Royal Photographic Society Digital Imaging Group News December 2018

DIG News - December 2018

‘Boy on the Train’ by Lynda Morris LRPS Winner of the DIG monthly competition for October.

AGM 2019 Why not join us at the Smethwick Old School House for this years AGM? It is only 45 minutes of AGM ‘business’ and then we enjoy seeing the selection of the Print Exhibition and have a talk from Irene Froy ‘Pastel Moments’. Full information go HERE

DIG PRINT EXHIBITION Time to start planning which three prints you will enter in this years members annual print exhibition. Full information now on the DIG web page HERE

MONTHLY COMPETITION Congratulations go to Lynda Morris for her first placed image in the November DIG monthly competition.

‘Boy on the Train’ is a delightful and well seen shot with a good story attached to it. His little alert face reflected in the window shows his curiosity of the world beyond, whilst the slither of this actual face perfectly sits hidden behind the seat.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to make contact with Lynda to get her comment about her image although she did tell our web editor that she couldn’t resist taking it whilst on a train to London

2nd placed ‘Cape Gooseberries’ by Eileen Wilkinson LRPS

3rd placed ‘Bee and Lavender’ by Alan Collins LRPS

DIG MEMBER DISTINCTIONS Congratulations to our DIG members who have recently achieved their Distinctions.

Derek Sizeland LRPS Alan Collins LRPS Kim Bybjerg LRPS Iain Cathro LRPS Lorraine Clifton LRPS Alison Small LRPS

Norwich Fareham Den Haag Dundee Richmond Chatham

Paula Fernley ARPS Don Hodgson ARPS

Exeter Lee-on-Solent

Peter Stevens FRPS Moira Gardner FRPS

Harpenden Burntisland

All successful panels will be featured in the future issue of DIG Accolade.

WELCOME to our new members this month… John Price ARPS Lisa Greenwoord LRPS Hans Abplanalp ARPS Samuel Curtis William Everett Adrian Sweet Kevin Dowling ARPS George Pearson ARPS George Buckley LRPS

Hindhead Braintree Interlarken Royston Cheltenham Maidstone Morpeth Sandwich Gerrards Cross

Donald Cooper LRPS Michael Helft Diane Seddon LRPS Scott Taylor Norma George Frances Shaw Richard Frewin Chris Strevens ARPS Ian David

Addlestone Leicester Louth Amersham Scunthorpe Penzance Ely Croydon Bridgend

TRAINING VIDEOS Great news – Ken is back from his travels and producing tutorials again.

Greetings Member - I have just come back from holiday with just under 400 images.

As you know most of them either get binned or left in the folder for a rainy day.

However, to make image processing a little more exciting I will be making a series of videos over the coming months from the would be binned images. We start with a shot taken in New York before the start of my Cruise. All videos will be processed in Photoshop 2018. Lightroom CC and probably Elements can be used as well.

If you would like to watch it please click this HERE Enjoy Ken Payne

Here is the second video on 'Getting The Best Out of My Holiday Snaps’.

In this video I use a cloud brush to spice up the sky. Can be done in Elements.

Please click HERE if you would like to watch it.

DIG MEMBER GALLERIES Two landscape galleries to enjoy this month. Perhaps inspiration for your holiday in 2019‌..

I found, on my recent trip to Tuscany, a region of Italy to which I had paid scant attention until now. Yes, the iconic Belvedere must have been photographed millions of times by tens of thousands of people yet, even in a single week, I discovered so much variety of light and atmospherics and viewpoint, that I could easily have spent much longer without running out of new angles.

There is, of course, more to Tuscany than cypress trees and villas. During the daylight hours there are hilltop villages to be explored and it is also worth looking for high-contrast scenes that might convert well to monochrome.

Click on the images to take you to their galleries.

DIG IS GOING GREEN No - it's not that the RPS Digital Imaging Group members' images are being given a cyan colour cast, but that we have decided this is a good time to invest in the environment.

Our quarterly flagship magazine DIGIT has a distribution of 1700+ copies to DIG members, each copy wrapped in the ubiquitous non-degradable plastic outer sleeve. When our printers, Henry Lings of Dorchester, recently offered us the opportunity of a bio degradable sleeve, we wanted to know more.

Potato starch is the foundation for this new plastic wrapping, but it seems possible to make all sorts of other extrusions from it. The recipe for production reads more like preparing a meal than producing an industrial product. They wash, grate, decant, sift, and refine the starch to produce the starch milk from which comes the ‘new’ plastic.

But the really great thing about this product is that it is fully bio-degradable and can be thrown away with food and garden waste. You can add it to your compost pile or pop it in the green bin. safe, in the knowledge that, in about 35 days, it will be more or less totally back to nature.

DIG will be marking our postal address insert sheet to remind members how the outer should be disposed of and where.

When the idea was put to the DIG Committee that we should embrace this new product, despite a slight increase in cost, they unanimously agreed it was the way to go. From December 2018 DIGIT will therefore be ‘going green’.

WILL YOU VOLUNTEER? Nominations for DIG Committee are now open. We are particularly keen to see a member put themselves forward for the Vice Chair role. It is imperative that we find that person so that they can work alongside the Chair through 2019 and take over the Chair role in 2020.

Volunteering is rewarding. You get to work with a strong, friendly group of people. All with the aim of making DIG the best it can be for the benefit of the members.

Where you live is not a problem. We don’t drive hundreds of miles to committee meetings – we use online facilities. Any costs you incur on behalf of the group are reimbursed in full.

Nomination forms can be downloaded from our AGM web page Here

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

We thought it would be fun to have a Christmas day photo challenge – a way to see a little of something that goes on in your world on December 25th.

