November 25
2002: Three-Way Battle
The annual Three-Way Battle between the Lowestoft
Photographic Club, Norwich & District Photographic Society and Ipswich &
District Photographic Society, was held at Ipswich
this year. The judge was Jim Hartje, from Peterborough Photographic Society.
Each club submitted seven colour prints, seven black & white prints and
seven slides. The LPC's entries came from 12 different contributors - Jim
Ashton, Avery Bailey, Alan & Edwina Beaumont, Steve Dillon, Alan Hale,
Richard Knibb, Derek & Judy Leak, Barry Smart, Philip Vallis & Peter Waller.
The top mark of 10 points was awarded to Steve Dillon for his 'African
Darter', whilst pictures by Derek Leak, Alan Hale, Edwina Beaumont and Richard Knibb, were each awarded 9 points. The final
result was a win for Ipswich with 168 points, whilst the LPC and Norwich
were joint second with 158 points each.
December 4 2002:
Members Evening
On December 4th, members work was on display
and up for general discussion. The assignment was 'Summer' and there was a
variety of interesting interpretations. Edwina Beaumont began the evening
with a print of a South African osteospermum. which she had manipulated on a
computer. Tony Woolnough brought three prints taken with his digital camera,
whilst Len Hamilton, who used to work as a professional photographer, showed
a yachting scene, taken at Staines Reservoir, near where he used to live.
Bert Marsh, known for his digital manipulation, surprisingly produced two
conventional prints, but used artistic papers for the printing. Les
Prettyman used a similar technique and Alan Hale showed the dramatic
improvement he had made, using levels and saturation, to two burnt-out
pictures. After the break, it was the turn of Philip Vallis to show his eye
for composition. June Howard brought close-up
images of purple Tibouchina and Judy Leak also used a macro lens for her
sunflower pictures. Derek Leak rounded off the evening with a bright summer
view of South Foreland Light, some striking red echinacen and a sky over
Minsmere.
December 11 2002: John Harrold
On December 11th, former LPC member, John Harrold,
made a welcome return to present a
selection of slides entitled Natural History, A Photographer's Year. John is
highly skilled in close-up photography and, through his commentary, provided
members with an insight into both his subject and camera techniques. He
developed his nature trail through the year, with pictures of a bleak pond,
migrant swans & geese on the Solway Firth, a series of pictures of reptiles
from London Zoo, butterflies and, one of John's specialities, dragonflies.
He shared with the audience his knowledge of this species, including its
life cycle, habitat and methods of photographing a dragonfly. John
contrasted his close-up work with pictures of birds such as Kittiwake,
Fulmar, Tern, Guillemot and Puffin, finishing the evening with a section on
plant life and an interesting description of a field orchid's special method
of pollen propagation.
January 8 2003:
Knockout Competition
Following the seasonal break, January 8th saw the
return of the fun knockout slide competition, for a porcelain trophy.
Members in the audience were presented with two images, projected
simultaneously, on which they had to vote a winner. The eventual winner was
a leaf, taken by Ellen Smith, whilst the runner up was Derek Leak's Trees
Into The Light. Third and fourth places were taken by Alan Hale, with his
wasp and butterfly shots.
January 15 2003:
Internal Slide Competition
Chairman, Les Prettyman, introduced the club's second
slide competition of the season. Each member present voted for his or her
best three slides in each category and, whilst the votes were being counted,
Jim Ashton, Paul Wright, John Watson and Les Prettyman provided the audience
with their observations and interpretations of the slides. The winners were
as follows:
Record Section:
1. Derek Leak - Saxon Door Latch
2. Joan James - Blickling Hall
3. John Burt - Douro Barge
Portrait Section:
1. John Burt - Turkish Peasant
2=Joan James - Bill Fraser
2=Judy Leak - Decorated Face
Natural History Section:
1. Alan Beaumont - Lilac Breasted Roller
2. Steve Dillon - Bald Eagle
3. Alan Hale - Delphinium Belladonna
Open Section:
1. Graham James - Tree In The Snow
2. John Burt - Reflective Mood
3. Alan Beaumont - Concord & Red Arrows
January 22 2003: Len Hamilton, LPC
Len Hamilton, a new member of the LPC, gave an account
of the world of commercial photography, based on his career; from a tea boy,
to a professional photographer. Len compared traditional and modern methods
of producing images, including digital imaging, and described how he created
an album cover for the band Flintlock, using multi-stage posterisation. Len
contrasted this with the way he had created a picture of the Putford Apollo,
taken with a digital camera, and manipulated with the aid of a computer in
minutes. He explained some alternative options in traditional photography,
including coloured monochrome paper, sepia toning and tips for producing
high quality prints. Len also gave members specific advice, such as how to
light glass objects and jewellery and how to use a white tent to exploit
reflective surfaces or to create highlights on dark objects, such as a
bronze statue. He talked about the advantages and disadvantages of various
makes and types of camera. Len covered various sports events as a
professional, including motor racing. During the second half of the evening,
Len described how his wedding photography skills had developed as he sought
to progress beyond the conventional church doorway scene. His contribution
was recognised by an award from Kodak and his innovations led to more work,
as couples became interested in obtaining more imaginative records of their
weddings. Len explained how things sometimes went wrong, such as when a
bride was drenched by a sudden downpour, or when families fell out on the
wedding day. However, his most memorable wedding event was a two-day shoot
in the Philippines, with 1800 guests.
