapel En le Frith - 92
Bury P.S. - 91
Nantwich CC - 91
Sheffield P.S. - 85
Davyhulme CC - 83
Romily Photo Im - 83
Altrincham & Hale - 82
85 Group - 80
Bramhall P.S. - 80

The average slide score was 14.7

Bill Chadband (Chair Selection Committee)

The Trip to the Lakes Sunday 10th November 2002

In anticipation, it seemed like a good idea - a balmy autumn with plenty of Lakeland colour. On the day it seemed a daft idea, meeting at the Civic Hall at 8.00am with the sleet blowing and the prospect of rain all day. Nevertheless nine hardy souls turned up; the two Scaifes, the two Redfords, the two Wilsons, plus Dave Akers, Bill Chadband, and our driver Colin Pickles. But where was our President? Apparently Colin had strict instructions to go via Cheadle and wake her up!

We reached the motorway at 8.30 am and set off North. Every now and again we imagined a lighter sky ahead, before the dark clouds returned. By now Joyce was hungry, and plaintiff cries from the back suggested that either Dave Akers or Tony Redford had drunk too much coffee in the morning. At the Westmorland independent service station Colin gave in and it was revealed that the Wilsons had secretly been fomenting rebellion at the back in order to stuff themselves with Bacon butties.

We set off again with lighter hearts and were rewarded with sunshine and magnificent panoramas of sunlit orange and red trees against the dark sky. "Stop the bus" came the cries again from the back. This time they wanted to take photographs by the roadside, but Colin was stern. We have an appointment with Alan, Jackie, Jon Dixon and Estelle at 10.30am at Buttermere though as it was already past 10.00am this was an impossible target. The ride from Penrith to Keswick was a riot of colour, matched by the ride down Borrowdale, and over Honister pass. We arrived at the Bridge Inn, Buttermere, at 11.30am, but no Alan and no Jon. The lady Car Park attendant informed us that there was no reduction for OAP's and that Alan was setting off clockwise around the Lake. But a few minutes later there was Alan being dragged around the Car Park by Jackie's fierce dog. But still no Jon Dixon! Only when we decided to set off without him did Jon's car appear. We brushed aside his protestations that he had been there since 10.30, and all set off around the lake.

There was no sun but plenty of photographers with tripods (not just NCPS members) showing us where the sun ought to be. At this point an incredulous party heard that Jon had lost his sun-glasses on the way round and would have to go back and find them. An exasperated Estelle accompanied him, promising to catch us up. We had just finished our sandwich lunch at the top of the Lake when a hungry, sunglassless Jon re-appeared. Estelle refused to move on without having her lunch. They finally caught up with us at the bottom of the Lake.

Although not an ideal day for photography we all enjoyed the walk and the tea afterwards in the Bridge Hotel. Colin took us on a circular tour back to Keswick and we arrived in Poynton promptly at 7.00pm. All in all a good day out and we thanked Richard Scaife for leading the walk and Colin for his organisation and his driving. Was Colin serious when he said that the next day he would be taking the same van to Ashford in Kent??

Bill Chadband

3-way Print and Slide Competition at S. Manchester

On Monday 11th November a small group of NCPS supporters (Jon Dixon & Estelle Broomhill, Dorothy and Tony Redford, Joyce and Gordon Robson, Joyce Streets, Dave Akers, Jon Allanson and Bill Chadband) arrived at the church in Didsbury to do battle with S. Manchester and Wilmslow clubs. The competition is one of an on-going series between the three clubs and Alfred Brown was happy to indicate that, by chance, the competitors were the top three clubs from the Bramhall open slide competition of the week before. The 3-way competition is different in that only one print or one slide is allowed per member, so that a majority of active members of a club must be involved, and not all clubs are capable of fielding such an entry. The judge was Bill Edwards of Altrincham & Sale club.

Taking the prints first, Bill ran through them all making his comments. He thought our Reflections on Modern life was too crowded and would have preferred the author to concentrate on one part of the image. He liked the pastel treatment of the Musician. He appreciated the Wildlife in Sambura National Park but would have preferred thre Giraffe to face the other way. This could have been acheived by printing the negative in reverse. He was content with both the Arc-Light, and the swimming Pool Blues but felt the bottom quarter of the Field Maple image could have been removed to good effect. SpringTime made him happy but he was severely vexed by the shoulders of the Model Profile.

