PUBLIC BLOG — NDPS | Norwich & District Photographic Society

Our images, Joe’s processing…!

Last night the well known Joe Houghton was given a collection of NDPS images from our last competition, both the original RAW file and the finished jpeg file.

The object of the evening was for Joe to work on as many of the images as possible during the presentation and to finally compare his end product with the member's final jpeg.

He selected nine of the images offered and carefully worked on each one, explaining his thought processes and explaining the tools used as he went. His explanations were carefully considered, clearly explained and watching him use the full suite of tools in Lightroom was an enlightening experience.

I believe that he left no corner of the Lightroom Development panel untouched. His use of the masking tools and artificial intelligence was, perhaps, one of the most useful parts of his presentation. The resulting final images he produced were exceptional.

Zoom, Photo-talkMaurice YoungMarch 29, 2023lightroom, masks, luminosity

Great result for NDPS in the EAF Print Championships

Sunday 12th March saw three members make the trek down to Fulbourn, just outside Cambridge to deliver our entries in the EAF Print Championships 2023 and watch the judging. This year there were only 18 clubs competing, whether this was still due to the after effects of covid lockdowns or photographers just cutting back on printing we don’t know but in the past there have been over 30 clubs entered out of 106 in the EAF. However, all but one or two of the clubs who normally finish in the top 15 were present so we suspected before the judging commenced that we were in for a tough time...!

This season all clubs entered 15 prints, to be marked by 3 judges who could each award a score up to 5 per images. The maximum aggregate score for any club being 225. The Judges were Dave Tucker DPAGB EFIAP/g BPE3*, Adrian Lines ARPS MPAGB AFIAP and Jane Lines LRPS MPAGB BPE5*.

After the formalities the judges got down to business and it quickly became obvious from the first round that it wasn’t going to be a high scoring competition with most prints scoring 11 or below and some mutterings from the Beyond members at the back of the hall after they received only 9 for their first print. As the rounds continued it also became clear that the judges didn’t favour any particular genre but were giving a fair spread of marks across all subjects but print quality was clearly important.

EAF Championships, CompetitionMaurice YoungMarch 13, 2023prints, external competition, fulbourn, eaf

Expect the Unexpected by Jo Bradford

This evening around 50 of us, including a visitor from as far away as Portland, Oregon in the United States, settled down to 'expect the unexpected'. And we certainly enjoyed the journey through Jo's work life and her photographic voyage with its unexpected twists and turns.

Jo spoke to us from her, living off the grid, Dartmoor home. She explained her early days making photograms and cyanotypes and her master’s degree in photography from Falmouth. While at Falmouth she produced images of stars and outer space without using a camera! She sprinkled meteorite dust onto light sensitive paper and used sunlight to expose the image.

She was awarded her master’s and reality kicked in when she had to repay her student loan. So, back to commercial photography and work for a production company in famous gardens, and faraway places, India, and the jungles of Bangalow. With the loan paid off she returned to her real interest as a colourist, making artwork without a camera. The Getty library asked if they could license her work and she began to look for a house on Dartmoor.

She bought a house that needed and awful lot of work and just to make life even more tricky she had two children!

Special PresentationMaurice YoungMarch 8, 2023smartphones, creative photography, dartmoor, projects

Wildlife Photography 2 by Tracey Lund

We finally got to see Tracy in person for part two of her story which followed on from her Zoom presentation during lockdown.

Alaska, Canada, Yellowstone, India, Zimanga and UK Hides. An inspirational evening with wildlife and nature photos from these areas as well as some anecdotes of her travels and trips.

Tracey Lund is from Hull. Her photographic journey began after an inspiring trip to Africa in 2004.

After returning to the UK, Tracey wanted to develop her photography and so joined three Photographic Societies and submitted her favourite images as entries to some of the major worldwide Wildlife Competitions. Tracey is also a permanent display as she is a ‘gallery photographer’ at the famous Joe Cornish Art Gallery.

Tracey's presentation was a whirlwind trip around the world calling at Alaska, Canada and Yellowstone. Then we moved to India where we were treated to a bewildering array of birds, squirrels and mongooses, not to mention the spotted deer - top of the fast food menu!

