NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2009
FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME
Feb 17th: Monthly Competition - Divers
Foto Forum - Fish
Annual Print Competition
Presentation - Alor Islands - Cathy Lewis
Mar 10th: Monthly Competition - TBN
Presentation - Alex Mustard - subject TBN
Foto Forum - TBN
Apr 14th: Monthly Competition - TBN
Presentation by Trevor Rees - Manipulated Images – Using Photoshop Layers
Foto Forum - TBN
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Feb 17th: Monthly Meeting
Stop Press - Due to adverse weather, the February Meeting did not go ahead on the second tuesday as normal. It has been rescheduled for tuesday 17th February.
The Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue - The Casson Centre, Rodway Road, Patchway, BS34 5DQ (map) It is easiest to access it via Durban Road, off Highwood Road - you can turn right at the traffic lights if coming from the Gloucester Road direction. The Casson Centre is the left hand part of the Patchway Community Centre, immediately next door to the Patchway Town Council Offices. There is off road parking adjacent to the Centre and further spaces along Rodway Road, near to the local Spa shop.
The Foto Forum will focus on the theme for the March Monthly Competition - 'Fish' (could be a tricky one). Our 2009 competition programme is currently being decided upon - if you have any suggestions for a subject, or even a subject that you do not want to see included, then contact me. It is likely to mirror the BSoUP competitions but they have quite a number of gaps due to portfolio competitions so we have scope to choose several of our own.
The monthly competition theme is 'Divers'. Send your digital files to Arthur Kingdon as Bob's computer is playing up. Unsure about entering? Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback - it's an ideal way to learn.
We also have our Annual Print Competition, so bring along your prints on the night or post to Arthur if you cannot get to the Meeting - see our Competition Rules for all the details. This will be the first item on the programme so, if entering prints, please ensure you are there in good time.
Cathy Lewis will give a presentation on the Alor Islands - off the beaten track but fascinating. Expect some excellent images and a really informative presentation as usual from Cathy.
RECENT EVENTS
January Meeting
This Meeting had more than the usual number of competitions to get through due to the cancellation of the December Meeting. Yours truly was away, so the Meeting was run by Bob Anthony and Jim Drake who did a sterling job.
Monthly Competition - British
There were some excellent entries in this Competition, reflecting the high standard of work done within the UK by BUPG members (Ed's note: I thought I had some decent entries but I didn't get a single vote such was the high standard!)
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Three images tied for First Place with 3 votes apiece: An excellent shot of a nudibranch Janolus cristatus by Jan Davies (using a compact). |
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A lovely shot of two pike by Trevor Rees |
| A characterful goby image by Cathy Lewis |  |
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In joint Fourth Place, with 1 vote each, were the following five images: A great portrait of a john dory by David Stephens |
| A nudibranch, also by David Stephens |  |
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A great shot of a nest-building corkwing wrasse by Rob Bailey |
| A pike by Rob Bailey |  |
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A squat lobster by Jan Davies |
Monthly Competition - Open
Plenty of good images entered - take note that Jeannie Bailey is now using a D100 (Martin's cast off) and managed a very creditable equal Second Place. Well done Jeannie.
| In First Place - Tamsin Eyles was a clear winner with 3 votes for this beautiful jellyfish |
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Four images tied for Second Place with 2 votes apiece: A manta silhouette by Bob Anthony |
| A lion fish at dusk by Arthur Kingdon |  |
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Another from Arthur Kingdon - this one from North Sulawesi |
| Turtle by Jeannie Bailey |
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Three images picked up 1 vote apiece: Monochrome nudibranch by Trevor Rees |
| Fan plus barracuda by Rob Kemp |  |
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Velvet swimming crabs (mating?) by Jim Drake. |
Open Portfolio Competition
There were only eight entries for this competition which was disappointing but it was very soon after our British Portfolio Competition, so perhaps members were suffering from portfolio fatigue? Thank you to all who entered - the top six are shown here:
| In First Place with 27 points - Trevor Rees |  |
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In Second Place with 22 points - Arthur Kingdon |
| In Third Place with 15 points - Tamsin Eyles |  |
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In Fourth Place with 9 points - Rob Bailey |
| In Fifth Place with 5 points - Cathy Lewis |  |
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In Sixth Place with 4 points - Rick Bailey |
Dome Port Polishing - Bob Anthony
Bob has become quite a master in the art of rescuing scratched dome ports - as several of our members will testify. For this demonstration he showed how to restore plastic domes to pristine condition using a Micro Mesh abrasive polishing kit. An assessment of the scratches will determine how coarse a grade will be needed to start with. After using that, it is a case of using progressively finer grades, with each grade being used at 90° to the previous one, until all scratches from the previous grade have been removed and you end up with a pristine port - dead simple really! If you don't fancy doing it yourself, or need any advice on this subject, then get in touch with Bob.
Foto Forum - Bob Anthony & Jim Drake
'Divers' is the theme for next month and Bob and Jim hosted a foto forum on the subject. It's a pretty straightforward subject and rarely causes controversy. In theory, any image with a diver in it somewhere could be entered. However, those images which have the diver as the main subject, or at least prominent in the shot, would fit the theme better than those images where the diver is a distant silhouette.
MISCELLANEOUS
BSoUP Open Portfolio - December 2008
Once again, BUPG members did well in a BSoUP Portfolio competition. Trevor Rees was equal Second and Arthur Kingdon was Sixth. See http://www.bsoup.org/News/2008/2008_12.php for details.
BSoUP Print Competition
From Martha Tressler:
Each year we run an annual print competition and traditionally it has been at the same time as the July Splash-In in Plymouth. For the last few years it has been housed at the Plymouth Aquarium, a stunning venue, but one with which we had some problems in 2008 as the exhibition space we needed was no longer available.
So for 2009 we have a new plan. Diver Magazine has kindly offered to showcase the competition at LIDS on 28-29 March. The best 80 prints, pre-selected by an independent panel, will be displayed at LIDS and the visitors to the show will vote for the category winners. As in previous years an independent panel of judges will select the grand prize winner, again a Red Sea holiday provided by Oonasdivers. Lots of great category prizes too from Cameras Underwater, Ocean Optics, Mikes Dive Stores, the London Aquarium and Alison Hodge (publishers of Mark Webster’s new book). And following LIDS the exhibition will move to the London Aquarium for several weeks, so your prints will be displayed in two impressive locations.
Running the competition at LIDS means different timing of course – we need your entries by Monday 23 February. So you can spend the holiday period rummaging through your images for the perfect entries!
Go to the website at www.bsoup.org/prints.php for more details, entry form, rules, etc.
Editor's note: We have our own print competition on the 10th February so that fits in nicely with the above.
Arthur