Latest News
Bexhill Club photographers have been busy over the Summer break securing pictures for the Summer Challenge entitled ‘Abstract Images’ which is due for adjudication on the 7th October.
Our new treasurer Martin Haswell has been fabricating print stands for our newly acquired club venue at the Bexhill Caring Community, 25 Sackville Road. Our first meeting 9th September is an Introduction to the new season given by our new chairman Paul Dunmall.
Paul and his wife Sonia our secretary have been organising the 2010 Photo Exhibition to be held in a new venue at the Bexhill Museum 20 _ 22 August, admission free.
Anyone interested in photography is invited to meet us at the exhibition and view our work or come along on the 9th September 7.30pmfor our inaugural meeting in our new venue. Further enquires please ring Paul Dunmall our Chairman 07876593575
END OF SEASON 2009-2010
The season finished with the print, slide, digital image of the year. Each member was invited to enter three images of each medium for the judge from Kent, John Devenport FRPS,MPAGB,EFIAP,all images were prejudged and a percentage were commented upon on the night. The 3 Blue ribbon winners were Vanessa Parker LRPS Print of the Year, Ray Noble Slide of the Year and Cliff Willard LRPS Digital image of the Year. These three winning images can be seen on THE ROLL OF HONOUR page. Certificates for other class winners throughout the whole season were presented by our vice chairman Ray Barry on the AGM night and are as follows.
Prints;
General Paul Hutchings
Small Print Norman King
Portrait Cliff Willard/Ken Plumb
Record Paul Carrington
Slides
General Dorothy Reeve
Nature Ray Noble
Landscape Ray Noble
Set Subject Norman King/Sue Clarke
Projected Digital Images
General Vanessa Parker
Nature Dorothy Reeve
Creative Paul Carrington
Record David Rossiter
Our new chairman elected for the coming season 2010/2011 was Paul Dunmall, Treasurer Martin Haswell (who is taking over from Sue Clarke who for many years 15 in fact has been our wizard with figures and been devoted to the financial success of the club) and Mandy Willard takes on the Print Secretaries job. All other posts remain the same but with in inclusion of Dave Mason as a new committee member.
A very successful year was enjoyed by all members in all departments including paper, celluloid and pixels, i.e. three prints hung at the Kent County Exhibition at Maidstone County Hall, a Kent County first prize in the club slide competition, best individual slide in the Sussex Federation slide competition and a good inter club win with digital images.
Now we have the Club exhibition to look forward to at the Bexhill Museum on Friday 20th to 22nd August and our new club venue in Sackville Road . Any prospective new members should contact us or ring Paul Dunmall our new chairman on 07876 593575
STOP PRESS
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ONCE AGAIN BEXHILL CLUB HITS THE LIMELIGHT.
SLIDE WORKERS SUE CLARKE, RAY AND SYLVIA NOBLE, PAUL HUTCHINGS AND NORMAN KING
ENTERED THE INAURGURAL SUSSEX PHOTOGRAPHIC FEDERATION
INDIVIDUAL SLIDE COMPETITION AT HERSTMONCEUX ON THE 9th MAY
PRESENTED BY ROY STUBBS AND HIS TEAM FROM THE SUSSEX COMMITTEE.
99 SLIDES WERE SPOT JUDGED ON THE NIGHT BY CHRIS SHORE FRPS MPAGB APAGB BPE4*
THREE SLIDES PER PERSON WERE ALLOWED AND INCREDIBLY PAUL
HUTCHINGS’ THREE WERE ALL HELD BACK FOR FURTHER ACCREDITATION ,
WHAT A NIGHT FOR PAUL AND BEXHILL:-
1st PAUL HUTCHINGS WITH ‘GOTCHA’
3rd PAUL HUTCHINGS WITH ‘LAST LIGHT AT WASTWATER’
WELL DONE PAUL …..
