Newsletter - 19th February 2023
Graham Harrison • 19 February 2023

Hi All
Last week we held our print of the year (POTY) competition, a bit early in the year but we have it at this time so prints are ready for the LPA Battle selection and the Foster challenge. It was a very successful night with lots of members present and a new judge to the club Martyn Wrigg from Barton. Derek has put the results on the competition page of the website and written a blog post as well. What I would say is our members entered some excellent prints and to get one held back is not easy never mind being placed. Congratulations to all members who where commended or better and a special mention to Dave Evans for taking the top place in the mono section, with his "Return to the Stables" print, definitely the biggest entry ever, and to Derek Smith with his "Millstones Above Castleton" placing for best print in competition.
A message from Paul Gray
Coming on the back of Wednesday’s Print of the Year competition where we saw a very high standard of entry and the largest number of members attending a meeting for a long time we continue the focus on print competitions with our preparation for the Fosters and LPA Battles competitions. Details of these competitions can be found on the competitions tab of the LPA website.
The first step is to select our club entries. I would encourage you take part and the first step is to email me before the end of this month to let me know you wish to do so. The selection panel will then be in touch Please note all prints have to be 20x16 or 500x400 and that only colour prints are accepted into the Fosters challenge but mono can also be entered in to the Battles.
Paul
This week, Wednesday 22nd February the Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado, Salt of the earth DVD will be shown, Chris did a write up of what to expect in a newsletter a few weeks ago. I will be at work again this week so will miss the evening, have a good night.
The following week, Wednesday 1st March, we are holding a local assignment competition with the categories of "Christmas cards" (taken no more than 25 miles from Louth) and "Open" (no restrictions). If you can send your entries to Harry ASAP please. We judge this competition by members voting or a member judging on the night, with more members now maybe one member judging might work better.
Just noticed the first daffodils are out in flower in our garden, the weather must be mild this year.
Regards Graham
Louth Photographic Society

Good Morning All The Autumn colours at Sedbergh was one of my entries which sum up the time of year. Last week at the club we held our monthly print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open". There was a very good entry with 27 prints in each subject, well done to Derek Smith for a first in the Mono and Robin Begley for a first in the Open, all the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 28th October, all being well, I am informed that the N&EMPF Exhibition print show was a bit behind schedule, it will hopefully be finished by now but if not, Derek will let us know, and we will do mini lectures instead. Derek, and Harry have prepared mini lectures on their favourite camera systems, if a couple of other members could prepare a mini lecture on the same theme that would be most helpful. The LPA POTY deadline date is nearly upon us; they are panels of three prints as we discussed last Wednesday. If you want to enter either attend the club PDI competition on 1 st November at Nettleton village hall or bring your prints in on Wednesday and hand them to a member who is going and will take them for you. Regards Graham

Our Society held a print competition last night, the set subject category was "Mono", whereby the prints were black and white, or single tone images. The "Open" category prints consisted of any subject of the authors choice, and the judge for the evening was Grahame Dunkin. It was an exciting competition, with 27 prints in each category, the standard was incredibly high, giving Grahame a difficult time of determining the points for each print and choosing the top three prints in each category. Grahame judges very well, he giving a relaxed, and helpful critique of each image. The website Competition page has been updated with the results of the competition. Our next meeting will be held on the 28th October, and should be a showing of the N&EMPF Exhibition prints, however if the Exhibition prints are not available, I would ask members to think about giving a talk on their "Favourite Camera Systems" just showing what they shoot with, and providing a few sample images.

