PRESIDENT’S COMPETITION

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Written by Cedric Woodhall

At the start of the Society’s year in September, the first event is always the President’s Competition, which is an internal competition judged by the members on the night and based on a theme previously set by the President in June. This year, the theme was “Photo of Many Colours”. A total of forty-two colourful entries were received, with a lot of imagination shown in many of them.

Usually the competition consists of images projected onto a screen with the members present on the night voting for their best images. However, owing to the current situation, the competition was held using Zoom. All of the images were viewed by the members attending the Zoom meeting using a shared screen and then the members used a web-based system to mark each image out of ten. After the vote, each participant was given the opportunity to say a few words about their entries and then the results were announced. Three images tied for first place, which were “Japanese Autumn” by Elaine Brown, “Rainbow” by Ove Alexander and “Baskets for Sale” by Terry Ottway. In fourth place was “Colour CD” by Peter Grove and in fifth place was “Scarves for Sale” by Dave Hastings. All five images are shown below. Congratulations to the winners and also to all of the members who submitted images.

2020 Ad Hoc Competition: Terry Hewitt’s Theme

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Written by SPS Admin

Lockdown is providing some interesting challenges, making us think differently about our photography and of course the programme for the society.

So Tuesday night (16^th July) saw the first in a series of Ad-Hoc competitions (no prints) with the theme chosen by a different member and of course held over zoom.

I got to go first and the theme was to present up to 3 images based upon any of the lectures in June and July from both Stockport & Bramhall lectures.

To help people here is a list of lectures that are covered by the dates.

You will see that the theme is quite open ended.

Anyway we got 34 entries from 12 people and we used PollUnit to all score each of the images out of 10. People were allowed score their own images any way they wanted. Each voter gave each image a score  between 0 and 10, and the  images were then ranked by their average scores.

A new feature of this competition was that after announcing the scores we went through each image with the photographer talking about how they created the image and members giving constructive feedback on the image, lots of helpful tips and tricks to improve the image, and give ideas to the others.

Me – well my best image was ranked 16^th. Ah well better luck next time.

An entertaining and informative session for all. I learnt a lot and saw some great photographs.

Winner was Terry Ottway with Common Red Soldier Beetle

2^nd Place: Grasshopper by Dave Hastings

3^rd Place: House Fly by Dave Hastings

Photography on a budget. Talk on 9th July by Fiona Hodgkiss

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Written by SPS Admin

During the pandemic I presented a talk on Zoom, Photography on a Budget. I expect many people have an old camera, or maybe one they recently acquired second hand and could be concerned that they cannot get the results they desire. My advice is to work within your camera's limitations and focus on the photography that it produces well. Be inventive and find ways around your photography problems.

The ultimate issue is 'seeing' a photo. The most expensive latest camera will not take photos if you do not 'see' the photo and have new ideas. I work on the basis that if my eye is drawn to something then it is worthy of a photograph or a project. Something may be out of place or I may see something that makes me feel curious. Of course, many landmarks or beautiful things also need to be photographed. Be observant and be inspired by your everyday surroundings, you might just spot your new project when you are out briefly on an errand. 

I also asserted that mindset is important. It is important to enjoy photography as an activity. Over time one thing has been obvious, if I have passionately enjoyed a location or a project, I have taken far more photos than when I've felt neutral or in a negative mindset.

While I dream of taking a sunset photo showing palm trees at a beach in Hawaii, that is not budget photography! I always thought sunsets look better by water, instead I had a pandemic lockdown challenge where I recorded the sunsets from the bottom of my garden. A view across a playing field towards an industrial area may seem unlikely and not at all picturesque but by paying attention to composition and editing I was able to record a wide variety from the same two fence posts.

Images used in this talk are embedded in this pdf document.

'Photography during the Lockdown' Talk by Ove Alexander on 14th April

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Written by David Hastings

Ove presented a wide ranging and very interesting talk on a plethora of ideas for photography projects to do at home — ranging from high tech gadgetry in the house to flowers and wildlife in the garden, while we are not allowed out. There was something to interest everyone and anyone who want to continue their hobby during lockdown. The slides from the talk can be found on this link.

Following on from this talk, Ove proposed that we hold an internal club competition on the theme of photography at home, with four sections as follows:

• Creative (including Raid the Archives composites)
• Flora
• Fauna
• Open

The image must have been taken – or composite created – after 31^st March 2020. Maximum 2 entries per author per section. The competition will be held on Tuesday  2^nd June 2020.

Submissions by 5th May on Photoentry.

If you want more detail on any particular subject please contact Ove at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., who will be more than happy to help.