In Africa we were taken to Zimanga, the hotel and wildlife hides. Another whirlwind of birds, snakes, jackals and others. She even had a story about walking with cheetahs.

Tracey described the opportunities, Lagoon Hide, Bee Eater Hide, Scavengers Hide and startlingly the Overnight Hide! Into the hide in the afternoon and stay for 17 hours till breakfast.

But what a beautiful collection of wildlife photos Tracey showed to illustrate what was possible - eye to eye with water buffalo and a herd, yes a herd, of elephants.

Special Presentation, WildlifeMaurice YoungMarch 1, 2023alaska, canada, india, yellowstone, uk hides

NDPS retain the Alan Taylor Memorial Trophy

The annual Three-way Battle between Ciné Photo Club Nivernais in France, Foto-Club Koblenz in Germany and Norwich & District Photographic Society went right down to the ‘wire’ with NDPS winning the Alan Taylor Memorial Trophy by the smallest of margins - one point.
After the three rounds played out on separate nights in each contry NDPS scored 482.0 points from Koblenz with 481.0 points and Nivernais who scored 455.5 pints.
The Norwich round was judged by Naomin Saul ARPS ASINWP EFIAP DPAGB APAGB BPE4*

The theme chosen by Foto-Club Koblenz, who were the organisers of this year’s Battle was GRAPHIC. NDPS entries for the competition included images from 15 different member of the Society. Congratulations to NDPS member David Jordan whose image Staircase was awarded the highest aggregate score in the Battle - 29.5 out of a maximum of 30 points..

CompetitionMaurice YoungFebruary 14, 2023inter-club, international, battle, kck, cpcn, ndps

From Plant to Page – Norfolk Photographer’s inspired creation

Congratulations to NDPS member Simon Ciappara whose photography and much more is featured in an article published in the February edition of the Norfolk magazine.

After winning at 17 a Canon camera in a Sunday Telegraph competition Simon’s photography came to an abrupt end a couple of years later when a burglar stole both his camera and 160 rolls of film containing irreplaceable candid backstage shots from his time as a ‘roadie’ on the North American leg of Eric Clapton’s Slowhand tour.

At the age of 60 Simon returned to photography and purchased a Sony which in his words was ‘..so complicated..’ that he joined Norwich & District Photographic Society’ in the hope that he could learn how to use it.

Maurice YoungJanuary 31, 2023rps, fellowship, distinctions, achievement

Cambridge Digital Inter-Club Competition 2023

The regional club competitions start each year with the Cambridge Digital Inter-Club Competition and it’s always a good chance to meet up with old friends and photographers from other clubs and see some of the best images from around the region. This year was the first in person meeting for a few years because of the effects of covid and those effects were still evident. Normally 35 clubs compete with a waiting list and there have been up to 190 visitors but this year numbers were down with only 27 clubs entered and only around 60 external visitors, but it was still a good meeting.

The Cambridge club are very well organised the competition runs very smoothly, and their catering team provide very good cakes. There are five rounds, Mono, People, Landscape, Nature, and Open, each image is marked out of 20 and the highest scoring club is the winner.

Ralph Duckett MPAGB EFIAP APAGB, from Staffordshire had the hard job of judging this year. He has been a member at Burton on Trent Photographic Society for over 40 years. An experienced PAGB judge, he gave concise and useful comments with good humour on each image and awarded very high scores to many of them, his opinion being that the standard was very high. Ralph awarded 37 images with full marks of 20/20 and this gave him a very difficult job to select his overall winning image. He whittled these down to a final 7 images but then threw it out to the audience to help him select the winner – not the most conventional way to pick a winner but this ended the afternoon with at least the winning photographer happy!

Five members from NDPS went along to observe the competition. Two of our 5 images scored 20 and overall, we ended with 94 points, out of 100, putting us in equal 8th place slightly down on last year but still a result we were very happy with. Top club was Photographic Imaging Co-Operative (PICO) with 99, second was Welwyn Garden (98), third North Norfolk Photographic Society (97).

Next up are the St Ives Interprint and the EAF Championships. If you get the chance to go along and watch the judging it is recommended as it gives you a good feel for the standard of work in the region and will inspire your own photography.

