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DI News December 2021

‘Winter Tree’ by Lorraine Grey LRPS Winner of the Digital Imaging monthly competition for November

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR We don’t generally compile this newsletter around a theme, but as I step back and look at this issue, I see there’s a theme around printing and exhibiting photographic images. We’re announcing details of our forthcoming Members’ Print Exhibition which will be open for submissions on 1 January. Our quarterly magazine DIGIT 91 and the Members’ Projected Image Competition 2021 Catalogue will be delivered in the next few weeks. Andrew Brochwicz-Lewinski ARPS provides an update on the activities of the DI Print Circle. We have two contributions from Digital Imaging members who have been exhibiting their work. And we can see that more and more print exhibitions are popping up. Accolade Poll on RPS Distinctions Holly, the Assistant Editor for Accolade, is asking everyone to participate in a fun poll around what you think of RPS Distinctions - see page 28. Don’t miss out on our special event in January: Julieanne Kost You may know Julieanne Kost for her brilliantly clear tutorials on how to use Lightroom and Photoshop. But her presentation for Digital Imaging’s online programme on 8 January 2022 will be something completely different. In ‘Creating Personal Projects that Reignite the Creative Spark’ Julieanne applies her exceptional skills to the subject of how to frame and carry out photographic projects. Perfect for starting out the New Year. Please only register once. It’s easy to forget that you’ve signed up for a free talk. Lately we’ve been finding that as many as 25% of the places on our talks are occupied by duplicate registrations. Enjoy the holiday season! With the new variant of COVID-19 ushering us into the holiday season, I hope that everyone may enjoy the company of friends and family, but most of all that everyone stays safe and healthy in the process.

Deborah Loth DI News Editor dignews@rps.org (Many thanks to Robin Claydon and Lois Wakeman for their assistance compiling this newsletter.) 2

DI News December 2021

MONTHLY ONLINE COMPETITION The winner of our November monthly online competition was ‘Winter Tree’ by Lorraine Grey LRPS, featured on the cover. (For more information about the friendly monthly competition, including how to enter, visit www.rps.org/ DIGMonComp. Keep an eye out for video slideshows of monthly competition entries on our YouTube channel.) Lorraine Grey, LRPS I was a little surprised to win the November Competition, but pleased, as I only entered on the spur of the moment. I started photography around 20 years ago after coming back from Hong Kong with some really bad night time photographs. I bought a Sony DSLR and joined some evening classes to learn the basics. From there, it gradually became my passion, and I was open to try any kind of genres which has been fun. The winning image of the silver birch was taken during one of the lockdowns, where I could only go to the local woods/parks. I love trees and skies and the silver birch is one of my favourites so I stood and tried out some ICM [Ed. Intentional Camera Movement] to see what the result would be. At the time I was using an Olympus EM1 which gave me the opportunity to try out multiple exposures with a little ICM, this was something I was working on to prevent myself going mad not being able to travel further afield. The next step was to try out some textures and making some brushes of birds and twigs to add to the image .There a couple of people whose work I admire, and I have managed to join a number of workshops run by DI Southeast that pointed me in the right direction and encouraged me to try and develop a more creative side. Thank you all for your votes and also the DI Volunteers, who I know work hard organising all the events, workshops and competition for the members. SUPPORT THE RPS WHILE SHOPPING ON AMAZON The RPS has registered with Amazon Smile. If you’re buying anything on Amazon, please do so through Amazon Smile and nominate the Royal Photographic Society - it will receive a donation of 0.5% of your net purchase price every time, and it won’t cost you anything! Details here. DI News December 2021

Second place was ‘Reach for the Sky’ by John Knight.

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Third place was ‘Bluebell Wood’ by Peter Downs LRPS.

To view the gallery and not the ads, click where it says ‘VIEW 45 IMAGES’ in the upper righthand corner of the first image. DI News December 2021

PUBLICATIONS

DIGIT 91 and the Projected Image Competition 2021 catalogue will be distributed this m separately. Digital Imaging On-line members will receive their links via email.

DI News December 2021

month. The printed versions usually arrive in one envelope, but this time they will arrive

If you have something to contribute to DIGIT or DI News then please do contact dignews@rps.org.

