DIG News - April 2018
‘Stairs’ by Rex Waygood Winner of the DIG monthly competition for March.
EXHIBITION PRINT RESULTS We had 123 members submit work to the 2018 Exhibition, perhaps losing a few when we had to change the AGM date/venue due to the weather. Certainly a few less than in 2017 but the biggest surprise was how the Overseas members were less in numbers especially as we make special arrangements for them to have work printed by us. So if you are an OS member and want to give us feedback as to what the barriers to entry are for you we would welcome the feedback.
Exhibition Selection in process
The selectors discussing their final choices
The overall Trophy and gold medal winner was Margaret Ford ARPS with her delightful print – Drapes.
Andy Beel FRPS awarded his two ribbons to the following prints
Let’s go that Way by Mike Cowdrey ARPS
On the Bridge, Venice by Janice Payne ARPS
Paula Davies FRPS awarded her two ribbons to the following prints
Tulips in Pastel by Susan Ashford ARPS
Going to the Wedding by Jo Munro ARPS
Sheila Haycox ARPS awarded her two ribbons to the following prints
Impressions of an Impressionist by Peter Stevens ARPS
Escape Route by Roger Hinton LRPS
Congratulations to all of our winners and well done to everyone who entered. My feeling was that the standard was higher this year and it gave the three selectors a tough job in trying to find the winners. Thanks to Andy, Paula and Sheila for their work on the day and it doesn’t stop there as we now ask more of them as we prepare the Exhibition catalogue. The full list of all accepted prints (titles) is now on the web page HERE RETURNED PRINTS Our Exhibition Organiser, Marilyn Taylor, tells us that returned prints have now all gone off to members using My Hermes. By the time you are reading this all work should have been delivered safely back to you.
DIG EXHIBITION - CROSBY LIBRARY Throughout April the top selection of prints will be on Exhibition at Crosby Library, with thanks to Peter Jarvis and his helpers for making that happen for us. If any members knows of a location where we can put up unframed prints then do please let us know as we are always looking for more venues to display your prints.
DIG ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) The rescheduled meeting went well, albeit with a smaller audience which was only to be expected. Thanks to Chas Hockin and his team for humping in the print stands and generally making the day work like clockwork for us. The minutes of the AGM accompanied the email you received telling you this DIG News was ready to read. Normally these would have been on the Forum but we wanted to get a copy to each of you. DIG have had a pretty good year overall. However financially we are barely holding our heads above water with income less than expenditure. The cash flow is fine though. Our high quality printed publications being by far and away our biggest cost. With paper and postage rises anticipated during 2018 the Hon Treasurer recommended an increase in DIG subscriptions from £15 to £16 p.a. as from April 1st 2018. This was proposed and accepted by the meeting. DI Online subscription will remain at £8 p.a. Due to the demise of the Society’s free 1st Year SIG the committee announced that it will be undertaking a strong recruitment drive as otherwise the group will be in severe difficulties in about 3 years. So you may see such offers over the coming months, but if you can recruit Society members into DIG then that would be great.
An announcement was made about a new publication, which will be called DIG Accolade. This will primarily showcase members Distinction successes, as well as have articles from members about their experiences. Collation of content is under way and we will pilot this with a first publication likely in May. It will be online using ISSUU, the page turning software the same as many of you use to read DIG News. Our AGM speaker, Irene Froy, has kindly agreed to come to the 2019 AGM which will be back at Smethwick on 24th Feb 2019.
FORUM The latest news on this topic is that the Trustees will review the closure of the Forum at their next meeting. We hope it will be good news and that it will return, albeit slightly modified and more highly moderated. Fingers crossed. In the meantime….. FORUM MONTHLY COMP This has been moved to the DIG web pages HERE as a temporary measure. Any DIG member wishing to submit an image for April should email it to digweb@rps.org - information on the web page about size etc. Everyone can vote at the end of each month whether you enter or not. <<<<<>>>>> Congratulations to Rex Waygood on his winning monthly comp image ‘Stairs’ on the front page of this publication. Such a simple high key image ….. less is more! A few words from Rex….. This is another image from a new house on Skye. I visited the site before building commenced and two years later I visited again to see the finished house.
The building had been described to me when I was at the plot but it did
not prepare me for the amazing architecture I saw when the building was complete. I was in heaven, the building had been built with photographers like me in mind. :-) I have not finished processing the images, possibly more to come!
2nd placed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sheep in Snowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by Eric Begbie LRPS
3rd paced – ‘Looking up’ by Colin Smith LRPS
DIG DISTINCTIONS The Fine Art category held ARPS Assessments this past month and a wonderful number of DIG members were successful. Well done to all of you. We look forward to seeing your work in DIG Accolade at some stage in the future. Margaret Ford ARPS Anne Woodman APRS Eileen Wilkinson ARPS Susan Ashford ARPS Helen Jones ARPS Richard Corkrey ARPS Robert Friel ARPS
Surrey Leicestershire Kent Glamorgan Dorset West Sussex Buckinghamshire
TRAINING VIDEOS Sit down with a nice cuppa before you entertain yourself with 27 minutes of tutorial from Ken on how to modify bad lighting conditions at the time of shooting. Greetings Members – One of our UPP members very kindly allowed me to use his picture for this video. Sometimes the light is not always in our favour but we can quite often do something about it. In this video, I show you how it’s done. This tutorial can be done in Elements as well. My thanks to Peter for letting me use his shot.