Review by Dave Balcombe ARPS & Joan Jordan ARPS

CompetitionMaurice YoungJanuary 24, 2023cambridge, digital, inter-club, monochrome, people, landscape, nature, open

Discovering the Essex Coast

Leaving Norfolk very early yesterday morning (Sunday) no one expected the near perfect conditions that greeted the Landscape Group members who made the long journey down to Thorpe Bay on the Thames Estuary. We were able to enjoy nearly two hours out on the sand flats before the tide started to come in quickly photographing the many fishing boats on their moorings before a welcome breakfast in a local café and the chance to warm up...!.

Later we moved on to Shoeburyness and then Lion Creek before heading back mid-afternoon to Norfolk. Hopefully, everyone will have captured a few great images...?

This coming weekend it is the turn of the Nature & Wildlife Group who will be nearer to home out on the North Norfolk Coast photographing this season’s new population of seal pups.

Many NDPS members choose to join one or more of the specialist Groups which concentrate more closely on particular areas of photography and imaging. Visit our website www.ndps.info/overview-of-groups to learn more about our five Special Interest Groups that all meet about once a month.

New York Street Photography by Phil Penman

Tuesday 17 January 2023

This was a shared evening with Old Coulsdon with over 70 people present.

Phil led us through his life as a photographer and he began his presentation by talking about his birth in England, in Dorset and his education at Berkshire College of Art and Design before he moved on to his first photographic job with the Wokingham Times.

He wanted to work and live in New York and on a stakeout in England he got an introduction to a celebrity news agency Splash News was offered a job and moved to Los Angeles. As a celebrity photographer he was lucky enough to shoot people like Bill Gates, Jennifer Lopez and Christopher Reeve while he was also covering news stories. His news pictures were published in English papers like the Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph and in Paris Match.

Then suddenly on September 11 he was asked to go immediately to the Trade Centre. The aeroplane terrorist attack. His first thought was to find a vantage point, not close to the towers because he was to take photos of the height of the towers. Phil's description of his photography of this outrage was quietly dramatic. The rumble as the towers came down, being grabbed by a policeman and told to sprint, the black sky and utter weirdness of the scene. Should he take pictures of distressed people without asking? Yes, that's why he was there. He ran for shelter into a music shop while outside was a parallel universe with paper 'raining' from the sky with people walking towards him out of a cloud of dust.

In 2015 he donated all his work from the event to the 9/11 museum.

Phil went on to give us a view of his work that followed, more celebrity photography plus full length street pictures making sure that you are not looking down onto the subject. Then a show of his work during the Covid pandemic showing what life was really like on the streets of NY and telling some of the stories of the people who are homeless.

In fact, he said, that Covid lockdown period was his busiest ever!

He summed up by running through his life from Dorset through celebrity photography, selling prints and publishing his first book, doing what he wanted to do!

An entertaining and instructive evening. Lots of excellent information from the question time.

Special PresentationMaurice YoungJanuary 24, 2023shared event, zoom, street photography, mononchrome, new york

Storytelling for Photographers by JP Stones

Yesterday evening's presentation by JP from his home in Mexico, where he has lived for about the last ten years, was shared with Sheffield Camera Club so more than 60 people tuned in to a very interesting presentation.

JP explained that he worked with the Mexica people whose roots are in the prehispanic periods of meso America. He showed a picture of Linda, one of his models, in a costume relevant to the myths of her culture and he made the point that she had produced the costume herself and how expensive it was, but all the details mattered to be sure that the costume was factually correct for the myth.

He said that when he first started full time photography he only wanted to take pretty photos, but he found that his interest in making narrative photos resulted in a different kind of picture and he was surprised to find that his photographs were copied on to tattoos and murals! He even gave permission to have one of his images used as a Hells Angels logo!

This change of direction from pretty pictures to storytelling photos had produced a much greater reaction to his work. It was clear to him that the story comes first, and the photo follows. As an example of narrative pictures JP used the early Christian church of western Europe. The first followers of the Christian faith could neither read nor write so to give them an understanding of the legends and stories the interior of churches and the stained glass of the windows were covered with pictures showing the religious messages and histories - iconography.

Zoom, Special PresentationMaurice YoungJanuary 4, 2023culture, portraiture, storytelling, mexico

Woodland ways by Paul Mitchell FRPS

On Tuesday evening Paul Mitchell presented the love of his life, woodland photography throughout all the seasons. And what a beautiful collection of images these were.

