Weekly Meetings

Gateway Camera Club meets at 8 p.m. on Thursdays ( See Program Page for details ) at the Crabble Corn Mill, Lower Road, River, CT17 0UY. Doors open at 7.30 p.m. to give us time to get a drink and have a chat before the start.

Four Way Battle

Members of the Gateway club recently ventured into the wilds of Ashford for a four way Battle between Gateway, Ashford, Folkestone and Canterbury. Many thanks to those of you who went to support your Club.

The Battle was judged by Chris Palmer, ARPS, DPAGB, a highly experienced judge from Uxbridge, West London, who has travelled all over the country in his capacity as a judge. At the conclusion of the event, there was no doubt that all who attended felt he was an excellent judge who did a difficult task extremely well. Interestingly, the judge scored as he went along, holding a number back which he scored highly at the end of the round.

After the first round when the PDIs were judged, the scores were as follows:

• 1= Gateway and Folkestone with 133 points each
• 3 Ashford with 132
• 4 Canterbury with 122

In the PDIs, the following GCC entries were held back and then scored:

• Set Them Free by Baden Bowen scored 20; and
• Young, Male and Angry by Peter Greenstreet scored 19.

After a break we moved on to the prints.

The scores for each club after this round were:

• 1 Ashford 145
• 2 Gateway 139
• 3 Canterbury 131
• 4 Folkestone 127

The following GCC entries were held back and then scored:

• White Gothic by Baden Bowen scored 20;
• In Front by Christopher Allen scored 20;
• Black Grouse In Flight by Peter Greenstreet scored 19; and
• Mating Greenbottles by Phil Hadley scored 19.

The overall totals were:

• 1 Ashford 277
• 2 Gateway 272
• 3 Folkestone 260
• 4 Canterbury 253

The competition was extremely close, but unfortunately for us, we were “pipped at the post” by Ashford who beat us by 5 points.

However, Gateway can hold our heads up high, given that the standard was high and the other clubs taking part are far bigger than us. We showed that we might one be a small club, but we are able to compete with much bigger clubs and give them a run for their money.

We have had some good success this year, and now we look forward to the PAGB PDI nation-wide competition in July!

East Kent Cup 2019

More than sixty members and visitors attended this season's East Kent Cup, held this year at the Cricketers Public House, Crabble Avenue, River. This is an annual competition held between the Gateway Camera Club, Folkestone Camera Club, Deal and District Camera Club, the Isle of Thanet Photographic Society and Canterbury Photographic Society. This years very able judge was Mrs Kirsty Ralfs.

Scores after the PDI image round were as follows :-

Deal - 65 points
Folkestone - 67
Isle of Thanet - 70
Canterbury - 73
Gateway -74

Scores for the Print Round were as follows :-

Isle of Thanet - 68 points
Canterbury - 68
Deal - 69
Folkestone - 71
Gateway - 75

So the final scores were :-

Deal - 134 (5th place)
Folkestone - 138 (3rd equal)
Isle of Thanet - 138 (3rd equal)
Canterbury - 141 (2nd place)
Gateway - 149(first)

This means that Gateway were the winners for the second year running.

Feedback on the venue was very positive, with many complimentary comments on the venue, the availability of a bar for our use and the buffet.

The two images below both scored a maximum 20 for Gateway Camera Club.

Battle with Isle of Thanet Photographic Society

Club members recently visited the Isle of Thanet Photographic Society for a battle on the theme of Nature, which was judged by Glyn Bareham.

At the end of a close contest, Isle of Thanet scored 340 points, and Gateway was declared the winner with 354 points.

The following mages were used by the Gateway Club.