January 29 2003:
Internal Print Competition
Les Prettyman introduced the second print competition
of the season on Wednesday. Members voted for their top three prints in each
category, while Norman Laughland, Keith Marshall, Jim Ashton, Paul Wright,
Alan Hale, Frank Blyth and Les himself, gave their observations and
interpretations. The winners were as follows:
Colour Portrait:
1. Paul Wright - Jeanette
2. Trevor Cox - Tony
3. Judy Leak - Party Girl
Monochrome Portrait:
1. Norman Laughland - Young Girl
2. Terry Bromley - M&M
3. Tony Alger - Food For Thought
Enprints:
1. Edwina Beaumont - Gibbon
2. Derek Leak - Robin On Post
3=Judy Leak - Lady Sweeper
3=Val Pretty - Lacy Patterns
Open Monochrome:
1. Norman Laughland - Across The River
2. June Howard - Up In The Sky
3= Terry Bromley - January
3= Alan Hale - Winter Landscape
Open Colour:
1. Alan Hale - Baddesley Clinton Manor House
2. Avery Bailey - Lillies
3. Charles Ornerod - Loch Tummel
Applied Colour:
1. Charles Ornerod - Motion
2. Edwina Beaumont - Bald Eagle
3. John Watson - Crossing Arch, Norwich Cathedral
Applied Monochrome:
1. Alan Hale - Thorpeness Windmill
2. Edwina Beaumont - Chapman's Zebra
3. Norman Laughland - Arch At Bungay Ruins
February 5 2003:
Gallery Night
The Gallery Night allowed members to show and discuss
their photographic work with colleagues. Les Prettyman presented a series of
colour images with an atmospheric rendition of a guitar player. Alan
Beaumont provided a selection of collages. Avery Bailey and Val Prettyman
displayed a range of photographs, whilst Edwina Beaumont presented Natural
History shots, taken in Africa. Len Hamilton showed his recent work in
digital imaging and Bob Allison's slides depicted old and new special
railway engines and showed how Lowestoft Station has changed over the years.
Ron Clark finished off the evening with a light-hearted look at uniquely
developed carrots!
March 19 2003: Chadds
Monochrome Competition
On the 19th March, the club held the
first Chadds Black & White Photography Competition, an event organised
through Mark Crame, from the Fotostop at Chadds in Lowestoft and Jim Ashton,
for the LPC. Using Ilford XP2 film, twenty-eight contestants produced black
and white photographs, one for each of 4 categories: Abstract/Pattern,
Reportage/Documentary, Dereliction/Decay and Maritime/Nautical. The judging,
by Mark Crame, Mick Howes and Norman Laughland, was based on picture
aesthetics, originality, visual impact and technical quality of the image.
Each photograph was marked to assess the winner of each category and to
calculate overall positions. Check out the images in the
Competition Winners 2003 section of the site.
Abstract/Pattern:
1=
Kirsty Shawcroft - Soap Bubbles
1= Derek Leak - Grater
In this section, the judges were
also impressed with the originality of Judy Leak’s image of a glass paper
weight, Edwina Beaumont’s Zebra Stripes, Frank Blyth’s Footprint and Les
Prettyman’s abstract of oil on water.
Reportage/Documentary:
1. Trevor Cox - Pancake Race
Also with good marks were Steve
Dillon’s image of a balloon seller, Ron Clarke’s Cracked Window, Alan
Beaumont’s picture of woodland clearing and Arthur Abbot’s Pier View.
Dereliction/Decay:
1. Steve Dillon - Scrap Yard
The
judges also liked Joan James’s Gravestones and Bob Allison’s Trees Down In
The Park.