April 15th 2010
Last Thursday Bexhill experienced their last competition at the Friends Meeting House in Albert Road (with the exception of The Print/Slide/PDI of the Year being held on May 6th) before moving to their new venue next September. We have enjoyed years of good quality photographic nights and tonight was no different. A full night of digital images in competition against Eastbourne Photographic Society a hundred strong club against the forty of Bexhill.
We had quite a saga finding a quality judge as two had to decline. Our programme secretary Cliff Willard managed to secure ex Bexhillian Ray Bridges LRPS.CPAGB.BPE2*[now with the Maidstone Club] and he did us all proud, a very articulate and knowledgeable member of the Royal Photographic Society. Ray gave 8 maximum scores to Eastbourne from their total of 25 images Bexhill gained only 4, but their average scores were just that little bit higher. In fact Bexhill won overall by 4 points. Well done Bexhill. This was echoed by Eastbourne’s chairman Shelia Wood and our vice chairman Ray Barry replied by thanking the Digital team:- Paul Carrington, Paul Dunmall and Paul Hutchings for a faultless projection of the 50 images. Ray Bridges the judge agreed and said it was an honour to see such competent work displayed before him.
The clubs print slide and digital images of the year will be the penultimate meeting on May 6th. Watch this space for more information about the exciting new venue for the successful Bexhill Club.
The next meeting on the 29th April is an illustrated talk with prints entitled Fleeting Light by another Kent Fellow, Patricia Jones FRPS.MPAGB.APAGB.EFIAP
1st April 2010
Club members have achieved a county competition win for the second time, but for the first time with slides (the first being with prints). This was achieved in the Kent County Photographic Alliance Annual ‘Battle of the Slides’, at West Malling. The judge for the evening was the national judge Clive Tanner FRPS who gave his experiences and critique on the evening. Six slides where entered by ten clubs from Kent and Sussex. Bexhill club not only were awarded two of the three maximum scores ,but were also in first place ahead of strong Kent clubs which included Ashford, Tonbridge and Sevenoaks and our local adversary from Eastbourne.
The two photographers which were awarded 20 were Brian Reeve with a Blue Tailed Damselfly and Norman King for his Alicia Moliks running forehand.
Paul Hutchings scored 19 and 15.
Ray Noble scored a 16.
Norman scored a 16 for his second slide Rhosilli Bay.
Very well done Bexhill, the trophy was presented to Norman King by the judge. (picture below).
The last projected Digital Image competition took place last Thursday the judge for the evening was Nick Wiseman.
General Class; Promise of a New Day by Vanessa Parker LRPS scored the only 20 in this class and was awarded the best image of the evening.
Nature Class this attracted 16 entries just 2 less than the General, but three photographers scored 20. Mating Common Blues by Brian Reeve, Cheetah by Paul Dunmall and Meadowsweet by Dorothy Reeve.
Record Class. The top score (20) in this class was by Bob Butler showing us The Central Dome of the Berliner Dom.
Creative Class; Two photographers scored 20, Cliff Willard with De La Warr Handrail and Paul Carrington with Dungeness Lighthouse Reflections 2.
18th March 2010
Last Thursday members were enthralled by the tenth John Cocker print Panel Competition. This year seven panels were offered up to our esteemed professional member Eddie Sturgeon ARPS our judge for the evening. Mike Pethen submitted a panel in memory of John spelling out his name with the initials of classic cars from a Battle venue; his ten pictures included a Jaguar, Oldsmobile, Humber and a Nissan for example. The overall winner had a similar idea but Ken Plumb used a fruit and vegetable theme i.e.; Salt and Pepper, Lemon Aid and Toffee Apple all in vibrant colour and close up. Eddie commended him and the other six entrants which included Butterflies, Motor Sport, Steam Trains, Iron and Marble Statues. Eddy was pleased to have judged them for the ninth year. After a short tea break we went straight into the last open print competition the fourth of the season.
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Moody Morning by Vanessa Parker LRPS was the winner in the General class and also the night’s best picture.
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In the Portrait Class Eddie favoured the A3 sized print of The Preacher by Mike Thomas.
