Spring has sprung and the sun has shone, at least for a couple of days now, and daffodils are out. So begins another season of frantic photography, and long may it continue! And while you’re snapping away, do bear in mind Brian Burwood will shortly be looking for framed entries for our exhibition at the museum - further details to follow.

IMPROPER EXPOSURE another offering from C. Anon, Fotojournalist Extraordinaire

There is somethng magnetic in seeing a proper camera being set up with a extreme amount of care and consideration (tripod, spiri level and all!), that leads the genuinely interested, or perhaps genuinely nosey, to wander over and strike up a cnversation.

The object in question was not exactly today’s state of the art - a focusing screen type bellows camera with a Compur lens, removable back and a to aperture of f64. These features remain in mmy memory, bt I cannot to this day recall the make, at any rate, of this serious piece of kit.

To be bsolutely truthful, the scene that was being immortalised was not one which I peronally would have wanted to take, and to cap it all, it was raining! In that part of Wales there is nothing but sea between you and Ireland and it was late Spring, so what ddo you expect? The sight of someone under a focusing cloth and an umbrella was, to say the least, unusual!

Claerly the photographer, a man sporting a sort of professional beard and looking terribly English, (even to the extent of wearing a pork-pie hat and a very expensive backpack) did not expect these conditions, for as it happens he had deliberately not brought an light meter. How on earth do you go out without a light meter? I thought, mentally putting this into the top three unanswered questions of all time - (the other two being - why is there only one Monopolies Commission? and why do women never do the cooking at barbecues?)

He explianed, and here it became very clear that the Englishman was in fact American, that in his part of America, New Mexico, it is not unusual to get approx 90% of the days of the year when the sun shines brightly. He could, he told me, cope with exposures in those sorts of conditions, but this mixture of gloom and rain was all but defeating him.

However, in no time at all, with the aid of my exposure meter and his (very complicated and very many pages long) exposure tables, he was up and running again. It turns out he was in fact a Professor and, in true American tradition, could not spare the time to return later for fear of upsetting his itinerary.

I often wonder whether what sort of results he got from his time in Wales - would he have been better with a modern all singing all dancing digital AF camera? Maybe not, he did seem to be a proper photographer.

Programme dates

MARCH

19th 4th Round Digital Image League Judge: Bryan Powell ARPS APAGB North Hants PS & SDIG

26th Members’ Digital AV Evening 2 Bring along your digital AVs – no more than 5 minutes in length please

APRIL

2nd 4th Round Print League Judge: Glyn Edmunds EFIAP(b) ARPS DPAGB Hayling Island, Chichester, Southampton CC

9th Set Subject Competition Prints – ‘Wood’ Digital Images – ‘Close-Up’ Judge: Graham Laughton Chilterns Ass of CC

16th Peter Malcolm LRPS My Way with Still Life Peter will show us the results of his recent experiments with still life photography

23rd Graham Sergeant FRPS The painting and the Photograph in Portraiture Graham is also a member of Chichester Camera club. His talk comes highly recommended as being entertaining and informative.

30th Ian Bateman FRPS MPAGB Digital Sequence Presentations Ian is literally a master of digital AV Photography. An inspiring evening is guaranteed.