Bracknell Camera Club Chairman’s Blog

We have received an update, as follows:

Dear Fellow Photographers,

Thanks go to John Buttress FRPS for showing us his coastal landscapes. It was his eye for a fine composition that impressed me the most. That and the fact he kept getting up early . . .

Jeff Lawrence brought us up to date with the results from the SPF Exhibition, where Bracknell came second in the PDI competition, behind Havant and ahead of Southampton. Steve Reynolds received a highly commended for his ‘Dance of Life’. The preview evening for the exhibition is to be Friday 6th January, from 7pm in Salisbury library.

The first round of the SPF print league has also taken place, where Bracknell came first! Two maximums were scored by Peter Ellis (for ‘End of an Era’) and Steve Buesden (for ‘Boscombe Pier’). Second round to be at Bracknell next week, so come and be amazed!

Our members have also been active in external competitions, as follows:

• Budapest International; Steve Reynolds (1 acceptance), Peter Ellis (5 acceptances)
• Wrekin Salon; Steve Reynolds (1 acceptance)
• RPS TV DIG Print Competition; Diana Keane (Commended), Jan Walters (Commended) and Peter Handford (Highly Commended)

And also from last week Anne Eckersley romped home a winner in the Bracknell annual photo competition on the theme of Routes and Trees.

Well done to all.

Future events:

• On Saturday we have the opening of our ‘Transformation’ exhibition at South Hill Park. Reception from 4pm. A lot of hard work from all concerned but particularly Janice Bradley and Brian Steptoe. The final selection looks great.
• On Tuesday Brian is hosting the second workshop on producing a photobook
• Next Thursday we have the second round of the SPF Print League as noted above
• Finally Joe Cornish is speaking at Amersham PS on Monday 30^th January 2012, at 8pm. That is in the Drake Hall in Amersham at the cost of £10.

Have a good week.

An excellent talk from from Ian Bateman on his AV sequences, with very good tips and techniques interspersed between first class examples of his work.

Congratulations go to Barry Callan (1) and Anne Eckersley (2) for their acceptances in the Guernsey Salon.

Charles Elsden notified us of the next AV SIG meeting to be held on Monday at Coopers Hill. Drop Charles an email if you are interested in developing your AV skills further, and Ruari reminded us that there is an AV for beginners workshop due to run on 20th December (spaces available!)

Jeff Lawrence took the chance to note that the start of the club’s external competition season is nearly upon us. In addition to selecting images from the club’s internal competitions there is also the opportunity for members to submit images directly to Jeff for consideration by the selection committee.

Next Tuesday sees the ‘Introduction to Lightroom 3.0′ workshop at Coopers Hill, room 5, 8pm.

Next Thursday we have the 3rd round of the internal PDI league. Get your images in early!

Have a good week.

Many thanks go to Rosemary Wilman for guiding us through the 2nd round of the print league. Good insightful comments were the order of the day.

Catching up on external acceptances we have:

Limours Salon Mondial – Alistair Balharrie (2), Peter Ellis (3), Ron Gafney (1)

Havant – Alistair Balharrie (1), Anne Eckersley (1)

Air Britain 2010 – Ron Gafney (2nd Place and 5 Highly Commended)

Swansea International – Alistair Balharrie (1), Ron Gafney (1), Peter Ellis (3)

RPS TV DIG PI Competition – Ron Gafney (2)

Well done folks, some good results there.

Upcoming events:

The World Press Photo 2011 Exhibition comes to the Royal Festival Hall from 11 Nov to 29 Nov.

The Photographic Angle are showing their ‘Through My Eyes’ exhibition at 1 Thames Valley, Wokingham Road from 12th – 16th Nov (10:00 – 15:00). The images come from a South African youth project.

On Tuesday Brian Steptoe is running his ‘Creating a Photobook’ workshop.

Next Thursday we have ‘An Evening of AV Entertainment’ with Ian Bateman LLB FRPS MPAGB

On Saturday 19th Nov Terry O’Neill will be making a personal appearance at Gallery Rouge in St. Albans to open his exhibition there.

The club website has a lot of useful features that will enable you to keep up to date with latest news about the club. You can:

Sign-up for web site updates, this is an opt-in mailing list which you can opt out of as well.
We now have a Facebook page please go and “Like” us If you are worried about personal information on Facebook – Don’t put any on it!
We also have a Twitter feed

All these features are directly accessible from buttons on the club’s website homepage.

We also have a forum which has seen little action lately please sign up and lets see if we can get it a bit more active.

Workshops: If you sign up for a workshop please do attend, if you do not turn up then 1. You are depriving someone else from attending. 2. The workshops are set to break even so non-attendance means we will run at a loss. 3. The presenters put a lot of their own time and effort into putting on the workshops and its just plain rude not to ignore the e-mail reminders and then just not turn up.
This year we are also inviting workshop attendees to provide feedback via a short anonymous on-line form. Please take 2 minutes to complete it is the only way we can ensure the improvement of future workshops. The number of people providing feedback to date is very poor.

