The AGM of HPIC 26/05/21

For the second year running our AGM was held on Zoom. This year reports were given by all the officers and members of the committee which meant that a good turn out of members went away well-briefed on a wide range of club matters.

Picking out some examples we were reminded that:

• Club membership had been maintained despite the inability to meet in person.

• The special interest groups (SIGs) in four themed areas had engaged members in sharing and learning opportunities outside the regular Wednesday meetings.

• Our club and its members had taken part in a number of regional, national and even one international competition all with encouraging results.

  • Nearest to home the West Yorkshire Interclub had proved competitive as ever with us retaining the trophy by one point.

  • Individual members have had success in the 2020 and 2021 YPU Annual competitions.

  • Our international foray was in the 15th FIAP World Cup for Clubs 2020 where our PDI entry came a very creditable 26th out of 213 participating clubs.

  • We took part in a one off Cymru digital mono competition and out of 49 clubs came 4th.

• A varied programme had been maintained throughout the year and many good speakers from afar had presented their work and shared information on their methods.

• The website had been improved in a number of ways and regular reports such as this provided to keep it topical.

• A successful exhibition had been held in a shop unit on the Piazza.

• A start had been made on the cataloguing of our archive in readiness for it to pass to the local branch of the West Yorkshire Archive Service.

Subsequent discussions took place around the challenges of preparing a programme not knowing when a return to physical meetings would be possible.

It was decided to maintain our half-price subscriptions until such time an increase was needed to fund a meeting room once more.

Well done to the committee all of whom were re-elected and to the membership for taking part in our annual business meeting.

Yorkshire Photographic Union Annual Exhibition – In Search of Perfection

Visiting on the first day of opening for Bradford’s Science Museum outpost it was clear that returning front of house staff were getting used to new ways of working. There are a full array of exhibitions to view but once inside I headed straight to see the best work from Yorkshire Clubs. The show centres on the 200 accepted prints from 2020 which could not be displayed at Pontefract last year. 2021 entries have been digital only and a number of the best images in each category are displayed from an ingenious touch-free console. The rest of the beautifully presented exhibition tells the story of our regional federation of currently 67 clubs, shows where they are on a map, and displays examples from the museum’s archive to show how the photographing of a range of genres has changed over more than 150 years. Two videos explain the judging process and give an insight into nature photography and you can even have a go at judging some images yourself. Interspersed amongst the exhibits are some vintage cameras and up to date quotes from club photographers including recognisable names from our own membership.

All in all the exhibition is a credit to the YPU, the Museum, Bradford Photographic Society which recently celebrated 160 years and was instrumental in securing the venue, Yorkshire Club members, and the judges who chose both sets of work. Our own club is represented by 13 prints from 5 members. 14 of our members had 33 digital acceptances this year. A full list is on the YPU website and catalogues will soon be posted out to all who entered. It was impossible to show all 450 plus accepted images at Bradford so a selection was made of the high scoring ones in each category and it is these which are shown using the console. The exhibition is open on four days a week for 5 weeks. The museum is free to enter, although donations are welcome. Visit it soon. You won’t be disappointed.

At the entrance to Gallery one, beside the introductory banner there are a few images projected to give a flavour of what is inside. Credit to our own Richard Fulcher for having his creative ‘Wild Goose Chase’ chosen for this.

Annual Competition – 4th week of judging 19/05/21

A packed virtual house of 41 members joined us once again for the 4th and final week of judging for our annual exhibition. This time honours fell to Graham Currey to deliver feedback and once again he was tested with a variety of work covering Nature, Travel, Creative and Intermediate prints.

As ever, the standard of the work was exceptionally high, reflected in how many images were held back to be in the running for honours at the hotly anticipated 'Oscars' night in June. This week the following authors were added to the list of hopefuls for a shot at glory:

Travel:

• George Fewster

• Mike Hey

• Kevin Lloyd

• Alan Stopher

Intermediate:

• Carol Haigh

• Clayton Manhertz

• Susan Murray

Creative:

• Paul Campbell

• Richard Fulcher

• James Gibson

• Harry Wentworth

Nature:

• George Fewster

• Carla Lloyd

• Kevin Lloyd

• Tony Pratt

• Alan Stopher

• Mark Turner

Scapes:

• Stephen Drew

• Richard Fulcher

• Carla Lloyd

• Kevin Lloyd

• Tony Renshaw

• Chris Rogers

• Mary Rogers

• Alan Stopher

Congratulations to them all.