Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society

Outlaws achieved a notable club first this March by making through the NEMPF PDI (Projected Digital Image) final for the first time in the club’s history. 20 clubs from around the North and East Midlands region entered the full competition with the top 8 first round scores securing a place in the final. A first round ‘13’ (out of 15) from Chris Newham (Whitby Pier) and some strong 12s from messrs Rawson, Wilson and Marriott earned the Outlaws their top 8(=) position in the first round. Things toughened up in the final with Worksop pulling away for an expected win (again!) while Outlaws took home the final wooden spoon, though not before Padraig McKenna nabbed a final round ‘13’ with the final image of the day (Winter Sunrise, Bridlington) supported by 12s from Scott Wilson, Chris Newham and Rick Martindale. Outlaws averaged 11.5 / 15 across the event versus the Worksop’s winning 12.5 : a good result for Outlaws getting through to the final and a great sense of where the benchmark sits for top club in the region.

NOPS were once again invited to the Richard Balter Inter-Club Challenge, and duly entered and attended, the following is a breakdown of how we did.

8 clubs entered:
Barton Camera Club
Derby City Photographic Society
Melton Mowbray Photographic Society
Newark & District Photographic Society
Nottingham & Notts Photographic Society
Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society
Rushcliffe Photographic Society
Worksop & District Camera Club

Judge: Steve Myall EFIAP

The first round kicked off with some controversial decisions resulting in NOPS losing 2 images.  Ian Pinn lost his “Spurn Dawn” with comments about the reds being too heavy and would have suited a darker mount.  Next to fall was Scott Wilson with “Tim Burton’s New York”, due to the fact the image was too busy for the judge’s taste.  I felt sure at this point we were onto a losing streak with such strong images going at such an early stage.  Further shock to follow when Padraig McKenna’s “Tree with Hoar Frost” fell in the second round, the judge felt that the image was too grey overall and didn’t have nice crisp whites, he felt that again the mount may have compromised the presentation stating a darker mount would have made the image pop.

At this point it was clear that the judge was marking based on the whole presentation of the image, so images with marked, damaged or poor quality mounts were getting dropped.  The standards were high in all honesty, so the judge was picking out minor issues as an excuse to prevent the image appearing in further rounds.

Round 3 saw NOPS left with 2 images, these sailed through to round 4.  Round 4 saw Chris Newham’s “Whitby Pier” bite the dust with comments that the image was a contender for the top slot, however a dark line on the print (later thought to be adhesive seep from the tape on the back) prevented the judge from carrying it further.  Into round 5 went our last print, up against very few images but of a high standard, our last print sailed through to round 6, up against a very good image of a Snake Eagle with prey.  Round 7 saw our very last print sat there on it’s own proud and happy, Les Marriott’s “The Usual Suspects” got the top slot and Les will be the happy recipient of the covetted best print trophy.

The end result saw Worksop & District Camera Club win the overall club trophy with 17 points, followed by a joint second with 15 points Newark & District Photographic Society and our very own Nottingham Outlaws Photographic Society.  Although we did not follow last year’s win with another overall club win, and we saw some shock decisions early on, a good result for the club and an excellent outcome for Les.

Quick reminder that this month’s theme is ‘what doesn’t belong’. Still a few days left to get your photo in! Just email your entry to Ian.

Just a reminder that this month’s theme for the Chairman’s Challenge is “RETRO”

Either send your photo to chris@rickels.co.uk or tag it on flickr with NOPSCCFEB2011

Couple of cameras for sale, contact Steve Roper for details.

Canon EOS 30D with Kit Lens. £275 ONO

Canon EOS 350D with Kit Lens £275 ONO

Introducing a new monthly feature designed to get you out there with your camera and thinking about how and what you shoot.

Each month a theme will be picked for you to shoot against during that month, at the end of the month, the person choosing the theme will judge who has won.  There are no prizes it’s all for a bit of fun.

Since it is called the “Chairman’s Challenge”, and being the Chairman I will start the ball rolling, the theme for January is “Challenge”.  Interpret this theme how you will, have fun and submit your images (1 per photographer) to me before Wednesday 26th January (usual rules on dimensions, i.e. 1024×768), I will announce the winner on the following club night, and if time to do so, run through the entries on the projector.  The winner will then pick February’s theme.

If you have a flickr account and want to tag with an appropriate tag please feel free to tag with NOPSCCJAN2011.

Happy snapping.

The Outlaws contested another battle last night at Newark.

We managed to pull together 10 prints to take part in this unique event, Newark, as hosts do not take part, they provide 2 judges from their membership (Ralph and Gary) and the venue and refreshments.

Anyway after the frantic rushing around we duly arrived at Newark at 7.40 (deadline 7.30) to an already filled room awaiting us (talk about late entry causing a stir!). We then had to select our prints ‘on the table’ in front of everyone, 1 or 2 had to be excluded due to them not being titled etc on the back.

Battle commenced with 3 other clubs (4 were invited but the weather claimed one), Us, RB CC (Lincoln)-the trophy holders, and the only club invited back from last year, Axeholme and Keyworth. Our 10 prints got some very good comments from the paired judging and certainly did not let us down. It is also fair to say that there was some stunning images from the other clubs but also a few weaker images, at this stage it was not possible to know our (or any clubs) progress as images are not marked. At the end of the run through we were then evacuated from the room to let the judges cogitate whilst we enjoyed a very nice cup of coffee and a mince pie.

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Last week’s print battle with Melbourne was an astonishingly close fought contest with the high standard of entries from both teams keeping competition tense to the finish line… Indeed, the outcome couldn’t have been closer with The Outlaws narrowly edging victory by 313 point to Melbourne’s 312.

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Apologies Outlaws, the last few competitions have gone undocumented on this site. Here’s a quick catchup!

4th Print competition – ‘Architecture’

After a mix-up over judges the 4th print competition was changed to be a members choice format. Everyone ranked their top 6 photos, the totals were tallied and points awarded.

The winner of the Open section was Scott with ” ‘Say sorry’…’No way, you say sorry!’ “
Winner of the Theme section and overall winning photo was also Scott with “Toronto Skyline”

4th Projected competition – ‘Letters and Numbers’

Winner of the Open section and overall winning photo was Anne with “Sombre”
Winner of the Theme section was also Anne with “To My Darling”

4th Print competition – ‘Transport’

Winner of the Open section was Les with “A New Hair-do”
Winner of the Theme section was Ben with “Express Tram to Station Street”

Well done to everyone who took part, apologies again for the late update. Some great comments from the judges as always!

The photos I could find quickly on flickr are below.