June 2010

4th May
Set Subject Competition: Circles

Though advertised as above, it will be recalled that the Judge for the previous week's Finals had not shown. So members were asked to judge the DPI entry for the Set Subject Competition and from this members' judgement, the favourite five were selected. Our Judge for the Set Subject Competition had agreed to judge this reduced entry of this competition plus judging the previous week's Finals. The evening did not start well when the Judge had not arrived by 20:10. A repeat of last week? No our Judge, Glyn Bareham LRPS, CPAGB, arrived a little late with apologies for having got stuck in traffic.

Without further ado, the Finals colour prints were shown. The judge went through them first and then a second time to award benchmarking points. He then selected Tony Deller's 'Gathering Storm' as the Winner of the Harlequin Trophy and awarded a Hon. Mention for 'Metropolitan Peace' also by Tony Deller. Next the Monochrome prints were shown and did our judge like our monochrome work. He awarded no less than three 'tens' and the average score for the sixteen prints was 8.9 points. The Winner of Kimber Cup was 'The Torrent' by Dennis Noble and the Hon Mentions went to John Hill for his 'Girl with a Hat' and to Vic Tokarski for his 'Running Through the Storm'. Next the DPI images were shown and the Frank Taylor Trophy was awarded to Hilary Walker for her 'A Splash of Blue'. The Judge then moved on to the Set Subject Competition, looked at the five DPI's and selected his favourite. There were seven prints entered and the judge selected his favourite which was then compared with his choice of DPI. The Wickham cup went to the DPI by Martin Ridout entitled 'Lime'. Norman Bernard's print, 'Vicious Circle' was awarded a Hon Mention. A special thanks went to the Judge for ably taking on the extra work. Incidentally, the winner of the Set Subject was the members' top choice from the previous week.


11th May
Members' Evening

Originally advertised as a talk but when no speaker could be found it became a members' evening. The evening started with showing some of the entries for the KCPA 2007 Digital Competition. Whilst some of the images were top class, some were little better than what was produced by our own members. Perhaps, seeing this, more members might be encouraged to have a go. The second part of the evening was spent watching a tutorial video provided by the Royal Photographic Society. Part of this was to help members identify 'faults' in pictures. A picture was shown with a number of tick boxes alongside listing various types of faults. Members then called out what they saw as faults and the boxes ticked. The correct answers were then shown alongside a 'corrected' picture. This caused some fun, especially when members disagreed with the official answers.


Thursday 13th May at Bromley CC
Larter Cup Competition

This competition is held annually between Bromley, Beckenham and ourselves. Originally for colour slides and monochrome prints, the slides have now been replaced by DPI's. Each club puts up a panel for a judge to score. The highest score wins the cup for a year. Of our entry Mike Spurway's DPI of 'Hungary Eagle' was awarded 10 points. The result given by Judge Lola Clarke LRPS is as follows:

Club	Mono Prints	DPI	Total	Place
Bromley CC (host)	49.5	49	98.5	3rd
West Wickham PS	49.5	51.5	101	2nd
Beckenham CC	55	54.5	109.5	1st

Well at least we did not come last!


Saturday 15th May
Outing to Kent Life Museum

Eleven members met up in the Tea Room in the Kent Life Museum. The Museum is located on a small plot of land trapped between the M20 Motorway and the River Medway. The site slopes down towards the River which unfortunately cannot be seen from the Museum. It has a few reconstructed village buildings, a few fields with various farm animals and amusements for young children. As a place to introduce children to farm animals it was good but the Museum aspects did not meet our members' expectations. Permeating the atmosphere of the site was the continuous roar of the traffic on the nearby M20. We adjourned for lunch to a pub by the River Medway after which some members strolled along the towpath looking at the moored boats. We then made our way the short distance to the village of Aylesford to view the medieval bridge, its Tudor cottages and the delights of a very nice tea shop. Unfortunately whilst the weather was reasonably sunny during the morning, the afternoon clouded over rather spoiling the end of the day.