A Comfy Pillow by Chris Allen
Pyramidal Orchid by Steve Finch
Vulture by Sue Oliver
Dominican Leaf Mantis by Gary Stamp
Mum It’s Cold by Dave Bish
Bad Hair Day by Chris Allen
Only Little But Can Bite by Tony Scarfe
Here’s Looking At You Kid by Arthur Woodard
Anemone by Steve Finch
Jumping Spider And Prey by Gary Stamp
Black Grouse In Flight by Peter Greenstreet
Young, Male And Angry by Peter Greenstreet
Northern Gannets Courting Display by Phil Hadley
Harvest Mouse by Dave Bish
Mating Greenbottles by Phil Hadley
Elephant by Baden Bowen
Wild Poppy by Arthur Woodard
Breakfast Time by Tony Scarfe
Marbled White by Baden Bowen
Savannah Snooze by Sue Oliver

Ron Jones

Club members were saddened recently to hear of the death of former treasurer and Life Member Ron Jones. Ron was a founder member of the club and in my time as a member seemed to be an ever present. He was a great friend and was always ready to pass on the benefit of his photographic experience. Many will know Ron as the former proprieter of Kent Photos in Dover's Market Square.
His one-liners, wit and repartee will be sadly missed.

RIP Ron.

Diamond Jubilee Competition 2019

The results for the above competition were presented this afternoon (Feb 23rd 2019) at the Ditton Community centre by the judge Ken Scott ARPS. 36 clubs took part, each submitting 8 PDIs, so he judged a total of 288 images, the highest number of entries for a number of years. A marathon effort on his part and I have to say he was a very good judge who gave excellent feedback.

Our images scored as follows:

• Auschwitz Washroom. Simon Collins. 17
• Black Grouse In Flight. Peter Greenstreet. 19
• Calling In The Snow. Peter Greenstreet. 19
• Curlew On The Yorkshire Moors. Phil Hadley. 18
• Just Emerging Gary Stamp 16
• Looking Up Matt Hayward 18
• The Kingsgate Shoreline Steve Finch 16
• Walking The Dog At Sunset Steve Finch 14

Calling In The Snow by Peter Greenstreet was mentioned by the Judge, who commented on the great shallow depth of field and a great capture of the birds environment.

We did not receive any merit awards. 8 were awarded and each of these scored 20.

The winning image was “Blown’in the Wind” by Steve Carroll from Maidstone Camera Club.

The winning club was Maidstone Camera Club with 142 points; the second club was Gateway Camera Club with 137 points, only 5 points behind.

Congratulations to the above photographers who clearly did very well for the club. This was an excellent result for us and one that we can be very proud of.

The first two clubs (so that means us!) now go on to represent the KCPA in the National PDI competition to be held in July in Warwick. I will give you details of this nearer the time, but suffice it to say that there is a fair deal of work coming up for the Committee in a relatively short space of time.

Again, congratulations to all those involved in achieving this excellent result for your club.

Corn Mill Closure

As you may know the Corn Mill is temporarily closed until March 9th so the next club meeting wll be a Critique Night on 14th March. In the menwhile the weekly meetings will be a series of evening shoots starting the week with an evening in Deal. For more detals please contact Chris Allen or Phil Holyer.

Chairman's Challenge Competition

The subject for this year's Chairman's Challenge has been announced and it is 'WEATHER'. With the current crop of weather it is a good time to get snapping.

PAGB E-news Magazine

Following his recent success in the Masters of Print Exhibition, Club member Gary Stamp had his image 'Just Emerging' shown on the front page of the latest PAGB e-news magazine followed by an interview with Gary and some more of his images on page two. Well done Gary

Important Detail for PDI Entries

If you are going to enter PDI competitions this year please note that we are using new projection software this year and the new software demands a different naming convention from last year. The new naming convention is

PICTURE TITLE - Mik Jones.jpg

This is almost the same as last year except that the word by is replaced with a hyphen.

Phil Holyer's Local and Kent Calendars

Club Secretary Phil Holyer has been having success with photographs in print as part of calendars. He posted one of his images of the twin towers of the medieval church at Reculver, taken on a Camera Club night out, on the Instagram platform with the hashtag #igerskent#. This was voted by his peers as the best June photograph and as such won a place on the June page of the Kent Wildlife Trust calendar.

For the second year running Phil has been taking photographs of the St Margarets area thoughout the year and used a selection of these to produce a calendar. He has then sold 50 of these with the proceeds going to the Kelly Turner foundation. Phil says, "I was lucky to have met Kelly, a beautiful, clever and very talented young lady who sadly succumbed to the same awful and aggressive form of Cancer that claimed my father's life." Phil's efforts raised a total of £300 for the fund.