He was impressed by the sharpness and clarity of the Monument to Mary suggesting only that the left top corner could have been burnt in a bit more. He loved the King Penguins. At the interval NCPS led with 82.5 points over S. Manchester's 82 points and Wilmslow's 75.5. Tea and biscuits were served whilst the changeover from light board to screen was made. We felt the approach of impending doom when our first two slides received 6's and our third only 6.5 points. However Gorden's Industrial Co-existence and Frank's Oryx both got 9.5, and our sprits were greatly lifted when Jon Bawden's "Buttermere" received a 10

Final scores were 162 to Wilmslow Guild, 162.5 to NCPS and 169.5 to S. Manchester club. The NCPS entries with their scores are listed below. Thanks to everyone who contributed prints or slides, even if they were not used on this occasion.

Prints
1. Reflections on Modern Life, Richard Scaife - 6
2. Musician, Jon Allanson - 8.5
3. Wildlife - Sambura National Park, Joyce Robson - 9
4. Arc-Light - Place de la Concorde, Colin Pickles - 8.5
5. Swimming Pool Blues, Geoff Robinson - 9.5
6. Field Maple Sapling, Bill Chadband - 7
7. Spring Time, Sheila Edwards - 8.5
8. Model Profile, Tony Redford - 8
9. Monument to Mary, Gerald Hallworth - 8.5
10. King Penquins, Stephanie Clack - 9

Slides
1. The M8, Estelle Broomhill - 6
2. Passage-Way, Joyce Streets - 6
3. Into the Mist, Alan Bromage - 6.5
4. Industrial Co-existence, Gordon Robson - 9.5
5. Oryx, Frank Hutchinson - 9.5
6, Megalith, Jon Dixon - 7.5
7. Position is Everything, George Beaumont - 8.5
8. Vultures, Dave Clack - 8.5
9. Buttermere, Jon Bawden - 10
10. Flight of Fancy, Dorothy Redford - 8

L&CPU Annual Slide Knock-out Competition - Saturday 23rd November 2002

NCPS duly entered the required five slides from five workers, the fifth of which was classed as reserve slide to be used in the event of a tie. These were sent in advance to the L&CPU together with the entry form - the chosen slides being: -
"Vultures" by Steph Clack, "Buttermere" by Jon Bawden, "Flight of Fancy" by Dorothy Redford, "Industrial Co-existence" by Gordon Robson and "Position is Everything" by George Beaumont (reserve).

The judging took place on Saturday evening, 23rd November, and our Jon Bawden drove over to the Bury venue with Dorothy and Tony Redford to witness the proceedings. The event started more or less on time, with an introduction by Keith Suddaby, and ran very smoothly throughout, thanks to the increasingly experienced team operating the computer scoring system and the awareness of the judge of his time limitations. Refreshments were efficiently served part way through the evening and the obligatory raffle was dispensed with in fairly quick time at the end. All in all, a well-run operation; much to the relief of the large audience many of which had travelled from some far-flung corners of the region.

And what of the results? Well, unfortunately, NCPS finished considerably lower down the table than usual, in 13th position, out of the 30 clubs competing. It must be said that the competition was very tough with the Union's strongest slide workers from the likes of Southport, Wigan 10 and South Manchester in full cry. There were many exceptionally impressive images to relish, and the judge, John Baker FRPS from Midland Counties PF, was full of praise for all the entries - even those that were eliminated in the first round! His typical remark was, "What an excellent piece of work - but I'm going to lose it this round"

So although we lost "Buttermere" in the first round, "Vultures" in the 2nd, and "Flight of Fancy" and "Industrial Co-existence" in the 3rd, each one had praise heaped upon it before its untimely demise.

South Manchester C.C. won the event and their delight at pushing Wigan 10 into second place was very tangible on the night, although Tony Bond from Wigan 10 did get the "Best Slide" award with an immaculately executed Goldfinch. The full club results are given below Thanks to all our members who submitted work for selection. We'll just have to try harder next time.

Tony Redford (Competition Secretary)

2nd Quarterly Competition - Tuesday, 26th November

Once again a mammoth entry was submitted by 20 of our members. The enthusiastic participation in the Quarterlies is great to see, but it does mean that in order to maintain a manageable number for the judge to comment on, a bit of selective culling is necessary. In accordance with the guidelines set out at the beginning of the season when we agreed that a total of about 100 entries would be about right, we were required to eliminate the 5th print and the 4th & 5th slide from each members' entry this time. As a reminder, only the top three marks for each entrants prints and slides count towards the year-end totals anyway, and rejected entries are valid for judging in a subsequent Quarterly.

The judge, Christine Widdall DPAGB, consequently had 49 prints and 50 slides to mark on the night, which she managed to do most expertly, finishing within a few minutes of our preferred deadline of 10.00pm. Chris is always a pleasure to listen to, and our sizeable audience seemed to be of one mind - that she made much sense throughout and was most helpful and constructive in all her comments which led to a fair spread of marks reflecting accurately her views on our work. The time and trouble taken on our behalf, and her apparent enthusiasm for the task, was very much appreciated.

