News 2003

L&CPU (Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union) Annual Competitions – May 2003 – OPS members competed against 55 other clubs in the L&CPU and took joint second place in the colour section, third place in nature, joint fourth in monochrome and joint fourth in the creative section. Out of 51 prints sent, 22 prints were retained for exhibition, of which 16 were selected for the 2003/4 print folios and 5 will represent the L&CPU in the PAGB Inter-Federation Print Competitions.

Midsummer Ramble. Members were for once blessed with brilliant sunshine for their annual midsummer evening ramble in Saddleworth, ending at the Cross Keys Inn, Uppermill for a drink and conversation. Mike Lawrence even managed to get a competition winner in the evening light.

Battle success. On the 24th July – a resounding win for Oldham PS in the print and slide battle against local rivals Oldham Camera Club. The judge was John Smith from Rochdale.

Oldham’s Panoramas Exhibition
Gallery Oldham, Greaves Street, Oldham, 2nd August to 11th October

“An intriguing exhibition featuring urban and rural photographic panoramas from the 19th Century and present day.”

Oldham Photographic Society members show their work in a collaborative exhibition alongside work form the gallery’s archives. The panoramas on display are by Mike Lawrence, Sheila Goodyear, Chris Widdall, John Widdall, David Butterworth, Harold Archer, Jenny Binks, Charles Madders, Russ Hill and John Green. Congratulations to all who submitted work. The panoramas exhibition attracted much publicity for the society, including a double page illustrated article in City Life magazine (see left) and favourable reports in the Manchester Evening News, Oldham Chronicle and Oldham Advertiser newspapers.

President’s evening – John Widdall’s President’s Evening on 18th September was a great success, due to the showing of Digtal Audio Visual sequences by club members. The clubroom was still buzzing during the informal buffet supper held afterwards – looks like a lot more members will be getting into AV now – a real revival for AV in this society.AGM- On September 25th, members voted unanimously to move to the Radclyffe Upper School. Mike Lawrence was installed as President and Chris Widdall as President-Elect.

Oldham PS win Oldham CC’s Annual Monochrome Print Competition – On 30th October, Oldham PS won the Oldham Camera Club annual invitation monochrome print competition. Not only did we have the highest number of points overall, but Joe Chippendale’s portrait “Hemingway”(left) was judged to be overall best print. Congratulations to all who took part. One slightly quirky observation is that SLIC came second and all of the members of SLIC whose work was used in the competition are also members of Oldham PS! The Judge for the night was newcomer George Steele LRPS of Rochdale, who did a fine job (in our opinion!) of selecting the winners, but, above all, gave an entertaining and well considered appraisal of all the work shown.

Society moves to the Radclyffe Upper School – On 2nd October, the Society moved officially to Room 42 at the Radclyffe Upper School, Hunt Lane, Chadderton.

Family Learning Day – On October 12th members took part in a national Family Learning Day at the Radclyffe school, where family portraits were the order of the day. Mike Lawrence set up a temporary studio and skilfully coaxed groups of willing (and sometimes unwillling) toddlers and children to pose for him, assisted ably by Jenny Binks and John Widdall, while Chris Widdall tried and ultimately failed to keep up with processing and printing the masterpieces! Gary Waidson did a brilliant job of PR on the OPS stand and Sheila Goodyear did Digital AV demonstrations at intervals throughout the day. Overall, the activities provided a small profit for OPS funds and the exhausted band of helpers rounded off the day with a de-briefing at a local hostelry.

Oldham PS win battle against Oldham CC -On 6th November, OPS had a convincing win once again against Oldham CC in a print and slide “friendly” at their club. As usual, Oldham PS won the print section by a large margin, but Oldham CC (also as usual) won the slides. Fortunately for OPS, the large margin in the prints carried the day when the section scores were added together.The judge was Peter Lord from Rochdale PS and the evening was most enjoyable. Best print of the night went, once again, to Joe Chippendale for “Hemingway”.

Christmas Party Night
The Christmas party was a smash hit with the usual buffet meal assembled by Sheila and Chris. Sheila did her demo of Pictures to Exe, followed by a demonstration of the first Oldham PS AV disc, which proved poular. Fortunately Mike had made 10 spare copies and all were snapped up by eager members.

Oldham PS members take first and second places at Wigan 10 Focus Day.
Mike Lawrence was awarded first place for “Ricky “the Hitman” Hatton” in the open print competition held by Wigan 10 at their Focus Day on December 7th. Mike also entered a slide, which was placed in the last ten.

Chris Widdall was awarded second place in the print section for “Before the Mast”. Both prints are shown on the left.Seven members attended the seminar, hosted by top L&CPU club Wigan 10 and enjoyed a wide variety of lectures, including traditional monochrome printing from Tony Bond, creative work by Gwen and Phil Charnock, Bird Photography by Colin Smith and Travel Photography by David Butler. Special Guest Keith Brown gave a showing of some of his award winning sequences.

It was an occasion to renew friendships with club members from across the region as well as keeping up with current trends in photography