Maritime/Nautical:
1. Trevor Cox - Saltside Boat
Jim Ashton’s double exposure of a
boat and map was an original interpretation, as was Barry Smith’s print of
the Try Again’s Gunnel and Tony Alger’s view of the Waverley’s Funnels.
Overall Standings:
1. Trevor Cox
2. Steve Dillon
3. Jim Ashton
4. Ron Clarke
5. Les Prettyman
Mark Crame, of Chadds, said “All the
judges had a really enjoyable evening and we were enormously impressed with
the quality of the photographs presented by the club.”
April 2 2003:
Internal Slide Competition
On the 2nd April, the club held the
third and final slide competition of this season. Using the same successful
format, members in the audience voted for their best slides in each
category. Jim Ashton co-ordinated the event, assisted by Arthur Abbot.
Norman Laughland, Frank Blyth, Derek Leak and John Watson reviewed the
photographs and gave their observations, with some constructive criticism.
The winners were as follows:
Open Section:
1. Steve Dillon - Turf Fen Mill
2. June Howard - Tropical Paradise
3. Les Prettyman - Lock and Latch
Portrait Section:
1. Derek Leak - Geoff
2. Judy Leak - Collecting Fuel in India
3. June Howard - Cool Dude
Natural History Section:
1. Alan Beaumont - Red Shouldered Hawk
2. Judy Leak - Common Blue Damselfly
3. Edwina Beaumont - Koala
Record Section:
1. June Howard - Saxon Warrior Mask
2. Judy Leak - South Foreland Light
3. Edwina Beaumont - Falcon Headed God
April 16 2003:
Internal Print Competition
On the 16th April, the LPC held its
third and final Print Competition of this season, in which the members of
the audience voted for their first, second and third placed photographs in
each category. Alan Beaumont co-ordinated the event with comments on the
prints by Paul Wright, Ron Clark, Edwina Beaumont and Barrie Smart. The
results were as follows:
Colour Portrait:
1. Paul Wright - Nikki
2. Derek Leak - Woman Repairing Carpet
3. Norman Laughland - Nicole
Monochrome Open:
1. Norman Laughland - Lodge Farm
2. Alan Hale - Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford
3. Philip Vallis - Church, Croatia
Monochrome Portrait:
1. Philip Vallis - Mother And Son, Thailand
2. Norman Laughland - A Quiet Corner
3. Barrie Smart - Stained Glass Portrait
Enprints:
1. Edwina Beaumont - Lioness And Cub
2. Derek Leak - Berney Arms Mill
3. Judy Leak - Brass Camel
Colour Applied:
1. Alan Beaumont - Red Shouldered Hawk
2. Charles Omerod - Otter
3. John Watson - Charter House Steps, Wells Cathedral
Monochrome Applied:
1. Alan Hale - Pilot Boat
2. Edwina Beaumont - Young Bald Eagle
3. Norman Laughland - Wesleyan Chapel, 1835
Colour Open:
1. Avery Bailey - Sand Ripples
2. Paul Wright - Kissing Gate
3. Charles Omerod - Loch Earn
April 23 2003: Club Members
Gallery
On
Wednesday April 23rd, the meeting began with the presentation of
certificates for the previous competitions by the Chairman, Les Prettyman.
Alan Beaumont then reported on the overall competition results for the year
giving a run-down of the number of entries and points scored by winning
members. Derek Leak gave a report on our entries to the East Anglian
Federation Exhibition, which will be held in Ipswich this year. This is a
very prestigious event and members had been asked to submit slides and
prints for judging. Derek was pleased to announce that we had had 10
acceptances from 6 members with another 9 photographs only missing
acceptance by one mark. This was a fine achievement by club members and our
best result to date.
The
main business of the evening then began with our acclaimed monochrome print
worker, Norman Laughland, presenting some of his excellent photographs
produced in the traditional dark room. These included infra-red and
hand-tinted work showing a wide variety of subjects. His work covered
seashore scenes, people, churches, London, Thailand and Beamish and Norman
explained his preference for dark room methods over digital for mono prints.
He also highlighted the quality of the Bronica lenses as opposed to digital
lenses and the very good results he gets with Epson Premium Gloss paper.
However, he did finish with a very fine digital print of part of a marble
monument taken in Cuba.
Jim
Ashton followed with some examples of his prints taken on his new Nikon 5000
digital camera and Epson printer. These included a Lowestoft harbour scene,
a picture showing the texture of mud and moorings taken on a photographic
trip to Pin Mill and an unusual reflection of an oil tanker actually taken
in a puddle of oil and fluid. Jim explained to members how to get the
digital image out of the camera and into the computer by using a card reader
or a portable hard drive. He finished his presentation with a creative
picture of Coke tins which he had built up by hand repeating an image of one
tin many times over. There followed a general discussion on the different
types and qualities of paper and the effects of each.
