DIG News - February 2016
Faded Lily by David Pearson ARPS
FEBRUARY MEANS IT’S AGM AND PRINT EXHIBITION TIME Sunday Feb 28th 2016 at The Old School House, Smethwick to be precise. AGM followed by prints selection and then a talk by Iain McGowan FRPS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIG AGM We will be at The Old School House, Smethwick Photographic Society Club Rooms, Churchbridge, Oldbury, West Mids B69 2AS from 10.00 to 16.00. We hope to see as many of you as possible join us for a great day out. The AGM is kept to the very minimum, then we move on to enjoy seeing the members three exhibition print submissions, from which our eminent selectors will choose the one for acceptance. This year the selectors are Iain McGowan FRPS, Joy Whiting ARPS and David Cooke FRPS. They will agree on the overall RPS Gold Medal Trophy winner, plus each will award 2 RPS Ribbons to the prints of their choice. We round off the day with a presentation from Iain McGowan. It is fascinating to think that his work is produced directly from camera to print and never sees a computer nor software along the way. How many of us could do that – few is my suspicion. Full information can be found on our web page HERE LUNCH OPTIONS FOR THE AGM We have a slight change for this year. Smethwick are offering us the following Jacket Potatoes – baked beans, cheese or chilli £3 Soup – likely choice lentil or leek & potato £3 These need to be pre-ordered by emailing to our DIG Sec on digsecretary@rps.org before Feb 18th. Payment on the day. Of course you are welcome to bring your own packed lunch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIG PRINT EXHIBITION 2016
Entries are now coming in – have you sent your form to our Exhibition Organiser Marilyn Taylor yet? She needs your entry form and emailed copies of your images to be with her no later than February 15th. The actual prints you can either bring with you to the AGM, drop off at our various Drop-Off points around the UK, or post them to Marilyn. It is a FREE TO ENTER competition. You submit 3 prints and are guaranteed to get one in the DIG 2016 Travelling Exhibition. Mounted prints please from UK members, but overseas members may send unmounted prints. If you wish to have your prints returned to you then you need to pay the return postage. All the information can be found on our web site HERE. If you have any query then please contact Marilyn Taylor on digexhibitions@rps.org Do note that we have a slightly different process this year so do please read the rules carefully. Your entry form must be emailed in and accompanied by jpg versions of your prints. PC users can just attach the jpg’s in the normal way, but MAC users need to read Note 7 of the rules and compress their jpg’s prior to attaching them to the email.
PRINT DROP-OFF POINTS There are several RPS meetings where DIG Prints can be handed in and a representative will bring them to the AGM on your behalf. With thanks to Sheila Haycox for volunteering please note that we have some NEW Drop-off points in the South West. A full list and details can be found on the web site HERE but in brief they are as follows – Feb 14th DIG Thames Valley meeting at Wokingham Feb 14th RPS Western Region meeting – Fenton House (morning only) Feb 21st DIG Southern meeting at Ringwood Feb 21st DIG Western meeting at Ilton Feb 25th Portishead Camera Club Also in person to…….. Ian Bailey at Shipton-on-Stour Paula Davies at Stokesley
Malcolm Blackburn at Chapel-en-Le-Frith Sheila Haycox at Exeter
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NOMINATIONS TO DIG COMMITTEE Any DIG Member wishing to stand for Committee at the 2016 AGM should be submitting their fully supported nomination form to our Secretary, Janet Davies, by February 14th 2016. The form can be downloaded from our web site HERE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------CONGRATULATIONS It has been a couple of months since we last listed recent successes so we are delighted to say WELL DONE to the following members who have recently gained their Distinctions. Robert Smith LRPS Colin Welby LRPS David Shillabeer LRPS Alan Hurst LRPS
Lancashire West Yorkshire Nairnshire Nottinghamshire
Jim Souper ARPS
West Yorkshire
I wish we had room to show everyone’s panel but as it is I just pick one person at random and ask them for their layout and a few words. But for others why not consider uploading your panel to your own RPS Gallery. If you do this then send me an email (with link) and we will start a list of new DIG Gallery panels for everyone to enjoy. For instructions on how to upload you will find information on the DIG Pages HERE. You will need to login to the RPS site to be able to read this item and upload to the Gallery. David Shillaber LRPS has kindly agreed to share his successful panel with us and provide a few words. I have long held the belief that newcomers to photography who attend camera clubs are met by people who, however well meaning, shower them with what is to the new member, technical gobbledygook. The latest high end equipment is espoused and through sheer fright or frustration our new member becomes an ex member. I feel that they should first be taught how to COMPOSE a picture and forget all the technical stuff. Put the camera on Auto, go out and HAVE FUN. When they are competent in MAKING a picture