The Record Class was won by Paul Carrington with his text book photograph of the obverse and reverse of a Victorian gold sovereign.
The Small Print Class was won by Sonia Dunmall for her beautiful portrayal of an Albino Squirrel. Well done Sonia.
John Bryant our chairman gave Eddie the vote of thanks but Eddie said that he was pleased to have seen such confident work and was privileged to have had the opportunely to give his critique during the evening. Now that digital is so much easier to print and create, photo clubs seem to have increased their membership. (certainly in Kent and Sussex). Although slides seem to be in decline digital images are increasing as these are now entered for competition by memory stick, cd or email attachment. Bexhill Club has the facility to compete at club and county level, mainly due to our equipment acquired by a Lottery Grant, including a digital projector, laptop, screen and portrait lighting. Now is the time to join us and see how much easier it is to become a competent club member.
4th March 2010
Last Thursday Bexhill members enjoyed an illustrated lecture by husband and wife team Roger and Liz Scott ARPS, between them they are members of Eastbourne, Hailsham and 1066 mono. Liz has also exhibited at the London Salon.
They each had two boxes of prints, a mixture of silver (darkroom) and digital, they put up quality sets of colour and black and white images, giving lots of pleasure and imparting their photographic knowledge to the assembled audience. They bounced off each others puns quips and anecdotes not unlike a comedian and his stooge.(in the nicest possible way)
We had the pleasure of seeing probably 200 of their images. Eddie Sturgeon LRPS gave Roger and Liz a very warm vote of thanks at the end of a long enthralling evening which I am sure was enjoyed by all the members present.
A week later Bexhill was playing away, to be precise the club, had entered against 16 other top photographic clubs in Kent and Sussex, they had all assembled at Detling in mid Kent for the Jubilee Cup, the inaugural Projected Digital Image club competition in the Kent Association. Eight images from each club were digitally projected from a C.D. and scored out of 20 points. Bexhill achieved seventh position from the seventeen clubs which had entered. Well done to all our photographers whose images had been selected, Sonia Dunmall , Paul Carrington and Ray Barry scoring 14 points, Paul Dunmall, Vanessa Parker LRPS, Cliff Willard LRPS, and Paul Hutchings all scoring 17 points, but the photographer who was commended for his macro master piece of a garden spider was David Rossiter who scored 18 points. Very well done David.
Tonbridge were the overall winners with a score of 139 from a possible 160, Bexhill scored 128 ahead of clubs which included Bromley, Folkestone, Seaford and Eastbourne to name a few.
18th February 2010
Our clubs last meeting was a full night’s competition comprising of prints and slides.
The judge for the evening was John Boots ARPS from the Seaford Club.
The first part of the evening started with the print section,(incidentally all were computer printed this week, as we only have two darkroom workers left in the club)
General Class; John found this class consisting of 23 prints very difficult to evaluate, he did however, eventually award two top scores of 20 points ,to Autumn View by Vanessa Parker LRPS and Russian Great Grey Owl by Paul Hutchings however, the winning print was taken by Nicky Plumb entitled Scruffy the Town Dog scored 20*.
Small Print Class; John found this equally as difficult to determine a winner, with 8 images to evaluate, this time only one print received 20 points, that was Norman King's Colonnade in a Dream.
Record Class; This class attracted 6 images and was a very close run class. Paul Carrington’s photograph of an Iron Age Boar exhumed from a field near Lewes scoring 19 points but the class winner was Norman King with his print of Pisa Baptistry Door in Bronze by Pisano 1336 Scoring 20*.
Portrait Class; John had 9 to appraise in this section and Ken Plumb was awarded 20* for Wearing a Tea Cosy just ahead of Mike Fosters Chinese Wedding scoring 20 points.
Some of the winning prints will be displayed in the Bexhill Observer Window.
After the tea break the slides took precedence and we opened with the;
General Class; Dorothy Reeve was awarded the only 20 for Marks on Wood.
Landscape Class; Ray Noble scored 20 with his slide of Cumbrian Fell.
