August 2023 No. 18
WELCOME TO OUR SUMMER NEWSLETTER The summer has started well with some fabulous weather (what happened to that?) and hopefully some wonderful photography opportunities. We are lucky that with our interest in visual art we can achieve some great images in any weather situation. We are also delighted how well the South West Visual Art inaugrual meeting was attended and it seems like a great day was had by all. Please read the article from Mairija Lees on this day and also to get the dates for the next meeting if you are able to attend. The next residential, which is in Plymouth in October, was sold out in a matter of days after the broadcast went out. We are sorry that this weekend is limited in number and therefore some of you may be disappointed at missing it. Hopefully you will be able to attend a future weekend. In the meantime enjoy the summer and enjoy your photogtraphy. Happy snapping! Carol Paes ARPS
RPS SOUTH WEST REGION VISUAL ART GROUP RE-LAUNCH MEETING After some years of inactivity, the RPS South West Visual Art Group has now been relaunched with its first meeting taking place on Saturday, 1st July 2023 at Broadclyst, near Exeter. Thank you all for coming and making this a very successful day.
Morning Frost by Di Bell LRPS
The event started with Andrew Marker’s “Journey to FRPS” presentation. At the beginning, Andrew showed his ARPS Panel which was based on the Burano and Murano, islands in the Venetian Lagoon. He explained how he has always been fascinated by reflections and how they can be distorted by movement in the surface of the water. During his many visits to Venice, he tried to capture interesting shapes and abstract colourful patterns he found reflected in the narrow waterways between these two islands. He described how the “Venice” panel came into being and how he has experimented with the orientation of the images and found that they could often be more effective turned upside down. Having been awarded an ARPS distinction in 2013, he then tried various ideas and projects in his attempt to create an FRPS panel but they didn’t quite work. It was during a stay on the Greek island of Santorini that an idea clicked into place, which then led to his successful FRPS panel in 2016. The participants were able to view and admire his FRPS panel which captured the serene beauty of this island - its white-washed buildings, blue domes and exquisite light. Again, as in his Burano ARPS panel, Andrew focused on small details with all the images forming a beautifully balanced and cohesive piece of work. There is a sublime feeling of lightness and Andrew explained that the look of the panel is also due to the soft textured paper he selected. Seeing this panel displayed was a real visual treat. Many thanks here go to David Barrett who worked so hard putting the two large prints stands together to enable us to see this panel as it should be seen – as prints. It looked quite splendid. The second presentation was by Sue Brown, which was entitled “Variety is the Spice of Life”. Sue’s presentation started with images taken in her neighbourhood, a little seaside village which provides endless photographic opportunities – whether watching the sea-mist engulfing the houses or the heavy floods which sometimes happen. Sue has been taking photographs for 40 years and having been awarded an FRPS distinction in 1991 for her Visual Art panel “Shape and Form, Light and Shade”, she later wanted to demonstrate that her photography was still of that standard. In 2019, she submitted another panel, this time in the Contemporary and Conceptual Photography genre. The panel was entitled “The Fence”. Sue talked about how to go on after having achieved a FRPS distinction, how to motivate oneself by setting new challenges. F2 with a 50 mm lens for 6 months