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No.5 November 2009 We are now well into the new season, and it is great to see such a large membership this year, along with a huge increase in participation in the club competitions. The change from Slides to Digital Projected Images (DPI) has now been made successfully, and it was quite impressive to see our Lottery-funded equipment in use. Thequantity and standard of work seen in the first round of our Club Competition was way ahead of what we have seen on slides in the last couple of years. The DPI process has proven to be extremely complicated, and very time-consuming for Andy, our Competitions Secretary. This is particularly so when it comes to inter-club competitions where not everyone operates to the same technical specificaions. We had a very successful interclub DPI competition against Andover and Wonston and Worthys, which we won by a good margin. We had a very full house, and thanks to all who donated prizes for the raffle. Resulting from this, it is clear that the DPI management needs to be split from the Competitions brief; Andy is happy to continue with the former but we eed to find a new Competitions Secretary, certainly for next year, but ideally as soon as possible. If someone can take over soon, there would be a good overlap, and Andy would continue to help out on the transition. Andy has set a fantastic standard with his approach to the competitions work, going well beyond what is basically needed, so I hope this does not daunt any prospective replacements! He has produced a number of templates for the scoring, results and much more, which can easily be picked up if required by a replacement. Competitions are the life-blood of the club; it is here that we get to see the best of our members’ work, and of course it is through feedback from judges that we learn how our photography can be improved. So the Competitions Secretary’s role is crucial, and I would appeal for an urgent replacement to come forwardas soon as possible. If you think you may be able to do it but are not sure of the elements of the task, have a word with me or Andy. Hearing Loop We are keen to get a hearing loop installed at Bridge St to help those who use hearing aids. This has been raised with the Overton Recreation Centre as an urgent bid against their budget, our club offering to share the costs; we are informed that this is now under consideration. Separately a couple of charities have been approached for possible funding, but no response yet. We will continue to pursue this as it will be a considerable enhancement for a number of our members. Advance reminders Quite a bit of competition stuff in the next few weeks, with our Club Competition round 2 on 20th, and the following week we host the 2nd round SPF League; then two weeks later we again host an SPF round, this time on behalf of the Disabled Photographers Society. Although OPC are not involved, it will still be a good evening with quality work expected particularly from DPS and Newbury, and a very experienced judge. On 4th December we have our next Digital Workshop evening. To enable us to plan for this, please let us know in advance of any topic which you would like to see covered. We’ll have a sheet available for you to note any topics, otherwise speak to one of the committee. Exhibitions & External Competitions International Garden Photographer of the Year , deadline November 30th. Have a look at the web-site on Igpoty.com International Garden Photographer of the Year , deadline November 30th. Have a look at the web-site on www.igpoty.com … the winners of the last competition have just been announced, and you’ll see that the standard of some is not beyond the reach of our members, so why not have a go? Also the Overton Biodiversity Society is running a photographic competition..details on the Notice Board Don’t forget to visit the International Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 Exhibition which is being held at the Milestones museum in Basingstoke, and continues until January. For anyone interested in Nature photography this is a”must” ! I saw this in London last year, and I can really recommend a visit. It is fantastic for Basingstoke to have acquired an exhibition of this quality, so well worth supporting.? Our Web-Site : Please can you provide some updated pictures for the web-site? It is important that this is kept fresh, so we need to be regularly changing the displays. Email them to Phil Hawkes. Don’t forget to resize for the web; images of about 800 x 600 are big enough, and can be saved as a .jpg file with a quality setting of around 7 John Chairman April Newsletter May Newsletter July Newsletter August Newsletter |