March 2011

March 2011


1st February
Digitally Projected Images, Heat 3

This heat of the digital competition was judged by the Members themselves. Our own member John Hill, who is an experienced photographic judge, kindly gave a critique of each of the 48 images submitted, John admitted to finding it difficult to comment on the work of his fellow club members as he could recognise some individual styles in the images but he made some constructively critical comments about the images. Following a break for tea, the members gave their scores. The results are as follows.

Place	Title	Author
1st	Honey Bee	Hilary Walker
2nd	Spring Blossom	Brenda Campkin
=3rd	Eye Pods	Martin Ridout
=3rd	Many Mouths to Feed	Hilary Walker
HM	Kelly	Mike Spurway
HM	The Eyes of a Black Puma	Mike Spurway
HM	Peruvian Street Urchin	Howard Rowe

Report Martin Ridout


Friday 4th February
FSLPS DPI Semi Final at Selsdon

Following our 2nd place in the heat of this competition last November, we met Beckenham Photographic Society in the digital semi-final round, hosted by Selson CC. The judge was Marcus Scott-Taggart who praised the two clubs for entering some excellent images. Our club was supported by seven of our members.

Marcus awarded four images the maximum 10 points, two of which were WWPS images. Our scores were as follows:

'Sinking Mud' by Bob Zwolinsky - 9 points
'Strawberry Field' by Bob Richards - 8.5 points
'Metropolitan Peace' by Tony Deller - 9.5 points
'Outlines' by Alec Mahood - 8.5 points
'Snowbound' by Martin Ridout - 8 points
'The Eyes of a Black Puma' by Mike Spurway - 10 points
'Red and Green' by Bob Richards - 10 points (+Certificate)
'Lime' by Martin Ridout - 8 points

Congratulations to Mike and Bob for their scores of 10.

The final scores were Beckenham 68.5 points and West Wickham 71.5 points.
So we are through to the final on April 16th.

Report by Martin Ridout


Monday 7th February at South London PS.
FSLPS Colour Prints Plate Competition

This was our turn in this Plate completion, a four-way tie against Greenwood, South London and Bromley. The judge was Andy Smith. The individual print marks were:

Early Morn, Lake Luzern – Tony Deller: 8
Hanna – John Hill: 9.5
Pond Edge Rottingdean – Derek White: 9
Cottage at Westerham – Bob Z: 8
Sumatran Tiger – Mike Spurway: 10 **!!**
Amina – Garey Lennox: 9
Gathering Storm – Tony: 10 **!!**
Rainy Day, Lake Lucerne – Mike Spurway: 9

The scores reflected the commentary and we ended up with a total of 72 points, a very score. Other 10’s were awarded to Peter Ergis of Bromley, and Michael Blythe of South London.
Unfortunately, our 72 score was not quite good enough. We got beaten by half a point by Bromley with 72.5, South London got 70.5 and Greenwood got 64.5. So by half a point we do not progress to the Plate Final.

Report by Andrew Herbert.


8th February
Members’ DPI Evening

The plan for the evening was for members to have brought along photos that they wanted to show and talk about or to receive comments upon. As there was very few forthcoming, the evening started by projecting the images that had been entered in the FSLPS semi-final, and which had won us a place in the final, to be held on Saturday 16 April. Some discussion of these images and of the Judges comments followed.

Bob Zwolinsky then showed us images from a Mediterranean cruise holiday that Lyn and he had taken. We saw a travelogue of images showing locations in Lisbon, Dubrovnik, Trieste among others. The evening ended slightly early with an extended tea break giving more time than usual for a chat with other members.

Report by Martin Ridout.


15th February at Orpington
FSLPS Inter Club Plat Comp – Monochrome Prints

The Mono Plate comp was held at Orpington PS. The judge was Ann Smith. Her judging style is to discuss what she can see and then speculate about it. Then she says she likes this and enjoys that but wonders about the other, and then gives a mark. Only occasionally were comments were made about technical qualities of each image.

Her comments regarding our work could be summarised with regard to The End of the Pier, she liked the bottom half of the picture but thought the “moonlight” overpowered the top half, too much paper base. The Torrent she had the same thought, would be better with just the bottom half of the pic. Thought that the treatment of Grace was a bit too severe, which was the aspect the Dave Mason in the first round liked. She Liked Running Though the Storm a lot. Not much of any significance said about the others.

