DIG News - June 2018
‘Misty Pines’ by Mike Cowdrey ARPS Winner of the DIG monthly competition for May.
DIG ANNUAL PROJECTED IMAGE COMPETITION June 1st we launch this year’s competition and to give our members more choice we have decided to add a new class for Mono work. So you can enter work into Open, Mono or Altered Reality (see definitions for further clarity). Plus, YouTube videos to watch that help you to submit your entry at the correct size etc.
You can enter up to 6 images and could get all accepted if they are of the standard. The overall winner receives the Raymond Wallace Trophy; each section winner a gold medal and each selector will have 3 ribbons to award. Our selectors this year are Clive Haynes FRPS, Rachael Talibart LRPS and Colin Harrison FRPS. We anticipate around a 20% acceptance rate and all accepted images will be printed in the PI Comp Catalogue. Please read the rules really carefully as images must be submitted in the correct size and colour space. Remember we use an external supplier for the competition entry software so you need to register to that site to enter. Those of you who have entered previously can re-use your registration details. For full information go to http://www.rps.org/digpicomp
I hope many of you will have read our new publication. From the statistics we know it has been opened and read 1160 times. Not bad for a new publication. If you missed it, then go to HERE to check it out.
We have had extremely positive feedback so the online magazine will now become a quarterly feature in our list of DIG and DI Online member benefits. We will schedule it to come mid way between the issues of DIGIT. We thank everyone who took the time to give us feedback. Your ideas and thoughts have all been read and the Editor, Simon Street, will give consideration to some of your interesting ideas. Here are a few of the comments we received. I was very pleased to receive the pilot edition of DIG ACCOLADE I found the views/comments of the various distinction candidates very useful and refreshing. It was very brave of one to record his failure but was glad he persevered and succeeded. Terry Hughes Brilliant! Just what we need for those aspiring to improve their photography. I’m afraid all I could contribute is a failed A panel, but I do think that what you have shown is how much the standards of the L and A have increased over the past few years. Jim Buckley LRPS An excellent publication. Wow, a lot of work! Being particularly keen on Caravaggio, I thought the Bruce Broughton-Tomkins picture of the ‘Crucifixion of Saint Peter’ was absolutely brilliant. Robert Albright Hon FRPS (President) SPLENDID !!!! Well done and many thanks for all the time and effort by everyone involved. It is a real encouragement to do it and a demystification of what is involved. Thanks for the Helpful Links at the end David Miesner I have only been an RPS and DIG member since last June. I am now about to begin my LRPS journey and I found these examples very useful, as well as interesting in their own right. It would also be good to see examples of the unsuccessful, if contributors are willing to share these. Debbie Hammond Congratulations and thanks for an excellent new publication! A really good read and strong motivator to get more people attempting distinctions. John Jennings
I think that this could be a great way for ordinary photographers to improve and aspire to greater heights. Just one request for now. Is it technically possible for every individual image shown to me blown up to screen size by recipients, if they desire to do this, so as to fully appreciate the images and better understand the author’s text. Alan Knight
We did respond to Alan’s comment about the size and thought it might be useful to other members to know that you can control the size you see things for yourself in the ISSUU software. If you see the screen grab below you will see the open box icon on the RHS that makes the magazine full screen. Then the slider bar between the - and + sign makes things larger. This is still at the bottom right corner when you go full screen. So at any stage you can make things larger. When it is larger full screen you can also move the image around by clicking on the screen with your mouse and push/pulling it around to see the element you want to view. Hope that helps your enjoyment.
FORUM The monthly competition is still being run on the DIG web pages so anyone who wants to enter should email their image to digweb@rps.org - your file size should not exceed 600px wide please. To see all the entries this past month go to http://www.rps.org/special-interest-groups/digitalimaging/about/monthly-competition
Even if you do not enter then all DIG members are free to vote for the winner. Watch the web page around the 26th of the month for the link for voting. <<<<<>>>>> On the front page you will have seen the beautiful work from Mike Cowdrey ARPS who won the May monthly comp. Well done Mike – it is fab. We asked Mike to tell us more about his image….
Misty Pines was taken at Molveno, Lake Garda a fortnight ago, during a four-centre holiday in the Italian Lakes. The morning we arrived, I looked out on the balcony and saw that the pine forest above the lake was shrouded in mist. It was one of those fortunate occasions when little else was needed other than to click the shutter.
