Review - RPS workshop “Where to From L?”

The London region of the RPS organised  a workshop “Where to From L?” on Friday 8 March lead by Will Cheung.  The workshop was held in a small photographic studio/venue about 5mins from Greenwich station.


The day started with introductions and the timetable. There were only about 8 of us at the workshop which made for a lot of interaction rather than be just talked to The morning was spent viewing images (prints and PDIs) that people had brought along. I took my L panel prints and a few other prints along.   Will started by explaining the difference between a LRPS and ARPS panel  and asked about when we intended to go for an ARPS.  

He looked through everyone's images and provided a very useful feedback about what was needed to be improved for a successful A panel.  After lunch everyone had an one on one with Will for about 20 minutes. To firm up on  the way ahead.   The will be a private Flickr group set up so that Will can provide feedback as everyone begins to develop their ARPS  panels. I will probably attend a future  workshop in the Autumn for some more feedback on how my panels are progressing

I would recommend this type of workshop for anyone contemplating the move to ARPS, it was great fun, I met some very interesting people and picked up some great ideas.

BTW   Will Cheung FRPS is Editor of the Advanced Photographer magazine which I also recommend

SPA INTER - CLUB PRINT AND PDI COMPETITION 2009 - 2010Second Round Results

Second Round Results

Ken Scott ARPS

Last night Ken Scott ARPS gave an inspirational talk on his project to take a photograph every day for a year. It talked about the discipline required and the variety of photographs he took ranging from abstract, landscape, through to photojournalism. Ken explained about rethinking your creative approach and how the 365 day project helped to do this.

Ken also talked about how the Flickr community helped and provide valuable support for his project

Ken Scott’s portfolio at the Royal Photographic Society and his web site and his web site

Talkphotography

Talkphotography is a great place to learn and discuss all aspects of photography. I have been I member for several years and found the members helpful.  Talkphotography inculdes both professional an amateur photographers

8th SPA Inter-Club Competition (Quarter finals) at Malden Camera Club

Happy Easter. there was no meeting on the 1st April, next week on 8th April Malden Camera Club is hosting  the 8th SPA Inter-Club Competition (Quarter finals) Prints: Molesey v Hampstead v Esher v Woking, Digital: Malden v Hampstead v Camping & Caravanning v Esher, Judge: Keith Evans FRPS DPAGB

Orchids at Wisley

A great opportunity to photograph exotic orchids. This spring Wisley is home to stunning displays of orchids in all manner of colours, shapes and sizes. Hundreds of these beautiful plants will be on display.

Orchids in the Glasshouse is open 13 March – 11 April daily from 10am – 3.45pm with last entry at 3.30pm.

SPA The second round draw for the 2009-10 Inter-Club Competition

The second round draw for the 2009-10 Inter-Club Competition is now available on the SPA website 

Metropolitan Police Service Photography advice

For those members that are interested in taking photographs in London are well aware of that photography has attracted the attention of the Police in relation to the Terrorism Act 2000, the link below provides advice from the Metropolitan Police to photographers

http://www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm

Officers have the power to view digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras carried by a person

Officers do not have the power to delete digital images or destroy film at any point during a search.

From a personal point of view when I have been asked to provide identification , I saw no reason not to. My general approach when stopped is to be polite and explain what and why I am taking photographs. To date I have not been arrested or carted off the local nick for taking photographs.

The Photographers' Gallery and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

The Photographers' Gallery is the largest public gallery in London dedicated to photography. From the latest emerging talent, to historical archives and established artists - we are the place to see photography in all its forms.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography over the previous year.
The four shortlisted artists for this year's Prize are:
Anna Fox (b.1961, UK) is nominated for her exhibition Cockroach Diary & Other Stories at Ffotogallery, Cardiff (28 July – 10 October 09), initiated by Impressions Gallery, Bradford.

Zoe Leonard (b.1961, USA) is nominated for her retrospective exhibition Zoe Leonard - Photographs, at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (1 April – 5 July 09), initiated by Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Sophie Ristelhueber (b.1949, France) is nominated for her retrospective Sophie Ristelhueber at the Jeu de Paume, Paris (20 January – 22 March 2009).

Donovan Wylie (b.1971, UK) is nominated for his exhibition MAZE 2007/8 at Belfast Exposed (27 March – 1 May 2009).

This year’s Jury is: Olivia Maria Rubio (Director of Exhibitions, La Fàbrica, Spain); Gilane Tawadros (Chief Executive, Design Artists Copyright Society, curator and writer); James Welling (artist, USA); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany). Brett Rogers, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, is the non-voting Chair.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010 Catalogue is available from our Bookshop for the special exhibition price of £17.99.

Guardian Camera Club a resource for improving your photography

MCC members might be interested in the Guardian Camera Club. One of the good aspect are the assignments which serve to add focus and discipline to learning how to improve our photography.

"The Guardian Camera Club
Camera Club is a new page on the Guardian.co.uk website dedicated to still photography. This is the Flickr group for Camera Club.