Today was the LPA Battle finals day at Nettleham, it was the last one in its present form, and six clubs including Louth made the final. The judge was Alan Young from Rolls Royce camera club, Derby. Alan was quite straight to the point and as he said there were so many good prints in the competition, he wouldn't be marking low and would have quite a task giving scores to the best ones. Alan was quick to see anything he didn't think was right with the prints and was looking for more than just a record photograph. Louth had a very good start with our first three prints being held back, it then didn't go so well but we did have six hold backs altogether which were Sleeping-David Whitehouse 18 points, Morning sun Whitby-Dave Turner 18 points, Hairy shield bug-Graham Harrison 17 points, Evening light Chapel St Leonards -Tony Gaskins 17 points, Cosmos-Harry Kerman 17 points and Evening Light Whitby Harbour -Tony Gaskins 18 points. 1 st place - Axholme - 256 2 nd place - Cleethorpes - 255 3 rd place - Scunthorpe - 248 4 th place - Grantham - 246 5 th place - Louth - 244 6 th place - Lincoln - 242

Good Morning, All, Last week at the club Steve West gave a presentation on the history of Louth's cinema's, Steve started at the beginning in 1896 with the original Louth Photographic Society being involved with showing films in what was thought to be Westgate Fields. Steve went through all the other locations ending up with just the one cinema now on Cannon Street. There is a report on our blog page. This week, Wednesday 21st October, we will hold a monthly print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open" judged by the LPA president Grahame Dunkin. There are just over 50 prints to be judged so should be a very good night. Today (Sunday 18th) is the LPA Print Battle final at Nettleham, the judging starts at 1pm. Regards Graham

Last night, Steve West gave a fascinating illustrated presentation on the long history of cinema, and stage plays in Louth. In the late 1890s some films were shown at various locations, in 1910 a “tent” cinema was showing films on Westgate Fields. During 1913 a site was purchased of 2 retail units, on Eastgate, the retail units were demolished, and the Palace cinema / theatre was constructed on the site ready for opening in 1914. During the interwar years many plays were staged at the Palace, and Steve has collected many of the original programs from this era. The current Playhouse was constructed in Canon Street in 1921 in the “art deco” style, some poor quality housing was demolished to make way for this new cinema. The Playhouse, and the Palace both continued in operation until 1960 when the Palace was sold, and the building was converted into a Fine Fare supermarket. During the 1970s when Bingo became popular, part of the Playhouse was used as a Bingo hall, with the reception area restyled to suit the new usage. The Playhouse was converted into a multi-screen cinema when purchased by the Parkway Cinema group in the mid 1990s. Louth is extremely fortunate to have retained a viable cinema in the town, many thanks to Steve West for a very polished presentation.

Good Morning All Sand racing starts again this week at Mablethorpe, this Sunday is practice day, times are on their website. Last week at the club we held a local competition, with the categories of: "Straight out of the camera" and "Open", there was a very good entry in each subject with Tony Gaskins having the task of judging the unedited ones and Robin Begley judging the Open. There is a full report on our website but well done to Harry for first place in the Straight out of the camera and Keith Rossington for first place in the Open. This week, Wednesday 14th, Steve West will be our speaker, talking and showing PDI's on the subject of the Louth cinema. The following week will be a print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open", you need to bring your prints in this week and send an email to Dave Turner with your titles. Regards Graham

At our meeting last night we held a PDI (printed digital image) competition, with the categories of "Local Unedited", and "Open". As this was a members competition one of our members judged the competition, Tony Gaskins was our first judge for the "Local Unedited" category, these were .jpg images taken straight from the camera, without any editing, apart from the resizing for projection. Presenting an image such as this in a competition is quite a difficult task, the photographer has to ensure that the correct exposure is chosen, the composition, and subject matter has to be precise, everything done in camera. Normally for competition entries, a degree of post processing would be involved, simple edits like toning down highlights, or even removing extraneous objects from a scene, emphasising a moody sky, all not allowed. Tony Gaskins did an excellent job with his judging, providing clear and concise critique of the images presented, he "held back" 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally choosing the top three placements. After the break it was Robin Begley's turn to judge the "Open" category, as these were post process edited images the standard was higher than the unedited images, but surprisingly not markedly so. Robin is potentially hoping to become a N&EMPF approved judge, and he had a different style, able to suggest edits that could have improved an image, again his critique was clear and concise communicating well with members. Robin chose 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally selecting the top three placements. It was a fabulous, and interesting competition with excellent images, many thanks to both our judges, it's not an easy job, probably nearly as bad as being a referee in a football match!! Many thanks to both our judges, well done.

Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.


