1

In Focus

The Bulletin of Bedford Camera Club – April 2012 www.bedfordcameraclub.co.uk Editor Martin Nellist

10 Glebe Road

Ampthill

Bedford

MK45 2TH

Tel: 01525 403417

Email: martin.nellist@ntlworld.com

Next issue September 2012

Closing date for copy Tuesday 12th

August 2012.

Contents President’s Message ....................................................... 2 Editorial ......................................................................... 2 The Club Web Site, www.bedfordcameraclub.co.uk ..... 2 Evening with Ted Rowe, 22

nd November. ..................... 3

Three-way Battle, Letchworth, Biggleswade, and

Bedford .......................................................................... 3 Panel Evening, 6th December ........................................ 3 Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust by David

Fowler, 13th

December ................................................... 4 'Points of View' Competition', 20

th December, 2011 ..... 4

Members' Evening, January 3rd

2012 ............................. 5 Architects Association Trophy and NALGO Challenge

Cup, 17th

January 2012 .................................................. 5 'Mood and Colour' by Hugh Milsom, January 10

th 2012 6

Cambridge Digital Inter-Club Competition, January 21st

2012 ............................................................................... 6 AV Competition, 24

th January, 2012.............................. 7

Old Photographs: Their history and caring for your

collection by Helen Dawkins LRPS, 31st January 2012 7 Competition: Mist, Steam or Smoke, 7

th February, 20127

Annual Exhibition - Projected Digital Image Judging,

14th

February 2012. ........................................................ 8 'Monochrome in the Digital Darkroom' by Mike Fuller,

28th

February 2012 ......................................................... 8 Competition: Book or Film Title, 6

th March 2012 ......... 8

In The Raw! ................................................................... 9 Audio Visual – One Shot ............................................... 9 Refreshments ................................................................. 9 Cycle Cross – Box End Park, Kempston, ...................... 9 Ken Holland – Looking At Photographs ...................... 10 A Checklist for the Judge ............................................. 10 Police Compensate Parade-Ban Photographer ............. 11 St Ives Photographic Club's Annual Exhibition ........... 11 Men and Women of Letters - A Personal Opinion ....... 11 External Competitions ................................................. 12 Complaint about consistency of judging and PAGB

defence. ........................................................................ 14 An Exception to the Rule ............................................. 14 Audio-Visual Awards .................................................. 14 Oh, what a tangled web……… .................................... 14 The Olympic Connection ............................................. 15 Samuel Sugden ............................................................ 16 The Famous Dig for Victory (foot on the Spade) poster

..................................................................................... 16

2

President’s Message

Reflecting on my 2 years as

President has highlighted my

pleasure in working with such

a great group of people to

develop our common interest.

Bedford Camera club has

undergone considerable

transition in that time. Our

website has evolved still

further. We have a very slick

database from which to select

images for external competitions. And of course

members sitting at the back of the hall are now able to

see the prints whilst they are being judged via projection

and a rapid manipulation of a camera image. Our

membership has increased by 10% as have the number

of competition entries each time. The really pleasing

aspect of the increased membership is the enthusiasm of

the newcomers to get involved in all aspects of club life

from helping with the coffee rota to entering

competitions to taking part in club outings. The club

outings have also been a very enjoyable and integral part

of the life of the club. As you know they vary from the

extremely informal drink in a local hostelry after a

meeting, through the Annual dinner in May to a

weekend away in the Autumn. All social activities are

open to all members. Long may they continue.

The really big event of each year is of course the Annual

Exhibition. In 2011 Mike Quickenden, as he did for,

several years previously, took on the whole task and a

splendid Exhibition was set up in the Bedford High

School for Girls on Bromham Road. This year Alan

Horn is organising another splendid Exhibition in the,

even more centrally situated, Harpur Suite. I am really

looking forward to it and I know you will all support the

event in whatever way you can. Please persuade family

and friends to come along. Once again Dave Hodgson,

the Mayor of Bedford, has agreed to open the Exhibition

and to present the Trophies on the evening of April 19th

.

Whoever takes over as my successor will have the

privilege of working with a first class committee whose

commitment has been second to none. I wish the Camera

Club even more success in the future. It has been an

honour to act as President and you have my heartfelt

appreciation of your friendship and support over the last

two years.

Thank You.

Remember

The Amateur is waiting for the next piece of equipment.

The Professional is waiting for the Money

And the Master is waiting for The Light!

Thank you

Diana Moss

Editorial

This is something of a bumper edition with items from

our usual contributors augmented by three historical

items and news from the PAGB. I particularly enjoyed

Bob Moore's comments, written with his tongue stuck

firmly in his cheek, on photographic qualifications.

At the personal level, I have bought a bridge camera, the

Canon SX40HS, because on many occasions toting an

SLR, and additional telephoto lens, around has proved to

be too much like hard work. Even with an X35 zoom,

this new camera is very light and gives excellent results.

Unfortunately, it does not take RAW but I have

confirmed that in CS5 I can read Jpegs into the Camera

RAW converter so all is not completely lost.

I have become involved in a project to digitise 35mm

monochrome negatives from the mid-1950s. The main

problem is that that part of the scanner software which

reduces dust and scratches does not work on

monochrome negatives. I can clean them up in

Photoshop using a combination of the noise and

scratches filter in both 'lighten' and 'darken' modes,

content-aware, the clone tool, and Neat Image but it is

tedious. Any ideas?

The closing date for the next issue is 12th

August 2012. I

am happy to take submissions in longhand but prefer to

be emailed Word documents. My thanks to contributors

to this issue and to Diana, John Holt, Simon, Marilyn

and Vaughan for proof reading, and to Piers Hemy, way

up in the Black Isle, north of Inverness, for continuing to

be our printer.

Martin Nellist

The Club Web Site,

www.bedfordcameraclub.co.uk

The Bedford Camera Club web site continues to grow.

Various members are doing an excellent job of keeping

selected pages up-to-date. Here are some changes and

additions that may have escaped your notice.

Club > Membership gives full details of how to join the

club.

The Competitions pages now include many of the full

results as well as winning images in the gallery.

Galleries > Members will showcase your images; to add

your own section send up to 10 of your chosen images to

Diana. Also for those who maintain their own image

web site, e.g. on Flickr or Picasa, you can include a link

to your web site.

The Members > Tips page is updated regularly with new

tips and other information.

Links > Tuition lists some local organizations that can

improve your photographic skills.

Links > Great Photographers is a new page with links

to photographers (past or present) who are the world's

best but who are not so easily discovered as the galleries

of the more commercially astute photographers. When

3

you find some hidden talent let us know and share it on

this page.

The Members menu gives access to the pages which are

exclusive to club members. You need to sign in using

the login name and password that has been supplied to

you. Here you can find details about the group FLICKR

page and a list of money-saving offers and discounts

available to club members.

News > Web Site Activity lists most of the recent

changes made to the web site. Viewing this page avoids

the need to open every page to find what has changed.

Web Statistics In February 2012 we had 620 visits to the club web site,

256 were unique visitors. 33% were new visitors. 6,038

pages were viewed. This works out at almost 10

pages/visit with an average of over 5 minutes each spent

on the web site.

205 only visited once in February but they stayed to

view 1,224 pages.

246 came from a Google, Yahoo or Bing search. 14

arrived from a link on the EAF web site.

The vast majority were from the UK; examples: 143

from Bedford, 98 from London, 47 from Milton Keynes,

27 from Luton and 23 from the Cambridge areas.

The Gallery page was the most popular.

For a small club of fewer than 70 members these

statistics are very encouraging. The statistics were

collected using Google Analytics.

FLICKR There is a Flickr group for Bedford Camera Club

members. Simply open your own account on

www.flickr.com - it is free for up to 200 images - and

request to join the club group.

