Here are some of the visiting speakers to look forward to this autumn:

Please note the change to original programme on 21st September.

The On-line discussion group will return on Thursday 23rd September at 8pm, keep up to date here:

https://wordpress.com/page/chesterps.org/5415

An Invitation from The President for the 2021-2022 Season

Dear Friends and colleagues,
I hope this letter finds you all keeping well, and able to get out and about both socially and to take even more photos of our wonderful world, without too many limitations. It is that time of year again that I would like to welcome you all back into the fold of The Chester Photographic Society by rejoining the club for a further year and help getting it up and running again, although behind the scenes it never really stops. New members or even lapsed members are very welcome also.

Our first meeting is on September 7th with a talk by David Garthwaite on “Fine Art: A Workflow” so set a reminder now.

Because of the uncertainty about the Corona Virus status it was decided at the AGM and confirmed at the last committee meeting that we would continue our meetings on line using the Zoom meeting facility for the coming season. Speakers for the first half of the season were booked a few months ago to do on line presentations and our competitions will also be done on line. We are now booking speakers for the second half of the season also on line, but we are also investigating the possibilities of holding live meetings at the Church Hall or a mixture of the above. The membership will be consulted on any change. Running alongside our club evenings last season was the “Discussion Group”, which were very informal chat evenings via Zoom on any photographic related subject participants liked to choose. The idea was to discuss individuals experiences, pass on advice, suggest different ways of approaching subjects, techniques or equipment preferences. They were very enjoyable and some good tips, advice and information was exchanged.

The club relies on its members to operate and succeed so please make the effort rejoin again this year, get involved, new ideas and members are always welcome.

Graham Latter

Our annual awards this year have again been affected by the Pandemic with only Digital Images being entered. Thanks go to all the judges who were able to award points and give comments remotely over Zoom.

Congratulations go once again to Jan Wilding for being our “Photographer of the Year” in addition to winning three other trophies for the People, President’s Theme and Mono DPI competitions. Keith Fitzpatrick achieved 2^nd Place Photographer of the Year along with the Nature DPI trophy and he gained the most points in the Open DPI three part competition. Sue Champion was awarded 3rd Place Photographer of the Year and Ian Nixon topped the points to become “B”Section Photographer of the Year.

Last weekend saw the opportunity for CPS members to enter their own DPI images into the L&CPU Annual Individual’s Competition. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing Covid restrictions this competition was for DPI entries only. There were two sections :-  Open Colour and Mono section and a Nature section. Up to 12 images could be entered into the Open section and up to 6 images in the Nature section. The judges this year were Leo Rich, Bill Hall and Mike Sharples. Four CPS members entered their images and a full round up of the results can be found on the L&CPU website :

https://lcpu.org/2021/05/09/results-annual-individuals-competition-2021/

The slideshows can be found here:

Open – https://www.lcpu-portal.org/launch/slideshow/SlideShow.php?ClassID=225&SetScore=12

Nature – https://www.lcpu-portal.org/launch/slideshow/SlideShow.php?ClassID=226&SetScore=12

Congratulations and thanks to Sue Champion, Patricia Keegan, Ian Nixon, and Jan Wilding for participating and keeping our name up there with all the other clubs in the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union.

Best wishes

Jan

This Saturday saw the results of the L&CPU Annual Club competition judged by Gwen and Phil Charnock shown over zoom.. Each club could submit 16 images in the Open Digital class and 8 Nature Digital images. The marks achieved can be seen in blue at the top of each image. This year images were marked out of 20.

In the Open category Chester finished joint 28th / 41 clubs with 242 points.

We fared much better in the Nature Digital gaining 126 points to be placed joint 17th / 41 clubs.

Overall we were ranked joint 21st with a total of 268 points.

As usual the top two clubs were only separated by one point with Oldham PS just pipping Chorley PS. The full results and slideshows of the top scoring images can be found on the Information Portal here : https://www.lcpu-portal.org/launch/

Thank you to all the authors, and to Keith Fitzpatrick for helping with the selection. The L&CPU provided an entertaining Saturday, particular thanks going to Adrian and Jane Lines and the judges for all their hard work. We did not enter the Print competition due to the difficult logistics, but anyone wanting to watch this over zoom can do so next Saturday 27th March.

