Congratulations to Dennis Russ who recently won both a Gold Medal and The Raymond Walter Trophy for best in show in the RPS Digital Image Group Competition 2020. His images are shown below. A wonderful achievement.
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Congratulations are in order for PSA member Neville Thomas whose participation in the recent Taiwan Photo Circuit gained him 9 acceptances. If you wish to be added to the list of those who receive this newsletter (which goes out about twice a month) please send Leigh Woolford your email address.
Our thanks to Everybody who made the WPF 2020 Conference such an outstanding success. The general theme was creativity and Speakers Bernard Geraghty, Ross McKelvey, Sharon Prenton Jones and Barry Barker brought insight, energy and enthusiasm with their unique brands of photography. They generously identified the people and places in their images. But more than that, they identified their equipment in detail – clothes, cameras, lenses, filters and software packages. In addition they demonstrated and explained their processes and settings and even reconstructed images. Every question was answered fully and freely. WPF Members Gareth Martin, Ron Lines, Jenny Hibbert and Dennis Russ were given the almost impossible task of finding words to convey the contribution and impact made by the individual speakers in their presentations. President Peter Young had started the proceedings with a formal opening and explained the ambitions of the Conference while Vice President Jenny Hibbert summarised progress at the end of the first day. The President also closed the Conference and thanked all concerned including Jan Cawley a dedicated supporter of the Conference but now sadly departed. We were pleased that the 100 attendees included PAGB representatives and Speakers from previous Conferences, Gordon Jenkins and Richard Speirs, together with visitors from all over the British Isles. Record Conference goers Eirwyn and Margaret Johnson joined us in “receive-mode,” but most people engaged in the conversations and repartee in the Break-out rooms with our speakers and attendees from clubs both inside and outside the WPF umbrella. The Conference working party consisted of Dave Condon, Ed Cloutman, Jan Cawley, Sue and John Surridge. Initially we planned for a meeting at Carmarthen but Covid19 scuppered that. Instead we harnessed the power of the Zoom package to create a Virtual Conference. Spread over 4 sessions per day for 2 days and watched from the comfort of their own homes, many had planned to dip in and out. However such was the sheer quality of the presentations that most reported they remained locked to their screens! We thank you for the exceptional number of positive reports on facebook and club pages and also in personal emails. It is hoped that we may produce a video record of Conference but there are a number of hurdles to clear, these include consideration of the Intellectual property of the Speakers together with any Copyright music they may have used. The privacy of attendees and the content of breakout room channels also need to be addressed together with the technical and distribution issues. We will keep you informed…. Finally may I again thank everyone for their support and invite you to join us for the WPF 2021 Conference wherever and however it is held! David D Jones – for the WPF and Conference Working Party. We have just had an enjoyable morning selecting this exhibition. Our thanks go to Ed Cloutman EFIAP Hon.FWPF and Roy Thomas APAGB Hon.FWPF for being the selectors. I was pleased to press the buttons during the selection process which was undertaken using our new Zoom licence. Our thanks also go to Martin Nagle whose idea this was. We are grateful to the 101 entrants including 3 from England and 1 from each of Finland, India and Vietnam. The other 95 were from Wales. Entrants were able to submit 3 entries each and we received 280 photographs to consider. Each entrant’s submission was considered and received 10 for his/her best entry – that gave us 101 acceptances. If present, the second best received 8 and third scored 6. There were 94 entries that scored 8 and 58 of those were selected for the exhibition and their scores were increased to 9. That all gives an exhibition of 159 photographs. The gallery of accepted photographs can be found here and the catalogue appears here. Peter A Young LRPS CPAGB AFIAP APAGB – WPF President We have received this sad news from Gwynfa Camera Club. Our friend and member Ken Watkins has passed away suddenly at his home in Beddau. We understand that his passing was not Covid related. Ken was a member of our club for many years and during his time at the club occupied numerous committee positions, including Chairman and Treasurer. He also played a big part in promoting the social side of the club by organising annual bus trips to London: Trips that will long be remembered. Ken was a succesful club photographer who won his fair share of competitions, most recently the 2016 Colin Williams Trophy. He always stayed true to his vision of photography, never feeling the need to compromise his style to gain a few marks extra. He will also be remembered for having the pleasing knack of being able to put visiting speakers at their ease with an amusing comment. The news has come as a very big shock and he will be sorely missed by everyone at the club. Our thoughts are with his family.
