PAGB Exhibition: A review

Being relatively new to this notion of competitive photography, and having arrived last year at the foot of the competition ladder, I thought I'd take a look at the PAGB Print Exhibition to see what the top of the ladder looked like.

So, a few weeks ago, I took a trip down to Gosport to see the exhibition. For those who don't know, the PAGB (Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) is the umbrella body for photographic clubs in the UK (the pedantic among you will have noted that it should be PAUK, not PAGB). It organizes activities through 15 geographical regions known as Federations. Basingstoke is affiliated to the Southern Federation.

The Gosport exhibition was the result of the inter-federation competition. Each federation chooses the best entries from member clubs. I assume this is done from the inter-club league competition. These entries are all collected together and judged by a panel of judges. A proportion are selected for the exhibition, and medals and ribbons are awarded to the best scoring images.

There were 654 entries, of these 152 made it into the exhibition (that's about 25%). That must have been a marathon judging session!  Sadly, the Southern Fed entered 42 prints, and only got 3 accepted.

Within the Southern Fed, Basingstoke is, if I understand it, in the 1st division of the prints league, albeit by the skin of our teeth. However on this showing the Southern Fed is one of the weaker regions. So, in terms of the ladder, we've got a way to go.

But what about the exhibition? First off, the organizers deserve a big pat on the back. It was very well presented, and the Gosport Gallery was a very suitable venue.

Not surprisingly the technical quality of the work was very high. I couldn't see too many faults that the judges could get their teeth into. However some of the work was - how can I put this - not to my taste. Personally I would have put about a third of the work on the reject pile. However the judging panel had very good CV's, so perhaps I'm completely wrong, or just a GAG (grumpy auld git).

There was some excellent wildlife images (one of which got a ribbon), and also some outstanding sports photos (none of which made the prizes list). However some of the favoured work was at the saccharine end of the scale, and involved much application of Photoshop filters to produce fuzzy, 'textured' results. Subject matter tended to the predictable, so much so that there were two instances of near-duplicate photos of the same subject by different photographers.

This photo (left) - 'The Cat' - won a silver medal. Personally, it set my teeth on edge - but I'm sure lots of people will love it. The gold medal for colour prints was won by 'Pearls' (right). A very nice portrait, but the best in the UK?

Of the photos winning awards, 'The Priest' (left), which won a silver medal, was my favourite. It's a photo you can look at again and again, and see different details and shades of meaning. For me, it has the depth that others lacked.

Despite of my reservations, I found a lot of the work worth the best of the year accolade, and a challenging standard to aspire to. Here are a few of my favourites that I've found images of on the web (click on the thumbnails for the full images). 

Did anyone else go to the exhibition? What do you think - am I just a GAG? 

Nigel Norris
newseditor@basingstokecameraclub.co.uk

Swanage Weekend

This year’s club photographic weekend based in Swanage on the 28-30th October 2011 has proved very popular. There are 30 names on the list so far. I need to confirm numbers to the Purbeck Hotel by 12th September. If you are interested in this photographic weekend please contact Sandra Stephen on 01256 477995, by email to socialsecretary@basingstokecameraclub.co.uk or at the club. Payment of £126 per person also needs to be paid by 12th September. Please note, £35 of the cost is a non-refundable deposit required by the hotel.

Sandra Stephen
Social Secretary

Maudlin Blues

Some photos from the summer programme outing to Magdalen Hill Down:
(Yes, I know, it's only the Oxford College that has the silly pronunciation, but I follow the Sun's motto - never let the facts get in the way of a good headline.)

Chalkhill Blue butterfly with wings open, but sometimes they look better closed. And sometimes you even get two at once.

And sometimes there's something even better if you look hard enough.

Email addresses

I think I have finally sorted out the glitches I know about in the newsletter distribution lists. If you are receiving this on the wrong email address, or don't want to receive it any more, please let me know at newseditor@basingstokecameraclub.co.uk

If you missed previous issues you can find them here: June July.

If you don't receive this, and wanted to, then also please let me know. Oh, wait - that doesn't work..