Report by Sue Champion

Last weekend saw the judging of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain GB Cup competition. This year all clubs were placed in the same category, so we were up against the “Big Boys”. In the OPEN Digital Competition Chester PS finished a very respectable 49th out of 120 clubs from across the British Isles. Images are traditionally chosen from the previous season’s competition entries as this event is usually held earlier in the year. Thanks go to authors Ian Atkinson, Sue Champion, Letizia Contini, Patricia Keegan, Ali Muspratt, Vicky Naudi, Ron Sutton, Rob Tarrant and Jan Wilding. The marks awarded are shown in red alongside the images below:

As there was a joint 1st place, it was necessary to do a count back (using the 13th image)resulting in Smethwick Photographic Society being the winners of the 2021 GB Cup.

The GB Cup for Nature is a much tougher affair, which is reflected by Chester finishing 92 /104 clubs. Not all clubs enter this section ,so it was great that Chester could put an entry together. Thanks go to authors Sue Champion, Patricia Keegan, Cyril Langman, Derek Meredith, Vicky Naudi, Ian Nixon, Ron Sutton and John Wild.

Again there was a joint 1st position requiring a count back where the 13th image was taken into consideration. Roll Royce Derby Photographic Society are the winners of the 2021 GB Cup for Nature.

Report by Sue Champion.

To all our present and past members.
I would like to wish you all “Seasons Greetings” on behalf of myself and The CPS Committee.

Under very challenging conditions we have managed to get through the first half of our Club year.

We have all had to adjust to having virtual meetings via the remarkable Zoom system. I personally wish to thank especially, Owen, Sue, Phil, Jan and Keith for their enthusiasm and tenacity in sorting out this new approach to our meetings. We have managed to carry out the prearranged program of Talks and Competitions with only minor adjustments. Hopefully we will manage to continue in the new year with the same success.

Wishing you all a “Very Pleasant Christmas” and a “Better Brighter New Year”.

Graham Latter

CPS President.

Chester PS came 4th overall in this year’s Lancashire & Cheshire Photographic Union Novice Cup which was held on line. We thought we had achieved 3rd place , but after a re-check we dropped down a place. The overall winners were Oldham PS , with Lytham St Anne’s in second place and Burnley were 3rd- just one point ahead of Chester.

In the Open Section Jan Wilding and Patricia Keegan were both ranked third, finishing just one point behind the overall winner ! Keith Fitzpatrick was pushed in to seventh place (due to tied placings) despite scoring just one point less than the girls.

Jan and Patricia both received Commendeds for Hydrangeas and Albert respectively, and Patricia and Keith finished half way in the overall rankings for the Nature Section. Letizia Contini, Debbie Hesketh, John Hoyle , Viorica Naudi and Ian Nixon all submitted entries helping Chester to achieve such a great result.

It is a shame that the usual day long event with speakers could not take place this year , but thanks must go to Adrian and Jane Lines, all the judges and L&CPU helpers for putting on the event during these difficult times. For the full report please visit the L&CPU website using the link below:

https://lcpu.org/2020/10/11/2020-novice-cup-results/

As you know our season, including our competitions, was cut short by the pandemic.  Only one competition, the President’s theme could not be completed and at that stage it was mathematically impossible for the three leaders in the Photographer of the Year challenge to be overtaken by any other members. Our annual awards will be given based on the scores for the six competitions completed.

As you will see, although our lady members number less than 20% of our membership, five of them have between them taken almost 80% of the trophies !  Congratulations therefore to Jan Wilding, Sue Champion, Patricia Keegan, Debbie Hesketh and Vicky Naudi.  
Particular congratulations of course go to Jan for being our “Photographer of the Year” in addition to winning two other trophies.  (Jan has also won two of the three “on-line lockdown” competitions we have had so far over the close season !).  Sue took three further trophies on her way to second place in the Photographer of the Year competition with Patricia also taking an additional trophy on her way to third place. 
Debbie took three first places and three seconds in the six competitions on her way to winning B group Photographer of the Year and Vicky took an additional first place and two seconds in the DPI competitions as well as winning the People DPI trophy.
Congratulations also of course to our three gents who took trophies, Ian Atkinson and John Wild in the Nature competition, prints and DPI respectively, and Ben Gorman with the winning image in the Monochrome prints.
For obvious reasons it will be some time before we can actually present the trophies but I’m sure you will join me in congratulating all of them on their many splendid images.
You will hear more over the next few weeks about our plan for the coming season but we are aiming to include DPI competitions with external judging so I do hope many of you will enter next season’s competitions.
Stay safe,

Cheers
Keith
Keith Fitzpatrick – CPS Secretary