2nd placed was â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Reflection of Victoria Stationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by John Bull LRPS
3rd placed was ‘Barn Owl, by Chas Hockin LRPS
DIG DISTINCTIONS What a great month – not one but two new FRPS. That is an amazing result as in 2017 we only had one all year. Our congratulation to Margaret and Daan and to the two new APRS folks, John and Bun. No doubt we will see the work in DIG Accolade over the coming months and hear more about their personal stories.
No reported new LRPS Distinctions from HQ
John Jennings ARPS Bun Ngo ARPS
Margaret Rainey FRPS Daan Olivier FRPS
- Applied - Applied
- Fine Art - Conceptual & Contemporary
MEMBERS 2018 PRINT EXHIBITION For those of you who would like to see some of the selected images (if not all) they are going first on display at the West Swindon Library, Link Centre, Whitehill Way, Swindon SN5 7DL Opening hours are as follows. Monday 1:00pm - 5:00pm Tuesday 10:00am - 6:00pm Wednesday 1:00pm - 5:00pm Thursday 1:00pm - 5:00pm Friday 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday 10:00am 1:00pm They will be on display from 1st June to 22nd June. Thanks to our Exhibition Organiser, Marilyn Taylor, for putting them all up and taking the following shots for us.
MEMBER GALLERIES We notice fewer of you are uploading new albums to the RPS Galleries these days. Is there a reason for this? Each month we check out what has been uploaded. We look for ones that are interesting, of good quality and a decent number of images within the album. To be featured why not consider uploading some of your work and tempt us to showcase it in DIG News? It is easy enough to do… Login on the big blue button at the top of the page www.rps.org/DIG
It then says ‘My RPS’ – click on this button
It opens your account page
Open the ‘My Portfolio’ tab and scroll down to ‘My Albums’. ‘Add an Album’ is found there.
So here’s hoping that we will have lots of new albums to select from next month. Note – we are unlikely to choose a recent Distinctions panel of work as they will be featured in DIG Accolade.
TRAINING VIDEOS Couple of useful new videos arrived from Ken this past month. First one for those portraits that need a little attention.
Greetings Members - In this video I keep things very simple so you can understand what is going on. I start with a severely underexposed portrait and after adding a Vogue look. it becomes very acceptable. Run time 20 mins
This is a revival on a video I did a couple of years ago showing you how to stack images for more depth of field. Done in Lightroom and Photoshop. Run time 13.22 mins. Click on the images to connect to the YouTube video tutorials. DID YOU KNOW? That there is also a page on our web site with links to many of Ken’s tutorials. Go to www.rps.org/dig and the link down the RHS headed ‘Links to Tutorials’. This is what you then find but this is just a screen grab so the links do not work here as they do on the web site…
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. 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.
Southern Centre
DIG South Eastern Volunteers needed for the South East DIG Centre After a successful first year, South East DIG Centre now finds itself needing more volunteers to be able to continue bringing top quality speakers to DIG members living in or close to Kent, East and West Sussex, Surrey and the South East borders of London. If this is where you live, you have some time to spare and energy and you think it might be worthwhile getting involved with the Centre's outstanding programme of events for 2018, 2019 and beyond, please get in touch.
Speakers already booked for 2018 and 2019 include Joe Cornish, Rachael Talibart, Ann Healey, John Fox and Damien Demolder. Events take place quarterly, alternating between venues in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Maidstone and Canterbury and all our regular volunteers get free entry to the events. All offers of help will be warmly welcomed, but the Centre particularly needs local DIG members with web mastering, IT, finance, event running or voluntary body committee experience. To find out more about how you can help, please email Bruce Broughton at digse@rps.org or Barrie Brown at digsetreasurer@rps.org.
note – just because this says Artistic Nudes’ do not be in the least bit put off. Tim’s work is extremely tasteful and beautiful; his biggest fans are females. You would not be disappointed or uncomfortable in any way if you go. Highly recommended.
MEMBER BENEFITS We became aware a few days ago that some members are unaware of the two different types of membership available within the Digital Imaging Group. The following is an easy to read table that was put together for the web page, so we thought we would repeat it here for your information…
At the time of renewing your annual RPS membership if you wish to transfer from one membership type to the other please either modify your ‘MY RPS’ or contact the HQ membership dept. We are seeing migration from DIG to DIO where members obviously prefer to read online these days and not collect paper piles of magazines. But interestingly a minority of DIOs are deciding to become DIG members, we guess because they want to see the printed magazines. As you can see from the table that is the only difference – content and benefits remains the same.
