Newsletter 2014 | Exmouth Photo Group

Newsletter Year 2014

Christmas Meal

at the Devoncourt Hotel

We had our Christmas Meal at the Devoncourt Hotel, Exmouth which was very well organised by Mo. An excellent evening with the added bonus of a raffle where everyone won!!!!

Mo and her helpers (in particular Jenny) managed to get 36 raffle prizes of varying shapes and sizes; how they did it I do not know as we only paid out £1 each, well done Mo and Jenny.

It thanks to Peter H for taking quite a few photos and just for a bit of fun I have made a collage - hopefully everyone who was there is included.

Happy Christmas and New Year to you All

Sheila

Next Meeting on the 9 January 2015

South Devon League

Our print competition took place on the 26 November 2014 hosted by Dawlish and Teignmouth Camera Club - the judge was Rod Fry. We came first!!!!!! Also Mo had second place and John W had third place, well done Exmouth. Please see all the images and results here

WCPF Kingswood Salver

The Kingswood Salver was held at Clyst St Mary today with 23 clubs entering panels of 5 images by 5 different photographers. The standard was very high but much to our surprise and delight our ‘Visitation’ Panel was awarded 3rd Place. To make the day complete John Perriam was also awarded a Highly Commended in the individual print category. Colin Harrison, the judge, was very good – we would say that wouldn’t we – and his comments were succinct and well measured. He judged each entry as a panel but also gave pertinent comments on individual images.

In the afternoon Colin gave an excellent presentation and the standard of his work showed why he has FRPS, FIPF,FBPE, MFIAP, MPAGB, EFIAP/G and PPSA after his name. Look at Colin’s website to see some of his images.

Well done to everyone who took part in the ‘Painting with Light / Ghost’ project and to Jenny, Mo, Derrick, John P and Sheila whose images were used in the final presentation.

General Meeting Friday 26 September 2014

I am pleased to confirm that at the General Meeting Trevor Keenan was voted in as Chairman with 22 votes for, 0 votes against and 0 abstentions’. Congratulations Trevor.

The now vacant post of Vice-Chairman will be discussed by the Committee in the near future.

Bicton Photo Trail - Judged by Mo Martin

Well I survived and hopefully didn’t upset too many Club members. For the 9 categories in Set 1 11 photographers’ submitted entries with 7 of them producing a second set of images for me to judge.

Gill gained 3rd place in both sets with Sheila and John P swapping 1st and 2nd place in the 2 sets. A PDF copy of the results can be seen by clicking here.

Thank you to everyone who entered images and to Gill Stocker and Steve Currie for organising the event.

Friday 3rd October is Competition 1 where you can see how judging should be done. Mo

Honorary Membership

If you were not at the Club’s first meeting of the 2014 season you may not be aware that it was the Committees great pleasure to award Sheila Honorary Membership to the Club.

Sheila has not only achieved distinction in the field of photography but her contribution to the Committee, and Club as a whole, over the 18 years she was on the Committee has been immense (and I now know how much she has done as Club Secretary after only a month in the post!)

Congratulations Sheila and thank you from the 2014 Committee

Rethink Evening 16 September

The Digital Discussion Evening at the Rethink Centre on Tuesday 16 September was very well attended with 12 Club members benefiting from the considerable knowledge, skill and experience of John P and Sheila.

We learned about such techniques as:

Music blending in Pictures to Exe
Non-destructive dodging and burning
Blending modes and fill layers
B & W conversions
Colour popping
Saving files for competitions
Not forgetting using control points in plug-ins and a recap of John’s high key tree scenes.

Wow – hopefully something for everyone. How can we become as proficient as John and Sheila I hear you ask? Well, as John says, “It’s simple really … Practice, Practice and more Practice and don’t be afraid to try new skills and ideas”. If you weren’t there you missed an excellent evening so put Tuesday 11th November in your diary and let John know what topics or techniques you would like to discuss, or even better, wish to demonstrate yourself.

Thank you John for facilitating the evening and John and Sheila for such excellent tuition.

Forthcoming External Competitions

Throughout the season the Club enters external Competitions and Derrick and John W, our Competition Secretaries, will be asking for specific images for the Selection Committee to discuss and Club Members to put forward any images they think are worthy of consideration.

The Selection Committee are currently selecting for the South Devon League Print Competition to be held at Dawlish and Teignmouth on 26th November, where 15 prints are required and only 2 images are allowed from any one photographer. If you haven’t responded to Derrick’s recent email or have a print(s) you wish to be considered then contact Derrick or John as soon as possible.

