News 2005

January	I wonder why this seems like deja vue?…the new season began with plans for this year’s Uppermill Exhibition beginning on 18th March with a special opening and preview night, which will once again be called “Circles of Confusion” – this year it will be a little different, with plans to sell mounted unframed prints alongside the framed exhibiton prints.At the end of the month, Sheila, Maureen, Brian and Verna entertained the members with a showing of their CPAGB panels. This was made more entertaining with a short humorous AV sequence showing the group’s preparations for same, put together by Sheila. Some questions and answers at the end enabled members who are maybe interested in going in for the distinctions to clarify the requirements.
February	The quarterly competitions came to a climax on 10th Feb. with the decider, the 4th quarterly, judged by Martin Malies of South Manchester CC. The cumulative scores resulted in some vert tight end-of-year results, with Christine Widdall just snatching the monochrome title from Gary Waidson by half a mark (the first time a tie-break has been needed at the end of a year). Christine also won the colour, by a more comfortable margin and Gary took the honours in slides.
March	The highlight of the month was the opening of the Exhibition at Saddleworth Museum Art Gallery on the 18th, in which a number of our members exhibited their work. The opening event was a great success, with wine and conversation and a couple of print sales to start the ball rolling!! This year we also had a box of unframed mounted prints available for sale. Several members were successful over the 4 week exhibition, some with multiple sales! Thanks to Peter Fox at the Gallery for making the event so easy to organise.Also during March we held the annual print and slide competitions, this year the judging was spread over three weeks, due to a large amount of work being submitted. Quantity was no substitute for quality, however, with the judges having a really difficult job of choosing the winners from the very high standard of work produced, especially in the prints. Best slide award went to Sheila Goodyear for “Arctic Explorers” and best print to Christine Widdall for “Whispering Grass”.
April	A print appraisal evening took place at the beginning of the month along with an impromptu training session on RAW conversion in PhotoShop and Pictures to Exe by Chris Widdall and Mike Lawrence. The society then took a short break for the Easter holiday.
May	Two of our Annual judges, Tony Redford and Geoff Robinson were able to be our guests at the awards presentation evening at the beginning of May, where awards for the whole of the previous year were presented and winning slides and prints from the Annual Competitions were shown to members and guests. Afterwards, we enjoyed a cheese and wine event and plenty of conversation!
June	We were treated to two excellent presentations during June. First was Ian Gregory with “First and Last”, who showed us some excellent work with an artistic flavour. Ian works in the graphic art industry and brings his talent for image making into his photography. The following week we were treated to another talk, illustrated with prints, by Tillman Kleinhans of St Helens. Tillman’s talk was entitled “Digital do’s and digital don’ts” and covered the full range of his digital printing experience.
July	The judging of our second digital AV competition, by John Smith of Rochdale, was well received by all present and the standard of the entries was,once agin, high. The competiton was won by a sequence made jointly by Sheila Goodyear and Maureen Glynn entitled “The Art of the Shaman” and featuring the paintings of Susan Seddon Boulet.
August	During our period of closure for the summer holiday, a number of OPS members enjoyed local photographic opportunities together, including the Yanks visit to Saddleworth and the Annual Rushcart Festival.
September	The season started with a most interesting talk from David Tolliday of Macclesfield entitled the “Confessions of an Amateur Wildlife Photographer” David entertained us with the amusing tales of how he gets his shots of wild birds and generously gave advice and tips on how to get the best out of our own nature photography.Chris Widdall retired as President at the AGM and David Butterworth was elected to succeed her.
October	Who’s Who after the AGM… President: David Butterworth 0161 624 5782Retiring President: Christine Widdall 01457 876215Competition Secretary: Jenny Binks Secretary: John Widdall Programme Secretary: Charlotte GowersExhibition Secretary: Christine WiddallCouncil Members without Portfolio Barbara Booth Charles Madders Mike Lawrence Trevor Chesworth
November	The month started with the L&C mono prints folio – a disappointment as many of the prints appeared to have suffered a change of colour/loss of density since the exhibition in the summer. This sent certain members off in hot pursuit of an archival digital printer. Entertainment from Tony and Dorothy Redford on Nov 10th was one of the highlights of 2005, with imaginative work shown both in print form and simultaneously projected to show how the images had evolved. Well done!!
December	Two events of particular note this month – the Christmas Party, which this year was organised by Jenny and Charlotte, giving Chris and Sheila a welcome rest! The buffet and quiz were enjoyed by all. Thanks U2. Mike Lawrence received news that he has won a FIAP Gold Medal at Smethwick for this picture. Very well done and congratulations to Mike.

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