18th May
Record Competition

Before starting the Record Competition, Andrew Herbert announced the winner of the Graham Beale Trophy, awarded for the highest entry points score. This year two members scored equally with twenty points. To separate them, Andrew looked first at the highest number of firsts, both were equal but on second places one member had more, that member being John Hill. Coming in second was Tony Deller. It was also announced that Mike Spurway had won the Londinium Trophy for the highest points score for DPI entries.

The Chairman then introduced our Judge, Mick White LRPS and congratulated him on getting his LRPS. Mick, until quite recently was a member of West Wickham and therefore no stranger to our members. Mick had three prints to judge before moving on to the 37 DPI entries. Mick stuck rigidly to his remit for record pictures and some quite good images were criticised because they did not strictly stick to the 'Record ' category. Some had unsuitable contrasty lighting, some lacked an indication of scale, some the backgrounds were found to be distracting and some were just not sharp enough. At the end of the first run through no prints were held but twelve DPI's. Mick then found it a struggle to choose a winner and some Hon. Men's. But struggle he did and his final selection was:

Winner	Magnifying Glass	Brenda Campkin
HM	Georgian Pocket Watch Dated 1802	Martin Ridout
HM	Peruvian Trible Mask	Hilary Walker
HM	Belt Buckle for Cowboys	Joyce Bernard
HM	4 Inch Ceramic Old Ordinary	Bob Zwolinsky

Unfortunately, Brenda was not present to receive the Stoke Mandeville Trophy. In closing the meeting, the Chairman commente4d on how gratifying it was to see so many of our newer members doing well in competition. Also congratulations to Martin and Hilary for managing the DPI projection without a hitch.


25th May
Annual General Meeting

Bob called the meeting to order at 20:10 hrs by announcing apologies for absence. The minutes of last years AGM had been circulated and were duly accepted as read. No matters arising, Bob then gave his report starting with his thanks to all those non-committee members who so contributed to the Society's activities. He gave a special thanks to Joye Miles who was no longer able to support the Programme Secretary by sending out reminders and thank you letters to our speakers and judges. He also mentioned Loraine who had also had to stand down from DPI Secretary's post. Bob then announced the most difficult challenge the Society was facing, that of finding a Programme Secretary. Alec Mahood had been trying to retire from this post for two years now and had made clear he would not go another year. The difficulty being faced by all clubs was that of finding judges and speakers. The success of the members judging evening meant that this might be included as a regular in the programme. Overall Bob said it had been a good year for the Society with meetings and outings well attended.

Eddie then gave out the financial position which was good. For the first time in the Society's history the year had ended with a little over £1,000 in the bank. It was important to build on this reserve in order to be able to replace such things as the Society's laptop and digital projector. With the growing membership and stable finances, the Committee was not proposing any changes to the subscriptions. It was noted that the rent for the Hall had increased slightly during the year.

Next came the election of Officers and Committee. In the absence of any volunteers, Bob said he would take on the Programme Secretary's job but would not then continue as Chairman. After a bit of a stalemate, Mick Valentine said he 'would give the Chairman's job a go'. Martin Ridout and Hilary Walker agreed to share the DPI Secretary's post with Martin collecting the entries. All other Society Officials and Committee Members agreed to continue in their respective posts. Alec Mahood was again elected President and Bernard Myerscroft as Auditor. Joye Miles proposed a vote of thanks to the Committee which was roundly supported by the members.

Under any other business it was proposed the speciality competitions in which both Prints and DPI may be entered should be changed. After some discussion it was agreed that these competitions should alternate year on year with being either all DPI or all Prints. A request was also made for the notes on what constitutes a 'Record' picture should be made clear as some members thought our judge this year had a slightly different view to some of the member who entered. It was agreed to look at this.

The Society had received and invitation from West Wickham Residents' Association to put on a display at their forthcoming exhibition, it was agreed in principle to oblige. It was also agreed to put on a display in the local library sometime early in the Autumn.

Finally next year's set subject was agreed. This would be to create an advert. It was proposed the advert could be for anything the member's imagination could come up with. Whilst some form of graphics could be used, the primary 'illustration' for the advert should be a photograph. Guidance notes would be issued to ensure continuity of approach.

With that Bob closed the meeting a little after 21:00 hrs, the rest of the evening being spent socialising and by members congratulating themselves for being in such a good Society.