It is very encouraging to see another of our newer members, Estelle Broomhill up amongst the high scorers with her slides. That should spur on all our newcomers to greater heights, not to mention us older competitors, who had better watch out! The results are included with this report, but as usual, full details are updated on our website at ncps.org.uk - and a file for each Quarterly is maintained for scrutiny at any time.

I look forward to another bumper crop of new pictures for the 3rd Quarterly, for which handing-in night is 25th Feb 2003, just after the Annual Exhibition. Our judge for Q3 on 11th March is Tillman Kleinhans ARPS DPAGB.

Tony Redford (Competition Secretary)

Results Table

Digiscoping and Biniscoping

Have you heard of either of these? Digiscoping is the latest craze amongst techno-minded nature-lovers! Take a telescope; attach a digital camera (such as a Nikon Coolpix 995 or 4500) and, hey presto, you have a very effective means of capturing images of small animals at great distances.. Add the magnification of the telescope (typically 20x to 60x) to the internal zoom capability of the digicamera [why hasn't this word caught on?] and you have a fiercely powerful system for getting intimately close to the small beasties.

What are the results like? My wife and I have visited the RSPB Bird Fair at Rutland Water these last two years [well worth visiting, even if you are only vaguely interested in our feathered friends] and there we have seen many examples from digiscoping exponents. We have been surprised at the high quality possible with a modern telescope [telescopes and binoculars have improved by leaps and bounds over the last decade] and a good digital camera such as the Coolpix. This is despite the fact that the combination gives such a large image that one is advised to use only the 20x lens on your scope for fear of cutting the feet off that tiny Goldcrest at 200 yards. In fact I now regret buying an expensive Canon telephoto lens for my SLR system when, quite clearly, the future lies elsewhere (at least for the amateur nature photographer). The quality obtained is not yet up to first-class conventional film photography, but the latter is only really possible (with birds anyway) if you have enormous amounts of free time to set up hides and the like and it is therefore mainly confined to professionals (though I know you can quote me noble exceptions!!). When we are able to buy 15-20 megapixel cameras (in AD 2004?) who knows how the comparison will match up? The ability to cancel failed images in digital is an obvious boon when trying to photograph pesky little birds which will not keep still. And to serious twitchers the Digiscope system has a huge advantage. In the past you had to provide the B.T.O's Rare Birds Committee with copious notes and sketches to prove that you had seen that rare Siberian vagrant at the place and time that you had, and even then you could be turned down. Finding a rare bird, it goes without saying, is the holy grail of serious bird-watching -- to find one and not to have the fact recognised is the very hell! Now you can simply digiscope it and zoom out a little to show the habitat and location ---- and no-one can gainsay you!

The arrival of digiscoping has transformed the serious bird-watching magazines (such as Birding World), which now have oodles of good photographs with which to illustrate the monthly articles. For the rest of us, we can now get into serious telephoto photography for a relatively small outlay - around £1000 - and outperform (in numerical terms if not yet in pure quality terms) a professional outfit costing ten times as much. Recent editions of the serious birdwatching magazines have contained a number of excellent articles on how to digiscope and the best equipment to go for. I have produced handouts containing three of these which I am happy to give to any NCPS member who is interested. Needless to say, you can use a video movie camera as well as (instead of) a digital stills camera.

Oh, and by the way, biniscoping is the same thing but using one half of a pair of binoculars rather than a telescope.

Ted Wilson

Position Score Club Number of Slides Eliminated in Round 1 2 3 4 5 6

1st 18 Sth Manchester 0 0 1 0 3
2nd 17 Wigan 10 0 1 0 1 1 1
3rd 14 Southport PS 0 0 2 2
4th 13 Lytham St Annes PS 0 0 3 1
4th 13 Wilmslow Guild PS 1 1 0 0 2
6th 12 Chorley PS 1 0 2 0 1
6th 12 Lunesdale CC 0 0 4
8th 11 Bury PS 1 0 2 1
9th 10 Atherton & Distr APS 1 1 1 1
9th 10 Davyhulme CC 2 0 1 0 1
9th 10 Lancaster PS 0 3 0 1
9th 10 Warrington PS 1 2 0 0 1
13th 9 North Cheshire PS 1 1 2
13th 9 Padiham & Distr PS 1 2 0 1
15th 8 Birkenhead PA 2 1 0 1
15th 8 Kensington PG 2 0 2
15th 8 Prestwich Co-op CC 1 2 1
15th 8 St Helens CC 2 0 2
15th 8 Wallasey APS 2 1 0 1
20th 7 Bebbington PS 2 1 1
20th 7 Leigh & Distr CC 2 1 1
20th 7 Rochdale & Distr CC 2 1 1
20th 7 Western PS 1 3
24th 6 Blackburn & distr CC 2 2
24th 6 Whitby Club PS 2 2
24th 6 Wigan PS 2 2
27th 5 Chester PS 3 1
27th 5 Rochdale PS 3 1
27th 5 Swinton & Distr APS 3 1
30th 4 Altrincham & Hale PS 4