DI News December 2021

DI MEMBERS’ PRINT EXHIBITION 2022 Ian Thompson ARPS RPS Digital Imaging Competition Secretary Submissions open: 1 January 2022 Submissions close: 31 January 2022 Prints due with Exhibitions Secretary: 11 February 2022 Entry form: www.rps-dig.org/comp-login.php Entries will soon be invited for prints to be included in the Digital Imaging Members’ Print Exhibition 2022. Submission will be via our on-line entry system at www.rps-dig.org/comp-login.php which will accept three entries per member, one of which is guaranteed to be selected for use in the exhibition. Again this year, because of COVID restrictions, our 3 selectors will collaborate to choose the print which they consider to be the best of the three submitted per entrant but commendations, ribbons and an overall ‘best print’ will be announced by the selectors on the day of RPS Digital Imaging’s AGM, to be held online via Zoom on the 20 February. The full rules will be available online, but as a guide, your entries must be printed on A4 sheets of paper, UNMOUNTED, and sent in a sturdy (e.g. card-reinforced) envelope to the address shown in the rules. This will minimise the cost to members (both in materials and postage), as it is not yet certain that any physical exhibition can be organised during the year. In the event that physical exhibitions do take place (which is our heartfelt hope!), Digital Imaging will mount the selected prints at its cost so as to fit our exhibition system. In any event, all winning entries will be available to view on the RPS website after the AGM, with all entries selected for the exhibition on our Digital Hall of Fame gallery site at bit.ly/RPSDIHall. As mentioned, to qualify for entry, digital versions of prints must be submitted to our competition system: these should of pixel dimensions that will fit into a 4096 square: i.e., either or both of the horizontal and vertical dimension should not exceed 4096 pixels. Entries from overseas members, or those who do not possess a printer, can be printed by Digital Imaging at A4 size on lustre paper (only) at a cost of £10 total for the three prints, which can be paid for via the main RPS website – the link to do this will be available on the RPS Digital Imaging pages. The image files submitted to the entry system will be used for this purpose. This year, due to the need for personal safety, we are not offering the return of prints. If you have questions about this event, by all means email digcompsec@rps.org.

DI News December 2021

WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS Andrew Bonnie George Buckley LRPS Jesse Cason Jose Closs Don Cooper LRPS Julie Cowdy ARPS Avĳit Datta ASIS FRPS FRSA FLS FTPS Amanda Day LRPS Gabriele Dellanave Phillip Eastwood Penelope Faldon Louise Farr Susanna Hoare LRPS Grete Howard LRPS Tamsyn Jones John Knight Paul Lawrence LRPS Trevor Litherland Tracy Marshall-Grant Rajen Nandwana David Nicholls Lynda Parkinson ARPS Kevin Payne Gerassimos Spathis LRPS Barbara Stanway LRPS

Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire Gloucestershire West Yorkshire Surrey North Yorkshire North Yorkshire London USA Derbyshire Kent Devon Cornwall Bristol Norfolk Wiltshire West Sussex Merseyside Monmouthshire India USA Lancashire Hampshire London Herefordshire

To view the gallery and not the ads, click where it says ‘VIEW 20 IMAGES’ in the upper righthand corner of the first image. 10

DI News December 2021

DIGITAL IMAGING PRINT CIRCLE UPDATE Despite the limitations imposed by COVID, the Digital Imaging Print Circle has carried on. In normal times the Print Circle has 12 members who each submit one print per round. The portfolio of all the images circulates to all the members by post. Everyone then comments on everyone else’s entry and chooses their six favourites in order of preference. Here the organiser, Andrew Brochwicz-Lewinski ARPS, reports on its latest activities. We have survived COVID, but only by doing several rounds as DPIs, which seems pretty criminal for a print group. Luckily we are now back to real prints on paper and I like to think our standard has remained high. Variety has certainly kept up, with images ranging from formal portraits to abstracts. Nonetheless, the COVID era has seen quite a few people changes. Members have left, one has rejoined and two new members have come in. Overall we are luckily standing at 11 members – only one less that our workable maximum. As I have said in earlier reports, each print round goes round all members giving about 2 weeks per person to view, comment and mark their preferences. Therefore each print round takes about 5 months to complete, which would become unmanageable with more than a dozen members. By using overlapping rounds, we complete 4 print rounds per year.

‘Protection from COVID’ by Dennis Russ LRPS DI News December 2021

‘Faithful Friend’ by Andrew Brochwicz-Lewinski ARPS

Since our last report, between DPIs and prints, we have had 9 rounds. Quite a lot, because DPI rounds, being a more instant operation, move faster than print rounds. There is, as usual, a wide variety of subjects. As ever, our comments on each other’s prints are positive but usefully critical when needed. Also, as noted in previous reports, no two members judge their top choices similarly. This means that there were very few run-away winners and most rounds were quite hard-fought. All the images shown here, except one, came first or second in their round. The exception was one interesting print, ‘Rice Terraces’, which did not win its round, but utterly split opinion. Almost half of us placed it first with the rest not really rating it. How boring would photography be if we all agreed! We have all had club judges with whom we totally disagreed but maybe sometimes they were more right than we wanted to believe. Maybe! With any luck, we will be printing consistently all next year. And staying healthy? 12

