An occasional blog by Alan Keen

Welcome to the fifth “A View from the Serving Hatch” for the 2024/2025 season.

In this issue, I look back on the first 3 meetings of the year and look forward to events in February, and the YPU Exhibition 2025 So far we have had 3 meetings in 2025.

7th January- Mobile Phone images – Members’ presentations. In this meeting, we enjoyed members’ images produced on their mobile phones. There was a pleasing variety of images produced by the eight members who presented. In the second half of the meeting, Ray Brammall gave a presentation of his recent visit to Costa Rica, emphasising the difficulty of taking bird images compared to the “bird spotting” that bird watchers do.

14th January – “A bit of This, That and the Other” – Erica Oram Erica, from Sheffield Photographic society, gave a digital presentation showing the body of her work that she had made during the last three years. She emphasised making the best of the conditions you are presented with as well as visiting a whole range of different genres.

21stth January – Judging of the Annual Print Panel Competition This competition will be judged by Martin Litchfield, CPAGB. He had 15 three panel sets to judge. At the beginning of the meeting, he complimented the members for the high standard of work entered and commented that he had an exceedingly difficult time separating out the winning panels. In the end he made the following decisions.

In 1st Place – Sandi McKinley with a Scottish Autumn Landscape Panel.

In 2nd Place – Alan Keen with a mono portrait panel of “Ragged Victorians”

.In 3rd Place – Neville Turton – with a wildlife panel of a King Eider Duck.

There were also Highly Commended Awards for panels submitted by Sue Trout, Alan Keen, and Neville Turton.

Future Meetings

28thth January – Judging of the of Round 3 Prints and DPIs This competition will be judged by Richard Hall, from Sheffield Photographic Society. He is a keen amateur photographer. Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and member of Sheffield Photographic Society. I was awarded DPAGB in 2021 and BPE3* in 2022.

4th February – Zoom Meeting – A presentation by Kevin Pigney entitled “ Passion for Wildlife” Kevin is an internationally renowned and rewarded photographer whose interest in photography commenced five years ago. He has put together a collection of images taken throughout East Anglia and in addition has permission from several landowners tophotograph wildlife on their property. Hs is also fortunate to have easy access to several local managed nature reserves to which he can return to repeatedly. He is therefore able tovisit a location at the best time of day to make use of the direction of light to give a diffuse background which enhances his subjects in an uncluttered manner.

11th February – PAGB Masters of Print Portfolio. We have booked the touring exhibition of the 2024 Masters of Print Portfolio. This will give members the opportunity to get close up and personal with some of the best print images produced in the country last year.

18th February – A Presentation by Andrew Herston APSA, EPSA, EFIAP entitled “ China Ancient and Modern / South Western USA” – Travel Photography. Andrew Hersom lives in East Yorkshire, England. After qualifying as a pharmaceutical chemist, he worked as a quality manager for a multinational pharmaceutical company until 2009, then become a quality consultant before retiring for good in 2014. He joined a local camera club in 1982, entering prints and slides in international exhibitions until 1995 when most photography ceased due to the pressure of work. In 2011 he became involved in club photography again and is competitions secretary of another camera club. He mostly photographs people in industrial, urban, or maritime settings, sport, travel, and some nature. 25 February – Ashley Franklin ARPS, APAGB, BPE2* “The Derwent Valley” Story of a Photobook. In 2014, as official photographer for the Arkwright Society, Ashley was commissioned to produce a photo book of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. The project took flight in 2019 when he joined forces with fellow pro Ian Daisley and invited additional photographers to participate. Ashley’s talk will take you through the book’s three sections— Industrial Heritage, People & Places, and Wildlife— and show how the book encapsulates the valley’s historical significance, its communities, and its rich biodiversity.

The YPU Exhibition 2025 As most of you are aware Doncaster Camera Club is hosting the YPU Exhibition for 2025. As hosts it would be nice to get as many members images accepted and displayed in this exhibition. The Exhibition is now open for entries and Ray Brammall, via Steve Harratt, (Friday 17th January 19.37) sent out last week an email with the details of how to prepare and submit your images. The email contains an attachment of the YPU Exhibition Rules, including the Entry Categories and definitions. You will be pleased to learn that there are many similarities between the YPU Exhibition criteria and our internal Annual competition so, in many cases, you will be able to make a double entry if you wish. Ray has set a deadline of 11th February (approx. 3 weeks away) to make your entries.

On the Saturday 22nd February the entries must be taken to the YPU AGM, which takes place in the morning with image sorting happening in the afternoon. As hosts, we need to help with the image sorting, so we are requesting that some members attend on that day to help, either the full day, or arriving about 1pm after the AGM. Please could you let Ray know if you are able to attend. There will be other days when help from DCC members will be required (dates to follow):

• Saturday and Sunday of the judging weekend

• Mounting day(s) at the Danum Art Gallery

• On the Saturday of the Awards ceremony.

Please try any support the Clun in any way you can.

Internal Deadline Dates Coming up:

Tuesday 11th February 2025:

• Deadline for Entries for Round 4

• Deadline for Entries for the YPU Exhibition

Tuesday 18th March 2025:

• Deadline for The Annual Competition 2025 (Prints and DPIs)

Alan Keen