You control your own Flickr account, upload images and

can arrange your images into sets as normal. Select a

few of your images (we limit it to 5 per week) from your

uploaded pool and "link" them to the BCC group for

others to see your best work, review, comment or offer

help as required. We currently have 14 members using

the group and welcome more.

Full details available on the Members > Flickr Group

club web page.

Ian Whiting

Evening with Ted Rowe, 22nd

November.

Ted Rowe, a former member of BCC, came back at very

short notice to show us a selection of prints and 35mm

transparencies.

The prints were all printed quite recently directly from

Ted's SLR to an A4 Canon printer and without any

manipulation by computer. They illustrated Ted's ability

to compose his pictures in the camera view finder so that

he is able to produce high quality prints directly. An

object lesson for those of us who cannot resist putting

our files through Photoshop.

His transparencies were of a similar high standard and

brought back many memories for those of us who

remember Ted's complete dominance of former 35 mm

slide competitions and his success within the EAF and

international competitions.

Martin Nellist

Three-way Battle, Letchworth,

Biggleswade, and Bedford At Bedford Nov 29th 2011

It is gratifying to be able to say that Bedford won this

interclub competition which was judged by Keith Long

of Daventry. Needless to say we will probably invite

Keith to judge again!

PDIs

Lefkada Alan Horn 20

Feeding Frenzy Bruce Deacon 20

Redbilled Oxpeckers and

Rhino

John Pegram 19

Rural Tribesmen Vaughan

Southgate

19

Jostling For Position Bruce Deacon 18

Anyone for Champagne Claire Boardman 18

Rule Brittania Claire Boardman 17

Goliath Heron Strike John Pegram 17

Water Tower Steve Ridgway 17

The Start Martin Nellist 15

Prints

Hungarian Roundup David Shephard 20

First Corner John Pegram 20

Roaming in the Gloaming Jim Burnett 18

Windswept Stan Searle 17

Venice Impression Stan Searle 16

At the Waterhole John Pegram 16

Reflected Lily Martin Nellist 16

Patterned Beach Martin Nellist 16

Drops and Ripples Peter Robinson 15

Chapel Window Diana Moss 14

Martin Nellist

Panel Evening, 6th December

I compered and David Hogg supplied the technical

expertise to project the images from the prints for this

innovative evening in which authors were invited to

present and discuss from three to six prints relating to a

single theme.

The following members showed, and talked about, their

panels.

Tony Brooks showed six prints illustrating the build up

and dispersal of clouds over the sea during a squall at

Lyme Regis. An interesting sequence which we would

not normally have seen.

4

Deryck Cutler showed three prints of a creative image

of a watch and chain with a miniature cyclist made from

small watch parts riding up the chain (or Albert).

Produced by wet chemistry in the darkroom, one of the

prints had been produced by solarisation. The prints had

been entered successfully in international competition

when Deryck was pursuing his AFIAP and BPEE

awards.

Bruce Deacon. In four prints of horse racing, Bruce

showed how he had used manipulation, particularly

zoom or radial blur, within Photoshop to add

considerable drama to the original images.

David Hogg presented three beautifully taken prints of

aircraft - a formation of Red Arrows, a Chinook

helicopter and a Spitfire.

John Holt. In a panel entitled Day dreaming, John had

three prints in each of which a young lady was posed in

a situation which related to a bubble representing her

thoughts and expressing her ambition. An original idea.

Alan Horn showed us a selection from his intended

LRPS panel and then all ten prints were arranged on

easel for later discussion.

Moira McAneny had six prints of the impressive new

bridge from La Rochelle to Idere. These well composed

pictures were printed on Permajet Papyrus paper which

has a very 'arty' surface.

Diana Moss presented three prints of a Welsh mountain

stream but was not convinced that the third print fitted in

with the other two. This elicited useful comments from

the audience.

Martin Nellist had printed six panoramic prints of

Worbarrow Bay in Dorset. These had been created by

using Photoshop's Photomerge procedure to stitch from

one to ten exposures into one image. The resulting large

file size gave excellent fine detail in 57 cm wide prints.

John Pegram amused us with a Panel entitled

Bittersweet in which three prints told a fantasy crime

story in a 'Jellybaby' community.

Graham Pumphrey. Graham's interest is steam

locomotives and his panel was three very good prints of

locomotives which are still working.

Steve Ridgway showed six prints of the reservoirs and

parts of the reservoirs in the Upper Derwent Valley in

2009. These were HDR images formed by the merging

of three exposures from two-stop under to two stops

over.

Clive Walton showed four prints to illustrate how he

used Photoshop to extract a tame sea eagle from the

background, remove the jesses, and place the image into

a more natural scene. Two further prints illustrated the

use of 'Content aware' in Photoshop CS5 to remove

tourists from an image of the interior of the Hermitage in

St Petersburg.

David Hogg then showed a 5 minute video that he had

made the previous weekend of the St Martha on the Hill

church in Guildford. This showcased his skills in making

and using miniature helicopters for aerial still

photography, and combining them with short video clips

and time-lapse stills, and appropriate music into his

impressive video.

The evening was deemed a success and may well be

repeated in another year.

Martin Nellist

Bedford and Milton Keynes

Waterway Trust by David Fowler,

13th

December

David Fowler replaced Hilary Goldsmith for this talk

about the proposed navigable waterway which should

connect the Grand Union canal at Milton Keynes to the

River Great Ouse close to the weir at Kempston. He

summarised the off-on 200 year history of the project

before describing the route of the waterway now being

proposed. Leaving Milton Keynes the waterway will

pass either close to, or through Willen Lake, and follow

the Broughton Brook down to Junction 13 of the M1. It

will pass under the MI and roughly parallel the A421 to

pass close to the Stewartby lake before crossing the

A421 to pass over Brogborough hill and through the yet

to be built Enterprise Park south of Wootton and

alongside the new housing estate already being built at

Wootton. Initially the route through this area will be

marked by a series of small lakes. A new cycleway is

designed to follow the route past Wootton up to

Kempston and will be built well before the waterway.

David discussed the problems posed by rail and road

bridges along the route and that of climbing over

Brogborough hill. The innovative solution that this will

require is likely to attract tourists and provide photo

opportunities. The Trust is planning to buy and fit out a

narrowboat to provide trips along the Great Ouse to

publicise the project. This should also provide photo

opportunities. The project has grown to the extent that a

Consortium of local authorities and organisations has

been formed and is currently chaired by the Bedford

Mayor, Dave Hodgson. Although this was an unusual

evening for a Camera Club, the talk was full of interest

for residents of Bedford and Central Bedfordshire

Boroughs.

Martin Nellist

'Points of View' Competition', 20th

December, 2011

The images for this year's competition were taken in St

Albans between 10.30 and 3 pm on 16th

October. The

organisers, Mike Olney and Barrie Moss, were rather

taken aback by the larger than usual number (28) of

participants and prior to the judging evening reduced the

entry from each individual to a single image from each

of four out of the following six themes.

People at Leisure 19 entries

Sign of the Times 18 entries

Architecture 15 entries

Clash of Styles 14 entries

Abbey landscape 11 entries

Spirit of Old St Albans 11 entries

5

In the event only 22 members entered PDIs but this still

provided enough for an evening. Ian Johnson of the

Kempston Club judged. Thanks to Ian, Mike and Barrie.

The competition was won by Steve Ridgway, with Jim

Burnett second and Simon Bray third. Titles and the

points scored are given below.

