Wrekin Arts Photographic Club Newsletter 14/2014-15 10 March 2015

This Friday, Richard Spiers DPAGB, BPE2*, APAGB will be at the club with his talk “Felix Lux” – the literal translation is Happy Light but I’m sure that Richard will talk more about the title on Friday!

Next Friday, 20 March, Anne Sutcliffe FRPS, EFIAP, PPSA (supported by Fotospeed) http://www.annesutcliffe.com/ from Solihull will present “Annie’s Land”. This date is also the hand in night for the 3rd Merit Print Competition. You can enter a maximum of 3 prints (numbered 1 – 3) in each of the colour and monochrome sections of your appropriate group. If you need to remind yourself of the rules then look in the printed programme or click on the link at the top of this page http://www.wrekinarts.com/program.htm

The Photography Show http://www.photographyshow.com/ takes place at the NEC Birmingham between 21 and 24 March. You can get a great deal on tickets using the PAGB discount code - The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain. Entrance is £18 if you pay on the door and £13.95 if you pre-book. But if you quote the PAGB Code PAGBTPS15 you will get your ticket for just £10.95.  The Photography Show sponsors the PAGB. Every ticket purchased using PAGB code not only saves you money but helps the PAGB too. Why not give it a go! Discounts only apply up to 5pm on 17 March.

Last week you heard the results of Midphot 2015 where a number of our members did very well. The Exhibition will be at Smethwick Photographic Society club room from Wednesday 25 March to Sunday 29 March. Awards will be presented on the first night together with showings of the General and Nature pdis. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Entrance £3. At the weekend there will be studio set ups where you can take your camera along. Full details http://www.mcpf.co.uk/midphot.html 

For something a little different, Wellington Literary Festival Committee presents an “Evening of Poems and Pints” on Monday 23 March 7.30pm at The Cock Hotel, Holyhead Road Wellington TF1 2DL. The theme is Poems for Springtime. Free entry. Bring your favourite Springtime Poet to read, write your own poem, or just come along to listen and enjoy a pint! There may even be some interesting characters to photograph!

Apley Farm Shop – just outside the village of Norton on the A442 between Telford and Bridgnorth -  is running a photography competition http://apleyfarmshop.co.uk/news/photography-competition/ It’s a celebration of Shropshire, Apley Farm Shop and local life. Prizes will be awarded for 8 categories: landscapes, animals, people, food, buildings, Shropshire, abstract & other. You may need to visit the farm shop and nature trail for inspiration! Closing date is Monday 30 March and the best 60 entries will be displayed in Creamery Cafe from 1 April to 30 June. Entry is free. See the website for the entry form. Format is A3 prints which can be either mounted or unmounted. If you’re interested then I could deliver your prints to the Farm Shop at the end of March.

Many of our members enter International Exhibitions. Our own Salon was last year promoted very well in Australia by the President of The Sydney International. As a result, we had an excellent entry from Australia. The Sydney International is now open for entries and to show our appreciation, it would be great if as many of our members as possible entered. The link is: http://www.sydney-harbour-international.org.au/

The Secretary of the newly formed Wellington University of the Third Age (U3A) http://www.u3asites.org.uk/code/u3asite.php?site=704 is looking for photographs of Wellington to put on their website. Shots could include The Wrekin, All Saints Church and The Market. This list is not exhaustive so if you have any suitable images, let me know. Images will be credited to the photographer and club. Perhaps this is an opportunity to promote the club to a wider audience.

And finally, Jon has offered to run a Portrait Group, possibly on a monthly basis. I know that members have been asking to learn new techniques. Here’s your chance. If you’re interested, please sign up on Friday. If you can’t wait that long then send me an email!