We came in last I’m afraid with 68.5. We were up against Orpington who got 69.5, Carshalton with 71.5 and Mitcham won with 72.5.

It is of interest to note we were against Carshalton in the 1st round and beat them 66.5 to 62.5, each of us using the same panels as in the first round.

Report by Andrew Herbert.


15th February
DPI Evening

Martin Ridout introduced and welcomed our Judge, Nene van Dijk FRPS from Beckenham Photographic Society, who has judged our competitions in the past. Fifteen entries were received for the 'Series 6' competition, ranging from groups of 5 images to 8 images. All entries were previewed without comment and Nene then went on to give a detailed commentary on all the images, giving entrants useful and constructive advice, particularly regarding the sharpness of some images. The concept behind several entries was praised although the execution could have been improved, perhaps with a bit more variety of image or the removal of near duplicates. Nene held back 5 entries for another viewing and then announced her decision.

Hon Mention were awarded for "Bodiam Castle Jousting Weekend" by Hilary Walker and for "Red Arrows" by Martin Ridout. The winner was "End of the Road", a series of seven black and white images recording the demolition of Victorian terraced dwellings, also by Martin Ridout who received the 'Peter’s Duck' trophy from our judge.

Report by Martin Ridout.


Saturday 19th February
Outing to the British Library

A small group ventured by train, bus and Shanks’s Pony to Euston Road without hitch but in pretty cold and miserable weather. The British Library was not busy and provided plenty of photo opportunities in the non-exhibition areas of the interesting building – it was warm and dry! – and of the people most of whom were engrossed in their computers, the whole place being an advertisement for Apple laptops! There are several permanent exhibitions of interest. One that impressed particularly is devoted to Magna Carta. There was also a large short-term exhibition on the Origins and Development of the English Language which was most enlightening with relevant historical document and audio exhibits.
After a very pleasant lunch at the Library we wandered off next door – in the slightly better weather – to St Pancras Station which being a Saturday, was busy. Having checked and arranged beforehand, we were able to photograph at will this very impressive station with its blend of “Victorian grandeur” architecture and engineering and of the new extension station and international station - which are impressively large but much less visually interesting with much of it devoted to “standard” shopping mall facilities. So, an hour or so of wandering about and snapping away culminated in the inevitable tea break in the more interesting of the shopping areas within the Victorian building. It is all well worth a visit – one could spend all day sitting there watching and snapping as the world goes by.
The weather having not improved discouraged further wandering about the area for other photo opportunities and so we called it a day by mid-afternoon. An enjoyable outing all round.

Report and photos by Andrew Herbert




22nd February
A Talk on how to Photograph the Heavens

Two members from the Orpington Astronomical Society entertained us with talks about astronomical photography. Mike McRoberts opened the first half of the meeting by showing members the telescopes, tripod mounting and tracking systems employed to photograph the stars. The tripods used need to be much larger, heavier and more rigid because of the generally longer focal lengths and longer exposure times involved than that used in every day photography. Exposure times for astronomical photography can be anything from a few seconds to many minutes so, as the earth rotates in relation to the heavens, the telescope needs to move to keep the stars in the same spot in the frame. Members were told this was achieved using a motorised panning head between the telescope and the tripod which is a computer-controlled precision-geared device that has to be lined up accurately with the pole star at the beginning of the session. Computer software can then take the telescope to any point in the heavens to find a particular star or galaxy.

Mark Shelley then explained the use of a domestic DSLR camera mounted on a telescope for recording images. He described how he had taken a Canon 350D apart to make modifications to help reduce electronic noise in his images. He also explained solutions to one of the biggest problems of astronomical photography in this country, that of light pollution. This can be reduced with software filters. Image noise-reduction techniques were also explained. Noise is always worst in dark areas of an image, and can be reduced quite considerably by taking a large number of separate images and 'stacking' them in register with each other. Blurring of images due to atmospheric disturbances (heat for example) can be reduced, again by means of clever software.

This was a fascinating evening that generated many questions from members. Following a vote of thanks from Bob, the members showed their appreciation in the usual way.

Reports by Martin Ridout and Andrew Herbert.