DI News December 2021

‘Asymmetrical Bench’ by Rex Waygood

‘Watched Over by Her Guardian Angel’ by Peter Brook LRPS DI News December 2021

‘Astou’ by John Shaw ARPS

‘Autumn Colours’ by Fran Kennedy 14

DI News December 2021

‘Rice Terraces, China’ by John Bloomfield

‘White Amaryllis’ by Heather Carslake ARPS DI News December 2021

THE ENJOYMENT OF EXHIBITING PRINTS When we learned that Rob Darts LRPS and Alan Porter LRPS were exhibiting their work at St. George’s Distillery in Norwich last month, we had to find out more. Rob Darts LRPS has kindly filled us in. Rob Darts LRPS

Alan Porter LRPS Alan and I love photography. We also like to challenge ourselves both technically and importantly creatively. We work as a team and our strength as photographers comes from the fact that we have differing perspectives as regards our photography. We both like getting out and about with our cameras and make photographs that reflect our diverse styles, varying subject matters and importantly our differing creative ideas. It’s this I believe that gives us jointly the depth and range to our photographs which inspires us to exhibit our work in the public domain for others to view and enjoy. After all a photograph is an expressive creation and printing, framing and exhibiting enables us to fully realise our different creative expressions. Alan comes from a graphic design background and is inspired by a quote by the master street photographer, Saul Leiter I1923 – 2013): ‘I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera. I look into the camera and take pictures. My photographs are the tiniest part of what I see that could be photographed. They are fragments of endless possibilities.’ This statement holds true for many of Alan’s images some of which often incorporate photographs of people who are going through their normal life’s routine, and he wonders what stories they have to tell. He also an admirer of both MODERN and traditional ARCHITECTURE and the shapes that are created by the building’s design. Alan prefers to show the majority of his pictures as black and white images. Why? Because it’s his belief that to view will require more concentration to take in the details of each image, sometimes that doesn’t happen with colour. He will only use colour when he feels the situation requires it. 16

DI News December 2021

Photo by Alan Porter LRPS

Photo by Alan Porter LRPS DI News December 2021

I seek to respond to the basic power of light that continuously alters the shape and form of my images. I enjoy using available skillsets making it possible to bring about creative adjustments to my images making them uniquely mine and mine alone. I’m entirely selftaught and more recently I have been inspired by the writings of Alister Benn FRPS in his publication Expressive Landscape Photography. As a result, I feel the progress of my photography has taken a completely new direction, triggering creative juices to really flow in the process. As the recent travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic greatly Photo by Rob Darts LRPS impacted on our daily lives, I made the decision to limit the extent of the distances I needed to travel to find what I considered to be landscape photographic opportunities. However, the idea of finding big vistas and dramatic sweeping landscapes (or seascapes) was not an option so the notion of ‘going local’ with my camera began to take shape as did the genre of taking ‘near’ or ‘intimate’ landscape photographs. Keeping within 12 miles of my home address I found numerous locations to explore in Thetford Forest and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust site at Wretham Heath where I could apply myself and hopefully hone my photography skills by creating several projects under the heading of ‘going local’. This theme became the basis of my element of the exhibition. As the country began to emerge from the constraints imposed by the pandemic Alan and I were keen to display our images to the public once more and accepted a kind offer from the owner of OakVilla Restaurant and Gin Distillery, 18

DI News December 2021

Photo by Rob Darts LRPS

located within The English Whisky Co at St George’s Distillery, Harling Road, Roudham, Norwich NR16 2QW to utilise an area within the distillery for a small exhibition of framed prints and mounts of our photographs. As space was limited, we decided to exhibit separately, each for a period of ten days. Upon setting up the two exhibitions they certainly instilled a sense of pride as our photographs now had substance that hopefully would enthral and tell a story to those who slowed down and took time to view our ‘masterpieces’. There is no doubt that photography is a shared experience, and a great amount of pleasure can be gained by talking to others about the ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and more importantly the ‘why’ the images were taken in the first place. The enjoyment both Alan and I felt by exhibiting our photographs certainly gave credence to the inspirational quote attributed to renowned landscape photographer, David Noton HonFRPS: “Every image is a triumph of perseverance."