The Guardian Camera Club page is the main place to find information concerning the Guardian Camera Club. Please check the page regularly if you are interested in participating. On this page you will be able to see:

a. Blogs (including tips and thoughts on monthly assignments).
b. Reviews of portfolios and assignments which have been submitted through flickr.
c. Audio slideshows and videos relating to monthly assignments.
d. Photography tips and camera reviews.

Upload your portfolios and one of the Guardian's picture editors will select the best to review. There are two categories you can get involved in:

Portfolios. These should be a maximum of 6 pictures and should be a representation of your work. A portfolio could showcase one subject or cover a variety of different pictures. However, as a set, they should hang together stylistically. Please mark your images with the same tag, for instance yournameportfolio (eg. johnsmithportfolio). This allows us to easily view your submission as a set.

Monthly assignments. The monthly assignment is an opportunity to create a fresh set of images which fulfil a specific brief therefore we won't consider any pictures which have been taken before the assignment was announced. A maximum of 6 pictures should be tagged, for instance, yournamenovemberassignment (eg. johnsmithnovemberassignment). Each month you have an opportunity to enter a photograph in a competition (the prize is a Nikon D5000). This competition ties in with the monthly assignment and your entry should be a single image from that set of pictures (and is therefore bound by the rules of the assignment). Due to the Nikon sponsorship each new assignment is announced on the 16th (or as near as possible to that date if it falls on a weekend).

This month's assignment is macro photography.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/series/camera-club "

Outings Competiton

All in all a good evening which I hope everyone enjoyed. The disappointment was the lack of slides in the competition. There was a good selection of prints the winner was "Mosaic Repair" by Brian Bailey and for projected images Simon Lane won with "Over the Last". We will dicuss this years Outings at the enxt Committee meeting.

Butterfly at RHS Wisley

Butterfly
Originally uploaded by Fred Dawson

It well worth getting down to RHS Wisley between now and the end of February to see the butterflies in the Glass House. I took my macro lens and flash and got one or two good images

Hyper Photography

Hyper Photography Jean-François Rauzier

Built monumental images each one by the assembly of several hundreds of photographs, microcosms in which one can immerse oneself and lose oneself, the hyperphotos of Jean-François Rauzier offer such dimensions that a multitude of details are there to be tracked. One could for example traverse the beach of the memories on more than 20 m length to the resolution of a photographic pulling (which amounts of billion pixels!) and to thus leave oneself to photographic hunting in the image

Video news from MCC Chairman

Surrey Inter-Club Slide Competition

16th January
Surrey Inter-Club Slide Competition at
Molesey Methodist Church, Manor Road, East Molesey, KT8 9JU.
5.30 p.m. for 6.00 p.m. start. 14 clubs taking part.
Judge: Chris Palmer ARPS, DPAGB, APAGB, AFIAP.

Entrance fee for members of non-participating Clubs, who are all very welcome, will be £2.00.

External Competitions

MALDEN CAMERA CLUB
Dates for your diary 2010

16th January SURREY INTER-CLUB SLIDE COMPETITION
Judge: Chris Palmer
Hosted by: Molesey Photographic Society
At: Molesey Methodist Church
Manor Road – East Molesey – KT8 9JU
5.30pm for 6pm


19th January SPA INTER-CLUB PTINT & DPS COMPETITIONS
Round One: Molesey – Kingston - Malden
Judge: Glyn Edmunds
St Mary’s Church Hall – St Mary’s Road
East Molesey KT8 0SS
Start 8pm
COME AND SUPPORT YOUR CLUB

SPA GOLDEN JUBILEE EXHIBITION 2010
Guildford House Gallery – 155 High Street – Guildford
3rd April – 1st May 2010. Open 10am to 16.45pm
(Except Sundays & Mondays)
Entry Forms from John Rowe or on-line:-
www.surreypa.org.uk/biennial2010
All entries to me by Thursday 21st January

The rise of the camera-phone some thoughts to ponder

From todays Guardian some thougths to ponder on the use of camera phones and digital cameras

The rise of the camera-phone
Everywhere you go these days, there are people with camera-phones – many of us record, document, and upload the minutae of our lives. But, ultimately, should we be doing it just because we can?

Happy New Year

I wish all our members a very Happy New Year.

The next MCC meeting takes place on Thursday 7th January and features a talk on Portraits Liz Keevil (Kingston University).

Do not forget to bring your entires for next weeks competition; Best Print and Projected Image from 2009 Judge: Bob Turner FRPS

First Commission

Just completed my first commission; which was for a number of portraits of 3 teenage children of a family friend. The customer was very happy about the results and said that she would be happy to come back to me in the future.

The difficult part was to make every comfortable and to get natural experessions. I used natural light and a bounced flash.

Trip to Africa

Back safely from my trip across SW Africa which covered over 4,000 Kms. Some of the photographs are on Flickr I will put more on as I work my way through them. I am impressed with my Canon kit, the camera and lenses survived 40+ degrees, dust and vibration.