Welcome

By Paul Cox ARPS (Regional Organiser)

Dear Members, Hello and welcome to our final newsletter for 2021.

There is no doubt that this year has been a difficult one mentally, socially and physically. And we have all suffered either directly or indirectly from the effects of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdowns. When the pandemic started the Society withdrew from all meetings and events that required in-person attendance, and that has remained in place until very recently

As a Regional Organisation, we’ve had great success and attendance to the ‘virtual meetings’ / workshops we’ve held during 2021 and I would like to thank David Ashcroft LRPS for organising the Sony event and for hosting his own workshop on Infrared photography, also my thanks go to Dave Peckham ARPS for hosting his own [ever popular] ‘digital processing’ workshop, and big thanks go to Antony Topham and Chris Tank for hosting Antony’s workshop on the use of the Snapseed App for editing smartphone images, and last, but not least, many thanks to Bhupinder Ghatahora for her workshop on Light Painting with Smartphones. All of these events were made available to RPS members, and non-members alike, and attracted both UK and International attendees.

The Society has now lifted the restriction on in-person attended meetings and events and is slowly reintroducing them into its own calendar. However, we all know that the popularity of such gatherings is subject to people’s appetite for them. We, the Southern Region volunteer committee, find this re-opening of the Society very exciting and encouraged and are going to follow their lead with high anticipation. By the time you read this we will have already kicked off our in-person attended events this year with a meet-up / photo walk at Kingley Vale Woods near Chichester. We will be quickly following that with another meet-up for a Newbury Canal photo-walk on November 26th. Our first return to in-person attended Advisory Days is on 12th December at Old Basing Hall where both Licentiate and Associate (Visual Art) panels will be receiving advice from our own Bhupinder Ghatahora ARPS (Licentiate panels) and Paul Mitchell FRPS (Associate Visual Art). We are following on into 2022 with a comprehensive package for you, our members, that includes Advisory Days, workshops, meet-ups and talks. Our schedule is currently being finalised but, you can see, and note, our plans in this newsletter. And there’s lots of other great content for you to read including introductions from the volunteer team and members photos. Have a great Christmas, and I hope to see you at one or other of our events in 2022.

Paul Cox ARPS, Regional Organiser, Southern Region, Royal Photographic Society