Issue 104 June 2007

From The President Studio

The club has had a number of successes this season and I am always pleased to find members willing to help with hosting the EAF events. The EAF Exhibition went off very well and I look forward to running the event next year. Well done to those members that had their work accepted.

In November Harlow is hosting “The Prints for all Event” at Latton Bush so I will need volunteers to help; it is on Sunday 11^th November.

The judge’s course this year is on Sunday 21^st October in Ware. We have a number of members that are ready to take their photography to the next level and should benefit from the workshop. Even if you don’t want to become a judge you will gain a lot from the day.

This coming season our own members’ Exhibition in the Harlow Library will be in May; a change of dates but everyone should take the opportunity to show off their work.

Our membership is still on the increase, which is very encouraging as some clubs are struggling to survive. I am pleased to welcome Heather Clarke to the committee as the new programme secretary. Alan Norris and John Thompson have both mentioned that they would like to stand down as competition secretaries when there are

Thursday 13 September is “Short Presentations by Members” so if you have the courage, or something to offer, please phone me and volunteer…

volunteers to take their places. The next committee meeting is on Thursday 30 August at 8pm at Anne and Don Ochiltree’s house.

It has been another busy season and new opportunities have presented themselves. Harlow College invited me to lecture their beginners’ digital photography class. This is a ten-week course and although it has taken up a lot of my time, it has been very enjoyable.

My studio has had some interesting commissions but not as many as I would like. Many people are trying to do their own family portraits with their new digital cameras, so bookings for professional studios are down.

Thursday 13^th September is “Short Presentations by Members” so if you have the courage, or something to offer, please phone me and volunteer. Only about ten to twenty minutes is needed and we would love to hear from new members about their photography.

Have a good summer break; I look forward to seeing you all at the start of the new season on Thursday 6^th September.

Malcolm Tinn LRPS LBIPP

 

Chair in the Frame

It's the end of another season at Harlow PS and I'm sure the world is spinning more quickly, only they haven't told us yet! Anyway this

year seems to have flown by but there have been so many good occasions to look back on: John (though I kept calling him David) Brackenbury's amazingly creative lecture on 7 June was inspiring and definitely off the wall; Stuart Bale's lecture on Bridges of Paris was an evening to be remembered - I can still remember Stuart's last "French evening" with amazing glass plate slides and a wonderful selection of wines and cheeses; Tony Rye took us to the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia, also giving us images on Oman which was somewhere completely different for most of us. How many of us saw the images of the floods in Oman the other week and hoped those wonderful buildings had not been washed away?

Then congratulations once again to all our trophy winners, among whom were some different names, which is great. September is a new season; new competitions to enter and more new names hopefully to be given 20's, to give us old established ones a run for our money. I'd like to thank Malcolm for again taking us so smoothly through another year; also thank you, Yvonne for making our drinks so regularly; not many clubs have the luxury of being waited on every week by someone so cheerful and efficient.

Have a great summer, with lots of photo opportunities and return in September with lots of goodies in your photographic bag!

Maggie Tear

 

Winner and Losers

First, congratulations to John Thompson for scooping 1^st and 2^nd in the United Glass competition. To say I was pleased with my 3^rd place is a bit of an understatement, especially with my efforts in the club’s league.

If we all did that there would not be a competition…

Apparently, it also surprised a few members; one even said to me, “I was brave to put it in the competition”. Why should I be? It met all the criteria that the sponsors asked for and, to my pleasure, I got a bottle of wine out of it.

As most of us know, in all competitions there are more losers than winners, and a lot of people will disagree with the judges at some time or other. With the advancement of digital imagery and the creative talents in the club my position in the league has gone down from somewhere midway to the bottom. I think I am holding everybody up this time round!

What saddens me with some members is if they get low (ish) marks early in the competition and feel they can’t make up the loss they drop out. If we all did that there would not be a competition and we would not see what work the members are turning out.

For those interested, the ‘flower picture’ was taken in Harlow Town Park on a Nikon Coolpix 3200, approximately 50ASA n close-up setting (macro), printed out on Epsom 300 in stand alone with no modification to the image.

                                                                                                                                                                Harry Fox 

It’s always good to get members’ opinion and Harry makes some very cogent points – Ed.

Are Images Constructed or Created?

“The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: a thing that is constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists”.

So said Charles Dickens and it started me thinking about the way I approach photography and the way I take images. I have concluded that I construct my images.

In the normal course of events I would first see an image that already exists: a beautiful landscape, for instance. I would then use my camera to “construct” an image of it. In doing so, I would use my experience to build the image; arrange its constituent parts so the image is pleasing to the viewer. For example; I would ensure that one element (a path or a stream, perhaps), leads the eye into the image. I would then try to gain a balance to the image so the eye is drawn around the image until it rests on my chosen focal point (hopefully “on the thirds”, obviously), avoiding any distracting elements such as highlights or extraneous edge details.

The same theory would apply if I was taking a portrait, but obviously using different techniques and skills. Indeed, the same process would be used for any photographic subject: still life, natural history, candid or sports photography. If challenged, I would agree that successful candid and sports photographers must have the ability to work speedily through the above process to “construct” the image in a much shorter time than, say, a still life photographer, but I would still argue that the image is constructed.

From my observations of others, however, I am sure that some photographers have the ability to “create” an image before actually “seeing” it in real life. I am guessing that they form it in their mind’s eye first, or perhaps a sound or a situation engenders the image in their imagination. They then take the necessary steps to produce the image and bring their idea into reality. If my surmising is right, then Charles Dickens was certainly right when he stated, “a thing created is loved before it exists”.

Paul Major

Perhaps a member who “creates” images rather than “constructs” them would like to tell us how she or he goes about it… Ed.

 

Projected Image League

As a life long slide film user, I am sad to see the recent decline in the number of slides being put into this competition. I think digital cannot yet produce the vibrancy of a slide or the spontaneity of subject matter. In comparison digital slides look rather flat and their composition so perfect to be unreal. Although looking at the EAF annual exhibition and the club slide competition, they seem to find favour with judges.

My concern with the new projected image league, is that it will became just an extension of the print league with the same heavily manipulated images being used.

…but the subject matter cannot be manipulated.

The only difference being in presentation, projected image as opposed to a print.

I watch a BBC programme called “Countryfile” which runs a large annual photographic competition. One of their competition rules is that images can be digitally enhanced to remove spots or scratches, or made brighter, clearer, etc, but the subject matter cannot be manipulated. I would like to see a similar rule for the new projected image league. This would differentiate it from the print league, the projected images would be similar to slide film (in that what is photographed is what you get) and it would be more a test of photographic skills as opposed to a knowledge of Photoshop.

Malcolm Mills

Thank you Malcolm for your article. Are there any other members who concur with Malcolm’s views? What are your opinions? – Ed