Nature Class; In this section honours were shared by Dorothy Reeve and Ray Noble who both scored 20 points. Ray for his slide of a Yellow billed Hornbill and Dorothy for Fescue Grass, very well done Dorothy who gained two winners during the evening.
John Bryant our chairman thanked the judge who responded, what a privilege it had been to judge such excellent work.
04 February 2010
Last Thursday we hosted an interclub competition against a very strong well balanced local club of Rye.
It had originally been arranged as a Slide and Print competition but at the request of Rye Club had been altered to a Print and Projected Digital Image one. (15 images in each class) John Holmes ARPS our judge for the evening was from Storrington Club who was predominately a lover of black and white and steam trains, was faced with 6o images to judge.
The Friends Meeting House was comfortably full and awaited .John’s precise and beneficial critique and appraisal of the 30 P.D.I’s. Bexhill’s images had all previously scored 19 or 20 in previous club competitions and all scored well enough to win the PDI part of the evening thus entering the second half of the evening with a lead of 8 points.
After the tea break John accredited the prints,this time awarding Rye club 14 points ahead of Bexhill thus giving each club a win in different media. Rye were accredited the winners on the night when the scores were aggregated.
Bexhill had scored 6 maximum 20’s and Rye had scored 4. Honours were even on the night and a pleasant and friendly one it turned out to be.
John Holmes (the judge) was thanked by the Bexhill and Rye chairmen, and he responded by saying he was honoured to have seen such high class work.
Thursday 21st Jan 2010
Last Thursday at the Quakers Meeting House Albert Road we invited Bob Webzell ARPS. To judge our 2nd Set Subject ‘Slides’ and the 3rd Projected Digital Images (PDI).
Bob who is a member of the Brighton and Hove Photographic Club and is well known for his Photographic Exhibitions gives great support to a Masai Tribe,and includes helping to fund building a school in Tanzania . He calls a spade a spade but was very meticulous with his judging. The first category for appraisal was the Slide Set Subject ‘Angles’(projected by Brian and Dorothy Reeve).Bob had a real mix of slides to evaluate (21 in all)ranging from wheel and umbrella spokes, railings, steps ,seats and even the inverted pyramid at the Louvre. He awarded two 20’s Norman Kings ‘Shadows and Steps’,
and Sue Clarke’s ‘Symmetrical Support’
but decided Normans slide be awarded 20* which made Sue and Norman the overall joint winners of the Set Subject Class, as they both scored 20 and 20* in the first Set Subject ‘Clouds’ in November.
The second half of the evening was devoted to the Projected Digital Images (PDI). The Nature Class (17 images) was won by Ken Plum for ‘Baby Gecko’ 20*,
closely followed by Dorothy Reeve’s ‘Meadow Foxtail’, and Paul Carrington’s ‘In-flight Refuelling’(A Humming bird feeding) both scoring 20.
The Record Class was won by David Rossiter with ‘Religious Plaques Villa Real’ 20*
closely followed by two other images also scoring 20 namely Martin Haswell’s ‘Avro Vulcan’ and Norman Kings’ Detail from Baptistery Door Florence No 6’.
The creative Class was won by Dorothy Reeve with her monotone study entitled ‘Wooded Valley’ scoring 20*,
just ahead of Paul Dunmall’s ‘Ice Kiss’ scoring 20.
General Class was won by Paul Dunmall with his perception of ‘Caught Up’. Depicting a double strung black thong caught in a stiletto heel, he scored 20* and the best overall image of digital entries.
Vanessa Parker LRPS was very close on Paul’s heels with ‘Ullswater Frosty Morning’ scoring 20. Very well done Paul.
Thursday 17th DecThe last meeting of 2009 held at the Friends Meeting House Albert Rd
was the second Projected Digital Image competition. We were privileged to have had an esteemed stalwart (previously employed by this paper), namely John Dowling as our judge for the evening.
John was returning to the club after many years (having been a former member) to evaluate our four classes of Digital images 65 in all.
