Leighton Buzzard Photographic Club

A quick update with some recently received info.

First, Pitstone Museum on Bank Holiday Monday. Sue reports “After we had to clear out the old hand ploughs from the shed which we normally use, we set up our studio and had a steady flow of visitors to our stand all day.   After lunch it got very busy with a queue of people waiting for their photos to be taken and everybody went home very happy with their souvinier photo of their visit.   We covered an age range from 9 months to 99 years plus a dog as well!

The LBPC team worked very hard all day and we were all shattered by 4.30pm but we enjoyed the day and met a lot of very nice people.   Donations to the museum were given on receipt of the photos, and we raised a record sum of £90.00, £50 of which we handed to the Museum and the rest we kept to reimburse us for the costs of replacement ink cartridges and paper.

During the course of the day 3 people have asked for a copy of the programme to be emailed to them and an officer from the RAF based at High Wycombe has offered to visit our club to give a talk on their video work and the images which they will be featuring in their photo exhibition in October.   I said that I will contact him to arrange a visit in the new year.

Please find attached the LBPC team ending the day with a ‘smile’!!!  

All in all, we all felt we had a very successful day and it is well worth running this event as well as supporting a local museum.

We’ve been asked if we would be interested in taking part/exhibit at the Leighton Buzzard Living History Heritage Day on 09.10.10  Suggestion from the organisers is that we use the event to promote our club. So ideas will be welcomed on how we should go about this. In her note to me Sue says “…we did take part in 2007 where we had an exhibition of our work in a narrow corridor leading to the toilets at Leighton Middle School.   At first we did not think this would be a very good spot but it proved very popular as lots of people needed to spend a penny!!!   Allan had a microscope display which caused a lot of interest, especially with the children and many people stopped and looked at our work.  If we are going to do it again this year, then we need volunteers to help set up and man the site for the day.  However, for Pitstone it is always the same volunteers and it does not matter how many times we ask for help, it is always the same people.  Although most of us don’t mind doing it, it would be nice if we had new blood!  These events are good fun and we meet lots of interesting people, although we don’t get many new members, it does promote the club”. So, to shake it up a bit, any volunteers with some time to spare on Saturday 9th October? I don’t think we’ve said yes to the organisers yet but think we need to get back to them fairly quickly.

Unfortunately it has taken me quite a while to get this posted up. Coming back from holiday to the news that our friend, Alan Saint, had passed away just blew the wind out of my sails. Alan was a member of both LBPC and Shillington clubs and a more fitting tribute to him rather than just mention in these pages is being organised by Paul, likely to be in the form of a exhibition of his prints. Details will be announced in the new season.

Talking of which, we’re off again next week! So in advance – WELCOME BACK! As you will know if you’ve been following the plot we’ve invested in a new projector during the summer break and Allan is just busting to give it it’s first public outing on the 8th. So bring along some pictures on a stick, any size you like, or email a couple of regulation size to Allan in advance, by Sunday please, and let’s see what you’ve been up to over the summer holidays. The evening needs your input so let’s not be shy please.

We’ve been discussing auctioning off the old projector (which we all know has been meticulously looked after) and the old laptop. So get your thinking caps on, if you fancy getting yourself a home projector or a reasonable but not quite contemporary laptop the auction is likely to be through sealed bids. More details next week.

We’ve been discussing the Projected Digital Image competition software as well. You will recall that it has been less than successful on a number of occasions and we’ve been looking for alternatives. To cut a long story short, after considering Lightroom, PhotoCompManager and EasyComp, we’re resorting to FastStone supported by paper and pen and a dulcet baritone. As a solution it may not be state of the art but it doesn’t cost a lot and as far as I know has never been known to breakdown in the middle of competitions.

There’s been a change around in the programme posted in these pages (it will be refreshed here shortly). Because we couldn’t get a judge for the 29th September the events of the 22nd and the 29th have been swapped around, which means the 1st club competition “Open” is now a week earlier than you might have had it pencilled in.

Also Tim needs your recent best shots as well, for consideration in the Rosebowl competition. Refer to a previous post for more details on that, but we need your support.  We’re also considering entering the Previsions competition run by the Watford XRR club in November, print and/or DI’s so, again, images required please.