First Steve Ridgway

People at

leisure Today St Albans - Tomorrow

Wembley

20

Abbey

Landscape Viewed from Afar 18

Sign of the

Times Go On - Spoil Yourself 20

Spirit of Old St

Albans Holy Spirit 18.5

Total 76.5

Second Jim Burnett

Architecture Art Deco window and glazed

roof

15

People at leisure Some share, some don't 19

Sign of the

Times New and Gleaming 18

Spirit of Old St

Albans Conservation Area 18

Total Total 70

Third Simon Bray

Architecture Cathedral detail from

Sumpter Yard

15

People at leisure Leisure 18

Abbey

Landscape Cathedral from Verulam

Park

20

Sign of the

times Sign of the Times 15

Total 68

Martin Nellist

Members' Evening, January 3rd

2012

1. 'A Visit to Prague' by Terry Sykes.

Terry took us on a trip to the Czech Republic and

Slovakia returning via Bruges. Prague was the highlight

of the trip and most of his images were taken in, and

around, the centre of the city where the historic cathedral

is within the walls of the castle which is more decorous

than fortified.

2. 'From South Kensington to Piccadilly via

the Tropics' by Vaughan Southgate.

Vaughan began by explaining how his career in medical

parasitology had begun when he joined the staff of the

Natural History Museum in South Kensington. The

original structure was designed by Alfred Waterhouse,

who also designed the Law Courts in Bedford. Both

buildings are notable for their use of terracotta but the

Museum in particular not only has the patterned bricks

but also has many elaborate terracotta sculptures of

animals and plants. Vaughan showed images of these

and then of the quite recent extensions to the Museum

including the 'Cocoon', which houses many of the

Museum's collections. Traditionally these were stored in

formaldehyde but now modern additions are stored in

liquid nitrogen, which preserves the DNA.

Vaughan's particular research was concerned with the

disease bilharzia or schistomiasis, in which the parasite

is transmitted to man in water containing intermediate

host snails. A very clear explanation of the whole

problem was backed up by a series of images mostly

taken in Senegal where infected river water has been an

unintended consequence of man-made dams.

The talk concluded with an introduction to the Linnean

Society of London with which Vaughan is much

involved. Although he did not tell us this he is the

current President.

Martin Nellist

Architects Association Trophy and

NALGO Challenge Cup, 17th

January

2012

This year's competition was for prints only and the

themes were 'Architecture and Materials' and 'Urban

Life Decay' for the Architects Association Trophy and

the NALGO Challenge Cup respectively. Our judge,

Colin Strong was commendably brief and to the point

and managed to review over 100 prints.

In the Architecture competition prints by Martin Nellist,

Vaughan Southgate and Marilyn Southgate were placed

first, second and third but all three were awarded the full

20 marks.

1st After the rain Martin Nellist 20

2nd A Cambridge College Vaughan Southgate 20

3rd Converted Warehouse Marilyn Southgate 20

The Deep Paul Brook 19

Log Jam Diana Moss 19

Glass Frontage Jim Burnett 18

Urban Reflections David Hogg 18

Brick a Brac Terry Mann 18

Stairway to Heaven Martin Nellist 18

Through a Cathedral

Window

Marilyn Southgate 18

Wishful Thinking Clive Walton 18

Glimpse of the Taj

Mahal

Clive Walton 18

Dougga -- Tunisia Alan Woodward 18

In the NALGO Cup, Urban Life Decay was a difficult

subject to interpret for both the competitors and the

judge but Vaughan Southgate and Diana Moss both

scored the full 20 points and were first and second.

Claire Boardman was third with 19 points.

6

1st I Lived here Once Vaughan Southgate 20

2nd Now Open Diana Moss 20

3rd Room with a View Claire Boardman 19

The Demise of the

Corner Shop

Bruce Deacon 19

Tree House Alan Horn 18

Once Famous now

Forgotten

Alan Horn 18

Tavistock Street 2 Roy Kneeshaw 18

80 Tavistock Street Moira McAneny 18

Unfit for Purpose Mike Olney 18

Street Decay Graham Pumphrey 18

High Rise Decay Hollie Pumphrey 18

Result of Conflict Marilyn Southgate 18

Martin Nellist

'Mood and Colour' by Hugh Milsom,

January 10th

2012

Hugh Milsom came from Ware in Hertfordshire to talk

about the high-key landscapes for which he is well

known. After working with film for many years he has

now turned to digital and demonstrated that he has

mastered exposing and printing in this medium. He uses

Permajet papers with two Epson printers capable of

continuous printing on rolls of A2 width. He mostly uses

Oyster and Matte Plus but recently has been using the

new 'Distinction' paper.

He uses Camera RAW to produce several different

versions of the same file to blend in Photoshop and

latterly this has been from JPEG files which in CS5 can

be read into the Camera Raw converter. Some of the

images had been processed from JPEGS taken by Hugh's

partner on a compact camera without the facility to take

RAW. For the high-key effect it is necessary to force

the histogram to the right so that there are very few dark

pixels. His view on composition was that achieving a

balance is more important than conforming to the rule of

thirds. It seemed to me that in most of his images these

objectives did not conflict.

Finally Hugh finished with something entirely different.

These were pictures of murals on the walls of houses in

Belfast and these conformed to the usual rules of tone

and contrast. An excellent evening.

Martin Nellist

Cambridge Digital Inter-Club

Competition, January 21st 2012

37 clubs entered this prestigious competition. We were

required to submit 5 slides in each of five themes with a

reserve on hand had there been a tie. Breckland Imaging

Group were first with 95 points, Cambridge Camera

Club and Chelmsford Camera Club were second equal

with 91 points, and Ongar Photographic Club were

fourth with 89 points. Our closest neighbours, Ampthill

and District Camera Club were 7th

with 87 points, and

we were 17th with 82 points, just one point behind arch

rivals Shillington. Stan Searle pointed out that a number

of clubs were bracketed together on points which put the

total clubs into 19 slots and Bedford into the 9th slot.

Stan also reported that the hall was packed with an

estimated 250 people and that the event was conducted

with the usual Cambridge CC efficiency. Full results and

winning images are posted on the Cambridge Camera

Club website.

Club Name Total Posn

Breckland Imaging Group 95 1st

Cambridge Camera Club 91 2nd

Chelmsford Camera Club 91 2nd

Ongar Photographic Club 89 4th

Bury St Edmunds Photographic Society 88 5th

Ipswich & District Photographic

Society 88 5th

Ampthill & District Camera Club 87 7th

St Ives Photographic Club 87 7th

Upminster Camera Club 87 7th

Norfolk Photography Group 86 10th

Bottisham & Burwell Photographic

Club 85 11th

Stevenage Photographic Society 85 11th

Welwyn Garden City Photographic

Club 85 11th

Barnet & Finchley Photographic

Society 83 14th

Halstead & District Photographic

Society 83 14th

Shillington & District Camera Club 83 14th

Bedford Camera Club 82 17th

The judge, Leigh Preston FRPS EFIAP, gave the 'Roy

Pitman Award for the Best Image' to 'Keep Left' by

Daniel Beecroft of Ongar Photographic Club.

The categories and scores for the Bedford entry were as

follows:-

Theme Title Author Pts

Monochrome

Open

Water Tower Steve Ridgway 18

People Rule

Britannia

Claire

Boardman

14

Landscape Black Rock

Cottage

Tommy Babel 16

Natural

History

Redbilled

Oxpeckers

and Rhino

John Pegram 18

Open Jostling For

Position

Bruce Deacon 16

7

Reserve Feeding

Frenzy

Bruce Deacon NR

Martin Nellist

AV Competition, 24th

January, 2012

The best two of the six entries were selected by audience

voting and will represent the Club in the inter-club

competition for the Felicity Bickley Trophy.

Coast to Coast by John Pegram -1st

A well constructed sequence recalling John Peg ram's

walk from St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay. John made

effective use of multiple images of scenery and

additional information such as flowers or signposts.

Faces by Barrie Moss - 2nd

A sequence to the record 'Smile' of portrait and figure

studies of great variety although not many smiling. The

image best fitting the bill was a close up of the smiling

face of a racing cyclist.