then we can discuss the technical aspects as they become more proficient. This is not a view shared by the techies so I set about my panel to prove that it could be done. Six pictures out of the ten in the panel were taken on a Panasonic TZ30 pocket camera left mostly in the "Landscape" mode and the remaining four on a Canon EOS 7D. I leave you to decide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------DIG FORUM Congratulations to David Pearson ARPS with ‘Faded Lily’ - this months DIG Forum competition winner. The image has been so beautifully processed – a detail quite obviously not lost on those who voted. We also had a close second from Richard Hainsworth LRPS with ‘Serene’ (see forum images on a following page
Here are David’s own words about his image This is one of a number of photographs I’ve taken of dead or dying flowers. As they fade I find that they get more interesting (like us!), the colours intensify, new colours appear and the markings become more pronounced. By giving it a high key treatment with very sharp details, I have tried to produce the effect of an old botanical illustration.
We have now been running the monthly Forum competitions for 12 months, in that time we have seen some superb work, many from DIG members who perhaps do not normally engage with the forum. That’s absolutely fine. We appreciate that some members do not want to post images for comments and give feedback to others, but entering the competition requires you to do nothing more than login and upload your image for the month. Any DIG Member can vote for the winner whether you entered or not. So at the very least why don’t you look in on the forum around the 25th each month and choose your top 3 and vote. Just to show you what you are missing out on I asked all the members entering this month if we could show their entries. Each was happy for us to do so and would love for you to join them now and again. So in no particular order here are the images submitted for the month of January 2016.
St Peter & St Paul, Salle by Keith Mercer
Fly by Brian Lunt
Standing Stones of Calanais (Isle of Lewis) by Eric Begbie
Putting out the Chairs by John Bull
Serene by Richard Hainsworth
Kowtow by Janet Haines
2nd place
The Windows to the Soul by James Mahon
Reading by Phil Lavery
Flowers at the Seaside by Rex Waygood
We’ll Meet Again by Chas Hockin
Tree by Mike Cowdrey All Saints, Turvey, Bedford by Max Green
--------------------------------------------------------------------------RPS DISTINCTIONS REVIEW Every RPS member had an email (Jan 14) advising us of the review that is being under taken regarding the Distinctions. If you have not yet done so then I would urge any of you who have experienced the process, good or bad, to voice your opinions to the review committee via comments@rps.org You have till February 28th to do this and it is incumbent on us all to contribute our thoughts and feedback. This is being organized for us, the members, so let us contribute to the outcome by making our views known.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------DIG CENTRES News from around the UK Centres starting with
Western Centre have an interesting looking meeting on February 21st at Ilton, Somerset where Simon Redgrave from On Line Paper will be giving a demonstration. Clive Tanner FRPS MPAGB will also show some of his beautiful prints. For more information on how to book your ticket go to HERE
Thames Valley - “Due to a prolonged recovery from an operation, the Thames Valley Group have had to change the speaker for their event on Sunday 14 February. Fortunately they have been able to get not one, but two replacement speakers. Firstly, Tom Way is an award winning Wildlife photographer and will go into what it takes to be a Wildlife Photographer. Talking about the importance of light, the right angles and the emphasis on trying to compose a sellable image when looking through the lens. Tom has been awarded in various competitions including European Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2015 competition. Tom’s work is widely published and he is a contributor to the BBC Wildlife Magazine. Secondly, Eva Worobiec FRPS will be giving us a presentation entitled 'Working in Themes'. Eva's talk shows how working in themes and on projects can lead to better opportunities for exhibitions and to have work published, as well as being inherently more rewarding than just
trying to capture unrelated images to impress judges. She will also bring copies of her newly-published book "Abandoned on the Plains", her 4th joint project with husband Tony Worobiec FRPS with whom people may be familiar. So we have an excellent day to look forward to". Laurie Pate centreorganiser@rpsdig-thamesvalley.org.uk http://www.rps.org/digtv
Scotland - Are looking forward to their first meeting of 2016 on 14th February. The agenda for this meeting will be for a short AGM followed by work sharing and discussion. Please bring along some Prints or PDI’s showing successes, work-in-progress, recent work or general items of interest. As a challenge, please bring along some images depicting snow or some other aspect of winter.
