IOMPS Courier Report for 1st January

Date Published 
Fri 1 Jan 2021
Courier Report 010121
The Isle of Man Photographic Society is supported by the Arts CouncilA review of the season so far for the IOM Photographic Society would reflect one of success despite the obvious problems created by the Covid pandemic – a pandemic which caused great uncertainty for the committee over the summer months in wondering whether we would be able to hold a programme of weekly meetings at all. Despite those problems, the programme has run very smoothly – to the envy of our sister clubs across the water who have (at best) had to arrange Zoom sessions for their memberships. However, thanks to Ruth Nicholls and in collaboration with a UK club, a number in the society have participated in several of those Zoom sessions – enjoyable but definitely not the same as meeting socially, missing perhaps one of the great pleasure of any club, of sharing ones interest with fellow enthusiasts. 

Our season started with the running of various competitions held over from the shut-down enforced in March but soon saw the re-start of our normal season of events. The Advanced group in our membership has continued to be highly competitive, in both prints and digitally projected images. Steve Johnstone, newly promoted from the Intermediate group, is proving a force to be reckoned with, currently holding a strong position in all categories, but with Ron Shimmin, Chris Blyth, and Sue Blythe in close contention and everything depending on performances during the second half of the competition season. Our Intermediate group is also very competitive with the exception of prints, where Martin Sanderson has been the only regular competitor which inevitably puts him in the leading position. However, in the digital image competitions, Martin is leading only in the mono sections, whilst Lara Howe and Moira Blyth in particular are setting the pace in the colour sections with Janet Henry and Philip Watterson also in the running. Moira has proved two principles in her entries – the first that the kit one uses need not be expensive (Moira uses an old Nokia phone camera for her entries), and the second that the best images are often prepared for and made with one’s imagination and one’s eyes.

Our images this week have all been taken by members of our Intermediate group, all of whom are capable of producing high quality work – and this week, in the absence of a regular weekly report, I have chosen to show some of their recent images which I have enjoyed, and which deserve a wider audience.

The IOM Photographic Society is now in its Christmas break, our next meeting being on Wednesday, 6th January when Dorothy Flint will be presenting her folio of images on “Tuscany and Dalmatian Pelicans” - an evening sure to please with some superb images in store. The meeting will be held the St John Ambulance HQ on Glencrutchery Road, starting at 7:00 pm. Full details of our programme may be found on our Facebook page or on our website www.iomps.com Our meetings are open to the public (non-members with a modest entry fee), and all will be given a very warm welcome. Meantime, we would wish all our readers “A Happy and Safe New Year”,

By Chris Blyth

CAPTIONS:

IMAGE 01: 'Blue Tit' by Lara Howe

IMAGE 02: 'Buttermere' by Moira Blyth

IMAGE 03: 'Seed Head' by Beryl Quayle