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.

Ross Cup 2019

The following report is by Club Chairman, Chris Allen.

Firstly, my thanks to the five stalwart members of the Club who attended the Ross Cup 2019 at Ditton (Dave Bish, Peter Greenstreet, Phil Hadley, Baden Bowen and your Chair). It was an excellent event as always, enjoyed by the many members of camera clubs across the KCPA area.

The competition was judged by Caroline Colegate APAGB ARPS. The view of those at the event was that Caroline was an excellent judge who made good accurate comments on the images. She had 288 prints to judge.

The entries from GCC, together with the scores, were as follows:

• Breaking Free by Gary Stamp scored 17
• Bright Spark by Dave Bish scored 16
• Curlew On The Yorkshire Moors by Phil Hadley scored 19
• Get Off My Land by Peter Greenstreet scored 20
• In Front by Christopher Allen scored 16
• Looking Up by Matt Hayward scored 15
• Mating Greenbottles by Phil Hadley scored 14
• Wild Horses by Baden Bowen scored 19.

The Judge selected Curlew On The Yorkshire Moors by Phil Hadley to comment on. She said that the Curlew stood out strongly from the background; she loved the negative space on the right for the bird to go into. She also commented on the balanced tone and high quality.

The Judge also selected Get Off My Land by Peter Greenstreet for one of the only ten merit awards, scoring it 20 (not all Merit Awards scored 20!). She said that this was a terrific picture; a really strong image. She loved the expression and the fact that the viewer could see both eyes, straight on. A really strong contender for the Premier Award. The Judge also stated that if she were able to award an overall second place in the competition, this image would’ve been second out of 288.

Well done to both Peter and Phil for those images.

Overall, GCC scored 136 points. The winner was Ashford Photographic Society with 139 points, and the runner up was Sevenoaks Camera Club with 137 points. Those two clubs now go on to represent the KCPA at the PAGB Inter Club Print Competition in 2020.

GCC came third overall, only one point behind Sevenoaks and 3 points behind the winners. GCC was awarded the Ross Cup Most Improved Club Trophy; in 2018 we came 34th in this competition (some of you may recall my remarks on this in an email and at the Annual Awards Dinner!), and our improved performance to 3rd this year resulted in the award of this trophy.

An excellent result for Gateway camera Club and one that we as a club can be very proud of. The competition was hard and a lot of the clubs have many more members than us. Congratulations to those photographers whose images were selected and did the club proud.

PAGB Inter Club PDI Championships

Having finished second in the 2019 KCPA Diamond Jubilee Competition the Gateway Club went on to represent Kent in the PAGB Inter Club PDI Championships held in Warwick. Club Chairman Chris Allen report follows.

36 clubs took part, comprising the eight Championship Finalists from 2018 and 28 other clubs representing the various Federations across the country. Whilst 36 clubs took part, it is important to remember that they represented the best of their respective regions and were drawn from almost every camera club across the England, Wales and Scotland. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland was unable to send any representative. Each club had to submit a bank of 40 images. From these, each club then made a first and second round choice of eight images per round. These were then scored by three judges and the two scores totalled together to arrive at a final score. The first eight clubs went on to compete in the final for the ChampionClub, and the remaining clubs competed in the Plate Competition. Each Judge awarded each image a score of between 2 and 5 points; the lowest any image scored was a total of 6 and the highest 15.

After the first round, GCC scored 92 and were in 21st place. After the second round we scored 89 (32nd place), giving us a total of 181 points (30th place).

This meant that we went into the Plate Competition. We selected our 8 images from this round from our remaining images in our bank and submitted these. We scored a total of 95 points and finished in 25th place out of 28 clubs taking part in the Plate. In my view, this was a very good result for our Club, bearing in mind that we have not experienced a competition of this nature and we were up against the very top flight of photographic clubs across the country. Some of those clubs only focus on these national competitions, and so I know that we did well against them and can be proud of our achievement. I would like to thank those members whose images were selected to represent our club, and to those who assisted me in selecting the images for the competition.

I would also like to thank Sue and Phil Hadley, and Bev and Baden Bowen, who made the journey up to Warwick in support of our Club. We all had an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable day.

Not all images from our bank were used, but below are the scores of the images used in each round:

First Round

Set The Free by Baden Bowen 13
The Waterhole by Baden Bowen 10
In Front by Christoper Allen 11
Face of Defeat by Tony Scarfe 11
All Fired Up by Phil Hadley 11
Do Not Cross by Gary Stamp 11
Young, Male and Angry by Peter Greenstreet 10
Get Off My Land by Peter Greenstreet 15

Congratulations to Peter on scoring a maximum 15 points.

Second Round

Mother Earth by Baden Bowen 12
Going For It by Phil Hadley 11
Dark Expression by Tony Scarfe 11
Mating Greenbottles by Phil Hadley 13
White Gothic by Baden Bowen 11
Katelyn by Simon Collins 10
Stressed From Battle by Tony Scarfe 9
Lunch Is Served by Gary Stamp 12

The Plate Competition

Dancer by Brian Brown 11
Set The Free by Baden Bowen 12
Ecce by Phil Hadley 11
In Front by Christoper Allen 12
Get Off My Land by Peter Greenstreet 14
Dance Movement by Simon Collins 11
Mating Greenbottles by Phil Hadley 12
A Walk In The Park by Baden Bowen 12

PAGB Inter-Federation Cup

Two members of the club recently had images chosen to represent the Kent County Photographic Association (KCPA) in the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) Inter Federation Cup. Not only that but the images then went on to be accepted into the PAGB Inter-Federation Exhibition.

Phil Hadley's image 'Damselfly Early Morning' represented the KCPA and was one of only two Nature PDI's to be accepted into the exhibition.

Baden Bowen's portrait image 'White Gothic' also represented the KCPA and was accepted into the PAGB Inter-Federation Exhibition.

Well done both of you.

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.