Paul began by telling us of his connections with East Anglia mentioning holidays in Southwold and many visits to Norwich. He said how lucky we were to live in such a wonderful area, and he is right! He told us that he is a graphic designer, and that photography was a hobby, an outlet and an escape, but what a shock to be told that he had gained his Fellowship of the RPS using a pinhole camera! The moral here is that lots of expensive equipment and gadgets are not needed to achieve happiness and excellence in photography.

Paul got his inspiration from several landscape painters; Turner, Sandby, Bierstadt and from a selection of photographers; Peter Demberkis, Shinzo Maeda and Christopher Burkett, and he advised that we also should study their work. As well as this he listed his woodland kit which was interesting because of the lack of a wide angle lens, however, 70 - 200 lens and a good polariser were essentials. He talked of composition and reached decisions by asking the question 'Would I hang it on my wall?' and if the answer was 'No, I would not' then walk away!

The first half of the presentation was devoted to his photographs, and these were themed with the seasons. A really outstanding idea for a presentation and allowing a wonderful collection of early morning shots daytime and also evening shoots. Included in this cornucopia of plenty were a collection of outstanding infra-red pictures.

The second half Paul devoted to explaining how he processed his images using Lightroom and Photoshop, time filled with many good tips and explanations all delivered in a very comprehensible and enjoyable form.

Many thanks to Paul for an excellent evening. Now, what's the forecast for tomorrow morning, snow, mist, fog? Where's my polariser?

Maurice YoungDecember 21, 2022

An Indian Adventure by Alan Cameron ARPS

This week at our Tuesday meeting Alan Cameron recounted his pre-pandemic holiday in India, he described it as his travelogue. And what a feast of art, history and photography this presentation proved to be.

Alan divided his presentation into two parts, part one featured the north of India, the 'Golden Triangle' and Ranthambore National Park, and after the break he moved south to Karnataka and Kerala.

After a late arrival in Delhi Alan showed us pictures of the terrible traffic and driving manners, highlighting the Tuk Tuk donkeys, sacred cows and the ubiquitous camel!

The India Gate, commemorating the fallen of both world wars and the mosque were beautifully photographed and presented. These formal photographs were contrasted with pictures of street markets including artisans with tools of their trades, and collections of foodstuffs, nuts, cloves and so on.

e Gandhi monument built on the site of Gandhi's cremation was an interesting building. World Heritage sites are abundant in India and the tomb of the second Mogul Emperor with its Paradise Gardens with its rivers of water, honey, milk and wine. A land flowing with milk and honey!

In Agra Alan showed pictures of the famous Taj Mahal with its tomb and paradise gardens.

In Ranthambore Alan found the famous Indian Tigers and he took some great pictures but not without some trepidation because firearms are not allowed for the guides in their open jeeps.

Thanks Alan for a wonderful evening.

Special Presentation, Cambidge Inter-Club, ZoomMaurice YoungDecember 2, 2022india, trravel, culture, people, landscape

How I take my portraits by Lee Sutton

Tuesday evening's Special Presentation came from Blackburn in Lancashire and was delivered by Lee Sutton who has a list of achievements after his name stretching almost to Norwich!

Overall his talk was easy to follow and informative, full of explanations and examples. He began with a very short outline of his camera and lenses before moving on to the thought provoking 'reasons why your pictures are not as good as they could be'.

There then followed a list that all photographers have to grasp if they are to improve their images: know your camera; practice, become part of your camera; understand the basics of exposure; pay attention to composition; study other photographers, not just the greats but others in your club; understand light; if possible include a story in your picture; hold the camera properly and finally get your photos critiqued.

Lee continued with examples of composition including the importance of 'thirds'; cropping; filling the frame; leading lines; triangles; backgrounds and so on.

He showed us many examples of shots taken in a studio where he had total control of the lighting the pose and properties and followed with a set of shots taken in natural sunlight.

Then he showed how he edited a headshot in Photoshop, slowly clearly and succinctly.

He outlined some of the problems associated with location shoots, the weather, locations and unhappy models.

His recap included the advice to talk to the model, keep poses simple, check backgrounds for distractions, use suitable depth of field and finally he talked of camera care. If your camera is not clean and dust free there will be problems with the pictures you take.

