The 60th Annual Exhibition and Inter-Club Competition took place at the Whitby Club Photographic Society on Tuesday 12th April 2011.

Chester Photographic Society (CPS) was again invited to enter the Inter-Club Competition.

For the first time in 29 years, out of the six clubs competing, Chester took first place in the Marsden Cup.

Ian Copley was present to receive the award for Chester Photographic Society.

The format of this competition is a panel of images with the subject chosen by the club submitting. Our theme this year was “Portraits”. The images are below.

From left to right, top to bottom:

1. Another World - Gareth Hickey
2. Phil - Gareth Hickey
3. Roxy - Malcolm Peacock
4. The Autoclave Operator - Roger Evans
5. Damian - Norman Riley
6. Evie - Norman Riley

We also placed second (out of six) in the print competition for the Brook Trophy. Congratulations to Warrington for taking first place.

The format of this competition is a panel of images with the subject chosen by the club submitting. Our theme this year was “Landscapes”

prints submitted were from the 2009/2010 season and therefore have no digital reference images available, though the images submitted were as follows:

1. Buchaille Etive Mor - Roger Evans
2. Malham Lings - Roger Evans
3. Bamburgh - Fog Approaching - Ian Copley LRPS
4. Zabrishi Point, Death Valley - Ann White
5. Ballooning At Dusk - Ray Groome
6. New Brighton Lighthouse - Ian Copley LRPS

Hopefully we will be able to repeat this success in more competitions next season. As selections are made from images available from the whole membership, we should all be very proud of this achievement and please keep up the good work!

The other clubs competing in the competitions were Harwarden, Hoylake, Mold and Whitby.

Rob Lewis LRPS CPAGB SWPP SIFGP

Webmaster

I am pleased to announce that the Spring Exhibition is now online.

It was great to see some new people submitting images for the exhibition this time.

You find the exhibition in the Galleries section of the website.

Rob Lewis

Webmaster

Untouchable? highlights the ongoing oppression of India’s ‘Dalit’ people and the hope they attach to their children’s education.

The exhibition features photography by CPS Member and Chester resident Paul Smith from his visit to India.

Material also includes:

• Dalit oppression in history
• Dalit experience in today’s India
• The new education centres in operation
• How people can help
• Reflections for Lent

The exhibition will run for for two weeks and will feature three short talks. They will last about half an hour with the opportunities for questions and discussion afterwards.

The first one will be on Tuesday the 22nd of March and it will be given by Paul Smith, starting at 12:00. This will be a general talk about the exhibition and the Dalit Education centres.

The two other talks are by members of Dalit freedom Network. We have Ravin Royer on Thursday the 24th at 12:45 talking about the Dalit experience in India. Then we have Malcolm Egner at 12:30 on Friday the 1st of April talking about the campaigning work of DFN in the UK.

Thanks for all you support,

Paul

Untouchable?

March 21st to April 2nd

10am-4pm Monday to Saturday

The Wesley Church Centre

St. John Street, CH1 1DA

For anyone who missed the news on the L&CPU website last week, I am pleased to announce that I recently gained the CPAGB distinction. The assessment was made in Carlisle on December 4th and a number of people from L&CPU federation clubs also gained their distinctions.

Unlike the RPS distinctions, there is no panel for the CPAGB assessment, though the images much be of "good club standard" to stand a chance of reaching the required score. Images are presented individually in the order determined by the author and as there is no panel the mount colours can be chosen to suit each image rather than the a panel as a whole.

The images I submitted for my CPAGB assessment are below.

This certainly made a nice end to my year!

Rob Lewis LRPS CPAGB

Webmaster

I am pleased to announce that the Autumn Exhibition is now online.

Well done to all CPS members taking part this time. This will be the largest exhibition of our work that we have staged online to date and the quality of the images is excellent as usual.

You find the exhibition in the Galleries section of the website.

Rob Lewis

Webmaster

On behalf of the Society I would like to congratulate Norman Riley on his success in the 153rd RPS International Print Exhibition. Norman beat strong competition from around the world and had an acceptance along with 124 other prints from other entrants out of over 3,000 submitted to the RPS for the exhibition. Norman's print, "Split Personality", will now travel the world with the collection and be seen by thousands of people.

You can see "Split Personality" on Norman's Presidents page and in the online version of the Print Exhibition at the RPS website.

Well done Norman!

Rob Lewis

Webmaster

I am delighted to announce the arrival of the new CPS website at www.chesterphotographicsociety.org

Den Fawcett did a sterling job of setting up the original CPS website and subsequently updating it on a regular basis for many years and when Den stepped down at the end of the last season John Dernie approached me and asked me to take over the running of the site. I had already agreed with Den that a facelift was in order and the new site is the result of that process.

In addition to all the previous information that was on the old site we also now have...

• A new Home page with a summary of all events coming up, giving you a one-stop shop for everything that's going on.
• A new seasonal exhibition gallery, currently showing a new summer 2010 exhibition with recent photos from our members.
  Many thanks to everyone who contributed images to that. A new exhibition will appear in the Autumn and we would welcome any images for that if you would like to exhibit your images online.
• A new Membership services section with details of the printer profiler, monitor calibration and sensor scope services on offer.
• A new Presidents page for Norman Riley.
• A new Committee page to introduce the committee for the current season and put faces to names.
• A new Competition judging dates page with the Judges booked for the event.
• A re-vamped Gallery section with new photo viewer putting each image center stage with a larger area available, which will be utilised for all new images.
• A re-vamped Competition hand-in dates page
• A re-vamped Venue information to aid visitors to our meetings

The programme of events (syllabus) will now update itself to show the next meeting and full details at the top of the page and any remaining meetings following that and will match the content of your membership booklet. Past events will be viewable only via a separate page and may be of interest to visitors who are interested in joining the society and want to see what a typical season involves.

