Newsletter from your Secretary

Latest News for 2012

WCPF DPIC 2012 (19th February 2012)

How quickly this comes around again. This year there were 50 clubs entered, and so with 20 entries each we had exactly 1000 images fired at us throughout the day. It's pretty intense. I overheard someone saying that each image was up for an average of about 10 seconds - that's precious little time for judging them. It's a really tough job for the 3 judges and although we are all quick to criticise, it's not a task I envy. To save space I'll not include their long list of disticntions but the three judges were Rosie Armes, Colin Harrison, and John Cartlidge. (I hope I've found the right links for them!)

Technically the day went well, in spite of one or two computer problems. Those were quickly solved. I think the WCPF executives need to be congratulated for the care they take in trying to anticipate problems and particularly for having safeguards in place to get around them. A lot of time and effort goes into these events. Di Tilsley did her usual excellent and entertaining job of reading out the image titles. She must really love those Welsh place names that crop up now and then.

High scores were hard to come by, with only two images achieving the maximum score of 15. (For those not familiar with the scoring, each of the 3 judges awards a score ranging from 2 to 5, so each image can score from 6 to 15 points.) Only a further 9 images managed a score of 14 (so less than 1%), and even scores of 13 were scarce, there being just 13 of those. I'm afraid we didn't receive any of those top 24 scores but we did manage four scores of 12 between us, two of those going to Sheila, one to John Wickett, and one to me. When our first image (one of John Perriam's) went up and scored 11, we felt a little perplexed that it wasn't more, but as the day progressed we came to realise it had got a very good score! We had a remarkably consistent set of scores, with the lowest being an 8 which, given the scoring on the day, was certainly no disgrace.

At the lunch break (after 13 of the 20 rounds) we were not doing well, lying about 21st. This didn't deter us from having a very enjoyable and tasty lunch at Buffet City next door. That works really well if you like Chinese food as there's plenty seating and the service is as fast as it could be - well, it's self service! But you get the point. The greatest danger is eating too much and nodding off in the afternoon!

Over the final 7 rounds we scored three of our four 12 pointers and rallied a bit, finishing a respectable 13th equal on 205 points. This is not as high a finish as in previous years, though it should perhaps remind us of just how well we have been doing recently and that it IS a high standard of competition. Of our neighbouring clubs, Newton Abbot did best (worryingly!) with their score of 220 points achieving 3rd place. We must congratulate them on this as it sees them representing the WCPF in the PAGB "National Championships" at Warwick University later in the year, thanks to one of the top two clubs already having pre-qualified, just as happened to us a couple of years ago. Only 3 points behind us were Sidmouth PC (sorry Tom!) and a bit further back were Crediton PC and Dawlish & Teignmouth CC.

Left: our entries, in the order in which they were seen during the competition, with their scores in red below. Looking at this as a whole, I think it's a strong, impressive set of images, showing a good variety of interests and styles, and something we can all feel proud of. The "thumbnails" don't do them justice but you should have seen most of them in their full glory at the club if you've been there regularly! With the judges having mere seconds to make their minds up, we generally try to select images with strong "initial impact". Pam Sherrin has already emailed out the full results and scores as a Rich Text File (which most computers can read). You can download it by clicking here. I think all of us attending had an excellent day and I hope that more of us will be able to get along and enjoy next year's DPIC. Many people travel a long way for thjis popular event. It's on our doorstep so we really ought to take advantage! Dave.

Steve's Quiz Night (17th February 2012)

I think we all owe Steve a huge thank you for his thought-provoking quiz night last Friday. With a last-minute panic change to the programme, he brought his intended evening forward about a month, and I've no doubt that cost him a sleepless night or two. Even without the time to put some finishing touches to his presentation of the quiz, it was a truly entertaining evening. I'm sure we all learned a lot - if only how little we knew about a subject we thought we knew a lot about! I've long known my weakness in the subjects of the history of photography and its greatest exponents. Most of my contributions to those sections of the quiz were no more than educated guesses. And what about that 3-way tie at the end? Okay, I'm sure all of us who didn't answer the tie-breaker as fast as John Wickett did are kicking ourselves for a question sometime earlier in the evening that we didn't get right - I know I am!

Anyway, well done Steve, and on behalf of the winners particularly, but all of us really, THANK YOU!

Dave.

Rolle Centre - Public Meeting, 2nd February 2012

Roughly half a dozen EPG members were among the attendees at what was, overall, a very positive meeting concerning the future of the Former Rolle College campus. Please click here for a fuller report from last night's meeting... Rolle Centre Public Meeting Report (members' login required).

Mix & Match 2012 - at Exeter Camera Club

Yet another success! Okay, okay, we lost the match but it was still a great success. For those of you who have not attended one of these annual Mix & Match evenings, you really need to put the date in your diary for next year's as soon as we know it. It will, of course, be our turn to run the event so you'll have no excuses for not knowing about it.