Centre Organisers are desperately needed for both DIG Western and DIG Eastern Centres. We have put out appeals for volunteers before and no-one has stepped forward. Without someone picking up these vital roles then both the Centres will have to close. Being a Centre Organiser is not an onerous role, with only four meetings a year to run. Western has a forward programme that the incoming organizer will benefit from. Whereas for Eastern then it would be entirely up to the new person to book who she or he feels is appropriate. Both Centres have committees in place so you would not be unsupported. If you feel you can help then please get in touch with the DIG Committee via barry@littlepics.freeserve.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIG WEB IMAGES You will be aware that at the top of RPS pages we have rotating slideshows of images from members of the Group page you are viewing. These have to be changed for us by HQ so we submit new works periodically. We would like to refresh our header images so are appealing to you for ones that work in the correct dimensions of 1085px by 605px; but only the centre 1020px by 380px will be fully visible. To assist you to ensure your image works well at this unusual size you will find a template and instructions on the ‘About Us’ page of the DIG web site – scroll right down to the bottom. Once prepared then please send your images to digweb@rps.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------DIG DEMOGRAPHICS We have recently been doing some analysis of our DIG membership and it makes for some interesting reading. It appears there are a good number of OS members that are lone voices in the wilderness in their countries when it comes to DIG membership. Quite possibly there are also UK members who are almost as isolated, living in far flung places with few others around you. So to help you feel part of the community we would love to see you on the DIG Forum and posting there from time to time. In the meantime here is the world-wide spread of our members. United Kingdom 1514, China 27, Australia 16, USA 16, Hong Kong 8, Canada 7, Ireland 6, Spain 6, India 5, New Zealand 5, Switzerland 4, France 3, Netherlands 2, New Zealand 2, Singapore 2, South Africa 2, Spain 2, Algeria 1, Belgium 1, Cyprus 1, Egypt 1, France 1, Germany 1, Gibraltar 1, Indonesia 1, Iran 1, Italy 1, Japan 1, Malaysia 1, Poland 1, Portugal 1, Qatar 1, Romania 1, Slovakia 1, South Africa 1, Turkey 1, Ukraine 1, Total Non UK
1648 134
8.1%
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------MEMBERS NEWS You may recall a few months back we had a contribution from Joe Houghton from Ireland. Joe is an interesting individual who seems to live and work between Ireland and South Africa. He got in touch with me recently as he has been working with Nikon – but let him tell his story in his own words…… I managed to get into the Feb 2016 issue of N-Photo doing the Pro-Apprentice feature where I took Frank Gallogly out shooting the nightscapes of Dublin on a VERY cold November night! As someone who runs a photo training business, it was slightly surreal running the session, showing Frank how to set up the shots and adjust his settings etc under the watchful eyes of the journalist and photographer sent out by N-Photo to capture the session - both obviously highly capable pro's themselves who had done this kind of thing many times. A fascinating process to be part of though, being on the other side of the camera, and also seeing how another very seasoned couple of professionals captured their own shots of the two of us doing our photo walk.
