It has proved to be a strange year for the Society on what should have been a significant year, being 125 years since its formation in1895 making it one of the oldest Photographic Societies in the Midlands. As it has transpired international events in the form of COVID-19 scuppered our plans to celebrate this momentous occasion.
One major event was to have the internationally renowned photographer Joe Cornish to give us a presentation in December 2020 but with the uncertainty of the situation it was mutually agreed to cancel. There will be further information published in the near future as to what we are going to do as an alternative, as our normal venue The Northfield Centre is currently closed and at this point in time there is no indication when it will open again.
It has been another successful year for the Society in National Competitions, back in October 2019 we came 8th in a country wide competition run by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) which is open to 1000 clubs nation wide.
Two of our members achieved personal success, Tessa Bramall’s image of a Crested Grebe with chick, gained maximum marks and Judi Dicks was awarded The David Lowe Medal for her mono version of ‘A rainy day at Kew’. Both images are displayed here and on our web site.
The Society had further success in April this year by coming first in the Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF) Projected Digital Image (PDI) championships a good ten point ahead of our closest rivals who took second place. Graham Argent achieved maximum marks for his image ‘Fort Dancer’ and Tessa Bramall, Brian Evill and Jo Banton also achieved near maximum marks, again images are displayed here and on our web site.
Success in the above competitions resulted in the Society being allowed to compete in this years finals at Warwick for the National PDI Championships and Blackburn for the National Print Championships. Congratulations to all who took part and achieved an award.
The members annually enter as individuals into the Midland Counties Photographic Federation MIDPHOT Exhibition which is held annually at the Smethwick Photographic Society premises.
This year we had a number of members accepted for the exhibition and went on to win Highly Commended, Ribbons and Medals for their images, both prints and PDIs.