Les
Prettyman showed prints from his numerous trips to America many of which
were of famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building, the Flat Iron
Building, the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Centre. There were also
scenes from the Epcot Centre and the memorial to John Lennon in Central
Park. One very evocative view of Manhattan at dusk showed the Twin Towers as
they were before their destruction with the towers almost in silhouette
against a lovely pink sky. Les discussed with members some difficulty he had
experienced with satin paper and it was suggested that he use film instead.
The
evening concluded with some excellent natural history work from Alan
Beaumont who had printed from Kodachrome slides using a computer. He began
with a selection of British birds – oystercatcher, snipe, avocet, wheatear,
sedge warbler, godwit and pheasant – and followed with some taken on a
photographic trip to South Africa. These included a massive colony of Cape
gannets where the birds were breeding as close as 7 to a square metre. There
was a picture of a grey heron, a red-shouldered hawk and, most impressive of
all, a Magnificent Frigate Bird in flight which absolutely filled the frame
and must have been a most difficult shot to take. Alan finished with a fine
picture of a Sri Lankan leopard taken through Perspex at Banham Zoo which
had required some digital manipulation as a result.
April 30 2003:
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
June Howard introduced
Richard Walton FRPS DPAGB BPE2 to club members. Richard had travelled from
Canterbury to present his program of monochrome prints entitled “The
Sorcerer’s Apprentice”.
Richard was originally
a member of the Sittingbourne Photographic Society and is presently with the
Ashford Quest Camera Club. His website -
www.richardwalton.co.uk - is well worth a visit. The high quality of
Richard’s work was immediately apparent as he introduced images and set the
stage for his presentation. With his early photograph of a boat and mooring
rope, taken in 1986, Richard explained that his aim was to record a scene in
an original style. In this example, he thought that if he photographed the
same setting again now he would probably change very little. Another example
of his original ideas was an image of a timepiece. This involved
photographing a watch, tearing the photograph into several pieces and then
re-photographing the scattered pieces with the original watch. His desire
for originality also extended to holiday photography. In Crete when Richard
recorded his family, unusually the group shot using a time delay showed
himself, his wife and children spread out rather than close together.
In Richard’s image of
Fairfield Church, on Romney Marsh, he used Kodak infrared film and placed the church in
the background with sheep in the foreground. This produced a very strong
depiction of the scene. Another example of such a landscape was entitled
After The Harvest. In this case Richard used a similar style, with bales of
straw in the foreground, a hut in the background and crop lines to emphasise
the perspective. The use of a wide-angle lens and powerful skies further
enhanced these images. Two photographs of the White House, also near Romney
Marsh, showed how the subject could be viewed from different positions. The
first picture was recorded in a conventional form, in the second the house
appeared further away and out of focus, with a warning sign in the
foreground sharply in focus.
Richard used his picture entitled One Fine Day to recount how colleagues
from his camera club spent some time trying to find the location where he
photographed this tree on the South
Downs. They had not looked hard enough and, in spite of passing the site
several times, they did not see the tree. A thin negative of a windmill was
initially considered to be unprintable, however Richard persisted and his
depiction entitled Spirit of La Mancha has been a very successful print.
Richard presented a simple, memorable picture of Mont St Michelle with 3
trees in the foreground and a featureless sky that worked very effectively.
This technique was taken a step further with a number of images in fog such
as Gloucester docks, poplar trees and an aircraft beacon. The Briefing,
taken with Ilford Delta 400, depicted a group of land yachtsmen at Le
Touquet. With low autumn light and a stormy sky this was particularly
striking image.
Pillars Of Perspective,
also taken in France, was an almost surreal beachside scene, which many
would not have recognised as worth photographing. Richard’s informal portrait photography included a variety of styles, which included a
conventional picture of a caricaturist in Cyprus and a long exposure of a friend
climbing stairs entitled Motion. Richard considers himself to be an
observational photographer; he waits for the opportunity to capture the
decisive moment and seldom uses a tripod.
Richard has
concentrated on photographing Mediterranean type white washed buildings that
are particularly difficult to reproduce accurately. His minimalist type
images, often including only a window and another small subject, are both
distinctive and extraordinary. Richard presented many other influential and
rule breaking images which provided the club members with food for thought.
Philip Vallis thanked Richard on behalf of the appreciative audience.
[Thanks to Barrie Smart, LPC]