We are grateful to Lee for an evening of down to earth advice and endless tips for producing better photographs.

Special PresentationMaurice YoungOctober 27, 2022portraiture, portraits, models, photoshop

Seeing in Black and White by Eileen Rafferty

This evening from the far north of the United States, not so far from the border with Canada Eileen delivered her lecture on seeing in black and white. Her background was in film, and she was a full time darkroom technician in her early work life, and she mused how black and white was still an alluring form after 200 years or so.

Eileen was keen to point out at the very start that black and white conversion was definitely not a way to 'save' a picture! She said that a photograph was in two parts - form and content, the form is visible, and the content tells the story or concept or meaning. Inspiration can be drawn from early photos.

Using these old pictures we can ask 'Why black and white?', what is contrast and where is the eye of the person looking at the picture being drawn and why. Black and white images eliminate the dominance of colour and bring attention to content. The image is more homogenous in black and white, more dramatic! Obviously black and white is a departure from reality because colour is 'everyday'.

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungOctober 6, 2022photo-talk, zoom, black & white

Autumn Season opens with outstanding new talk by Ruth Grindrod

Opening Presentation for the new Autumn season = Scotland - Looking Beyond and Within

Norfolk base landscape, the inspirational Ruth Grindrod opened the new season of NDPS photo-talks with a bang! Ruth had prepared a new presentation and we were the first camera club to receive it. A real privilege and a real feast for the eyes.of the 56 members and guests who where there in our new home at the City Academy Norwich.

Ruth began, and indeed ended, with a rousing short audio visual presentation which introduced her photography, her thought processes and her technical tips. This was a 'no bullet point' start to an evening of Scotland north, south, east and west!

As usual with Ruth she began with a brief list of her kit - the cameras she uses, her filters and tripod. She followed this with her first piece of advice, advice which she has found invaluable over her photographic journey - get it right in the camera!

She said that printing your picture is by far the best idea and to help get the printing to your satisfaction you should print sample sheets on ordinary photo paper and then consider the best paper, the most suitable paper, for each particular image.

Ruth showed a series of breath-taking photos to illustrate composition. Offsetting an image by using a pebble - she didn't place it! It was there naturally! She showed the horizon in the centre of a picture, normally against the rules of composition but . . . Rules can be broken.

Special PresentationMaurice YoungSeptember 11, 2022scotland, landscape, coastal, seascapes, initimate, grand vistas

Sheffield Photographic Society Members visit Norwich

NDPS were delighted to host a visit from our friends from Sheffield between the 17 -19 of June. The two Society’s made contact with each other at the beginning of the pandemic and although we have shared a few evenings, enjoyed a new photo-competition along with Old Coulsdon and a few members have met each other when for example people have been travelling this was the first official ‘face to face’ gathering of SPS and NDPS members.

The Sheffield contingent arrived at 4pm on the hottest day of the year! After a brief “getting to know you” moment we all set off for a saunter along the river in the general direction of the Adam & Eve, grabbing shots along the way.

After a swift’ish half we meandered towards the Cathedral and much more joyful snapping ensued. The Sheffield Togs were returned to their hotel and arrangements made for the following morning.

Saturday dawned grey and dull and we all assembled at the Horsey Mill carpark. Windmills being a scarcity in Sheffield, delight was expressed by all and much shooting from all angles took place. The next (unscheduled) stop was St Mary’s ruin at East Somerton, a fine drizzle didn’t dampen spirits and images were captured by all.

Happisburgh lighthouse was the next port of call followed by the thatched boat houses at Hickling, both sites provided novel imaging for the visitors as Sheffield has nether in close proximity.

Dinner was had and enjoyed at Yellows at Carrow Road. Ours was the largest and noisiest party that particular Saturday night evidencing a good time had by all.

Sunday saw a pleasant visit to Rosary Road cemetery, much beloved by aficionados of high gothic memorials and tombstones, batteries near exhausted and SD cards fit to bust all went their separate ways home to Sheffield happy and pictorially replete.

Let the great post shoot edit commence with fond memories of their visit to our neck of the woods.