Floral Glories by Clive Walton

A straightforward succession of very good flower

images but which needed a story.

St Petersburg by Clive Walton

This was a very well constructed tour of St Petersburg.

Excellent images were augmented by helpful lettering

and the spine-chillingly deep voice of a Russian bass

with choir accompaniment.

Battle of Blood by Terry Mann

A sequence of shots of a reconstruction of the battle of

Tewkesbury. Either by choice of taking angle or by

digital manipulation, Tony had removed almost all

traces of modern civilisation (cars, ordinary civilians).

To complete the effect he had added realistic battle

scene sound effects.

Colorama by Deryck Cutler

With the theme of colour, this AV was an eclectic

compilation of coloured images which were held

together by the frequent overlaid presence of a small boy

in a cloak.

Martin Nellist

Old Photographs: Their history and

caring for your collection by Helen

Dawkins LRPS, 31st January 2012

Helen Dawkins first reviewed the history of print

photography from the Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes

of the early years of the nineteenth century through to

demise of film photography at the end of the twentieth.

William Fox Talbot's introduction of negatives allowed

the printing of multiple copies and then on to early

specialised types of prints such as Carte Visite cards,

mourning photos, prisoner photos, and the records made

in the 1870s by Barnardos of children being sent to the

colonies. The Postcard was introduced in 1894 but it was

not until 1904 that the back was divided for address and

message. Prior to that, messages were scribbled on the

edge of the picture. In the First World War the YMCA

organised amateurs to take snaps of men destined for the

front. By that time the Kodak Box Brownie was widely

available. These types of photographs are what Helen

Dawkins is interested in restoring, not, as you might

expect, by digital means, but by using film and wet

printing methods. In this she is aiming not to produce the

best possible image with improved tone and contrast, but

to produce an image which is a cleaned up version of the

original. One problem with old and faded photographs is

the precipitation of the silver particularly in the shadow

areas. Helen tackles this by photographing the original

through polarising filters.

Martin Nellist

Competition: Mist, Steam or Smoke,

7th

February, 2012

Our judge, Jim Hartje ARPS, DPAGB, APAGB, EFIAP,

from Peterborough dealt with 40 prints and 57 PDIs in a

brisk workmanlike manner praising all the images but

also explaining how they could be improved. He

frequently suggested improved crops and tended to be

severe on burnt out highlights. In the print section he

was not fond of coloured mounts.

Jim is a Permajet representative and he left us with very

useful catalogues and a code to obtain free delivery on

orders.

Prints

Claire Boardman Barns in the Mist 20 1st

Bruce Deacon The Farrier 20 2nd

Graham

Pumphrey

Emerging from the

Tunnel

19 3rd

Bruce Deacon Mountain Mist 18

Janice Elliott Misty Mountain 18

Paul Brook Burn Out 17

Paul Brook Early Morning Mist 17

Jim Burnett Dirty Old Town 17

Janice Elliott Old St Albans 17

Marilyn

Southgate

A Good Smoke 17

Clive Walton Psychedelic Smoke 17

PDIs

Janice Elliott Misty Heron 20 1st

Paul Brook The Heat of the

Battle

20 2nd

Peter Robinson Cigarette Break 19 3rd

Paul Brook Victory Salute 19

Hilary Nellist Old Geyser 18

Vaughan

Southgate

No Fishing Today 18

Brian Felles Battle Hardened 17

Alan Horn Alaska on Thames 17

Barrie Moss The River Bank in

Autumn

17

8

Martin Nellist Geyser 17

Peter Robinson NFU Fire Insurance 17

Terry Sykes Halong Bay 17

Tom Yates Early Morning Mist 17

Martin Nellist

Annual Exhibition - Projected Digital

Image Judging, 14th

February 2012.

On Saturday 11th

February a team of 12 Club members

led by Alan Horn assembled in Renhold Village Hall to

assist Paul Radden and David Steel respectively to judge

the PDI and Print entries to the Annual Exhibition. All

went very smoothly and by lunchtime over 300 PDIs and

a similar number of prints had been scrutinised and

marks awarded and entered into laptops. With the job

completed most of the crew hosted the judges to lunch at

the Horse and Jockey in Ravensden.

The evening of 14th

February had been set aside for Paul

Radden to give his comments on the successful PDI

entries, but unfortunately work commitments prevented

his joining us. So instead Matthew Rowntree, Clive

Williams, Mike Clifton and Simon Bray, the members

present at the judging, gave their interpretation of Paul's

comments on a selection of the successful images. This

worked surprisingly well, partly due to some amusing

banter and heckling from the audience.

Novice class. Most of the images entered in this class

would have more than held their own in the Open

classes and this bodes well for the future. The class was

won by Paul Brook with a stunning close-up aerial view

of a racing motorcycle in which both the rider and

machine were totally in focus.

J R Bryant cup for a set of three PDIs on a theme. The

judge had been firmly of the opinion that, since the

images had to be judged on serial projection, it was very

important that they formed a coherent progress on a

clear theme with no unnecessary switches between

portrait and landscape format or changes in colour. First

place went to Clive Walton's creative studio shots of

'Psychedelic Smoke'

Monochrome Open. Quite a few of the very good

images had an enhanced clarity and contrast suggesting

that they might have been processed through some of the

specialist monochrome software such NIK Silver EFEX.

The winner was a white Dahlia by Martin Nellist.

Colour Open. From a high quality field, John Pegram's

Winile (Winner) & Menzi (Creator) was placed First and

also judged to be the Best Portrait.

The full results will be in the catalogue which will be

available for the Exhibition on 19-21st April in the

Harpur Suite.

Martin Nellist

'Monochrome in the Digital

Darkroom' by Mike Fuller, 28th

February 2012

Mike and Ursula Fuller, members of Benfleet Camera

Club, had travelled the not inconsiderable distance from

Canvey Island to talk to us about producing high quality

monochromes in digital. Mike stressed the importance of

using original colour images and converting to

Greyscale in RAW. The real advantage of RAW is the

greater range of tones; JPEG processing tends to throw

them away. If forced to take JPEG then taking three

exposures can help capture the full range.

Mike opens the RAW file into Photoshop as a Smart

Object (Shift-click on Open Image) and, if necessary,

creates more additional Smart Objects with different edit

settings. This allows him to take the layers back into

RAW for further processing if required. Blending these

images in layers usually requires making selections to

derive masks. Mike usually expands these selections by

1 pixel and feathers by 2 or 3 pixels. Mike had put this

information and much, much more into a DVD which he

had available for purchase. He and Ursula also have a

website at www.naturalworldfineart.com and can be

contacted by email at mf@pipsara.com.

They offer a service for calibrating monitors and printers

and Mike talked a little about setting up Epson and

Canon printers for printing monochrome. He

recommended adding a sepia or similar tone if it was not

possible completely to remove a magenta or cyan cast

from a mono print. For Canon printers (9000 series) like

mine he recommended using the 'Greyscale' setting with

'Printer managing the colours'.

A useful tip for CS5 users, who find it frustrating that it

is difficult easily to view two open images at the same

time as was the default in CS3, is to uncheck the 'Open

Documents as Tabs' in Preferences>File Handling.

Finally I must mention that Mike also showed an

example of using a 'Flood Filter' to add water and

reflections to the base of a picture. Go to

flamingpear.com to see more examples.

Martin Nellist

Competition: Book or Film Title, 6th

March 2012

Our judge, Chris Baldwin from Daventry, was faced

with a large and very varied entry from which to choose

the best images combining good photography with an

acceptable interpretation of the theme.

Both Claire Boardman's winning print, Brief Encounter,

and Marilyn Southgate's winning PDI Titanic were

imaginative and humorous interpretations of the theme.