It is worth noting that the Selection Committee always invites a different Club member to each selection meeting so members can become more familiar with the selection process and begins to realise what a difficult task it is.

WCPF Kingswood Salver

Our ‘Visitation’ Panel of 5 images taken at Buckfast Church and using ‘Painting with Light’ technique has now been entered and it would be nice to see members at the Competition being held on Saturday 15th November in the Village Hall at Clyst St Mary.

Membership Subs and Data Protection Form

A reminder to Members that subscriptions are now due to Caroline and Data protection Forms to Mo. Thank you to those of you who have already responded.

And Finally

This Friday 26th September the Club meeting will begin with a GENERAL MEETING at which Members will be asked to vote for the vacant post of Club Chairman. Currently I have received one nomination: Trevor Keenan.

I look forward to seeing you all on Friday when I will be proving that ‘judging is never easy’ as I give you my opinion on the Bicton Photo Trail images you took in June. Mo Martin, Secretary

Devon Clubs' Battle

The Devon Clubs' Battle was held on the 10 May at Rattery Village Hall hosted by Ivybridge Camera Club. We put in a print panel and a set of digital images. I have put more information in the Club Images section which has all the external competitions listed. We did have a couple of successes, two of our members claimed rewards. Please see the Battle page here for more information.

Summer Programme - Good luck came our way

On the Friday evening walk at Blackbury Camp to see and photograph bluebells, we were in for a surprise, not only did we have good weather and there were masses of bluebells we had a white horse with bare backed rider dressed in medeival costume, a real bonus. Several of us, probably all, took full advantage of this and we had the white horse among the bluebells on its own and with a rider, it was beautiful. We had about 20 members turn up and I bet they were pleased they went. I have already uploaded a load of images on to my Flickr site.

Its certainly worth going on these walks, you never know what you find!!!!

AGM 25 April 2014

The meeting went well with no issues. There were a few changes to the Committee.

After all the presentations of trophies Mo came up with two surprise presentations from the Club. Because Martyn had been on the Committee for over 25 years and I for 18 years we were each presented with an engraved Dartington Crystal Glass and the appropriate bottle to go with them. Certainly a very pleasant ending to the evening. Below a set of images with thanks to John Perriam the photographer..

South Devon League Battle (Crediton, Dawlish & Teignmouth, Newton Abbot and Exmouth)

The digital part of the battle between Dawlish, Crediton, Newton Abbot and ourselves was held 25 March 2014 with great results. I am delighted to say that we won the digital section and with our win in the print section this meant we have regained the South Devon League Cup as overall winners of the Inter Club Battle.

Congratulations must go to Derrick Holliday for his winning overall digital image "Whilst All Around is Madness". All details and images are on the website under Club Images, please click here to view.

Horseshoe Trophy (Chard, Lyme, Honiton, Sidmouth, Exmouth)

This event took place on 20 March at Kilmington Village Hall, hosted by Sidmouth and the judge was Peter Fry. A well fought battle where we were in the lead at half time, the second half did not bode well with our first two digital images but fortunately it all changed and we managed to steal the cup from Sidmouth. So great news, we now hold the Horseshoe Trophy for a year as winners of the competition. Congratulations must also go to Sheila Haycox for her print called The Farmer as the overall print winner. Please click here to see more details and images.

WCPF Digital Projected Image Competition

Once again we entered the DPIC Competition but this year which was held at the Corn Exchange, Exeter on the 23rd February 2014. We did not do quite as well as we usually do. 55 clubs entered and we were 18th, so at least we did not come too near the bottom. All details and images can be seen on our website by clicking here.

Website Updates

I have over the last few days been updating the website. The main area I have been concentrating on is being able to let members see clubs entries, who has represented the club and the results. So far I have created under the Club Images section links to all the Devon Clubs Battles since 2008. It is my intention to create other links to club entries like the Horseshoe Trophy, WCPF DPIC, SDL etc. This I hope will let members know who and what has been chosen and something to aspire to. At present we only have the winners for our internal competitions so hopefully we are developing the site a little better.

I have deleted the pages of Club Members Images because Maurice and Christine are currently in the process of creating a Galleries Section. They would like members to have a page each, this gives an opportunity for members to display some of their work, perhaps some of the competition entries you thought judges had dismissed too easily. Please do get in touch with Maurice and Christine as I think its good to have plenty of images on the site, we need to see more of your work.