Judge for the evening was Mac Bouchere FRPS, and I have to say he very quickly found the humour level required for this event. He started by telling us that he'd been brought in not so much as a "judge" as a "referee". I think we gave him a reasonably clean fight without too many low blows. I felt he was quite harsh on Exeter a few times when I would have conceded a match but it didn't quite meet Mac's criteria, and I did think we got one or two dubious ones, or maybe it was the greater amount of heckling he got from Exeter members that swayed him a little in our favour! In spite of all that, I think Mac was pretty consistent and fair, and certainly maintained a good sense of humour.

A couple of minor highlights come to mind. The first was us getting away with the "Mark Webber" image being a match for a photo of a cheetah, especially as Exeter had put that up just after we'd used Sheila's image of a jaguar with its kill. Perhaps the audience's initial reaction to the word "Jaguar" emblazoned across Bryan's image swung it for us. Having got a big laugh and a few claps (Exmouth supporters?), it certainly did Exeter no good trying to point out to Mac that one was a jaguar and one was a cheetah.

The second highlight (for the 3 of us selecting images) came near the end. We had about 5 or 6 left, one of which was Sheila's "Art Shop" with the daschund in the doorway. As Sheila was whispering to us, "We really need Exeter to put up a photo of a dog now", up pops an image of 5 foxhounds. We just fell about laughing, much to everyone else's puzzlement. When we put up Sheila's image in response, we then realised that all 6 dogs (Exeter's 5 and Sheila's 1) had their heads pointing in exactly the same way - it could hardly have been better! It never fails to amaze me the way these things happen.

The result almost seems immaterial (more so when you lose I suppose) and although Martyn is I think still convinced it was 50 points each, the computer scoring by both sides agreed at 51 - 49 in Exeter's favour. Whichever way you look at it, it was close, but it was FUN!

Dave McH.

Exhibition at the Grapevine - January 2012

With hangovers from New Year celebrations barely behind us, Mo, John W and Dave turned up at the Grapevine to set up our exhibition there. We all owe Mo a great debt of gratitude for discovering the Grapevine and making all the arrangements on our behalf with owner, Abi. Thanks also must go to Abi for her support of local artists.

	Setting up an exhibition is rarely as easy as you might imagine. We propped up all the photos around the bar area and tried to arrange them so that photos and frames would complement those alongside them, and also tried to keep the same members' photos together, or with their partners' photos, not forgetting trying to be as fair as possible to everyone. If we've failed in any way we're going to blame it on Abi as she had a fair bit of input to the process.
Inevitably there were some frames without the specified D-rings. (Sorry Mo, I had lots on my mind, I thought I'd done it!) However, Mo anticipated this and brought several spare sets and a screwdriver, so all was well. What nobody could have anticipated was that some D-rings wouldn't quite work, as they needed to be able to swing round to a more upright position to hook on properly, so some tweaks to the pre-fitted D-rings were required. The Grapevine's hanging system is quite similar to our own but with transparent nylon hangers instead of our white-coated metal ones, and more sophisticated sliding hooks than ours. Mind you, ours stay where you put them, unlike a few of the Grapevine ones which slipped. We managed to work around that.
	My impression of a typical Glaswegian seemed to go down well - almost as well as I did in fact, as I fell off a bar stool. After about two hours of hanging, re-arranging, and then re-arranging again, we'd found suitable spots for everything and got all the photos nicely lined up and level. We left Abi to tidy up the bits of clear nylon hanger that were protruding from behind our photos and drove home, feeling satisfied with the job we'd done.
	I hope I've managed to include everyone's photos here. Apologies to anyone I might have missed out. My apologies also if the pics don't show them off at their best. Avoiding reflections in the glass frames was almost impossible, even with most of the bar lights switched off! That's why they're shot at odd angles.
Do please try to pop in and have a look at the exhibition, and maybe even have a swift refreshment. If Abi's around, introduce yourself to her. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you. She has a background in art and photography though, try as I might, I couldn't persuade her that digital is the way forward!

We're not sure how long our photos will remain in the Grapevine as the exhibition following ours has moved to a later date. Unless Abi finds someone who wants the spot after ours, we could be there for a couple of months.

Dave McH.

Exmouth Photo Group Flickrs

Come along members, join the group. It's a way to show some of your images - what else are you going to do with them!!!! Not all members of the Exmouth Photo Group Flickrs are Photo Group members. We have acquired others from others parts of the globe.

Have a look at the site - http://www.flickr.com/groups/epg_flickrs/discuss/72157605485609537/

Logan Mat Cutter, Studio/Flash Equipment.

The club has a mat cutter which is available to all members who wish to cut mounts for their prints.  Don't forget, competitions are coming up soon!!!!  It is not kept at the Club as members may well wish to use the cutter during the summer months.   It is at present with John Perriam and can be borrowed by giving him a ring.

We also have some studio/flash equipment which is stored Gill's.. Please see Inventory in the Members Area.  

That's all for now; for previous news items please click on the appropriate Newsletter. Year 2010; Year 2011.

Sheila