Annual Exhibition 9-11 February 2011

We had a good turnout of members to help set up the Exhibition at 12.30pm on Wednesday 9th. Some of us arrived early 11.30am in the hope that we might get in sooner but the “Physical Exercise Club” appeared to have several sessions, the last of which continued until nearly 12.30! The 18 stands were set up, the lights tested and installed, and the Prints mounted on the stands with a minimum amount of fuss, which is now standard for the event. Other members erected the giant screen and Peter supervised the setting up of the Projector and the Sound system. We soon discovered that the Hall Sound system was not working, and eventually the Hall staff produced a stand-alone Speaker-Amplifier system which, once understood, proved admirable. This system had its own two radio microphones to complement the three that the Society possessed.

In the Wednesday evening people again were queuing well before the 7.00pm opening time, emphasising the need to have our door people and the raffle prizes and tickets in place before 7.00pm.

The room quickly filled up. Twenty one clubs finally entered the Inter-Club Digital Print competition.

NCPS President Graham Johnston welcomed L&CPU President Christine Widdall and invited her to formally open the Exhibition and present the Exhibitions major trophies (to Jackie Robinson as the member with the best overall performance, to Paula Martin for the Best Print, and to Jon Allanson for the best PDI). He then welcomed Ray Brammall, whose Yorkshire accent would be a change from the Brummie accents of last year. Ray claimed to have some Lancashire blood and proved to be an excellent judge. Near the end of the competition we were excited to find that Wigan 10 and NCPS were tying first equal with 91 points each. But the judge was then asked to pick a best Print and to give this print an extra mark. His choice was a Kathryn Scorah print, which meant the Wigan 10 were the final winners. Gwen Charnock.accepted the trophy. The judge commented that it had been a pleasure to judge such a well organized event.

On the Thursday morning Barry, John, Roger and Bill turned up to assist Peter Redford in moving all the tables, adding extra chairs, and setting up the Projection system for the evenings inter-club PDI Knockout competition. In the evening Graham introduced Judge Mike McNamee to a really full house (over two hundred people – more chairs had to be hurriedly found!). Mike was not over-awed by the numbers and by the interval had whittled down the image numbers to 36 after two rounds. NCPS had only lost 1 but Wigan 10 had lost none! In the final score NCPS came a creditable third beaton by two points by Hoylake PS but well behind Wigan 10 who amassed 26 points, including a 7 for the best Image.

On Friday morning the morning stalwarts replaced the Digital Projector by a remotely controlled Slide projector (courtesy of Jon Allanson). Our Friday Speaker, David Johnston, explained that he had concatenated several short talks to show a range of images which he hoped would suit all tastes. Indian Portraits were an initial strong point,

And we had several examples of a technique contrasting strong foreground figures with a blurred, second, background figure giving depth to the total image. Memorable in the second half were nude images of distant females, contrasting with the sweeping curves of sand dunes, taken in Gran Canaria. We then saw the effects of images of a nude lady swathed in cotton fabric rolls and located amongst trees.

David was reluctant to wear a lapel microphone in the first half, but was persuaded by members of the audience to do so in the second half

The Raffle, accumulated by Paula Martin, and called during each interval by Bill Chadband, again served us well, without taking up too much of the interval time. Members were again generous in producing raffle Prizes. David Hockin organized the Refreshments rota.

Members again assembled on the Saturday morning to dismantle the Exhibition. As ever, folks needed no guidance as they stacked the chairs, removed the Prints, dismantled the Electrical lighting, followed by the Stands themselves. The Library Prints were also taken down. A big thank you to the many members who helped in so many ways to make the job easy for the Exhibition Co-ordinator.

We were pleased that Competition judge, Keith Brown, and his wife Kate, were able to join us for the Sunday “Celebration” lunch. The Beijing staff are concerned that we should have an enjoyable event, and are to be congratulated on the food they served. Treasurer, Geoff Robinson, collected tips from the tables to demonstrate our satisfaction with the event. It is a great bonus that the Restaurant is opened just for NCPS members, and the local parking is most convenient.