When a judge or lecturer (I’ll call them speakers for convenience) is listed in the PAGB Handbook, he/she has entered into a compact with all the clubs affiliated to the Alliance. That compact says, in essence, that the speaker will give his/her time to the clubs for no remuneration. Reasonable expenses are payable and those are listed on pages 44 and 107 of the PAGB Handbook and on our website. In the main, they cover travelling expenses, subsistence and consumables. At no point are we seeking to make money by visiting a club. We do it because we feel that we want to give something back to the hobby that has given us so much enjoyment over the years. We want other clubs to benefit from what we have to say, even if it’s only the fun of pulling us to pieces in the pub after a meeting. It is different for the relatively few lecturers who do make a charge. There is a note on page 44 regarding Expenses that says, “Please note – some lecturers will charge a fee, or additional expenses, over and above the PAGB expenses. “Lecturers who charge a fee or additional expenses are listed under a separate section at the foot of each federation’s entry. Lecturers who charge a fee of £50 or more are required to pay a one-off fee to the PAGB for their entry in each new edition of the handbook – currently £20 at the date of this edition – in return for which they are able to list additional information such as website, additional distinctions etc. Such additional lecturing fees must be agreed at the time of the booking.” Covid-19 and the onset of online speaking have not changed any of that. The few who charge a fee may continue to charge a fee at the same level as before and the majority who may not charge a fee still may not charge a fee. Of course, no expenses are normally chargeable by the speaker either because there will have been no expenses. It appears that some clubs feel that they should be paying something to an online speaker. Those clubs have no reason whatsoever to feel that way. Of course, there has never been any reason why a club may not make a gift to a speaker if they feel that they have been part of something special. That has also not changed in the current circumstances. While a fee is taxable, a gift is not. However, a request by the speaker for a gift turns it into a taxable fee. I understand that a post has been made on Facebook saying, “In my experience, nothing that is ‘free’ is ever valued.” Clearly the writer does not understand the system. I am aware of one Federation that has recommended that a club may make a gift of up to a certain sum of money. I’m not in favour of that. A recommended maximum will become a norm, not a maximum. Some clubs rely on their weekly subscriptions to cover the costs of an evening. They will be unable to afford the new norm. As a member of my own Federation said, “I always enjoy an e-mail of thanks or a signed card”. Peter A Young LRPS CPAGB AFIAP APAGB – WPF President & PAGB Treasurer The Ace of Prints should have had a closing date of 21st June and a judging date of 5th July and we would normally now be sending out a formal reminder and a set of rules. However, we have no option but to formally cancel the 2020 event. We choose our 2 Clubs for the Blackburn event normally held in 3rd week of October and I believe that will be cancelled also; but If things change remarkably in the next couple of months and if I get an unlikely indication that the PAGB Club Print event is going ahead in October we can reconsider the situation at that time. Whilst a PDI event could be considered to be run virtually via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google or other software this is not at all practical when it comes to dealing with prints as we would need the Judges, print handlers and at least one member of each Club taking part to be in attendance – and how and with what do we clean the prints between each handover? Please accept my apologies for this necessary decision. Stay Safe & Healthy! Roy Thomas It is with great sadness that I have to report that Mel Stallworthy LRPS passed away in hospital on 2nd March 2020 aged 94. Mel and I started our AV careers around the same time in the early 1980s. Together with his wife, Margaret, he was to be seen at many AV events around the UK, such as the RPS National AV Championship and the RPS International AV Festival, as well as numerous AV Days. Mel worked in the insurance business for many years and on retirement took up a career in wedding photography, setting up his own business which he called Cameo Photography. He also enjoyed teaching photography and for many years ran a part time photography class in the local arts centre, where he made many friends. Mel was very particular about his photography equipment and was nearly always seen with the latest Canon camera. With Margaret, he regularly attended the AV courses held at Dyffryn House in the Vale of Glamorgan and Urchfont Manor in Wiltshire, run by Richard Tucker FRPS. Until Mel’s mobility became a problem a couple of years ago he never missed a South Wales RPS AV Group meeting and was always keen to participate in Member’s evenings. One memorable event was when Mel organised a day out for the Group on a minibus trip to the Severn Valley Railway, finishing up with a very sociable evening meal in Ross-on-Wye. The AV Mel will be most remembered for, was a collaboration with Gwyn Morgans