The first class to be appraised was the Record class (12 images) the winner was Norman King with’’ Detail Dahlia bloom, miniature ball, Latin Pinnata’, scoring19.
The Second class was Creative. [14 images] Paul Carringtons ‘ Dungeness lighthouse reflection’. was the only maximum 20 point winner in this class.
After a very short tea break, due to the possibility of getting snowed in, John ploughed on with the next class.
Nature was the third class [20 images] and John found four images worth 20 points
And was overwhelmed with the quality of the close ups of nature. This time Bob Butler excelled with his ‘Female Common Darter’ which scored 20*.
General was the last class,and by by this time the snow was reported to be about a centimetre deep .John had 20 images left to evaluate. Once again our digital secretary Paul Carrington was the winning photographer with his ‘Glowing Rose’ scoring 20 which went on to be the eventual overall winning image of the evening.
John ended the evening by congratulating all the photographers who produced the 65 images, he was very very impressed by the quality of their work, especially as the world is gradually changing from Celluloid to the Charge Coupled Device.
John Bryant our chairman thanked the digital team for their hard work and of course John Dowling for all his comments and critique.( who is still being encouraged to rejoin the club as a member). The annual membership of the club is £28.per annum
Sunday 29th November
The Sussex Federation Projected Digital Image competition
Hailsham club hosted the inaugural event at the Community Hall last Sunday, 29th Nov. The County was projecting digital images in competition for the first time and Clive Tanner FRPS from Kent was the judge for the afternoon. Clive’s county has been competing digitally for 5 or 6 years but he found that our images were a pleasure to appraise and of such good content and quality.
Seventeen clubs entered, and each was allowed 5 images .One of our new members Sonia Dumnall scored 17points although Paul Hutchings equalled this. The images which represented the club were as follows:-
Muscles in Action by Sonia Dumnall
Tuscan Lights by Vanessa Parker
Flamingo by Paul Hutchings
Thwaite below Kisdon, North Yorkshire by Norman King
Male Large Red Tailed Damselfly by Brian Reeve
Although Bexhill did well during the afternoon, at one stage were joint 4th place for a while. However, coming back down to earth by the end of the afternoon’s judging, so it was a good experience and we were proud to have even entered the Digital Projected competition, the first of its type in Sussex. The hall was full of Sussex based photographers eager to be at the beginning of what hopefully will be a very popular annual event.
The overall winners were Crawley camera club with 95 points from a possible 100. Not only were our 5 photographers given a vote of thanks, Paul Carrington was thanked by his own club members for coordinating our entry and officiating during the selection held some 5 month ago. Many thanks Paul.
Our next meeting at Quakers Hall, Albert Road on the 17th Dec. will be our 2nd open digital competition which will be judged by John Dowling( a member of the club many years ago)
Thursday 19th Nov
At the Friends Meeting House Albert Road Bexhill members enjoyed the first half of the evening in the clouds, as the slide workers were being judged upon their cloudscapes (First part of the set subject) by the Battle judge Michael Betts.
Michael found many storm and rain clouds but more sophisticated varieties were projected namely lenticular and music sheet clouds. From the 19 entries Norman King scored maximum 20 with’ Glastonbury Clouds’ but the winner Sue Clarke was awarded 20+ for her’ Evening Rays ‘well done Sue.
The second half of the evening Michael evaluated the 2nd Open Print competition,
General Class (19 pictures) nearly half were natural history images and Michael awarded two 20’s, one to Ken Plumb for ’Green Bush Cricket eating a spider’ and the other to Paul Hutchings’ ’Tiger on the prowl’, Paul’s’ was awarded 20+
Portrait Class (7), Ken Plumb was awarded 20+ for his seventies style ‘The Red Rose’ Cliff Willard was a very close second with 20 for ‘Chloe’
Small Print Class,[ 12 Prints] and once again nearly half the pictures were erring toward Natural History and Michael found two of them .Sonia Dunmall scored 20 with her ‘Grey Squirrel’ but Ray Barry’s ‘Robin taking off ’ scored 20+.