The PRINT results were as follows: -

9

1st Claire Boardman Brief Encounter 23 points

2nd

Paul Brook Fight Club 21.5 points 3rd Wendy Robinson Traffic Jam 20 points There were 48 entries in the PRINT COMPETITION

The PDI results were as follows:-

1st Marilyn Southgate Titanic 23 points

2nd Tony Beaumont Jamaica Inn 21.5 points

3rd

Clive Williams Taxi Driver 20 points

There were 49 entries in the PDI COMPETITION.

Martin Nellist

In The Raw!

Several months ago Diana distributed forms asking

members to record what they might like to learn in more

detail regarding photography. One of my options was

RAW and it wasn’t long before I received an email from

Ian Whiting giving me details of what would be

involved and where the meetings would be held.

Three members attended the first meeting which went

into the whys and wherefores of RAW. I really found the

first session quite mind boggling but by the time I left

the first meeting, was beginning to see what the

advantages of this subject were.

As we were all busy in the run up to Christmas our next

meeting didn’t happen until the 9th

February where I

attended along with Tony Brooks.

On this evening I found it a lot more interesting because

it was the practical side of it and Ian was showing us

exactly what to do and how to achieve the effects.

Frantically writing notes that I could understand, I went

home full of enthusiasm thinking ‘right I’ll try this at the

weekend!’ Which I did, but not totally getting it right but

feeling confident that I had a better understanding from

what I had been shown. Tony Brooks had also lent me

his version of the Canon Digital Photo Professional

Instruction Manual to look through in order to get more

of an idea of what it is all about and from this I am now

down loading the version for my Canon camera.

These tutorials have done exactly what was intended in

stirring an interest in the subject. Rome wasn’t built in a

day but now I have the confidence to move forward,

which I probably wouldn’t have done on my own.

Thanks also to Barbara, Ian’s wife who kept us refreshed

on these two occasions.

Moira McAneny

Audio Visual – One Shot

One of the other subjects I opted for was the Audio

Visual as I would dearly like to try and enter next year’s

competition. On one of our Tuesday evening interval

breaks Matthew Rowntree brought his laptop in and

several members were shown how to download the One

Shot Programme. He also ran through how it worked. I

haven't had a chance to start that yet but again it’s stirred

my interest and I’m keen to do it just as soon as time

permits. So thank you Matthew once again; it was much

appreciated.

This is everything I would expect from a Camera Club.

It is helping me to become a better photographer and

giving me practical help which sometimes is much better

than reading a manual.

Moira McAneny

Refreshments

I would just like to thank all the members who have this

term put their names down to help with the refreshments

during the interval and also those who have said they

will step in at the last minute if the designated rota

person cannot make it. Diana asked me at the beginning

of the club’s year if I would be prepared to manage the

refreshments. No pressure of course. Although yes is

what I said and I must say I have enjoyed the task but

without the help of your good selves it would have been

a great deal harder. By the way the recruitment list is

always on the table if anyone who has not had the

pleasure and feel they might like to have a go. On your

first time I will show you the ropes and if I can do it

anyone can!

Moira McAneny

Cycle Cross – Box End Park,

Kempston, 20

th November 2011

At the 15th

November Club Night, Terry Sykes informed

members that there would be a Cycle Cross Competition

on the forthcoming Sunday at Box End Park. Races

would start, Children between 11 -12am, Novices 12 –

1.00pm and the main event from 1.00 – 2.00pm.

I decided to go along to this event as did several other

members of the club. I thought it might be helpful in

gaining more experience on taking movement. The

morning was quite foggy and especially so at the venue.

I arrived with my friend just as the sun was beginning to

burn through, although at times difficult to see the

competitors. The course was 2.5 miles long which I

believe had to be attacked five times, some on the flat

but most of the time up and down hill including a couple

of jumps which most carried their bikes over. Crashes

were in abundance and on occasion, I was in the right

place at the right time!

In the fog the lake looked mystical, fog does funny

things and I hope I achieved a result of this whilst

waiting for the main race to start. I hadn’t been to one of

these events before so it was a bit of a job deciding

where to stand and although they all started at the same

time it wasn’t long before the group dispersed. In fact

once you’d found a bend or top or bottom of a hill to

10

stand, you didn’t necessarily have to move as it was a

continual stream of riders coming through. Several

crashed on bends and I learnt a few more choice words

by the time I went home that I hadn’t necessarily heard

before!

After the event had finished several of us met socially

for a hot drink in the club house and spoke of how much

we had enjoyed the morning.

So thank you Terry for informing us of this event . It

was appreciated by us all.

Moira McAneny

Ken Holland – Looking At

Photographs

A recent book 'Looking at Photographs', which Ken

Holland, ARPS DPAGB, wrote from the point of view

of a judge, prompted me to wonder if there might be

anything useful in it for us as exhibitors.

Ken’s introduction to camera club competitions, having

submitted an image of the Red Arrows in formation, was

the throwaway comment from the judge ‘I’ve never been

very interested in aeroplanes, next slide please’.

Subsequently Ken tried, without success, to find real

guidance on judging photographic images. ‘Looking at

Photographs’ resulted from a compilation of his own

lecture notes for a seminar on judging.

He is careful to stress that the thoughts he propounds are

personal. I have simply extracted his thoughts about

what constitutes a ‘good photograph’ from the book and

to which I will give more consideration, before taking

another photograph.

Ken suggests that communication is of the essence and

at least one of the following functions should be

fulfilled.

Is it a personal statement?

Is it a technical record, i.e. a record shot?

Is it a personal record?

So my first question is – Why am I taking this

picture?

Ken then goes on to ask himself the following additional

questions.

These are not in any order of priority and it is accepted

that all take practice.

How well has the information been conveyed?

What did the photographer have in mind when

taking the shot?

A technically perfect shot may be quite

uninteresting if the subject matter is boring.

Look for something even slightly out of the

ordinary which many people would not notice

in everyday life.

So I have listed a few additional thoughts that Ken

would be having whilst judging in order to address the

questions outlined above.

The principal subject should be clearly defined.

Is it? ‘KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid!’

Although interpretation is always personal,

does the interpretation do the subject justice?

Has the image achieved its purpose? Does it

have impact?

Would the subject benefit from a different

format?

Would a filter, or lack of, make any difference?

Would the subject be better placed elsewhere?

What depth of field is best?

Look for psychological links and contrasts. Ken

gives the example of a clown and a nun sitting

together!

Visual contrast gives impact.

How is the eye encouraged to ‘read’ the image?

The closing chapters of his book deal with general

considerations for any picture as well as what he would

look for in judging a variety of photographic genres.

To sum up:-

Why have you taken this image in the first place?

What are you trying to show the viewer?

Reference: Royal Photographic Society magazine,

December 2012/January 2012, Volume 151 Number 10

The booklet can be obtained from www.lowenna.co.uk

(£4.00 + £1.00 post) if bought directly from Ken. More

if purchased from the publisher.

Diana Moss

A Checklist for the Judge

At the request of the PAGB, Ken Holland produced this

checklist for judging.

11

DO Watch good judges at work.

Ask why a picture was made, not how.

Appraise, assess and analyse.

Evaluate the whole image.

Talk about emotional aspects as well as technical.

Manage your time.

Make three positive comments about each image.

Smile often.

Suggest ways an image might be improved.

Assess the quality of the photography.

Remember it’s not an exact science.

DO NOT Pass judgement.

Repeat yourself.

Lecture.

Explain how a picture was taken, or made in Photoshop.

Display your personal prejudices.

Criticise.

Insist on the “rules”.

Try to crop every image.

Display too many irritating mannerisms.

Touch the image with your fingers.

Dissect an image into small pieces.

Praise mediocre work too highly.

PLEASE Be confident and enjoy it.

Be brief and concise.

