December 2009

3rd November
Members' Evening

Members had been invited to bring along print to show, to comment on and invite comments from other members. The first to go was Andrew who started by showing a panorama of a church interior. He invited members to spot the problem. None did. Andrew has an A4 printer and he was creating the shown panorama by printing it in two halves and joining the prints. Only close examination revealed the join. Several members made suggestions on how he might, using his printer, make the print on a single piece of paper. Clive then went and started with a colour print mounted on a coloured mount which not many of those present thought to be a success. Clive then showed several more pictures giving the story behind each. Then new member Martin Ridout stepped up to the easel with three monochrome prints. It was clear this new member would have much to contribute to the Society. Bob the Chair then showed some 'rushes' of a recent trip to Bilbao only to find his strongest critic was his wife Lynn. Fred and Joye then showed some shots of their recent trip to China accompanied with descriptions of some of their adventures. Lorina showed a couple of prints, one of a bird in Gambia and the other a close up portrait of a child. Norman rounded the evening off with two prints with a request to help him improve the images for which he received several suggestions.


10th November
Digital Projected Images Heat 2

This meeting saw Heat 2 of Digital Projected Images Competition with 46 entries. The judge was Ian Brash of Selsdon Camera Club who started off the evening by talking about the criteria he used to make judgements, taking into account technical quality as well as 'impact'. He said that he used the old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder thus excusing himself if he liked different things to his audience. It was clear from early on that he was most taken with the nature shots of animals, birds and plants . He appeared generally not very keen on landscapes and what he described as personal photos of people. This was a shame as in my opinion some of the best images were in these categories and received relatively low marks. Ian came across quite unlike his name as a very friendly, interesting judge and offered some good advice regarding cloning out of some odd white spots or items that took his eye away from the subject. He also made some good points about cropping

At the end of the evening he had put 14 into the 'Held' pile and then deliberated over them until he came up with his top four. It was no surprise that three of the top four were nature shots but the winner was an excellent manipulated shot in mauve of a little girl called Amazing Grace by Mike Spurway who also claimed two other places. Joyce Bernard stopped the result from becoming a clean sweep by Mike Spurway. The Results were as follows:

Place	Title	Author
1st	Amazing Grace	Mike Spurway
2nd	Pond Skaters Mating	Joyce Bernard
3rd	Cheetah	Mike Spurway
4th	Hungary Eagle	Mike Spurway
HM	Silverback Gorilla	Lorina Dean
HM	The Body	John Hill
HM	Plant Tendril	Joyce Bernard
HM	Scary	John Hill
HM	Elgol Bay	Joyce Bernard
HM	Tropical Plant at the Eden Project	Mike Spurway

My thanks to Tony Warran for this report, Webmaster.


16th November
FSLPS Inter Club Mono Print Heat at South London PS

Our Judge for the evening was David Wood ARPS, DPAGB and the clubs were South London PS., Bromley CC., Croydon CC., Old Coulsdon CC., Carshalton CC. And ourselves. Each club had a panel of eight prints making a total of 48 images. Some present expressed concern over the lighting used on the easel as it seemed to give a tint to some prints. David always a tough task master and his marking was thought by some to be a little tough. Only three prints got top marks of Ten. Some of West Wickham's prints previously marked by other judges got lower than expected scores. Of the six certificates awarded Tony Deller received one for his Engine Room of the SS Great Britain with a score of 9. The total scores for each club ranged from 66 down to 56 points. West Wickham was placed fourth with a total score of 57points. The other scores were: South London PS. 61, Bromley CC. 66, Croydon CC. 60, Old Coulsdon CC. 56.5 and Carshalton CC. 56.


17th November
Print Heat 2

Our Judge for the evening was Jeff Royce who before commencing said that he tended to take photographic quality, in this digital age, as granted and would only comment where he thought it necessary. Instead, he said he looks for something different in an image, something the photographer has added to the subject. With those opening remarks, Jeff started with the colour prints. Thirtyone prints had been entered some of which met Jeff's criterion. One in particular was a posterised portrait after the style of Andy Warhal. After the first run through Jeff held back 9 prints from which he made his final selection. A smaller entry for the monochrome prints with only twenty entered. As before, 7 were held from which the winners were selected. The results were as follows:

Colour Prints

Place	Title	Author
1st	Glass Car	Mike Spurway
2nd	Snapping Niagra Falls	Dennis Noble
3rd	Last Game of the Day	Norman Bernard
4th	London Old and New	John Hill
HM	Brecon Cathedral	Andrew Herbert
HM	Man's Best Friend	Mick Valentine

Monochrome Prints

Place	Title	Author
1st	Running From the Storm	Vic Tokarski
2nd	Jack	John Hill
3rd	The Torrent	Dennis Noble
4th	Grace	Mike Spurway
HM	Ffestiniog Railway	Mike Spurway
HM	Decommissioned Boats	Alec Mahood

24th November
The Edwardian Eye of Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles 1871-1956

Our speaker for the evening, Richard Pitcairn-Knowles, is the grandson of the subject of the evening's talk. Richard started by describing how Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles came to be born in Germany in 1871, the son of Scottish wool merchants who were running the German branch of the business. As he grew up he decided not to follow in the family business but became involved first in the army and then in sport. He also became a keen photographer and launched and ran a German magazine specialising is providing pictures of sporting events. This photographer then went on to tour all over Europe taking photographs of interesting events for which he wrote articles and sold them to various magazines. We were treated to examples of his work covering a period from around 1880 to 1912. In 1912 Andrew returned to England and set up a health hydro in Hastings. In the house used as the hydro health spa, Andrew built a dark room and it was here that the thousands of negatives and glass plates were stored. Andrew died in 1956 and it was some time later that Richard discovered this photographic store. At first Richard started to throw the negatives out until another local photographer spotted them and made Andrew realise the value of this collection. A large number of the pictures are now held by the V&A in London who have staged a special exhibition of these photos. Richard closed his very interesting talk by drawing attention to the book of his ancestor's photographs which he had some copies for members to purchase.