British Wildlife Photography Awards

One of our members, Peter Greenstreet, entered some images into various categories of the British Wildlife Photography Awards and one of those images, Porcelain Fungus in the Canopy, was accepted and got a Highly Commended in the 'Woodlands' category. Peter went up to the Mall Galleries in London to the prizegiving In November and received a copy of the book which is published from the entries. At the time of writing the images are on display in the Canterbury museum.

Masters of Print Exhibition

Gateway Camera Club Member, Gary Stamp, was recently invited by the PAGB to visit London to see a large print of his image, 'Just Emerging', on display in their Masters of Print exhibition.
The image was also nominated by one of the sponsors, Paper Spectrum, as their favourite image and they presented Gary with a pack of A3 premium lustre paper, mountboard and frames.

Visit to Canterbury

The club has begun a series of photographic trips for the Summer break and this week went to Canterbury on Thursday evening. Club Chairman Chris Allen said, "Seven of us ventured out into Canterbury yesterday evening and the consensus was that we all had a great time. We concentrated on the Cathedral grounds and explored areas that many of us had never been to before. We all got some great images and I am sure that many of these will feature in future competitions. The more experienced photographers also took the time to impart some excellent tips to the more inexperienced of us, increasing our knowledge. I for one will now be making far greater use of “fill in flash”! Of course, we ended up in a nearby public house (The Shakespeare, and we can recommend the Whitstable Bay draft Pale Ale)."

Photos were taken from all angles and this had nothing to do with the imbibing of Whitstable Bay draft Pale Ale

Gateway Display in Brunch Cafe, Dover

Phil Hadley has been busy changing our display in the Brunch Cafe in Dover. Phil has gone for a wildlife theme this time so you are encouraged to go and have some refreshment and look at these super pictures. Thanks to those that let their images be borrowed for a while

EAST KENT CUP 2018

The Gateway Club took part in the annual East Kent Cup competition, contested between Gateway CC, Deal CC, Canterbury PS, Folkestone CC and Isle of Thanet PS. This year Isle of Thanet were the hosts and judged by Chris Shore FRPS EFIAP MPAGB BPE5*

Gateway were the eventual winners on 147 points, with Canterbury second on 142. Folkestone were third, a further point back on 141.

Individual scores for Gateway were as follows

Prints
Steve Finch (Dawn 17 points)
Phil Hadley (Focused Ahead 20 points)
Peter Greenstreet (High Alert 18 points)
Gary Stamp (Southern Hawker on Rush 19 points)

PDI
Chris Allen (Medieval Tunnels 18 points)
Peter Greenstreet (The voyager 20 points)
Tony Scarfe (Pictured Smoking 16 points)
Phil Hadley (Water Droplets on Common Wasp 19 points)

Battle with Canterbury Photographic Society

Last week the Gateway Camera Club took part in a battle with the Canterbury Photographic Society at the Crabble Corn Mill. At the interval tea break following the Print round, judge Glyn Bareham had awarded Gateway 226 points and Canterbury 219 points. In the second half he awarded Gateway 228 points for their PDI images and 214 points to Canterbury. So at the end of a really enjoyable evening the final scores were 454 points to Gateway and 433 points to Canterbury.

Recent Studio Night

The Gateway Club recently held a Studio Night arranged by our resident expert, Mr Tony Scarfe. Tony brought along our model for the night Nick, who dressed as his alter ego Ginger for the evening.

Royal Air Force Red Arrows Stamps

One of our members, Matt Hayward, has had one of his photos used on the cover of the Royal Air Force Red Arrows Book of Stamps. Matt was contacted by Buckingham Cover to ask for permission to use the image, which was one of many that he took at the Herne Bay Airshow. They have also asked for permission to contact him again next year when they produce the 2019 set of stamps.

Dover Express Front Page

Not content with that Matt also had his image printed on the front page of the Dover Express. As part of the Dover Moon Walk the Dover Castle was lit up in pink for the evening. Matt's image was used in the Express for an article about the event.

Focuspoint Magazine Letter

Matt Hayward seems to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. His letter, with a photo, was published as the Star Letter in Focuspoint magazine and won Matt a prize.