Next is a good tip when using the ‘Blend if’ option. When the pro guys on You Tube use this method for replacing sky's they always use the perfect image and never zoom up high to check out the edges. You cannot use the Blend If willy nilly. You have to think about the colours involved. In this video you will see my method of using the Blend-If option with a Layer Cut in place. Don’t worry it will be easy for you to understand. I throw in a few other things as well. Run time 20 mins.
click on the images to link through to the correct web page.
USEFUL BLOG From time to time Andy Beel FRPS puts out Blogs which I receive. This following one I felt was particularly useful so I thought we would share it with you all. If you enjoy it then why not sign up to receive all of Andyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future Blogs?
click on where it says Blog Post to link through and read the content
MEMBERS GALLERIES
This month we are featuring a Gallery with a difference in so much as it is the SIG Creative Eye 2018 Members DPI Exhibition. It is interesting to look at their work as in truth there is very little difference from that which we see in DIG Competitions.
I have been taking photographs for the past 10 years and found I loved experimenting with new angles and the distortion effects of Lensbaby lenses, which led me to focus more on street level and architectural themes. In previous years I had decided that I wanted to specialise in monochrome editing as it helped lift the textures in the image which could have been lost or diluted with the addition of colour. In my Gallery you see a mixture of both.
click on the images to take you to the gallery to see the album.
DIG CENTRES By clicking on any of the Ads it will take you to the RPS Events pages where more information can be found about the meetings.
Thames Valley Centre
Eastern Centre
Seeking Volunteers DIG Eastern Centre operates with a small team of volunteers. At the moment there is myself as Centre Organiser, Graham Wickens, our Treasurer and a third member of our team who will be working abroad until 2019 The workload is not particularly onerous but we would like to invite other members to join us. Most of our business is conducted electronically and we occasionally meet up outside the organised events. If you’d like to become more involved please get in touch with me whether it is to help out at our events or to become more involved with planning our programme. The benefits of volunteering with the RPS include: • A full RPS induction • Appropriate resources and equipment to carry out your role • Recognition for your volunteering • The services of a dedicated Volunteer Coordinator • Agreed out-of-pocket expenses reimbursed in accordance with Society policy I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at one of our events during 2018. Mark Gillett Centre Organiser digeastern@rps.org 07984 518959
Southern Centre DIG Southern Centre News At the end of March Alison Cawley ARPS retired after 6 years as the DIG Southern Centre Treasurer. As well as her role as Treasurer Alison has contributed to the choice of speakers and vey importantly handled all the ticket sales in a very user friendly and efficiently manner – a task which has involved many hours of her time. I am pleased that Alison intends to stay involved with the Southern Centre and I am sure will continue to suggest speakers for our meetings. Thank you Alison we have been a good team. We have been fortunate in finding a new Southern Centre Treasurer and I would like to welcome Trevor Podgson LRPS who will be taking over at the beginning of April. Thank you Trevor for volunteering and enabling the Centre to Continue. Barry Senior Hon FRPS Southern Centre Organiser
DI Centre Scotland
DIG Western Centre
DIG N W Centre
DIG FACEBOOK It seems some members are not yet aware that DIG has a closed user group Facebook site. What this means is that you apply to join, our moderators check that you are a DIG member and then gives you access. So it is NOT a public Facebook that all the world can read, but exclusive to DIG members only.
Why not join us to post your images, ask questions of others and generally engage with your DIG colleagues? Just go to the link HERE and click on the join button. Give us your name and RPS membership number and we will do the rest.
WELCOME to our new members this monthâ&#x20AC;Ś Malcolm Pilkington LRPS Michael Seyfort ARPS James Frost FRPS Hazel Frost FRPS Megan Stephenson LRPS Mark Reeves LRPS Timothy Lawson ARPS John Moore LRPS Jeff Jaycock Helen Millner David Little Susan Dawson LRPS Doug Hopkins Peter Boazman Hemant Jariwala ARPS Frank Kinch Philip Drake FRPS Julian Stumm LRPS Kaiyu Lu LRPS Des Sheridan ARPS Elizabeth Gilbert Sue Vaines LRPS Aryisha Siregar
Fortrose Hawthorne Galashiels Galashiels New Milton Wirral Sutton Melton Mowbray Harrograte Stourbridge Carnforth Morpeth Cwmbran Yateley Bedford Gt Yarmouth Esher Langworth China Aylesbury Whitstable Bedford Indonesia
If one of these individuals belongs to your camera club or lives locally, then do make them welcome and help them to feel part of our DIG community.
