News

We had one of our biggest audiences of the season with 30 members attending. Many thanks to everyone who attended and took part. Minutes of the meeting will be circulated in due course. As mentioned above if you want to get involved with the activities needed to run the club then please see some job descriptions below that will give you an idea of the roles and responsibilities. The tasks are not onerous. Having more members helping lightens the load. This is especially true for the programme, so please do lend a hand. Many thanks also to all those members who delighted us with their 10 Best of the Season images. There were, I believe, 129 images, and what a cracking set of images they were. Many thanks to Adrian for putting them together with the music. It took him a whole day to get the show together thanks to Lightroom inability to play ball. A very professional piece of work and getting the tune ‘Albatross’ synced up with Ron’s images of seabirds was pure genius.

1. Last week’s meeting: Panel Competition – judged by Phil Joyce. At the start Phil explained what he is looking for in a panel – something that is greater than the sum of its parts, images that work together as a coherent whole etc. He described and commented on the panels, pointing out where they worked well and made suggestions of what to consider if the photographer wanted to edit them. With a few of the prints he suggested changes in order of the prints and showed how different a subtle change of order could work. It was good to have an evening where we could be liberated from the tyranny of the single image. The results were: DPI panel winner: Peter Warrington – The M4 Print panel winner: Peter Warrington – The Road Less Travelled Many congratulations to Pete and all those who came close to the master!

1. Last week’s meeting: Third print competition – judged by Martin Pattern. The results were: Mono First Dave MacKay Immature Starling Second Helen Webb Proud Third Dave MacKay Early morning fishing, Varanasi H Commended Les Gordon Didcot H Commended John Boteler Rat catcher H Commended Dave Atkinson Snow Leopard Commended Ian Bray Turl Street Commended John Boteler Summer sun Commended Adrian Cubitt Deep in the Dales Colour First Helen Stewart Polar Bear Second Dave MacKay Fish cleaner Third Keith Worthington Owl H Commended Dave Belcher Aeroplane H Commended Sandra Devaney Lights are on, no one home H Commended Dave MacKay Thrush breakfast Commended John Boteler Homeless man Commended Adrian Cubitt Tui on Tiritiri Matangi Commended Dave Atkinson Bee Eater Commended Ivor Porter Golden Eagle Congratulations to all winners.

Last week’s meeting: Uwe Ackermann and a show and tell from our last Oxford photo walk. Uwe started his talk by explaining what he had to do while working at Oxford University’s medical school. Besides the teaching and the training, he also did research. Research meant asking new questions and adding something new. This is ‘find something new’ approach he uses in his photography. Uwe said that everything that can be photographed has been photographed and he needs to create things that have not existed. He quoted a line from Ansel Adams: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” He also had a quote from Helen Webb when we had an evening discussing our images in groups: “Uwe, I love your work. But I wouldn’t want to live in your head”. Uwe then used a few of his images, plus a toy skeleton that glows in the dark, to explain what is going on in his head when he makes photographs.

Congratulations to Keith for winning this year’s Shelagh Roberts Award at the opening of our Annual Exhibition on Saturday. Please do visit the exhibition at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. More details here: https://www.artweeks.org/v/oxford-photographic-society We are back at the City of Oxford Silverband Hall on Tuesday 7 May Do start preparing for our final Print Competition on 14 May and Panel Competition on 21 May

Last week’s meeting: Print Critique evening with David Lowe David gave some excellent advice regarding the prints that were presented for this critique evening. He described the construction of the images very well, how and where the image worked well, and gave good pointers to areas that he thought could be improved. He had very good advice on choice of paper and how much the impact of the print could be improved with a change to a ‘fine art’ paper, particularly a textured paper. This advice echoed the recommendations we had from Colin Hurley of Permajet who gave us a talk on the Art of Paper Selection back in February.

Annual Exhibition at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum starts 4 May. Please send your details regarding your entries to Sandra as per her email of Wednesday 3 April. Members, family and friends are invited to the private viewing at 15.00-17.00 Saturday 4 May. Adrian Arbib will be opening the exhibition and selecting the winner of the Shelagh Roberts Award. Adrian has contributed to all the UK newspapers and many international ones. He was a staff photographer for La Repubblica in London for over 6 years and has travelled extensively covering human rights stories; including Rwanda, the Horn of Africa, West Papua and India.

This Tuesday we will be taking photos around Oxford. Meet at the Swan and Castle pub, Castle St, Oxford OX1 1AY and we start off at 7.30. Do start selecting your prints for our 23 April: Print Critique Annual Exhibition at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum starts 4 May. Please send your details regarding your entries to Sandra as per her email of Wednesday 3 April. Adrian Arbib will be opening the exhibition and selecting the winner of the Shelagh Roberts Award. Adrian has contributed to all the UK newspapers and many international ones. He was a staff photographer for La Repubblica in London for over 6 years and has travelled extensively covering human rights stories; including Rwanda, the Horn of Africa, West Papua and India.

Last week’s meeting Confessions of a Landscape Photographer with Paul Mitchell FRPS MCSD Paul worked as a graphic designer for many years before he eventually became a professional photographer and given more freedom to expressive himself. His talk was a mix of planned and found photographs and be began by sharing tips on how to plan your landscape photography whether inland or coastal. Planning: Books, such as the FotoVue Guides, and magazines, he finds Outdoor Photography very useful for discovering good ideas. He warned against tick box exercises and not to put your tripod legs in the same indents on the ground of past photographers. These guides helps you find an area and the opportunities close by. He also uses google images and Flikr to research locations. Then it is looking at google maps, checking the weather – he thinks BBC Weather is pretty useless and uses the Met Office tool, also Clear Outside. Photo Ephemeris is very good to understand where sun and moon will be.  An analogue sun compass is very useful. For places to park his car Google Earth is very good. Time is important too. Allow time to walk to your location, give yourself a good half an hour arrival at the spot before sunrise/sunset and avoid peak times. If possible scout the location before the day of shooting.

Next week’s meeting Tuesday 2 April: Confessions of a Landscape Photographer Note: the meeting will be held at Old School House, Hertford Street, East Oxford, OX4 3AJ. Paul Mitchell FRPS MCSD : Born in East Yorkshire, Paul’s interest for photography began at school. He then studied graphic design at art college and soon after began his design career in London working for many well known FMCG companies and brands. He now lives in East Dorset as a professional landscape photographer and specialist book designer. Paul has had numerous exhibitions in London and the South East and has had articles and images published in many photographic magazines. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and is the current Chair of the Landscape Distinctions panel. He also serves on the Visual Art and PhotoBook panels. A member of the prestigious Arena group of photographers and a founder member of The Landscape Collective UK (LCUK). Paul is also a well respected photographic judge and lecturer.