Facebook news from Andy Glover who has obviously been busy lately and got himself an exhibition coming up “The exhibition is at Priory House Dunstable between September 27th and 2nd October. It will be a selection of my portfolio, showing portraits, landscapes and of course some motor racing”. I would be looking forward to seeing this, Andy, but it just so happens that I’ve booked myself a week in Iceland from the 27th so given the choice – Iceland / Dunstable? Dunstable / Iceland? – there can only ever be one choice, best wishes though. Þ

I’ve got to mention something from my week in Dorset. Students of photography will be aware of the name Walker Evans, we came across some of his most enigmatic images at a retrospective on display at the oddest location you could imagine for such an important collection, at a place called Axen Farm near Symondsbury in Dorset. auction, Zanna and I spent a couple of hours going through just a couple of rooms of well presented images with supporting documentation, it was absolutely fascinating and the view from the main room was something to be believed. Details can be found at  http://burrprojects.blogspot.com/p/walker-evansphotographs-from-1935-1936.html

Also mention that there is Steve McCurry (he of Afghan Girl fame) retrospective in Birmingham http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=605

Been a couple of weeks, so what’s been happening?

Martin was in touch through Facebook letting us know of a photo opportunity at “Classics on the Common” at Harpenden, evening of 28th July. I decided to go along as Luton (my office) isn’t that far and must say I was amazed at the high numbers the event drew in. There were hundreds of desirable shiny classic cars, supercars, americars, ordinary old cars that I used to drive around in, bikes, scooters, trucks and buses on display and, must have been a couple of thousand spectators, wandering around admiring the chrome (amongst other things!). So in all this melee I actually managed to bump into Martin and exchange a few words, amongst which were my desire that it rain. Not for any malice towards fellow attendees you understand, just that acres of shiny metal is just that, not the most gripping of photographic material in my mind, especially with so many people around. 30 minutes later it did and all that shiny metal either disappeared up the highway or just stood there demonstrating the fantastic wax jobs they had been given and loads of sensible spectators took shelter in the many pubs Harpenden manages to support. So I eventually managed to get some fairly decent shots, Canon G9 and monopod to steady things as it had become pretty dark with the heavy cloud cover. Some favourites from that session -

Stainless steel? Polished aluminium?

People peeping at the beast

Right at the end of July was the Canal Festival in Tiddenfoot. This event has been running as an annual event for the past eight years apparently although this is the first year I’ve managed to remember and get along. Pretty decent event I thought and the organisers are to be applauded. Loads of photographers wandering about as well, it dawned on me that it would have been a good event to distribute info about LBPC. Must remember to raise this with the committee, might be a good idea, get some business cards…. Anyway, bumped into June, Allan and Sue, plus a load of people not associated with LBPC. A nice, friendly and interesting event I thought, recommended.

Shout out this week is for Leighton Masqueraders http://www.leightonmasqueraders.co.uk/ . The M’s bring amateur musical productions to LB and they need people to sing and dance and even act. Many of you will know of my intermittent involvement with the group having chorus-lined for them in a couple of productions but being a “reluctant thesp”, no particular aspirations on that front and a far better member of the audience than a cast member, they need more help and involvement than I give. So this week is an appeal for them, they particularly need men for lead and chorus roles but they also need help getting scenery together and umpteen other activities that go on backstage. I’m probably not their best advert but I found them to be a good bunch of people and fun to be with. If you have ever though about getting on stage, fancy giving it a go or just feel that you could help out in some way please get in touch with Marilyn Whalley using her email address on their Contact Us page.

Some info about these pages, every time I post up the blog I “Allow Comments” i.e. I would welcome feedback. I’ve even set up a page in the members only area explicitly for comments and feedback from yourselves but I find that comments being allowed only lasts for a short while before attaining the status of “Comments Off” which I can’t over-ride. So I’ve been in touch with John and have been told that “comments are deliberately disabled to prevent injection attacks on the site and russian spamming which has already tried but failed to comment on our site ”! Quite how the Russians manage to login to our members only area I’m not quite sure, I can only assume that the commie devils have planted a sleeper in our ranks and whoever you are has spilled the beans…. In the meanwhile and until we can sort out a better way of doing things, if you would like to get in touch please email me on the address you already have access to in Sue’s distribution list.