Record Class, a new class introduced this year is beginning to attract more photographers. Michael did explain what record photography was all about and said he expected to see real detailed record photographs and by passed 3 or 4 photographs but liked ‘The Concorde’ and ,the ‘Henry V111 gold angel (coin)’ but the two top scores were awarded to Paul Hutchings for his print of ‘A Stained Glass Window Canterbury Cathedral’, but Norman King’s image of the ‘Head of Christ from the Turin Shroud by John Roberts in Portland Stone in Lincoln Cathedral’ scored the 20+,
this seemed to be the criteria that Michael was looking for and he certainly made it clear what should be presented in’ Record ‘in the future. Best Print of the evening went to Paul Hutchings for his ‘Tiger on the Prowl’
Our chairman John Bryant thanked Michael very much for his critique and for a very enjoyable evening.
Two days later on 21st November at The Rainham School for Girls( Kent ). Bexhill had entered 8 prints into The Ross Cup, an interclub competition between 33 clubs in the Kent County Photographic Association, including 4 clubs from Sussex. Bexhill were represented by
 
Paul Hutchings (2),
 
Norman King (2),
Chris Martin,
 
Vanessa Parker LRPS (2),
and Ken Plumb. Ken scored 19 for which he was awarded a merit and Vanessa scored 18 which helped us to attain 18th place from the 33 clubs ahead of Eastbourne, Battleand Seaford.
29 October 2009
Bexhill P.C. held its first Projected Digital Image Competition,along with the 2nd open slide competition. Brian and Dorothy Reeve provided the expertise behind the slide projector and Brian ended up the winner of the General Class with 20 for his image entitled ‘Beauty within Desolation’.
Ray Noble and Paul Hutchings shared the plaudits in the Landscape Class both ‘The Loughrigg Tarn’ and ‘Swaledale’ scoring 20.
The Nature Class was also shared with previous winners Brian and Ray both scoring 20’s with ‘Azur Damselfly’ and ‘Poppy Texture’ respectively.
Our judge for the evening having to evaluate 86 images in all was Glyn Bareham LRPS.CPAGB from Kent, would be no mean feat.
Before the tea break The Nature Class of the Digital competition was judged and 6 images were awarded maximum scores (20). ‘A Snail’ and ‘A Green Bush Cricket’ by Nicky and Ken Plumb respectively, ‘Robin’ by Scott Willard, ‘Grey Heron’ by Ray Barry ,’Barn Owl’ by Paul Hutchings and the top accolade went to Moira Fosters’ ‘Humming bird Hawk Moth’ well done Moira for a 20+.
After a very short tea break the second half of the evening was opened by The Creative Class (14) when two maximums were awarded. ‘The Fans’ by Paul Hutchings and ‘Leaf glow ’by Cliff Willard.
Next came The Record Class (12) two twenties were awarded by Glyn. ‘The Brandenburg Gate Quad Riga’ by Bob Butler and ‘Lion Door Knocker ‘by Brian Reeve.
The culmination of the evening was the General Class (21) three maximums were awarded, ‘Archie’ by Scott Willard, ‘Typhoon’ by our new print secretary Martin Haswell and the overall winning digital image of the evening was taken by Bob Butler entitled ‘Evening Fishing’. Very well done Bob.
Cliff Willard gave Glyn the vote of thanks he thoroughly deserved at the end of an absorbing evening, Glyn responded by saying he felt privileged to judge Bexhill’s very competent work, and looked forward to returning sometime soon. Thanks also went to the”Three Paul’s “who organised the digital projection.
The next meeting is the Slide set subject "Cloudscapes" and 2nd Open print competitions on November 19th (please note, change of judge for this competition, Mike Betts from Battle club will stand in for Ted Moon) Hope to see you all at The Friends Meeting House Albert Road. Details can be obtained about the club from John Bryant Chairman 730758
SUMMER CHALLENGE 2009
Thursday 15th October was a very traumatic day in the life of Paul Hutchings, a club member, it started at 12 noon at the Crematorium and ended at about 10.15 after he had finished his presentation of judging the Summer Challenge.This was something that he had set back in May entitled Something Funny and Something Creative.