You can shoot anything you like. A harassed chef. The cat on the top of the tree replacing the fairy doll. A toddler doing something funny.

Someone asleep in front of the telly. Walking the dog or milking the cows. Anything that takes your fancy, serious or otherwise.

We will have a few categories against which there will be an Award announced in the January DIG News.

1. Photo and caption (no more than 15 words) 2. The most obscure thing to do on Christmas day.

3. Best food image.

Only one entry per member. All images should be emailed to digweb@rps.org and sized no larger than 800px on the longest side. sRGB for best viewing.

Whilst the idea is you take your shot on the day, we will open for entry from Dec 25th and close at midnight on the 27th to give you some time to email in. All images will be displayed on a special DIG web page HERE after December 28th .

Even if you won’t have all your gear to hand that day I am sure most of you will have your mobile in reach.

Hope you will join in the fun.

DIG CENTRES All DIG Centre meetings are open to everyone. Each puts on a minimum of 4 meetings p.a., offering varied and inspiring content. All welcome to every DIG meeting; members and nonMembers alike.

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

DIG Southern

DIG South East Centre

DIG AGM SPEAKER

SIG LINK 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.

Heritage As part of our publication policy all issues of Heritage Photography are available on Issuu after the publication of a new edition and so are freely available approximately 4-6 months after publication. Please see our stack https://issuu.com/royalphotographicsociety/stacks/e5208ecd8f7d49a7b 1a1ef0043524256 Further information about Heritage Photography is available from our website at http://rps.org/special-interest-groups/archaeology-andheritage/about

Historical

Contemporary – East Midlands

Creative Eye

DIGIT Your next copy of DIGIT and the PI Comp catalogue is in the final throes of being edited, ready to go to the printer this week. All being well we hope you will see your copy by Christmas.

You will find this is a special edition of the DIGIT magazine. All will be revealed when it arrives with you. Suffice to say we will be seeking wider coverage for this particular issue of DIGIT as we believe many Society members will want to see and read it.

TED LECTURE In DIGIT in 2016 (No 70) we had a very interesting article from Swedish photographer Erik Johansson – if you want to read this article or view any back copies of DIGIT then the entire library is available to members.

Just login to My RPS and navigate via www.rps.org/DIG to the link down the RHS that says ‘The full DIGIT archive’ (you need to be signed in to see this hidden page).

However I recently discovered two interesting YouTube videos from this talented guy. For anyone who follows Ted Lectures maybe you have already found the first one…

If that is new to you and you want to know more about how he does his work then go to

Click on the YouTube screen grab shots to go to the videos.

A UK MEMBER Gary Shinner LRPS does a lot of travelling to some amazing places, but everywhere he goes the architecture has to be viewed from all angles to ensure he finds the most interesting or dynamic composition.

It doesn’t matter where you go in the world we are surrounded by architecture, whether it’ll be from ancient sites, to old places and now ultra-modern structures.

There’s no escaping it. It demands our attention especially in the bigger cities, and for most they can take it or leave it, or maybe be drawn towards it and take a closer look?

It’s fair to say, it’s not everyone’s “cup of tea”, but for me it’s a passion and captures my imagination. One of these places that everyone should have a look at is the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, it is a must.

The site is built on a reclaimed part of the river bed and those responsible to develop this site seem to have been allowed to express themselves freely.

The location demands a real close investigation and walk around. It’s constantly changing as the sun dances over these buildings straight out of sci-fi movie, and as night falls it changes once again. I’ll be surprised that you won’t question yourself how they were constructed. They are still in use, if it’s either the opera house, college of music campus, aquarium, gardens and car parks.

If you are in the old town and enjoying that location, I ask you to come here and take a look. I’m sure you’ll be surprised and it will capture your own imagination......and I’m sure you’ll take a photo or two!!

Gary Shinner LRPS

The Bug building

The buildings are alive

AN OVERSEAS MEMBER Each month we contact an overseas member to ask them to contribute to DIG News and show us something of their work. This past month I found a really talented lady who does some very meaningful panels of work. So thank you Antoinette Castro, who lives in Santa Cruz de Tenerife – we look forward to seeing more or your work in the future.

Antoinette Castro with her work titled My Mother My father passed away seven years ago and I regret not having many pictures of him. I had expected images of him to be embedded in my memory, but now when I search for them, they are no longer as clear as they used to be.

My mother is ninety – frail and vulnerable - so different to the mother I knew, who was strong, independent and assertive. I set out to record a visual memoir of her, as a way of holding on.

This project was harder than I had expected on a personal level, such mixed feelings. Even though the shoot itself had an element of playfulness and theatricality, for each shot was carefully staged, I could feel my resistance in accepting the changes in her. It was apparent our roles were changing, something I had been unwilling to recognise, especially as I too am a mother.

My mother was always my pillar, my refuge, my safe-haven. I suppose on the one hand I was grieving the woman she used to be, one who I did not want to let go, yet on the other hand, I was so happy to be in her company.

I was concerned that I was betraying her in some way by taking pictures as I saw her now, and not perhaps as she still saw herself. Yet I knew this day would become a treasured memory, one which my mother willingly made possible, by putting her trust in me during the shoot. This could explain my need to photograph - for the camera is my tool, which helps me to explore and question my own sentiments, whilst making a memory permanent.

note: something for us all to think about as I too regret not taking images of my parents in the latter years, so can identify with this article enormously. Regrettably, unlike Antoinette, I have no way to change that now. Perhaps you still have time.

Another year, another Christmas. I swear they come round faster every year.

On behalf of the DIG Committee and Centre volunteers we wish you all a very enjoyable holiday. We hope Santa brings you lots of lovely new (photo) toys to play with – and the batteries as well of course.

Till next year‌..

Regards

Janet

Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org