An occasional blog by Alan Keen

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

We had 5 meetings scheduled for October, 2 competitions and 3 external speakers.

1st October – Howard Tate –“Projects, Not Individual images” Howard gave an interesting talk mainly involving his portfolio of long panoramic images. These were generated by taking many images (20 or more) and moving along the scene to avoid converging verticals at the end of the image. He then combined these by hand to and created a 3-metre-wide print! It took 2 members to hold the booklet so Howard could turn the pages. Howard believes in printing his work and for this presentation he produced a series of A1 mounted prints, so they were clearly visible from the back row. I think Carol Hall might have regretted offering to take the prints off the stand!

8th October – Peter Yeo – “Save the Best till last!” Over the years Peter has not only been a member of Doncaster CC he has also been both well respected judge and a visiting presenter at the Club. Peter did not disappoint this time either when he presented a wide-ranging B&W presentation, covering the whole of his photographic career. At the end of the meeting Peter announced that this would be his last camera club presentation as he had decided to retire from the club circuit. I think this reflects the respect Doncaster CC has that Peter should choose to make our club his last event.

15th October – The Settle Trophy – an Inter club competition Judge Erica Oram At this meeting Doncaster CC hosted the Annual Settle Trophy against Pocklington, Selby, and Wakefield Camera Clubs. Each club had submitted 8 prints and 8 DPIs which were judged by Erica Oram from Sheffield PS. Doncaster held the lead after the judging of the DPI images and won the Prints round in the second half of the meeting.

There were only 3 scores of 20 marks awarded out the 64 images:Open Billed Stork with Fresh Water Mussel (DPI) – Sue Trout (DCC)

White Beauties (Print) – Sandi McKinley (DCC)

Apollos (Print) – Neville Turton (Selby)

Doncaster CC retained the trophy comfortably with an average score of 17.9 per image, with Selby taking the second place.

Next year Pocklington Camera Club will host the Settle Trophy.

Doncaster Pocklington Selby Wakefield Combined Totals 287 245 264 261

Rank 1 4 2 3 Average 17.9 15.3 16.5 16.3

22nd October – Round 1 – internal competition – Judge David Gibbins David Gibbins returned as a judge for the first round of our 2024/25 internal competitions. This saw the first outing of the new marking system, which brought all the internal competitions in line with the way the Annual Competitions are judged. It was nice to a good range of members receiving high scores in each of the six sub-competitions.

Competition Beginners Advanced

Mono Print 1st place – Muddy Scramble, Dale Coan

2nd place – The Eyes have it, Marsha Kelly

3rd place – Viking, Steven Salmon

1st place – Chloe, Alan Keen

2nd place – Burnout in the Waterbox, Neville Turton

3rd place – Winding Up, Ray Brammall

Colour Print 1st place – Stand by me, Marsha Kelly

2nd place – Little Owl, Marsha Kelly

3rd place – Golitha Falls, Dale Coan

1st place – Black Grouse on the Lek, Neville Turton

2nd place – The Whisky Drinker, Ray Brammall

3rd place – Twins, Sue Trout

DPI 1st place – The Tube, Marsha Kelly

2nd place – Vulcan GTI, Dale Coan

3rd place – VW Combi model, Patricia Godward

1st place – Poise and Perfection, Ray Brammall

2nd place – Sunset over Holywell Bay, Sandi McKinlay

3rd place – Opposing Views, Derek Crunkhorn29th October – Dianne Seddon “Odd Things”

The final meeting of October saw our third speaker of the month, Dianne Seddon gave a thought-provoking talk about her photography and how to inspire creativity in your photography. Linking historical developments, which inspired her work, to modern day developments such as AI in photography. Dianne encouraged audience participation and challenge to her presentation to give an interesting end to this month’s activities.

Next Month – 4 Meetings

November 5th – Club Presentation -Your 10 Minutes Members will be invited to do a short presentation to club members about any photo related subject. (Time limited to 10 minutes each) Entries R2

November 12th presentation -Adrian McGarry – Creative Photography using an iPhone ZOOM

November 19th – Steve Womack – Judging R2 Prints and DPIs

November 26th – Club Presentation – Presentation by the DCC Landscape group

Entries for Print Panel Competition

Alan Keen