Photo by Rob Darts LRPS DI News December 2021

2020photovision - CELEBRATING PRINTS When we learned that a new photography group with a good number of Digital Imaging members was exhibiting this autumn Angela Ford ARPS kindly stepped up to tell us how and why the group got together. Beginnings In the introduction to our very first 2020photovision exhibition in November at Hanbury Hall in London, we describe ourselves as ‘six photographers passionate about producing and exhibiting their work in print’. This statement defines the raison d’être of 2020photovision. The group evolved in mid-2020. Two founder members sharing a passion for creating and exhibiting the printed image discussed the possibility of getting together with like-minded photographers. Their objective was to develop the visibility of photographic work collectively by promoting it through print exhibitions. Members would be supported in other ways to develop the footprint of their own personal work as well as that of 2020photovision. Why ‘2020photovision’? This symbolises the skill of the photographer alongside their seeing eye, so, it seemed fit for purpose. Choices Photographers acknowledged for the quality, style and impact of their photographic work and who were able and willing to contribute to the diversity of photographic interest and expertise of 2020photovision, were invited to join. Thus, a diverse group of six photographers emerged, each member having their own individual style but all eager to promote the objective of the group. Stepping Out However, little did we know that something was about to happen to make our objectives more difficult to execute, but which in fact would give us an even bigger motivation to be ready, when the time came, to organise our first exhibition. Indeed, due to COVID-19, the exhibition at Hanbury Hall was cancelled twice in 2020. A firm booking in November 2021 was again postponed because of emergency work in the building! Nevertheless, the day came when prints, tools and a stepladder were loaded into the car and ‘Celebrating Prints’ was finally on display. What’s Next? When our images are taken down from the walls later in December we will be able to evaluate together what we have learnt from the experience. Is there to be another 2020photovision exhibition in the future? The group’s objective to raise the profile of the printed image has not diminished and together we hope to continue. As our strapline says: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go with others.’ 20

DI News December 2021

Jan Beesley ARPS

Barrie Brown

Angela Ford ARPS

Roger Ford FRPS

Andrew Moss Susi Petherick ARPS

‘Out of Body Experience’ by Andrew Moss

‘Oxford Street’ by Andrew Moss

DI News December 2021

‘Burgeoning Light’ by Jan Beesley ARPS ‘Dreaming Winter Trees’ by Jan Beesley ARPS

DI News December 2021

‘Lochside Gold’ by Susi Petherick ARPS

‘Hidden Beauty’ by Susi Petherick ARPS DI News December 2021

‘Canal Colours’ by Angela Ford ARPS

‘Lonely Stroll’ by Angela Ford ARPS 24

DI News December 2021

‘Night Follows Day’ by Roger Ford FRPS

‘The Hussars Widow’ by Roger Ford FRPS

DI News December 2021

‘Leaving’ by Barrie Brown ‘A Special Relationship’ by Barrie Brown

DI News December 2021

RPS DISTINCTIONS STOP PRESS! The news all aspiring distinctions candidates have been waiting for – the dates for assessments for the first half of 2022 have now been posted on the RPS website. As lots of people have been on tenterhooks, here are the direct links to see what’s on offer: Dates for LRPS , ARPS and FRPS Booking is for RPS members only until 17 January 2022, when the process will be opened up for everyone. Select your date, complete the booking form, and then look out for the email from the Distinctions team explaining what you need to do next. FIND OUT MORE Each of the pages below includes handy links to guidelines and genres for distinctions, and a “how to apply” document: • Licentiate (LRPS) • Associate (ARPS) • Fellowship (FRPS) The Photobook genre, available for all distinctions, has its own special guidelines and submission process (as opposed to an LRPS, ARPS or FRPS submission in book form). You can find out more here: Photobooks. And don’t forget, as well as projected and printed images, you can also apply for a Film, Digital and Multimedia Distinction at any level, and also a written Research Distinction: Film and Research. (Assessment dates for 2022 for Photobooks and Film were to be advised at the time of writing.) To help you prepare, you can book a 1:1 portfolio review and/or a 1:1 statement of intent review session with a panel member appropriate to your genre/ distinction, but be aware that bookings are suspended until the start of 2022. Some Regions are now offering Advisory Days in person and online into next year. In addition, a number of Chapters and Regions have begun to offer online Distinctions Study Groups. You can find these by searching the RPS website. If you missed any of the excellent Distinctions Live talks, you can catch up here. The closed Facebook Group: RPS Distinctions **Official Group** now has over 3,700 members, and is a civilized venue to ask questions, share your successes – and disappointments – and ask for critique on your proposed portfolio. DI News December 2021

For Digital Imaging members, issue 9 of Accolade, which delves into members’ Distinctions successes, is now available. See the email message which announced this newsletter for a members-only link to issues of Accolade.