The Current News page will now automatically show stories from the previous 3 months and move any stories older than that to the News Archive page.

In general the site is much easier to update now and we would welcome any ideas you may have about content that would be useful to members or visitors to the site in general with a view to consideration for future additions to the site.

I would also like to thank Ian Copley for his assistance in providing testing for the site, to ensure a problem free experience for you. Many thanks also go to a very understanding wife, Kim, who has been very supportive and patient during the process.

I hope you enjoy the new site and that it becomes a more useful resource for us all for the future.

Rob Lewis

Webmaster

Michael has received two commendations in the recent L&CPU annual competition, one of which was awarded a Young Photographer Certificate of Merit.

Michael's entries can be seen below...

Congratulations Michael!

John Dernie

Hon. Secretary

On behalf of the society I would like to congratulate Ian Copley on his success in gaining the LRPS distinction from the Royal Photographic Society last week.

This is a great achievement and recognises the hard work, skill and creativity in photography.

Ian's Panel of ten images required for the LRPS assessment is shown below.

Well done Ian!

Rob Lewis

Webmaster

The CPS AGM on 27th April 2010 saw Norman Riley take the tiller from the capable hands of Bill Marks to become the new President of Chester Photographic Society.

A huge thank-you is due to Bill Marks for doing a sterling job for the last two seasons.

Norman has been Treasurer of the society for some years now and is well versed in society matters. He will retain his role as Treasurer for the duration of his presidency, with his weekly Treasurer duties delegated to Rob Lewis (Membership Secretary) and Ian Copley (External Competitions Secretary) who will be manning the reception desk.

We look forward to Norman's lively presentation style and wish him success in this new role.

In addition to her recent success in gaining the RPS Licentiateship distinction, Kim has also recently gained the Licentiateship distinction from the Disabled Photographers Society (DPS) of which she is a member. She can now proudly display an additional LDPS accreditation after her name.

We would like to congratulate Kim on this great achievement and wish her all the success she deserves with future distinction applications.

Following requests from a number of members for more details of the images entered in the Whitby Club Photographic Society Inter-Club Competition, the full details are given below.

Brook Trophy (Prints) – CPS Theme, “Movement”

• “The Winner” - Ray Groome
• “Llanddwyn Island” - Roger Evans
• “Spinning Tops” - Kim Lewis, LRPS
• “Dandelion and Blur Dog” - Roger Evans
• “In the Nick of Time” - Janet Falcon
• “Yipeee” - Ray Groome

Marsden Cup (Projected Digital Images) – CPS Theme, “Birds“

• “Corn Bunting” - Ian Copley
• “Herring Gull” - Mike Hems, LRPS
• “Spoonbill” - John Wild
• “Dunlin” - Ian Copley
• “Lapwing” - Mike Hems, LRPS
• “Grey Heron” - Janet Falcon

Thanks to all the above and also to those members whose images were not selected for the panels on this occasion. As both the above are “Panel” competitions, it should be remembered that in addition to image quality, relevance to the theme and “panel cohesion” are important selection factors.

Ian Copley

External Competitions Secretary

The 59th Annual Exhibition and Inter-Club Competition took place at the Whitby Club Photographic Society on Tuesday 13th April 2010.

Chester Photographic Society (CPS) was again invited to enter the Inter-Club Competition.

The Brook Trophy is awarded for the winning entry of a themed panel of six prints.

The Marsden Cup has, up until this year, been a competition for slides. However, it is now a Projected Digital Images competition for themed entries of six digital images.

Eight clubs entered this year.

The Brook Trophy was won by Whitby with a score of 62 points. CPS was equal second with 61 points. Our theme was “Movement”.

The Marsden Cup was won by Hoylake Photographic Society with a score of 63 points. CPS was equal fourth with a score of 60 points. Our theme was “Birds”.

Our congratulations go to Whitby and Hoylake, and thanks to all CPS members who made images available for the selection process.

I think we should all be pleased with the result and look to further our success in external competitions next season.

Ian Copley

External Competitions Secretary

The annual awards dinner took place last night at Eaton golf club.

Society President, Bill Marks, was in fine form as always and following a very nice meal made the presentation of the awards to the competition winners. Photos of the winners and details of their respective awards can be viewed below. Click any image for a larger version.

Thanks once again to Don Fraser for organising the venue and meal.

Photos: Paul White

The current 2009/2010 season Membership Application Form to become a member of Chester Photographic Society is now available to download.

Please print the application form, complete with your personal details and bring along to a meeting with the applicable membership fee. Membership fees for new applicants after Christmas each year attract a 50% discount.

We are pleased to invite you to the forthcoming presentation by John & Tracy Langley. A Lens for All Seasons features stunning images of nature throughout the year and includes birds, mammals, butterflies, dragonflies, wild flowers, fungi and more principally from the UK.

Click the image to the left for and enlarged version and more information.

Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre, Chester. Tuesday 2 March 2010. 7:30-9:30pm

Visitors £3.00 on the door.