2008 Exhibition - Exhibition Coordinators Report

The Annual exhibition is a time when all of the Society works hard together. It’s a time of intense activity; put up the exhibition on Wednesday, in time for the Interclub Print competition in the evening; re-arrange the seating, tables and equipment on the Thursday for the Interclub Digital slide knockout competition; clear the Stage and Hall for the Friday night Musical evening, return on the Saturday morning to take the exhibition down again and restore the stands and equipment to the understage storage; and finally assemble on the Sunday for the post exhibition Dinner.

In advance of all this, the judges are booked; the L&CPU President invited; Clubs are invited to participate in the two competitions (now known as the "North Cheshire Challenges"); and the Friday night “performers” booked. Tickets are printed and distributed (MATES DIY agree to sell tickets on our behalf) and Adverts are put about both in publications and notice boards. The Raffle and the Refreshments have to be organised and serviced on the night and the Catalogue of exhibits produced.. To ensure a smooth running of the competitions preliminary work is done to facilitate photography of the prints and the parallel showing of the print image on the Wednesday, and to check the calibration of the digital projection system and the correct operation of the computer programs for the Digital image knockout competition.

Christine Widdall was the popular exhibition judge, and provided her comments in plenty of time for the hanging party, on 1st February, to determine how the exhibition prints would be shown on the newly painted stands. We had space for only 145 exhibits, so the rest were photographed and put on as a Digital Slide Display. Some of these were also used to mount a pre-exhibition print display in the adjacent Poynton Library. The Exhibition Slides had their own show, also at the front of the stage. L&CPU President Gordon Jenkins declared the Exhibition open, and presented the Club’s trophies.

So what could go wrong? Well, firstly our Shuttle Computer went down the Wednesday before the exhibition. We were told it couldn’t be repaired in time, so Roger Dye kindly loaned the club his own Shuttle and there was a rush to re-calibrate the whole system. Gordon Robson was dismayed to discover that the Little Mill Inn had gone bankrupt shortly before our Sunday celebration lunch, and he was forced to hurriedly re-arrange the meal at the Sportsman’s, Strines. But bad luck always comes in threes so what next? When Bill went to pick up Keith and Margaret Suddaby at the Travel Lodge, he discovered they had not arrived! Having waited half an hour he decided they must have gone straight to the Tarantella Restaurant and rushed there. But no Keith. So Bill and Milly ordered their meal anyway. A Phone call 15 minutes later informed us that Keith and Margaret were on their way, so Jack Bamford, our Thursday Judge, would not have to judge both competitions after all. Keith congratulated NCPS on its vision in first setting up the Digital print competition, and on the overall management over the years. In his judging he was concerned that prints should show no sign of over-sharpening, and was against adding borders to the images unless a strong case could be made for such borders. It seemed fitting that Jack Bamford’s club, West Cumbria, should win the competition, with Jack collecting the trophy. Carol Tipping, of Hoylake club was awarded the prize (£25 of Jessop’s token’s) for producing the best print. Wigan 10 won the interclub digital slide competition with Gwen Charnock collecting the £25 prize for best image.

The Friday evening “Music at an Exhibition” featured Poynton High School Concert Band in the first half and Fosbrook Folk in the second. The evening was a great success; as indeed was the whole Exhibition. Members are to be congratulated on their efforts.

We have a variety of trophies. Though the Exhibition entries were classed as Beginner/Intermediate, Natural History, and Open our Judge was asked to decide a variety of Best in Class awards. The results are listed below:

A Certificate for Best Intermediate Print awarded to David Billington for “Horseshoes”

The Bernard Sellers Trophy for Best Monochrome Print to Gerald Thompson for “Majorca”

The President’s Trophy for Best record Print to Gerald Hallworth for “Interior Disley Church”

The Nature Cup for Best Natural History Print to Alan Saunders for “Wild Red Kite”

The Fallows Cup for Best Photojournalism Print to Martin Currie for “Pushcar Camel Fair”

The 80’s Cup for Best Photojournalism Slide to Brian Turnbull for “Ironmonger”

The Natural History Cup for Best Natural History Slide to Phil Riley for “Redstart”

The Joan Allen Cup for Best Pictorial Slide to Phil Riley for “Moored Gondalas”

The Cedric Hepple Trophy for Best Slide in the Exhibition to Phil Riley for “Moored Gondalas”

The Joyce Whitehead Cup for Best Portrait Print to Geoff Robinson for “Norman”

The Stanley Cooper Trophy for Best Portrait Slide to Geoff Robinson for “The Entertainer”

The 21 Trophy for Best Record Slide to Geoff Robinson for “Spean Bridge Memorial”

The Charles Bowker Trophy for Best Pictorial print to Geoff Robinson for “Road Rage 2”

The Founding Committee cup for Best Print in Exhibition to Geoff Robinson for “Road Rage2”

The Prism trophy for Best Performance in the Exhibition to Geoff Robinson

Award Presentation Pictures.....

Bill Chadband