And finally, try - http://newsarse.com/2010/08/06/terrorists-sick-of-being-treated-like-photographers/

Just wanted to get these out to you before the events are actually over. I was quite taken by the idea of this http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday?x=three. This is targetted for tomorrow but it made me wonder whether we could take on a similar project ourselves. There are a few spare slots in our programme next year, perhaps we should turn a session over to “Photo’s on a Day” or something like?

Also, the big one for ‘plane spotters is Farnborough. http://www.farnborough.com/Site/Content/Farnborough2010/public/Welcome.aspx

Public days are this weekend unless you managed to buy one of their packages for an earlier day. When I was a kid my grandparents lived under the Farnborough circuit and I remember standing at the bottom of their garden with steam trains (including Pullmans) hooting and charging along the railway lines below and planes like Lightnings, Vulcans and others roaring and filling the skies above. OK, not filling, but I was little then. Memorable stuff anyway.  Have a good time if you’re going to join in with either of these events.

I gave a shout out for Kempston CC last week, this week Shillington came through with their programme http://www.shillingtoncc.org.uk/. It seems they have some activity during the summer months and also sent through their programme for next year as a document. I’ll not post that up here though as they haven’t actually got it on their own website just yet, don’t want their own members complaining that they found out about their new programme from the LBPC first….

And talking of programmes, Dave has asked me to post up our first pass for the new season. It gets a bit gappy in the new year but we’re working on filling those evenings, anybody with ideas for an evening please get in touch. New programme is posted now. In the programme you will see that the Two Hemispheres competition with the Camberwell Camera Club in Melbourne is definitely on. There’s a bit of theme been presented this year,  ”pictures which typify the way of life in your country or perhaps show a difference between the countries”. Get your thinking caps on, snow and measurements of distance and speed cannot be the only difference surely? The competition is in November.

Big news on the DI front as well. You will recall Dave and Allan discussing upgrading the club projector during the AGM and summer social evening? Well, the deal has been done and the new Epson beastie is wending its way through to Allan even now. I’m looking forward to seeing your summer shots being projected on it in our first meeting.

Dave.

Thought I’d better get moving with this post as last weekend got taken over with very nice weather and a couple of days of friends and family visitors, bbq’s, World Cup finals, a bit of Grand Prix and a just a little bit more Stella. Still, lots of visitors meant lots of opportunities for shooting with the People/Portraits competition in mind.

Midweek this week was another opportunity as we were up at Huddersfield Uni for my daughters graduation. In all this crowd just guess which one is her, camera aware or what?….

Martin emailed me with a reminder that an LBPC Facebook page has been set up. I’ve not too much experience of Facebook (other than up to now I’ve been avoiding it) and am not really sure how we can best exploit the medium or how it should work alongside the official club pages so ideas from people are welcomed. Since getting Martin’s’ invite I’ve joined up and started profiling myself and have received a number of invites from people I know (I think the system must check your email contacts list or something and links you up with people that are already signed up) but where that takes me from here I’m not quite sure. My daughter (her above) practically lives and breathes on Facebook so I know its a great social medium yet strangely enough she does not want me or her mum as “friends”, so when she was up at uni we would often find out what she was up to by our friends – one’s that we can actually see and talk to – telling us what was happening on Facebook…..  Anyway, it seems Martin is administering the LBPC Facebook page and as he says “11 members so far but it might be useful to mention it to the others. A good way of sharing thoughts, sites and anything else”. If you’re already on Facebook or just fancy putting your toe in the water try contacting the following address and lets see what it offers

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=71502698108

Also Sue sent out a newsletter last weekend, we hope for that to be a fairly regular event but any feedback on that or this blog post business is welcome. Just a reminder of the local events that were listed -

17-18.07.10  Festival of History 2010 at Kelmarsh Hall Northamptonshire – 2,000 years of hisotry in one weekend.   visit www.festivalofhistory.org.uk

18.07.10  Kite Festival at Dunstable Downs

Finally, and you might find this odd but, a mention for the Kempston Camera Club http://www.kempstoncameraclub.co.uk/. About 20 to 30 minutes from LB depending on the roadworks…. I’ve been to handful of their events as they continue to meet in our off-season (based in a large church hall not tied to academic terms and all) and who have started taking investment risks by laying on big events such as talks from nationally and internationally renowned photographers like Joe Cornish http://www.joecornish.com/. That particular evening was a Thursday night if I recall correctly and they ended up hiring Kempston Town Hall to get all the punters in, even then it was packed. Not too sure how that worked out for them financially but was a very successful evening photographically and JC certainly went away wealthier. Anyway, have a look at their website to see what they are up to (its certainly a wake up call I think if you compare their content with ours at the moment). Here’s their latest email, I’ve no idea what the event will be like but if you’re hankering for some sort of photographic stimulus in our off season it might be worth having a look (I’m not suggesting you jump ship mind, just broaden the horizon a little!). This particular evening is obviously of a more local nature and is not exactly my cup of tea but I know a few of our members are into this sort of thing.

