Club News


Monthly Critique:


Battle v Stocksbridge Photographic Society:

This year the annual digital and print battle was hosted by Stocksbridge on 22nd February 2010. Brain Hemsworth of Leeds stepped in at the last minute as independent judge to replace Ray Brammall who was ill. As usual Stocksbridge had some excellent images and for a small club punch always above their weight.

The prints were shown first and Stocksbridge stormed into a lead scoring 224 points against HPIC's 208 for the set of 12 prints submitted by each club. We did not manage any '20s' but Sheila Stanley (with 'Australian Tree Frog'), David Lockwood (with 'Tackle during the Wembley Final' and 'Grasstracking) came close, each print scoring 19 out of 20. Stocksbridge showed their expertise particularly with peerless images of wildlife and sport action.

When it came to the digital images, Stocksbridge lead again scoring 215 to our 209 and therefore ran out clear winners overall. HPIC's Paul Jenkins (with 'Derwent Dawn') and Michal Wojczulis (with 'In Safe Hands') secured 20 points with our best projected images on the night. Well done to both of these members.

Brian Hemsworth sweetened the pill by being very complementary about the standard of work presented by bothclubs. Stocksbridge continued their run of overall victories in these annual battles. The last time we got close was when our predecessor club, Huddersfield Photograhic Society, tied with Stocksbridge in 2004. Thanks go to all those members who contribute images for these competitions and to the judging panel for choosing which ones to enter.


Rounds 3 and 4 of the Interclub Colour Group Competition


Round 3 was hosted by Leeds Coop Photographic Society on 20th February 2010 and judged by Graham Hodgkiss DPAGB all the way from Broadway in Worcestershire.

Graham combined an excellent critique with a fine wit and a strong voice and we all felt really well entertained on an evening won by Huddersfield PIC. This helped us up to third position out of 12 in the four round series.

Our 90 points were made up as follows:

'Evening Departure' by Alan Stopher 19
'Giants v Wolves' by David Lockwood 20
'A Chair in the Light' by Graham Sykes 19
'Mississippi Jazz Musicians' by Peter Stanley 16
'Miracle Reader, Lalibela' by John Broadbent 16

At the start of Round 4 at Pudsey Camera Club Normanton CC were in the lead by a slender 2 points ahead of Pudsey who were in turn ahead of Huddersfield by another two points so there was everything to play for.

Judging this time was Anne Swearman ARPS DPAGB APAGB EFIAP. In introducing herself she stressed that her long list of photographic honours was her way of demonstrating that as a judge she had reached a standard recognised by others. Her observations on an excellent set of images were well received and the scores which she gave were generally high with the lowest being 15.

The top three clubs maintained their supremacy; Pudsey winning the round with 92, Normanton achieving 91, and Huddersfield scoring 89 leaving us in third place for the series. No team scored less than 80 out of a possible 100 so there was little room for changes in the overall positions. The overall scores for the four rounds were:

1st Normanton CC 347 (out of a possible 400)
2nd Pudsey CC 346
3rd Huddersfield PIC 341
4th= Bradford PS 330
4th= Leeds PS 330
6th Wetherby & Dist CC 326
7th Hebden Bridge CC 321
8th Batley & Dist CC 311
9th Leeds Coop PS 302
10th Bradford CC 294
11th= Ossett & Dist CC 293
11th= Bingley CC 293

Huddersfield PIC's final set of images for the year were as follows:

'Seattle Waterfront' by Barry Park 18
'Civil War Soldier' by Peter Stanley 18
'In safe hands' by Michal Wojczulis 20
'Love in the snow' by Sheila Stanley 16
'Pecking Order' by David Lockwood 17

Thanks go to all those who contributed their images for selection and thereby helped Huddersfield improve on last year's 5th place, to the members of the judging panels who select our images, and all those club members who attended the four rounds.

Alan Stopher
Competition Secretary




Digital Multiclub Knockouts


Digital Multiclub Knockouts The accessibility of digital imaging has meant an increase in the number of these events. This year we have already taken part in two, hosted by Rochdale & District Camera Club and Sheffield Photographic Society.

The first of these on 23rd February 2010 involved 6 clubs. Each club entered 13 images. These were played over three rounds of four images each. The lowest scoring team dropped out at the end of each round and two teams dropped out at the end of the third round. Michael Newton from Hebden Bridge did the judging. We were the only club representatives from 'God's country'. The others were:

" Rochdale & District Camera Club
" Sale Photographic Society
" North Manchester Camera Club
" Bolton Digital Photographic Society
" Davyhulme Camera Club

As it was our first attempt at this we did very well to stay in to the very last round where we played David Lockwood's 'Yesterday's News' against North Manchester's more traditional image of the British Museum atrium. The judge took issue with a number of points on both and eventually chose north Manchester as the winner by a slight margin.

The pool of annual projected image submissions was used as a basis for selection. Thanks to the judging panel for choosing which ones to enter and the small band of intrepid HPIC members who ventured over the hill and got back before the snow got too deep.

March 19th saw a good turn out of HPIC members venturing to South Sheffield on a wet Friday night. Although another knockout competition this was very different. 24 clubs from as far away as Lincolnshire and Cheshire entered 5 images. Marjorie Furmston FRPS judged after a quick run through of all the images.

There was a stunning selection on view with some extremely well presented work. Marjorie had the task of reducing 120 to around half, only indicating reasons why she was dismissing them. She attacked this with gusto and only left 50 for the second round. Three of ours went out in this first stage so scored 1 point each. After the second round when around 30 images remained we only had one image left in. This was Barry Jackson's well-regarded 'Shadow Boxer' but this was knocked out in round three. As two clubs had had all their images knocked out in the first round we were some way from bottom. The overall club winner was Worksop & District PS who scored an excellent 18 points. Second were our old adversaries, Stocksbridge, with 15 points. Overall we came 12th equal with 8 points. The best images was taken by a Clay Cross PS member.

It was certainly a 'different' experience with some great pictures on show but after falling behind in the competitive stakes we were all glad to get back to West Yorkshire through the torrential rain.