Maurice YoungJuly 1, 2022

Annual Print Panel Award - 2022

Des King backed-up his recent success of his print ASPECTS OF THE SAINSBRY ART CENTRE being chosen best Print Image of the Year by winning the Annual Print Panel Award for 2022. In the first round a record number of entries were held back by Judge Justin Minn’s who said his task had been made extremely difficulty by the very high standrad of photography shown during the evening. But as always there can only be one winner and Des’s panel of five images entitled ON THE COURSE swept away the trophy.

CompetitionMaurice YoungJuly 1, 2022print panel, award

Details of NDPS's Annual Open Public Photography Competition announced...!

Norwich & District Photographic Society’s
Annual Open Public Photography Competition

Norwich & District Photographic Society (NDPS) returns this Autumn to Norwich Cathedral between Tuesday 27th September and Saturday 29th October when the 106th Annual Exhibition is held in the prestigious Hostry Exhibition Area.

Would you like to see one of your photographs exhibited at Norwich Cathedral in the Autumn..? That's the prize awaiting four lucky photographers in our Annual Open Public Photography competition..!

To enter send up to three digital images and indicate your age if under 18, by midnight on Sunday 31st July. The judge of this year’s exhibition entries will choose the winner and two runners-up from a final shortlist of twenty selected by the members of the NDPS f1.4 Forum. In addition, there is a separate award for best Junior Photographer under the age of 18 years old on the 1st of September 2022.

The authors of the four photographs selected will each be awarded a framed certificate at the ‘Private Viewing’ for NDPS members and their guests on Tuesday 27th September at 7:00pm in the Hostry.

Annual Exhibition, Public, CompetitionMaurice YoungJune 21, 2022life in Norwich, street, people, spaces, creative

David Jordan elected NDPS Photographer of the Year

In last night’s final the members of the Society elected David Jordan Photographer of the Year.

In the first part of the evening all six finalists (in alphabetical order) Dave Balcombe, David Jordan, David Powley, Pat Stebbings, each showed and talked about the 10 images they entered in the five pre-qualifying rounds that took them to the final.

After the break, the finalists presented three new images (all choosing to show prints) before a ballot was held to select the champion photographer.

Last year’s champion Neil Hall who we were all delighted to see back in NDPS presented David with the trophy. Neil congratulated all the finalsts on the quality of photography on display, adding he knew from personal experience what a tough competition POTY is…!

Photographic Awards, POTYMaurice YoungJune 8, 2022final, poty

Rome - In Pictures and Words by Chris Ceaser

On Tuesday evening Chris Caesar led us through the streets of Rome and treated us to a potted history of the Eternal City beginning from the 9th century BCE up to today. He talked of the seven hills of Rome, the myths surrounding the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, their falling out and Romulus' victory. Chris mentioned the Sabine women from the next door hill and the arrival of the Eutruscans.

We saw pictures of the Circus Maximus, the chariot racing arena, and Chris explained the meaning of the ubiquitous logo 'SPQR' (Senatus Populusque Romanus) the Senate and People of Rome, to be seen on so many structures in the city.

Julius Caesar made an entrance and his well known sound bites explained - 'The die is cast!', 'Crossing The Rubicon', 'I came, I saw, I conquered'.

Then on to The Appian Way, its construction and its bloody history of punishment of the slaves of the Spartacus rebellion, 6,000 prisoners nailed to crosses every 60 yards!

The emperor Trajan his column, a carved history of war and invasion, his building of what is believed to be the first supermarket and the first use of concrete in construction.

After the break we saw some beautiful pictures of the Pantheon and its oculus, its eye in the roof open to the sky. In the 1400's Piazza Navona was constructed and this breath-taking open area still retains the shape and dimensions of the original circus on which it was built.

Piazza del Campidoglio, beautifully designed by Michelangelo, is the masterpiece of the Capitoline hill and beautifully photographed my Chris. More excellent views of the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and Piazza del Popolo.

We walked along the banks of the Tiber on Lungo Tevere and admired the bridges, the Ponte Rotto and the Vatican church and state.

Chris ended his Roman Holiday with a brief tour of the fountains, the 'typewriter' monument and the 'bocca della verita'. You know, the drain cover which bites your hand off if you don't tell the truth!

Great photos, great explanations and an evening to remember. Our thanks to Chris.

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