Be honest.

Be a “critical friend”.

Be modest.

Be open minded.

Be punctual.

Be helpful and encourage high standards.

Be fair.

Be informed and unbiased.

Be friendly, humorous, light-hearted and respectful.

Be entertaining and interesting.

Be enthusiastic.

(I would find it difficult to follow this advice at all well

so it is probably a good job I have no intention of trying

to be a judge! - Martin Nellist)

Police Compensate Parade-Ban

Photographer

A teenager who was wrongly barred by police from

taking photographs of an Armed Forces Day parade in

Romford, London, has been compensated. Lawyers

acting for Jules Matteson then aged 15 - said a police

inspector had described taking photographs in public as

"anti social behaviour". "The inspector told Jules he was

a public nuisance ..," said the spokesman. "He described

the act of taking photographs as 'silly' and 'gay' and

'stupid'," The solicitor said Jules had "politely"

maintained that the police were not entitled to interfere

with his right to report, however in response, the

inspector told him: "I consider you a threat under the

Terrorism Act young man. I've had enough'." A

Metropolitan Police spokesman said an out-of-court

settlement had been reached with the force paying out

compensation and legal fees. This report, originally from BBC NEWS LONDON,

appeared in PAGB e-News No. 54, December 2011.

St Ives Photographic Club's Annual

Exhibition

I went to St. Ives Photographic Club’s exhibition on

November 26th

It had been advertised on our notice

board. It was unusual in that it was non-competitive;

members generally had one side of a panel each

although a few shared a panel. The only judging was by

members of the public who were asked to note their

“best three” prints. A noticeable feature was that high

gloss prints, which were much favoured in the days of

Cibachrome, were difficult to view due to the light

reflected on them from the strings of overhead lights.

We used that lighting system when we held our

exhibition in the Harpur Suite some years ago. Over the

years St Ives have used a number of ways of holding

prints on their panels. At one time they used light weight

plastic channels which were attached to the panels with

Velcro. We copied that system for one of our

exhibitions. This time they used transparent triangular

corner protectors which obviously had Velcro patches on

the rear. This gave a very neat appearance.

PDIs were back projected on a good-sized screen most

of the time I was there. Being non-competitive,

members were free to show work which they liked rather

than what a judge would like. An enjoyable visit.

John Holt

Men and Women of Letters - A

Personal Opinion by Bob Moore, Hon.FRPS. Hon.PAGB.

MPAGB, FBIPP. FIPF. AFIAP. BPE5*.

Etc., Etc., Etc.

(I very much enjoyed this article which appeared in

PAGB e-news No 57 of February 2012. Bob Moore is a

former President of the RPS and a very well known

photographer in the Club world. At one time he was a

regular visiting lecturer to BCC. Editor)

When I first joined a camera club in the 1960's, yes it is

that long ago, letters after photographers' names were

few and far between. The odd ARPS and the very

occasional FRPS. A speaker with an FRPS received red

carpet treatment in the early 1970's! When a camera club

chairman now introduces a speaker it sometimes is a

matter of mirth and embarrassment when reading out the

lecturer’s long list of letters. In fact, some club lecturers

and exhibitors are loaded down with more letters than

the alphabet! I wonder if the average club member is

12

interested. For what it's worth, I think there are too many

distinctions and some, I'm afraid, are pretty meaningless.

Only club photography seems bothered with letters.

Successful rose growers don't apply for an Associateship

of Rose Society Enthusiasts. Do they? I suppose a

cynical view would be that they bring cash in for the

organisations that award them, but do they really mean

very much? The system is obviously a complete

mishmash. A number of distinctions are awarded for

exhibiting in approved exhibitions. A number for

submitting panels of related and unrelated prints or PDIs

to bodies of self appointed experts. Some letters are

awarded for services to photography. In fact, it's very

difficult to know the difference between many of them.

Let's take a look at the most popular distinctions that UK

camera club members may be tempted to chase - sorry

apply for. Each has its own peculiarities and you can

pick and choose.

British Photographic Exhibitions. (BPE) currently has 18

exhibitions. Collect acceptances and convert them into

points. Accumulated they add up to BPE Crown Awards

and beyond to the slightly overstated Fellow of BPE. No

payment, except for exhibition entry fees.

Federation Internationale de L'Art Photographique

(FIAP) is a predominately European organisation that

promotes and approves International exhibitions around

the world. It offers AFIAP & EFIAP – for accumulated

acceptances in approved exhibitions. Panels have to be

submitted for MFIAP and holders are rare.

The Royal Photographic Society awards the oldest and

once the most prestigious of all distinctions. However

their crown seems to be slipping slightly. Probably

because of the preponderance of other distinctions and

the fact that, to keep your hard won letters, a

membership fee of about £100 is payable every year.

They offer LRPS, ARPS & FRPS. Panels of images

must be submitted with the required fee. Worryingly,

some well known camera club lecturers have recently

abandoned their membership of the RPS.

Photographic Society of America. (PSA). Count your

acceptances in PSA approved exhibitions for Star ratings

that eventually get you on to Galaxy's, APSA, FPSA,

etc! Star gazing without a telescope! Still a minority

interest amongst UK club photographers at present, but

increasing in popularity and the PSA would like to be

more involved in the UK.

The PAGB is a relative newcomer to the awards

bandwagon. They offer CPAGB, DPAGB and MPAGB.

Panels of Prints or PDIs are submitted and are assessed

by 6 Adjudicators as individual images. If successful,

you keep the letters for life with no further fee. That

must be an attraction! They also award the coveted

APAGB and the rarer HonPAGB for services to club

photography.

There are many others. Read any International

Exhibition catalogue and you'll be amazed that some

snappers have rows and rows of letters, especially from

mainland Europe and the Far East who are the top dogs

at chasing letters. I've recently had the good fortune to

be awarded a Fellowship Artist of the Romanian

Telephoto Society. Prefixed with OLD - should look

good in any high class catalogue.

So what drives club photographers to get involved, often

at a substantial cost? Personal ego, prestige and

recognition are high on the list. If you are looking for

recognition from other photographers, it's probably true

that the MPAGB now holds the most prestige. They

certainly don't give many of those away. I think the

PAGB has possibly overtaken the RPS in the prestige

stakes, certainly amongst club members. It's also true

that there are a number of wonderfully talented

photographers who have no letters and are not interested

in spending time and money to obtain them.

So please don't judge photographers by their letters.

Judge them by the images they produce! I'm thinking of

starting a new body which will award Fellowships Of

the Organisation of Letter Seekers. Any Takers? Not

sure yet of the criteria requirements but I'll think of

something that will line my pockets!

External Competitions

Well everyone, it has been a mixed bag of results

throughout the season and I am absolutely no clearer as

to what the judges are looking for. Some of the images

we have entered have done well in our Annual

Exhibition and internal competitions but have failed to

impress a different judge or judges in other

competitions.

I often wonder what the winning formula is and as I

have told you all before, male muscles seem to impress

female judges, so I think you men had better get those

lapsed gym memberships up and running again so that

we have some material to work with. Having said that

we may have a David Beckham body double in the club

already, but I expect you are just shy.

Failing the ‘developing the muscles of our male

members route’, we all need to invest in some

underwater camera equipment. The few underwater

images that have appeared in this year’s External

Competitions always seem to score quite highly. One

judge said it was simply because of their rarity.

However, before we all go out into the ‘deep’ to capture

some ancient underwater wreck or some rare lesser

spotted Scorpion Fish, just be warned that there are

many dangers to be faced underwater that you simply

wouldn’t have on a photo shoot in Bedford. Actually, on

second thoughts you might; they are just different

dangers.