SIG LINK Each month we invite other Special Interest Groups to share with us their meetings. We appreciate that many of perhaps do not live close enough to a DIG Centre to attend their meetings so this extends opportunities to members in other areas.
… and an exciting one from the Contemporary Group for our London members……..
Medical and Nature Groups meeting For those of you who attended DI Expo 2017 you will know how great Tim Flachâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is. So if you missed him there then here is your chance to be inspiredâ&#x20AC;Ś.
Landscape Group
click on the ad to go direct to the event page for more information
AN OVERSEAS MEMBER This month we have selected the work on one of our members on the far side of the world in Borneo â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Derek Dryland. His words make interesting reading and the photos give us a good vision of what he enjoys. I moved from England to the Island of Borneo Malaysia, in November 2014 after my father died. My wife Arita is Malaysian and lives in Kota Kinabalu the capital of Sabah, which from 2014 also became my home too. I had already become acquainted with Malaysia since 2009 when I first met my wife to be. Living there has been a rewarding and interesting experience, with plenty to keep me occupied. The landscapes, weather and culture are very different than the UK. Rain forest still dominate parts of the interior, and unlike England it is always very hot.
Rainforest
South East Asia's highest mountain Mount Kinabalu can be seen from a number of location around Sabah, and is always a favourite destination for both tourist and locals. It is certainly a region with infinite opportunities for photography. Also a wonderful springboard for visiting other Countries of South East Asia. Vietnam is a regular and favourite destination, I on my fifth visit there as I write this piece. But Cambodia,Thailand,Indonesia and the Philippines are also destinations I have visited and explored. I think the best way to describe my new life is to use the words I heard years ago in the film "Educating Rita"." It isn't a better tune but a different tune", and one that I feel privileged to be part of and one I like very much. Derek Dryland.
Vendor, Hanoi Vietnam
Rainforest
A UK MEMBER With the introduction of the new publication DIG Accolade we have decided to drop the Distinctions showcase from DIG News each month and instead are going to show case a UK members work. We will select members who live in the more far flung areas of the UK where they have little opportunity to attend DIG Centres and meetings. So if you are one such member and would like to see your work featured in DIG News then do get in touch. The first to be showcased is Gerry Adcock ARPS from Prudhoe, Northumberland. Thank you for sharing your work with us Gerry. My wife and I are keen travellers and love nothing more than to roam the streets of a new unexplored city / town in the hunt for images, as a consequence I produce a fair amount of work that falls into the travel / street categories. Landscape is another area that appeals greatly to me, and is in fact the reason I got into photography many moons ago. Additionally, some time ago I learned of a local studio that was holding group sessions at a very reasonable cost and decided to give it a whirl, I have since found it to be quite addictive, and find it both interesting and challenging to come up with ideas that hopefully result in the occasional decent image. Most recently I have been having great fun incorporating some of the results from the studio into the creation of composite images. My favourite image of all time is probably â&#x20AC;&#x153;Afghan Girlâ&#x20AC;? by Steve McCurry, such a haunting and memorable image, truly something to aspire too. I also love the work of Saul Litter. The four images I have chosen to show you hopefully give a flavour of my photographic output.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Streets of Marrakechâ&#x20AC;? taken on one of my several visits to the city, and one of my favourite places to photograph.
Light Lines was taken last year on a short visit to Blackpool.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kirstinâ&#x20AC;? From a recent studio session.
Forest Queen” is a composite involving the studio shot of the girl, blended with a movement blurred shot of trees & foliage with additional texture layers and star bursts
You might also enjoy viewing Gerry’s web site HERE
OBITUARY It is with sadness that on March 28th we learnt of the death of Richard Walton FRPS. Many of you will know Richard as he worked with both the RPS and PAGB, plus was a Permajet lecturer and as an inspirational speaker on the club circuit. Richard was very much liked and respected by all those who came in contact with him. He will be missed but none more so than by his wife Liz, to whom we send our condolences. photo – Richard Walton FRPS
One of our committee members, Chas Hockin, remembers the support and encouragement he got from Richard…… It was about 5 years ago that I met Richard Walton. This was at an Advisory Day, where I submitted 15 prints of steam train related images for advice. It seemed there was a collective intake of breath when they were displayed, as I had processed them with an HDR effect with the volume turned up. Richard was not immediately dismissive and the result of his advice was that if I did submit them, there was only a 50 - 50 chance of them succeeding - not for any technical reason, but just that the images were “marmite” - the assessors would either like them or loathe them. Sadly the assessors didn’t care for them, and to say I was disappointed was an understatement being that the main assessor made errors of fact in his comments. Richard had asked me for some feedback subsequently and was displeased about the result. He offered to take the matter further (there was no appeals process then) and I was grateful for his support, but I felt that his efforts would be in vain, so I regretfully declined. I really appreciated the time he took to encourage me not to give up, and that I would get there eventually. We kept in touch for a while subsequently. Chas
Remember DIG has an open door policy – we welcome your feedback, good or bad. This is your group so have your say and participate. Regards
Janet
Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org