Numbers Eliminated per round 44, 30, 26, 10, 9, 1

50th Anniversary Dinner Photos on CD

Photographs taken by Don Stafford and by Patrick Black at the 50th Anniversary dinner and including the image with names of attendees prepared by Tony Redford have all been scanned onto a CD. If anyone would like a copy of the CD please give your name plus your £1 coin to defray costs to Bill Chadband.

It seemed a bad omen when the judge announced that he had only found out that same morning that he was doing the judging. He announced that he was a black and white printer himself and would judge the pictures against the criterion "how I like to print my pictures" .... Did this mean that other view-points would not do very well ? His phrases of the night were 'that's just my opinion' and 'there are people at my club who use this style. However I prefer....'

Needless to say, it just wasn't our night! The judge had time to view and mark the pictures privately before they were presented to the audience with his comments and marks. The pictures were not intermixed - all 8 prints from each club were viewed in blocks one after the other.

These are the pictures that were entered for NCPS, along with some of the judge's comments... Marks are out of 10.

The Last Post - Colin Pickles
"Nice record shot, nice attempt, probably means more to the photographer than to an audience" - 6
Wheel - Jon Allanson
"Good quality print, seems to be split in half though. Would have been better if taken on an angle" - 6.5
Monument to Mary - Gerald Hallworth
"Really good when viewed close up, good quality print" - 6.5
Mattahorn - Colin Pickles
"after the initial impact nothing to hold the attention" - 5.5
Lavatorium, Gloucester Cathedral - Gerald Hallworth
"Good quality print but nothing after that, the picture leads to nothing" - 7
Ready for the off - Gordon Robson
"nice attempt" The judge felt that the impact of the colour in the sky was too strong - 6
Fog - Sheila Edwards
"like the idea. Too much effect, too hazy" - 7
Charles de.Gaulle Airport - Gordon Robson
"would have liked to see more of the lower part of the picture, not so much of the roof" 6

Overall results
1st SLIC 63
2nd Bury PS 61.5
3rd Wigan PS 60
4th Oldham 59
5th Rochdale PS 56
6th Bramhall 54.5
7th Chorley 51.5
8th North Cheshire PS 50.5

So, What can we conclude? Probably only that we wont be inviting this particular judge to officiate at our future competitions!!!

Estelle Broomhall

The Committee Meeting Wed 4th December

Arrangements for the Christmas dinner and the Annual Exhibition were reviewed. Gordon noted that Barrie Thomas would now be out of the Country but that Phil and Gwen Charnock had agreed to judge the Digital print competition at the Exhibition. The committee discovered that Gordon is a Meals on Wheels man which would preclude him from helping to set up the tables for the dinner - strange since it is basically a meals on wheels dinner. We learned also that the judge for the Inter-club Slide competition, Keith Brown lives in hope!!

It was confirmed that Ted & Janet Wilson were swapping their presentation dates with Colin Pickles & Alan Bromage. But would Ted and Janet's title now be April in Bloom?. The suspense is killing us!

Colin Pickles noted that 24 people have now signed up for the Barcelona trip. Sheila Edwards reported that feedback had all been positive regarding the meetings we had held when there were no external speakers. The Practical evening, when the L&CPU print folio had been combined with members discussing their own hardware had gone well. This was due, in no small measure, to the efforts Sheila had made, before-hand, to ensure that some members would get up and speak. It was agreed that viewing the Prints, without the commentary, had its advantages. It encouraged members to use their own judgement on the appropriate mark, before the assigned mark was revealed. Sheila emphasised to all present that the purpose of the Members Choice evenings was to encourage new material and not for the re-cycling of previously seen images.

Under the heading of The Next President Joyce Streets raised the issue of having a two-year term for a President. It was noted that often the one-year President was just finding his/her feet when the AGM loomed and it became time to find a new President. It was agreed that we did not want to go down the road of having a permanent President and that making a different member President was a valuable mechanism for ensuring that the club moved with the times. The virtues of the newer member with new ideas versus the older member with a breadth of club experience were aired. It was agreed that the whole club membership should be invited to air views on the issue issue (including via letters to Focus)!

Next committee meeting; Wed 26th Feb at the Redford's.