LEEK
PHOTOGRAPHIC CLUB
Welcome to Visitors and Members
It is wonderful to welcome so many visitors and new
members to our first few meetings. I
hope you are finding the sessions interesting so far. If you want to know anything about the club or current
happenings, then just ask one of the members, who will help in any way
possible.
The start or the new season has been pretty hectic, so
far, partly due to our new venue. We
are still ironing out some of the difficulties. The main one is trying to make the tea break go as smoothly as
possible. The other important one is
trying to find a way of keeping the room cool.
We are in touch with the SMDC Property Manager over this.
As we have already decided to
keep the announcements to a minimum at the beginning of the evening, we have
now decided to place the notice board in the outer hallway – facing you, as you
turn right down the corridor to the Dove Room.
This will give more space for you to read the notices and maybe a chance
to read them during the tea/coffee break.
Tea/Coffee and Biscuits are
available at the break at a cost of 40p and Phyllis, Dorothy and Frances do a
sterling job trying to serve so many in a fairly short space of time.
We have the Dove Room from 7 pm
until 10 pm. Our meetings start at 7.30
pm and we are trying very hard to encourage our speakers to finish by 9.45 pm
at the latest. This is so that we have
time to clear all our equipment away and also time to chat.
As a club we have quite a number of competitions. Most of our judges are drawn from the PAGB
(Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) recommended list of judges. The competitions give an opportunity to show
our photographs and also to hear the judges’ comments on our work. We don’t always agree with their comments,
or their decisions for that matter, but in the end the judge’s decision is
final. However, on most occasions we
appreciate their comments and agree with their decisions.
The competitions are one way in
which we can learn how to improve our photography. Our first competition is on 5th October and we look
forward to the start of the competitions.
In order to enter any of the
competitions you do have to be a full member. If you haven’t entered a competition before and want to enter you
will find the rules in your programme handbook.
Please read the rules and
definitions in your programme booklet and if you have any queries don’t be
afraid to ask.
Slides
If you enter a slide you need to
spot it. Rob has put details of how to
do this on the website, or just ask a member.
Remember that it has always been important to stick to the
deadlines for handing in slides and prints for competitions. The Committee unanimously agreed that we
should strictly apply the deadlines, in order to make it fair for all
concerned. Therefore, in future,
late entries, whatever the reason, will not be accepted.
If you have an e-mail address
(or have recently changed your e mail address) then can you please let me have
it. It is very useful to be able to
send information directly to members via e-mail.
Rob Povey, who masterminded our
website and keeps it up to date, also includes e-mail addresses on the web
site. If you haven’t yet visited the
website it is www.leekphotographyclub.org.uk.
Don’t forget that Rob is building up the Gallery of members’ photographs – do
get your photographs to him. Have a
word with him on how to do this!
Brian and Carrie are not able to come to the Thursday
evening sessions until about February.
They have undertaken to train for the Alstonefield First Responder Unit,
which unfortunately falls on a Thursday evening. We wish them well in this new venture and hope to see them back
at the Club after February.
Outside Competitions
Some of the external
competitions are club ‘battles’/’knock-outs’, which we enter as a club. Other external competitions/exhibitions are
for individual entries. We try to keep
everybody informed of individual successes, so don’t be shy and let me know
about your successes.
The first interclub competition
is the Robertshaw Challenge Trophy.
There are five clubs involved: - Macclesfield, Crewe, Blythe Bridge,
Stoke and Leek and this year’s competition is to be hosted by Blythe Bridge –
Monday 23 October. We have quite a
success rate in battles and they are always worth trying to attend them.
Abbreviations
Familiarity
breeds content. Just for
information. PAGB is the Photographic
Alliance of Great Britain. There are 15
Federations, Unions and Associations of the Photographic Alliance in Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. MCPF
stands for the Midland Counties Photographic Federation (we belong to this
Federation).
LRPS Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society
ARPS Associate of the Royal Photographic Society
FRPS Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
Qualifications – Photographic
Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB)
Distinction DPAGB Red
badge and certificate
Master MPAGB Gold
badge and certificate
If you want to know more then
details are in the PAGB handbook.
Archive
We are very keen to keep a
record of the history of the club. We
have a brief history of the Club, produced by the Archivist of the MCPF. We are very grateful to Judith (Poyser)
who kindly collects and stores anything to do with the club, such as the weekly
articles from the newspapers, photographs of events, etc. We are also trying to collect old
photographs about the Club – such as club outings, events, etc. and where
possible identify those on the photographs.
If you would like a look at our Archive portfolio then I’m sure Judith
will bring it in.
Digital Group
We hold our Digital Group
Meetings once a month (on the second Monday) at the Cheddleton Community Centre,
Hollow Lane, Cheddleton. Our next
meeting is on Monday 9th October at 7.30 pm. Members pay £1 and visitors pay £2. We have a real mix of activity, mainly
learning about the intricacies of digital photography, and inviting an occasional
speaker to share his/her expertise.
Publicity
Bernard (Beech) kindly produces
our publicity notices for speakers. If
anybody can take a notice to put in a prominent position then please let us
know.
Christmas Dinner
Our first social event of the
season is our Christmas Dinner. This is
on Thursday 7th December and is held at the Rudyard Lake Hotel. There won’t be a regular club meeting on
that night.
Este
As
you know our Exhibition photographs are now over in Leek’s twin town of
Este. They will be on display for a
number of weeks. There are about 44
people from Leek visiting the Fiesta, which is being held over the weekend of 7th
to 9th October. From our
Club Dave and I are going over, as is Clare (Beech) and her sister-in-law. No doubt we’ll be taking photographs of the
event and of Este and its surroundings.
I’m
sure that I could go on, but enough is enough! This newsletter is mainly aimed at informing our visitors and
new members.
Hoping
the season is a successful one in every way Doreen