My third line of attack is to get everybody in the club to

spend their money on exotic holidays and locations. At a

recent LRPS ( Licentiate of the Royal Photographic

Society) advisory day, several possible panels for

submission that were considered to have a good chance

of success were taken almost entirely in wonderfully

13

vibrant, colourful and stimulating places that just

couldn’t fail to produce those exquisite images that

always seem to impress judges. However, you still need

to be in the right place at the right time, (with your

camera of course), to produce that image with the

magical winning formula; whatever that is.

I have seriously considered whether it is best to put our

cards (or should I say PDIs and prints) on the table and

play to the judges personal favourite genres or subjects.

The Selection Committee have debated the subject and

whilst some, and I think it is fair to say the majority,

think that this is a good idea, the counter argument is

that a judge may simply be more critical of a subject that

he or she is particularly fond of or indeed excels in

personally.

The next plan of attack is for us all to move to Norfolk

so that we can take endless Natural History images. At

the recent St. Ives Print Competition, Norfolk PG came

second with all Natural History entries, 7 of the 8 were

of birds, all fantastic shots, with a Red Squirrel thrown

in to make up the eighth entry.

Failing all of the above, we simply need to kidnap some

famous photographer and somehow persuade him or her

of the benefits of becoming a member of our fabulous

club. Look at what we can offer. BCC is friendly,

sociable, entertaining, offers value for money, a varied

programme and improvement in one’s photography (we

may be struggling with that one, as they must clearly be

at the top of their game already if they are going to be of

use to us; although it is often said that there is always

room for improvement). We can then use his/her award

winning images, which all the judges have seen and are

aware of the images’ success and therefore wouldn’t

dare award it anything less than 10/10 or 20/20. Other

clubs do the same so why not BCC? Actually I don’t

think they actually kidnap the photographers so we must

think of another means of persuasion; any ideas?

So, as you can see, there is no tried and tested method of

gaining success in any competition. All I do know is that

without members’ images we don’t have much choice to

start with. I would like to thank all those who have

submitted their work for the Selection Committee to

choose from. Although we have a faithful few members

who do offer their work for External Competitions, it

has been very encouraging to see an increase in the

number of authors we have been able to select from.

There are at least 15 different authors whose work has

been selected for the EAF (East Anglian Federation)

Print Championship.

Above all, we photographers need to get out and about

with our cameras and not be shy about sharing our work

with others. Many of us have said that we sometimes

don’t see a fault or problem in our work, or indeed an

area which could be improved with just a minor tweak

or adjustment despite looking very closely at it.

Someone else looking at it may see something obvious

that we ourselves have missed.

We don’t all have to be a whizz kid with Photoshop,

Elements or CS , a simple crop is sometimes all that is

required to get an image from a 15/20 to perhaps a top

three place in a competition.

Perhaps we should spend some time next season when

we all bring in a couple of images and in small groups

we can simply talk about where improvements could be

made. Positive criticism is always required but just

removing too much sky or dust spots from an image are

very simple ways of improving one’s work. However,

don’t take any comments personally and remember as

long as YOU like the image that is what is important.

So we are nearly at the end of the 2011/2012 External

Competition season and the results so far are as follows:-

Beds Invitation - Judge - Daphne Hanson CPAGB,

APAGB - a disappointing result. We came last out of 16

clubs.

Best score - Ball on Water - Claire Boardman - 16/20

3-Way Battle between Bedford, Biggleswade and

Letchworth -Judge - Keith Long ARPS Hooray! We

won. Both Biggleswade and Letchworth beat us quite

convincingly in the Beds Invitation Competition so a

very good result.

Best scores PDIs

Feeding Frenzy by Bruce Deacon - 20/20 and Best PDI

in the competition.

Lefkada by Alan Horn 20/20

Red Billed Oxpeckers and Rhino by John Pegram 19/20

Senegalese Tribesmen by Vaughan Southgate 19/20

Best scores Prints -

Hungarian Roundup by David Shephard 20/20 and best

print in the competition.

First Corner - John Pegram 20/20

Cambridge Camera Club Inter - Club Digital

Competition - Judge - Leigh Preston FRPS

We came 17 out of 37 clubs.

Best scores -

Water Tower by Steve Ridgway 18/20

Red Billed Oxpecker and Rhino by John Pegram 18/20

EAF PDI Championship - Judges - Colin Harrison

FRPS, MPAGB, EFIAP, David E Gibbins ARPS,

APAGB, AFIAP and Graham Hodgkiss ARPS,

DPAGB, APAGB, AFIAP

We came 21st out of 38 clubs. I think this was a very

respectable result for such a big competition.

Best scores

Feeding Frenzy by Bruce Deacon 13/15

Jostling For Position by Bruce Deacon 12/15

Tunnel Vision by Steve Ridgway 12/15

All Shall Be Equal Before The Law by John Pegram

12/15

St. Ives Interprint Competition - Judge Rosemary

Wilman Hon.FRPS, AFIAP, BPE5*

We came =20th

out of 30 clubs.

Best scores

Hungarian Roundup by David Shephard - 9.5/10

14

Robin by David Hogg - 8/10

Lone Cricket by Martin Nellist - 8/10

The Brotherhood Challenge Cup (Peterborough) is

the next External Competition, followed by the EAF

Print Championship, The 3-WAY Battle between

Bedford, Shillington and Kempston and then the New

City PS Digital Central Challenge Cup. The Felicity

Bickley Trophy is an AV (Audio/ Visual) competition

and takes place at the end of March. We are the current

holders of the Trophy.

Claire Boardman

Complaint about consistency of

judging and PAGB defence.

The PAGB received the following complaint from an

aggrieved Club member:

“The whole PAGB awards have no merit as there is no

consistency in any of the judging. This means that they

have no value. The whole award system for the PAGB

is a nonsense and a complete lottery.

In short the whole thing is a complete farce. I re-

entered six prints which I had entered on my first

attempt at this award; every single one scored less than

last time. The six prints together scored a whole 14

points less than last time.

I appreciate that there will always be discrepancies,

but a good print doesn’t become a poor one overnight.” The PAGB felt the letter deserved a response and here is

an extract from the reply;

I don't know specifically how the score for each of

your 6 photographs changed but I have to say that a

difference of 14 points over 6 pictures is about as

consistent as anyone could reasonably expect with 6

different judges. If they look at a picture which is

borderline then they have to decide to vote for it (4) or

declare it a near miss (3). This can be a tiny movement

but if two or more judges move from 4 to 3 then your

score drops by 2 points or more.

Neither judging panel is wrong, nor is either panel

necessarily correct. Perhaps the first panel averaged

out a little high and the second a little low. The

photograph is still borderline - sometimes it will get a

passing score, sometimes it will not. We have observed

that re-submitted prints sometimes score higher the

second time around but that has never elicited a

complaint.

We work very hard to ensure consistency, and our

judges are the best there are, but photography judging

is not a science. There are no real objective criteria to

assess against and nobody is pretending that there isn't

a little bit of luck involved. If your total entry is

borderline, you have at least as much chance of failing

as you have of passing.

An Exception to the Rule (Here is another interesting snippet from the PAGB e-

news)

There have been a number of queries why photographs

entered by one of the judges of the recent PAGB Inter-

Federation Annual PDI Competition were accepted into

the Exhibition. At the eleventh hour one of the people

booked to judge the Annual Competition/Exhibition was

unfortunately taken ill and could not travel to East

Anglia on the morning of the competition. In order for

the adjudication to take place, a PAGB judge had to be

found. After telephoning various PAGB judges in the

area, Barbie Lindsay MPAGB EFIAP stepped in at the

very last moment. Barbie had entries in the competition

and offered to withdraw them. However this would have

unfairly penalised her Federation and it was decided that

they should remain. Each of Barbie’s photographs was

scored by the other two judges and a score was added

which “averaged” those two as much as possible. This is

not the normal procedure and judges’ work is not

normally permissible. On this occasion an exception had

to be made in order for the judging to go ahead as

planned.