So if you fancy a session with Joe, without Nikon in the wings, then why not get in touch with him via joe.houghton@gmail.com
DIG MEMBERS WIN RPS MONTHLY 365 COMPETITION Obviously DIG members are ahead of the game when it comes to doing great camera phone work. Of the three winners two were DIG Members Kevin James with ‘Lost in the Tall Grass’ and David Poole ARPS with ‘Leap of Joy’. Congratulations to you both. If you want to compete or to view all the images go to HERE. But in the meantime here is Kevin’s work and a few words from him. When I worked in Bournemouth I would always arrive early to beat the traffic and sometimes I would take a camera out for a walk before we started teaching. I took this early one autumn morning at East Cliff using a 5 Mpx Sony Xperia J, which is just an entry-level smartphone. I noticed how the light from the low sun played on the heads of the grasses. It didn't look anything in colour, but I thought that the overall shapes and patterns had some potential. I cropped it square for Instagram, added some texture (hence the thumbprints and other blemishes), converted it to monochrome using the inphone editing app and this was the result. I suppose it just emphasizes that the best camera is the one you have with you!
Lost in the Tall Grass
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FOCUS ON OVERSEAS MEMBERS This month we are featuring
Ruth Nicholls LRPS. Ruth lives in Douglas, Isle of Man and is nominally assigned to the RPS NW Region. However in my book she has the same problem as overseas members as she is pretty isolated and cannot get to drive to DIG meetings etc. So for my money I consider her an OS member.
I have been ‘a photographer’ of sorts ever since my childhood. I had a box Brownie, and later a little compact that took a circular disc of film and produced prints about the size of a passport photo. I have always kept a camera with me, print film, then slides, then digital. We moved to the Isle of Man in 1970, and I would say I learnt the skills needed to create images rather than snapshots, as a result of practising medicine. You develop the ability to 'see' things that others may miss, to be observant, to notice things, and to 'feel' some emotion in response to what you see. In my case that has led me to strive to make a photographic picture of what I see, and to try to capture the essence of a scene, the atmosphere, the 'feeling' associated with the situation or the object. Interestingly, although in my medical career I was overwhelmingly relating to and communicating with people, by and large I prefer not to make pictures of people, especially when my work is for public viewing. I think that maybe the image might be just too 'personal'. The next big step in my evolution came from the one and only Barrie Thomas. His enthusiasm was incredibly infectious, and he opened my eyes to what you could do with an image with the help of a computer. I was completely computer illiterate, I remember going to visit a local professional photographer to see how Photoshop worked. I sat at his pc and tried to use the mouse – he said ‘Mmm, you have got a lot to learn, haven’t you!’ . But nothing daunted, I bought a Nikon scanner, a pc, the first incarnation of Photoshop, and the rest as they say, is history.
So what is my kind of photography? I’m not very creative, which is a great drawback as far as competitive photography is concerned as, at present, to stand a chance of an acceptance or an award in a Salon, the image seems to need to be both creative, imaginative, and to have a human element to it. This lack of creativity has hindered me from attempting ARPS, as I find the prospect of a Panel, all on the same topic, too narrow, too restrictive. So I have concentrated on gaining DPAGB and EFIAP qualifications, where the choice of images can be spread across several genres. I love landscapes, and abandoned buildings, those that give you a hint of an almost forgotten story. Sometimes I have enhanced the story with the use of the odd extra item, or by re-arranging what you find. It is becoming difficult to find places that are still accessible. These are a few images that I have made in abandoned farm cottages here on the Isle of Man. I hope you can see the stories that I have tried to capture, and that my images convey some of the emotions or responses that I experienced when I was making them.
Forgotten
Is it Playtime Yet?
Cottage Window
Past Its best
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It is interesting looking at images from our members. People often think that DIG is all about creative work but the truth is quite the opposite. Both on the Forum and at all the competitions we see a really wide variety of work, only a small minority in the creative category. The exception of course is the PI Comp (held in the summer), which has a creative section. So whether you are a nature photographer, landscape worker, specialize in portraits, macros, gritty monos or creative you can bet every genre will be represented in our print exhibition selection. Your work is just as acceptable as anyone else’s – so we hope to see you submitting prints and being part of the 2016 DIG Exhibition. Good luck to everyone.
Regards
Janet Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org