Paul soon got back into the swing of photography and started to appraise the 17 images in the ‘Funny Section’. Although the prints had been prejudged they were evaluated by Paul on the night.
Two prints scored 20’s one being Cliff Willard's Wedding Group who were all gurning or strangling each other. The other print was David Rossiter’s Lavatorial Humour this one may turn up in the Observer Window but can’t be spoken about until after the 9oclock watershed, but Paul loved them both.
He started the second set of pictures ‘Something Creative’ just a couple fell by the wayside but most Were well within the parameters of creative. The winners were once again Cliff and David. Cliff showed us five little fairies in energetic positions in letter box format on the mount. This gave him maximum scoring of 40 well done Cliff. David was second scoring 19 with a fat female in a black leotard ‘Trapped’ under a table but she was also divided up into six separate images and the contorted female gave David 39points in all. Both these last two mentioned pictures would not have looked out of place in a quality art photo gallery.
Paul enjoyed judging the Summer Challenge despite the hectic 2weeks leading up to the prize giving, he was given a hearty vote of thanks by the members and then by John Bryant our chairman.
The next meeting is on November5th when two of our members give an illustrated presentation, one a Slide Show and the other an Audio Visual, at the Friends Meeting House Albert Road. Further details of our club call John Bryant on 730758
1st Open Print & Slide Competitions
1st October 2009
Members assembled at The Friends Meeting House in Albert Road for the opening night of the competitive season on Thursday the first at 7-45 pm. The open print and slide classes were judged by the eminent Ian Betts of the Henfield Camera Club.
This season heralded a new and popular Record class, which had been voted in by members at the May AGM.
Ian a very intelligent and worldly - wise adjudicator
started with the General class [the most popular overall] with 21 entries ,his knowledge of all topics in the class included natural history,both flora and fauna, sport [tennis] architecture, aircraft ,landscape and even a cyclist pedalling along the outgoing tide on golden sands with a sunset on the horizon. Bob Butler was the photographer, it scored a 20 star and was given best print of the evening.
Portrait class was judged with equal aplomb, Ian knew of all the aspects of portraiture,from the six he had to evaluate, he found nothing wrong with a sweet image of Imogen. Cliff Willard [who recently gained an accolade from the Royal Photographic Society]was the photographer and it scored 20.
Next was the Record Class, 8 pictures were entered and Paul Hutchings won a very close contest with a 20 star, with a beautiful pastel coloured, stucco emblazoned parapet taken in the Czech Republic.
Ian completed the first half of the evening giving a detailed critique of the small class which comprised of just 9 prints. Ian commented that they were just as good quality to judge as the previous images, hardly a low mark between them; Brian Reeve scored 20 for a magnificent Common Blue Butterfly which was the outright winner closely followed by three other 7x5 images two of which scored 19 and one 19 and a ½ the average score of this class was 18 points from 20.
The second half of the evening comprised of the three classes for slides. The General class attracted 6 entries; the winner was Paul Hutchings with his slide of a Vintage R.A.C.car badge in crisp focus and perfectly lit (taken at the Bexhill 100). This picture had already been recognised in a County competition which was confirmed by Ian who awarded it 20 points.
The Landscape class winner was Dorothy Reeve with a beautifully lit image of Langdale, Cumbria.
The last class of the slides was Natural History and these were also given generous critique and time and Ian's understanding of flowers and birds was equal to his immense photographic knowledge. He judged two separate Golden Eagles alongside Young Beech leaves and a Blue Tailed Damselfly, but Ray Noble's Red Fox cheekily looking back over it’s shoulder,(this was the instant Ray released the shutter,) which included highlights in it’s eyes, became the winner with a 20 star.
Ian thanked us profusely for the opportunity of seeing such high class work, John Bryant [chairman] responded equally with a very big thank you, and I’m sure the audience thoroughly agreed.
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