WELCOME to our new members this monthâ&#x20AC;Ś Simon Gorrin Stuart Kenney LRPS Ray Urwin ARPS Alistair Cowan Christopher McIntosh Linda Poole Roger Connelly Dion Buhagiar Steven Yee FRPS Phillip Hinton ARPS Trevor Staff LRPS John Anderton Neil Sapsworth Qinjin Liu Peter Hoban
- Jersey Martin Reece ARPS - Farnham Jill Stanley ARPS - Herne Bay Ivan Hugh - Haddington Richard Lavery - Kingsbridge Wendy Kennett LRPS - Bradford Peter Hoban - London Bev Keighley - Malta David Robbins ARPS - Singapore Judith Buckley-Sharp LRPS - Ashford Boulos Isaac ARPS - Bognor Lyn Phillips LRPS - Birmingham Leonie Holmes - Reading David Scrivener - China Fred Jukes - West Malling Ozgur Leblebicioglu
- Liverpool - Emsworth - Washington - France - Canterbury - West Malling - Bradford - Solihull - Harrow - Cairo - Bognor - Canada - Maidstone - Cheltenham - Turkey
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.
RPS AV noticeâ&#x20AC;Ś The Festival will be open for entries from 1 August, with the closing date on 24 August. More information can be found here http://rps.org/special-interest-
groups/audio-visual/about/2016-festival-results
South Wales Regional meeting Whilst we do not usually feature Regional meetings we felt that this was one our DIG members, who can possibly get to South Wales, really shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss. Joan Blease is an extremely talented and creative photographer who very readily shares her tips and tricks. Highly recommendedâ&#x20AC;Ś. click on the ad to go direct to the event page for more information
AN OVERSEAS MEMBER This month we are especially delighted to have a contribution from one of our Chinese members Kaiyu Lu. It was his captivating recessional blue mountain shot that he submitted for the DIG web page header slideshow that first caught our attention. So we asked him to give us a few words and show us some more of his work.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;A quiet winter morning after Chinese New Year, I was strolling on the ruins of the Great Wall, built in 1680. I seemed to hear crossing swords and horses neighing."
The Great Wall has been long laid in the north China across several provinces. The different sections were built in different years from Qing Dynasty to Ming Dynasty. Many of them have been ruined and some of them can even hardly to be distinguished.
In later Feb of 2016, I went to one section near Pan Long Mountain in the north of Beijing. There were few people in the cold morning. That made me feel I was set back to the ancient times.
The Great Wall was constructed as defence facility in the cold weapon age. It is the Qing Dynasty the first time to connect all small sections of the walls built by the early kingdoms to form up the Great Wall well-known today. Before
that, each small kingdom built its own walls for self-protection. It effectively defends the invasion of the nomadic clan. Today, one of most famous sections is called as Ba-Da-Ling Great Wall. Every year there are many tourists coming to visit from all over the world. The walls in this section have been well renovated and it is convenient to walk on the wall. One of most beautiful section should be Mu-Tian-Yu section where the walls are very steep due to complicated terrain.
Many photographers enjoy going there for taking the photos especially after snow or big raining. Time to time, some serious photographers even stayed on the Great Wall overnight for shooting the night scene or Star track. Kaiyu Lu
A UK MEMBER In line with our policy to ask members who live in areas where we do not operate a DIG Centre we contacted Ron Ingoldby ARPS from Grimsby this month. Ron Ingoldby ARPS
- Started in photography in the age of
chemistry. One thing that helped a lot during my trade as an instrument
technician at a chemical plant. A mix of both engineering, computing, and chemical processes.
- I started with the Kodak 126 Instamatic and used slides. Then progressed to a Russian Zenit E. Now using Canon digital equipment.
- My first digital camera was a Jenoptik 2.1 mega pixel point and shoot. It took one of my favourite photographs is an image is of the Lincoln castle paddle
steamer that was a passenger ferry on the river Humber before the Humber Bridge was built. This is where the camera becomes a time machine. The
paddle steamer was scrapped years later, but the image still remains this then becomes a record shot of the past.
- By todays standards this image is of low quality, but they say what is the best camera and the answer is the one you have at the time you take the photograph.
- I am also a member of the Photographic group of the Camping and Caravanning Club who are part of the SPA.
- Photography to me is a chance to learn about the subjects I photograph and a learning experience.
With the better weather now firmly in place we hope you are all getting out and about with your cameras. Why not consider entering one in our friendly monthly competition â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t onerous. You only have to send a copy to digwebs@rps.org in the correct size and he will go the rest for you. And who knows you might win and be on the cover of the next DIG News.
Regards
Janet
Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org