“The high-flyers of Old Warden? Hello all. Yes, the ‘Shuttleworth Collection of Historic Aircraft’, one of several gems around Old Warden in Mid-Bedfordshire. Join us at Kempston Camera Club next Wednesday (21st), and you’ll be treated to an illustrated appreciation of the collection, courtesy of Dave Stewart. Dave has recently had a hip operation, but he’s holding back the pain to make sure we are not disappointed, and to make sure we have a fascinating and absorbing evening. Therefore, please show your appreciation by turning up in great numbers at 19.45 for a prompt 20.00 take-off. You’ll be on a real high by the end!”.

Dave.

The last day of June gave us brilliant evening for the Summer Social and Awards evening. 40 tickets were sold for the evening although with a couple of suppers remaining unclaimed I’m not too sure whether the Old Rd chippy had been overly generous or some people had planned to come and just didn’t make it. Good suppers though, Old Rd did well. Thanks to everybody that make these evenings work, bringing along additional food, sorting out the tables and seating, individuals and teams contributing in their own way to make for the larger whole. Special mention for Nina and Sam on the night, they must be near to perfecting their shakedown techniques now, with the raffle raising a record amount this year! With 35 raffle prizes up for grabs thanks also to everybody for donating so generously. The evening rounded out with the Paul performing the last of his chairman duties with the annual awards presentation, with 11 section prizes to be presented. Congratulations to all the prize winners, we’ll post the full list up in the members area. During the course of the presentations 17 individuals were recognised although the absence of Roger, Barbara and Tim became pretty apparent as they didn’t collect 13 of the 33 prizes. Zanna suggested afterwards that it would be good if people could be reminded of the images being awarded, seems reasonable although extra work, anybody else think that would be a good idea at future awards? Would Prints awards winners mind supplying jpegs of their pictures for such a purpose and posting on these pages?

To satisfy my own curiosity for these things, I’ve lately ranked the section winners Grand Prix style with 3 points for first place, 2 for second and 1 for third. So in my unofficial “champ’een photographer” league Roger was placed first with 11 points, Barbara second with 9 and Tim third, with 7 points. Garlands to all!

On an entirely unrelated matter, could I point people to The British Journal of Photography website http://www.bjp-online.com/ ? I’ve subscribed to BJP since picking up a copy of their new monthly magazine at “In Focus” this year. They launched the website about a month or so ago and in my opinion its looking like a pretty interesting site and is not just a retread of the the magazine contents.

I notice that they’ve now got a call for entries to the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait prize http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site10/index.php on the BJP home page. I went in for this last year, just to have a go really, so was not too surprised that I hadn’t made the grade. Only 60 of the 6,300 entries last year actually qualified, I guess its 60 of whatever number get submitted as the viewing gallery in the National Portrait Gallery is not exactly huge. If anybody fancies having a go at it I can offer some small advice but from what I’ve seen in the last two shows, standards of presentation and printing are at a different level (and cost!) to what we see at club nights. Be quite a bit of kudos if you were accepted though…..

Dave.

Dave Cromack has kindly forwarded details about a photography competition that closes 9th October and involves taking photographs of wildlife or parklife in MK.

If you are interested, take a look here.

The 2009-2010 calendar is now available in the Club Events section of the website.

Members learned tonight about the plan to hold a photography competition that brings us together with a club in another continent!

The Two Hemispheres Photo Competition sees the Leighton Buzzard Photographic Club swapping a set of photographs with a partner club in Australia, the Camberwell Camera Club. The rules can be found below.

A call went out tonight for photographs that paint a picture of our local area to be included in an AV to be shown in Camberwell before commencing the competition. Any members with photos should pass them on to Dave Gillow.