MESSAGE FROM THE ACCOLADE EDITORS Holly Stranks ARPS, Accolade Assistant Editor Hello everyone in Digital Imaging. Dennis and I are starting to think about Digital Imaging Accolade issue 10 – it’s amazing to think that we have already had 9 issues celebrating your success. We like to do something a little different in each issue, usually a different question about your panels. However, this time I wanted to do something around the theme of 10 and came up with the idea of doing a poll of 10 questions to see what you think about RPS distinctions and how they help. The results of this poll will be in the 10th issue of Accolade, due out around the time of the AGM in February (20 February 2022). Whilst this is a busy time of year, I will be very grateful if you would please have a look at the questions in the poll. Thanks to Rex for his help in preparing the poll. Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy New Year!

POLL: 10 QUESTIONS ON WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT RPS DISTINCTIONS 28

DI News December 2021

MESSAGE FROM A RETIRED DI MEMBER I started this hobby when the children left home and the older generation had passed, at last I had some time for my interests. I took classes in all aspects and enjoyed chemical processing before digital became available. But now glaucoma has taken over and my sight has deteriorated, gradually at first but now more rapidly. I am registered partially sighted and quite handicapped. I am no longer active now. I feel that If I can't produce my former standard of pictures I cannot show them and, of course, I am no longer judging. We have moved to a retirement flat in Ringwood, so life is simpler now. I miss my life, camera in hand, and the many friends I made all over the country. I would be glad to be in touch again. I miss you all. Best wishes, Anne Mahany ARPS anne@fyfourteen.uk

MEMBER DISTINCTIONS Congratulations to members who were recently awarded Distinctions. All will be invited by Holly to submit their work and story to Accolade. Janine Ball Simon Street

FRPS FRPS

Visual Art Documentrary

David Ashfield Lorraine Clifton Brian Flemming Ray Hems Grete Howard Robin Price

ARPS ARPS ARPS ARPS ARPS ARPS

Visual Art Visual Art Documentary Documentary Visual Art Applied

Gemma Burden Sheila Farries Christopher Morson Christine Padmore Wendy Stanton Anne Turner David Wilkinson

LRPS LRPS LRPS LRPS LRPS LRPS LRPS

DI News December 2021

DIGITAL IMAGING EVENTS & LISTINGS Although some real-life (as opposed to online) events have been organised, they still may be disrupted by the COVID pandemic. So check on the events page or with the event organiser for the latest status of any event. There are more events in the pipeline. You can sign up to receive our events listing email at bit.ly/ RPSDIEvents. And if you’d like to lend a hand, Centres need volunteers to help with Zoom events, so contact Lyn Phillips (digsecretary@rps.org) to get involved. Please check that you haven’t already registered before you book so as to avoid duplicate bookings. Click on any of these ads to visit the event page:

DI News December 2021

To view the gallery and not the ads, click where it says ‘VIEW 28 IMAGES’ in the upper righthand corner of the first image. DI News December 2021

SIG-LINK Clicking on any of these ads will take you to the RPS Events page where you can find more information about events from other Special Interest Groups (SIGs):

DI News December 2021

DIGITAL IMAGING DISCUSSION GROUP If you’re feeling a bit isolated and would like to hang out and chat about photography, please drop by Digital Imaging on Facebook where you can also ask – and answer - questions. You’ll need to join it before you can participate, but the advantage is that it’s a closed group open only to Digital Imaging members. It’s especially useful if you are experiencing FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out - as a number of useful things often show up there first.

THE RPS WEBSITE For guidance from the RPS on its website basics, visit https://rps.org/newwebsite. For detailed information on setting up your profile and how to set up a gallery, visit https://rps.org/media/i3aaf51z/myrps-editing.pdf. The RPS maintains a page with updates to COVID-19 issues here: https://rps.org/ covid-19. For everyone’s convenience, we include this list of shortcuts to the main Digital Imaging pages at the end of each newsletter. Digital Imaging website shortcuts: Digital Imaging Home page www.rps.org/DIG Membership www.rps.org/DIMembership Committee www.rps.org/DIGCommittee News www.rps.org/DIGNews Monthly Competition www.rps.org/DIGMonComp Print Circle www.rps.org/DIGCircle AGM www.rps.org/DIGAGM Print Exhibition www.rps.org/DIGExhibition Projected Image Competition www.rps.org/DIGPDI Tutorials www.rps.org/DIGTutorials Publications www.rps.org/digpubs There are links to all the Centres from the Digital Imaging Home Page. The three members-only links (DIGIT Archive, Accolade and Welcome Page) are to be found in the email message announcing this newsletter. The RPS Digital Imaging constitution can be downloaded HERE. You can subscribe to our events listing email here: bit.ly/RPSDIEvents. 34

DI News December 2021