A full list of forthcoming workshops is on the website and the sign-up sheets are available on every club night. Please support these.

Thanks go to Mike Dales ARPS for a very entertaining evening full of great images and a wide range of styles. You may remember that he mentioned his web site for his L and A panels and some more experimental work. His web site can be viewed here.

A reminder that the club has its own Facebook page here. It is always nice to tell someone you ‘Like’ them so go there and click that button.

Next Tuesday is the Informal Photo Critique workshop.

Next Thursday is the first round of our print league. As Richard Reynolds mentioned he will have print labels available at the club next week, but if you don’t want to leave it to the last minute then you can download them from the web site, under the section devoted to competition rules. Print labels need to be attached to the back of your submission for those new to print competitions.

Tuesday, 18th October is the date for the Introduction to Photoshop workshop. Spaces are still available and you can sign up next week.

Our thanks go to Kevin Day, our judge for the first round of the PDI league, and the first user of our new scoring system. I thought his comments and feedback were right on the money and he created a friendly atmosphere. Congratulations to our new batch of gold medal winners.

The workshop for this coming Tuesday has been cancelled. All that needed to be done for ‘Preparing for the SHP Exhibition’ has been done it seems.

Next Thursday sees us hosting ‘An evening with Mike Dales’.

Finally, for those on Flickr, I spotted a selection of images from the National Media Museum in Bradford,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmediamuseum/

Have a good week!

Thank you to Julian Hawkins who gave our on-location lighting knowledge a real workout, together with some excellent insights into the working life of a professional as they resolve problems with a shoot. For those interested, Julian has a web site for his Shadows & Light company here.

Congratulations go to Graham Peacock for his Highly Commended award from the Southern Fed as a result of last year’s PDI competitions.

Next week

Tuesday sees the running of the print mounting workshop, as usual in room 5 @ 8pm.

Thursday we have the 1st round of the PDI league.

An excellent talk from Andy Beel FRPS; strong images and an engaging speaker.

I am pleased to be able to announce that Peter Ellis has achieved his BPE 1*. Peter is one of our members who have been busy over the summer competing in external exhibitions, with the following results:

German International DVF Photocup

• Ron Gafney (4 Acceptances)

Glasgow Digital Photo Exhibition

• Bruce Collins (2 Acceptances)
• Peter Ellis (5 Acceptances)

Beyond Group National

• Anne Eckersley (1 Acceptance)
• Peter Ellis (2 Acceptances – 1 commendation)
• Ron Gafney (1 Acceptance)

California Pacific International

• Ron Gafney (4 Acceptances)

PSA Exhibition 2011

• Peter Ellis (2 Acceptances)
• Ron Gafney (2 Acceptances – 1 Medal)

Great Barr Open

• Bruce Collins (2 Acceptances)
• Anne Eckersley (5 Acceptances)

RPS PI Exhibition 2011

• Peter Ellis (1 Acceptance)

Northern Counties International

• Peter Ellis (3 Acceptances)
• Ron Gafney (2 Acceptances – 1 ribbon)
• Bruce Collins (3 Acceptances)

Cotswold Monochrome Salon

• Peter Handford (1 Acceptance)

Catching up from last week, thanks go to Caroline for organising our members evening to start the season. A particular thanks goes to those members who contributed to such a varied session: Steve Buesden, Jeff Lawrence, Charles Elsdon, Dorothee Luke, Alan Fretten, and David Gaunt.

Upcoming events

Tuesday sees Richard Reynolds running a workshop to help prepare those who plan to enter the internal Projected Image competitions. All about resizing and colour management plus using the image uploader. A reminder: if you are new to the club and are planning to enter the PI comps then you need to let Richard know so he can add you to the uploader login.

Next Thursday we have Julian Hawkins telling us about his portrait work. That should be excellent.

Have a good week!

Wonderful news imparted to the members last week that Caroline Colegate and Ruari Cumming had each been awarded an ARPS distinction. An entirely appropriate recognition of two excellent photographers.

We have also had news of more fine performances by our members in external competitions:

• Bristol International
  • Anne Eckersley (1)
  • Ron Gafney (2)
  • Bruce Collins (3)
  • Peter Ellis (3)
• Rushden Open
  • Bruce Collins (1)
  • Anne Eckersley (3)

I would also like to thank the members who contributed to last week by sharing their photobooks; Bruce, Ingrid, Charles, Debbie, Ron and Sandy. Congratulations go to Ingrid for capturing the Judge’s final approval for her book called ‘Trees’, a lovely combination of images and poems. And many thanks go to Brian Steptoe and Caroline for organising an excellent evening.

Michael Soane has organised an event for the summer, details as follows:

• 7.45pm in the Time Out café & Bar, on Thursday 21^st July 2011
• Venue: Edgebarrow Sports Centre
• Cost £14.50 per person
• Let Caroline know if you would like to come so we can plan numbers. There is a sign up sheet!

See you soon!