FRPS, which was called ‘Out of Sight Out of Mines’. The AV was a portrait of the miners and what it was like working underground in a private drift mine in South Wales. Mel toured the clubs regularly with his AV presentation called “Into The Dissolve”, was an active member of the RPS Digital Imaging Group (DIG) and a founder member of the Cardiff DIG. He was persuaded by Glenys Taylor to organise a very successful first RPS Digital Day in Cardiff which took place on 10th January 1998. Mel leaves behind his wife of 74 years, Margaret, who was a professional florist. She is now very frail and is in a care home. After she retired Margaret continued flower arranging at home and Mel enjoyed taking many photographs of her arrangements. There may be a memorial service some time in the future when circumstances allow. Mel will be sadly missed by all those that knew him, particularly in the South Wales AV and photography community. Edgar Gibbs FRPS MPAGB AV-AFIAP
It is with great sadness that we note the passing, suddenly, of Lyn James. He had been a judge and presenter for WPF for several years. Our condolences go to his friends and family. Peter A Young – WPF President. This from David Straker at Abergavenny… Thanks David! In case anyone is kicking their heels, I’ve added a page on the Abergavenny website for interesting YouTube channels, including for general photography and editing. http://www.abergavennycameraclub.org.uk/help/links-youtube.htm For the uninitiated, channels contain multiple videos and are often the work of one person or team. If you know of any other channels to add, do let me know. David Camera clubs and societies have made the decision to cancel their club meetings in an attempt to reduce the risk of infection of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). To support clubs and societies during this difficult time we have decided to relax the terms of business for the PAGB RLS and allow the distribution of recorded lectures to members within their respective club or society. Clubs and societies are asked to adhere to the following conditions:
Taken from the latest edition of PAGB e-news which you can read here. In view of the current situation that we are all facing it would be remiss of me not to contribute to this issue of e-news concerning the outbreak of COVD 19 which is having a drastic effect upon all of us. The PAGB is actively managing the situation regarding events that are planned for Federations, Clubs and Individual Photographers and has taken measures to protect us all. Our event organisers, and others in the photographic community, will keep participants and prospective audience members fully informed of the postponement or cancellation of events and any alternative arrangements that have been made. As you are no doubt aware, many of our club members are in the high risk group of compromised individuals, me being one of those. I have seen that many clubs are suspending their programme for the remainder of the season and that Federations are also postponing events until further notice. However, I also note some innovative resilience being demonstrated by many clubs who are setting up online competitions, talks, critiques and demonstrations on social media platforms to keep their members occupied during the period that emergency measures are applied. You can see many of these ideas on the Facebook page “UK Club Photography”, take a look and see what you may be able to manage for your own club. This is a hobby that we all love and those who organise things for us all unpaid volunteers, currently under a great deal of pressure and doing their best to protect us and to minimise disruption to our activities. Please help them all you can and pull together to ensure that at the end of all of this we can all meet and compete again in, hopefully, the near future. Stay safe. Howard G Tate MA ARPS AFIAP APAGB We’re pleased to announce that we’ve just added Barbra Archdale-Smith ARPS AWPF of Barry to the supplementary list of Judges. After years of service to our member clubs, Imants has decided to step down from judging. We thank him most sincerely for all the time he has spent serving our member societies. We really do appreciate his efforts. Peter A Young – WPF President Please find below the reports from the 2020 Ace of Clubs. I thought it was a great day of photography and I thought our Judges performed well for which we have much appreciation – given the misbehaviour of our scoring system – we’ll have to do better next time! The 3 Judges; Colin Harrison FRPS MPAGB FBPE EFIAP/d3; Ralph Snook ARPS DPAGB EFIAP/b and Peter Young LRPS CPAGB APAGB AFIAP chose a number of images that they thought worthy of mention: – They jointly chose – “Safely over the bar” by Brian Merry of Rhondda CC as the best image overall. Ralph Snook chose – “Banded Demoiselle Pair” by Alec Stewart of Gwynfa as his personal favourite. Peter Young chose – “Alone on the Moor” by Jan Sullivan of Tenby as his personal favourite. Colin Harrison chose – “Graveyard Run” by David Hopes of Bridgend as his personal favourite. You can see them below…. Finally we must congratulate IOS and Gwynfa for coming first and second and being prepared to represent the WPF at the PAGB PDI Competition held in Warwick this July – that’s worth a day of your time going along to see the best of British PDI work! 
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