Daphne Hanson – PAGB Competitions

Administration Officer

Audio-Visual Awards

After considerable head scratching and consultation, the

PAGB have finally confirmed agreement of a

deceptively simple but groundbreaking redefinition of

Audio- Visual Production to be used for Awards for

Photographic Merit in AV. This ensures that the makers

of both traditional and modern AV productions can

continue to strive for PAGB Awards.

“An AV Production submitted for a PAGB Award for

Photographic Merit should predominately consist of a

sequence of still photographic images, the majority of

such images being the original work of the entrant,

together with a synchronised sound track. The use of

third party images, animated graphics, video clips or

other visual material, whilst not excluded, should be

limited and appropriate to the production. Entrants

must confirm that they have obtained legal consent for

the use of any visual or audio material used in the

production other than their own original content.”

Oh, what a tangled web………

In late 2011, it was reported that an entry in the PAGB

GB Cup (Small Clubs) 2011 competition included an

image which appeared to infringe the PAGB rule that all

images entered must be entirely the work of the

individual photographer.

The matter was referred to the PAGB Standards sub-

committee to investigate under the PAGB Breach of

Rules Procedure. It was admitted by the photographer

that he had acquired a photograph, via the internet,

which was subsequently adjusted and passed off as his

own original work. The PAGB were satisfied that the

15

misdemeanour lay with the individual photographer and

that Oldham PS was unaware that this was the case.

The PAGB decided that the image in question should be

retrospectively disqualified from the competition. Both

Oldham PS and the individual concerned were notified

of this decision and neither chose to appeal. The PAGB

considered the loss of placing represented sufficient

penalty for Oldham PS.

The photographer concerned has been notified that he is

excluded from all PAGB competitions and patronage

events but may request a review of this decision after

three years.

After the disqualification of the illegal photograph, the

results were recalculated and Duston promoted to 3rd

place. Duston were informed but, unfortunately, it was

not possible to do anything about the CD AV show that

was already in circulation The PAGB regretted that

Duston were unable fully to enjoy their success at the

time but issued belated congratulations.

(The moral of this tale is not to become obsessive about

winning! Editor)

The Olympic Connection

In this Olympic year I think it is appropriate to mention

Bedford Camera Club's connection with the Olympic

Games. One of the eighteen founder members of the

Club was Adolphe Abrahams, the older brother by 16

years of Harold Abrahams, the Olympic Gold Medallist

(100m in 1924), a celebrated sports commentator for the

BBC for about 40 years, and the subject of the film

'Chariots of Fire'.

But this is not the connection to the Olympic movement

that I have in mind. In fact, as Harold was quick to

acknowledge, his elder brother's interest in athletics and

his expertise as a physician with a special knowledge in

sports medicine were instrumental in developing the

sports careers of Harold and another older brother

Sidney, an Olympic long-jumper.

In 1906, Adolphe was 23 and I am not sure whether or

not he had qualified as a doctor at that time. In 1909

when he wrote an article for 'The Amateur Photographer

and Photography News' there was no mention of his

medical qualification.

The article was entitled 'Common or Garden' Focal

Plane Photography. Its message was that 'best training

for photography is photography' and that to take

'instantaneous photographs' with the fairly recently

introduced focal-plane shutters it was necessary to

practise. Adolphe seems to have roped in his three

younger brothers and two sisters to provide moving

subjects of the type he might encounter on the athletics

field. I have inserted one of these 'A Garden

Steeplechase' because it appears to include all the family

(plus one) and that it is highly probable that Harold and

Sidney are two of the three hurdlers. Also, it was almost

certainly taken at their family home in Bedford.

I am not sure how long Adolphe remained a member of

Bedford Camera Club but during World War 1 he was

attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1919 he

was appointed consultant at Westminster Hospital and

lecturer in its Medical School of which he later became

Dean. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of

Physicians in 1931 and went on to gain many more

honours for his services to medicine including a

knighthood.

A Garden Steeplechase

However, back to his connection with the Olympics for,

from 1912 to 1948, he was medical officer of the British

Olympic Teams. Then in 1953 together with his friend

Sir Arthur Porritt he founded the British Association of

Sport and Exercise Medicine (www.basem.co.uk). Sir

Adolphe was the founder President and held the office

until his death in the winter of 1967. Sir Arthur Porritt, a

finalist in the 200m in the 1924 Olympics, held the post

Sir Adolphe Abrahams - from a Bromide

Print in the National Portrait Gallery by

Walter Stoneman in 1944

16

of Chairman and subsequently became Governor-

General of New Zealand. BASEM has always

maintained strong links with the Olympic movement.

Of course, his younger brother Harold, with his Olympic

success, his work for the BBC and the 'Chariots of Fire'

has the higher profile, and indeed there are plans to

install a Heritage Fund plaque at Harold's former

Bedford home in the run up to the 2012 London

Olympics. But Bedford Camera Club's connection to the

Olympics is Sir Adolphe.

Martin Nellist

Samuel Sugden

Simon Bray passed to me an enquiry from Mrs Penny

Hoskyn of West Byfleet, Surrey asking about her great-

uncle, Samuel Sugden's, connection with Bedford

Camera Club. I was able to tell her that Samuel Sugden

was the Club President in 1927 and won the Challenge

Cup in 1923, 1925 and 1927. I was also able to supply a

copy of a magazine article about BCC from The New

Photographer, March, 1928, and from which I obtained

the image.

Penny was disappointed that we did not have any copies

of the winning images but she has now made contact

with Samuel's grand-daughter who just may have a few

images. If she does I hope we can get some copies for

the Club archives.

Although Samuel worked in Bedford for a number of

years, he also worked in the potteries as a painter, and

Penny understands that he decorated the finger plates

commonly fitted to doors of that period. He was also a

church organist. If any member has any other

information, I should be pleased to forward it to Penny.

Martin Nellist

The Famous Dig for Victory (foot on

the Spade) poster

(I have copied this item by Rob Foster from Issue No 1

2012 of the Allotment and Leisure Gardener. Can you

solve the final question? Surely CS5 and Content-Aware

was not available in 1939! Editor)

On September 3rd 1939 plans were put into operation to

encourage the public to grow their own vegetables. The

campaign failed to capture the public’s imagination and

was slow to take off. Eventually it was decided that a

really effective slogan was needed; "Grow more Food"

was rejected as being too Victorian at the time. The

Ministry of Slogans Department worked flat out to find

three-word phrases that would set the wheels in motion

without frightening anyone. It wasn’t until the autumn of

1939 that the Evening Standard published a leader on the

war effort and pointed out that we should have to dig for

victory as well as work or fight for victory. Nobody

estimated the importance or the consequences of that

leader-writers choice of words.

lt was soon spotted in the first edition of the Evening

Standard by Mr B W Haddon, chairman of the Ministry

of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Publicity and

by Mr A Knee, Head of the Ministry’s Press and

Publicity Branch. They contacted each other and the

slogan of the war was born. "Dig for Victory" soon

passed into the language, while "Dig to Live" and "Dig

for Dear Life" slipped out.

17

The next requirement for the campaign was a really

striking poster. The Ministry was flooded with

suggestions from professional and amateur artists, but

most, it was decided, were too complicated or wishy-

washy. lt was by accident that the foot on the spade

poster came into being. A Mr F G Stevens was turning

out his desk drawer when he found a rough photographic

layout that had been sent in some months previously by

Morgan Wills Studio. It was a photograph of one of

their employees’ feet poised on a spade. So it was that

the famous foot on the spade poster came into being.

However, one question remains unanswered; where is

the other foot'? Because the one pictured must be his left

foot. (Or as Hilary commented 'How did a 'Knee' lose a

foot?')