Author: LPS

On 14th October 2015 Kidwelly Camera Club held a three way battle competition. This pitted LPS against Towy Valley CC and Kidwelly with each club putting forward eight prints and eight DPIs. The images were judged by Gareth Martin. It was a good evening for Llanelli as we took first place ahead of the hosts.

Prints

1. Dreaming – Jennifer – 18
2. Face Full Of Fish – Jason – 16
3. Gerbera Flower – Arthur -14
4. Self Portrait – Steve – 20
5. Sun Soaked Clams – Jason – 18
6. Sunset – Jamie – 16
7. SW1 – Graham – 19
8. Village Elder – Joyce – 20

DPIs

1. A Light Shower – Steve – 20
2. House On The Moors – Graham – 17
3. I’ll Grant You Three Wishes – Alun – 18
4. Long Eared Owl – Jason – 20
5. Mother – Netley – 15
6. Subway Artist – Arthur – 16
7. The Newly Deads – Jennifer – 20
8. The Way We Were – Joyce – 17

The above gave us a score of 284. Well done to Steve (x2), Joyce, Jennifer and Jason who all scored 20s.

Whilst the competition is the business side of things, the battle is all about meeting other clubs, chatting with other photographers and enjoying the evening together. Kidwelly were excellent hosts and made LPS members very welcome. The evening was well organised and there was also an excellent buffet too.

LPS would like to thank Kidwelly for their kind invitation and their hospitality. Hopefully this battle will become an annual event and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.

In 2016, Llanelli Photographic Society (LPS) – The Oldest Camera Club in Wales – will be 125 years old. The club is intending to mark the event with a display of work from some of the original members of The Society. Thanks to the assistance of Llanelli Library and The National Library of Wales, members of LPS have begun scanning photographic glass plates, which are believed to be from 1891, and turning them into digital images. The images feature local scenes, people from the day as well as the photographers themselves.

Joyce Mollet ARPS of LPS said “We are particularly excited about this collection as, already, we have observed images of scenes in and around Llanelli that are long gone and, to our knowledge, have not been previously recorded.”

The images will feature in a Community Display which will be on view in June 2016. In addition LPS will be holding a special one off competition for camera clubs in the local area.

LPS is also hoping that more images from past members of the club will come to light. Alun Lewis, who is heading up the 125 LPS committee, explained that “since we started this project a number of other people with glass photographic plates have come forward and hopefully they too can be scanned and the results shared with the community”.

However you won’t have to wait too long to see work from current members of the club. Llanelli Photographic Society will be holding its annual exhibition at the St Elli Centre on the 9th and 10th October. Members of the public are encouraged to come along and vote for their favourite image.

A version of this article appeared in The Llanelli Star.

Over the last few in-club competitions there’s been a number of images from Cuba that have done very well. LPS Members Tony and Arthur both recently visited the country and have come back with a crop of great images – and it was one of these images that has taken top spot in our fourth Open Print competition of 2015.

Brian Coleman was our guest judge for the evening and as ever he gave us an entertaining and thorough critique. He chose Arthur’s image titled Anciano Cubano as his winner – well done to Arthur.

The full top six was as follows:

1. Cuban Gent – Arthur Mallett
2. Social Butterfly – Jennifer Williams
3. Gone Fishing – Steve Milton
4. Dr Death – Tony Collis
5. Connor Mills – Jason Dale
6. Subway – Clive Martin

Congratulations to all the top six and once again a big thank you to Brian Coleman.

The first DPI competition after the summer break took place at Llanelli Photographic Society on 16th September. The theme was set as “From The Hip” which sparked a lot of debate about how it should be interpreted. Some members took it as a literal statement whilst others used it to try street photography with shots taken taken from the hip.

Club Chairman, Ray Rees, offered his critique on the various entries but the top six was determined by scores from the LPS members. Alun Lewis drew first blood and stormed to the top with his shot called “The Gunslinger”.

Second place went to Tony Collis with his beautiful shot of a gallery attendant whilst Jason Dale popped up in third with another gun themed shot. Alun picked off fourth place with a hip flask themed portrait and Dave Rees took fifth with a picture of rose hip seeds. The six was rounded off by Jay Harries with a capture of tourists cut off at the hip in a wine glass.

The Top Six

1. The Gunslinger – Alun Lewis
2. The Gallery Attendant – Tony Collis
3. Shot From The Hip – Jason Dale
4. From The Hip – Alun Lewis
5. Rose Hip Seeds – Dave Rees
6. Floaters In My Glass – Jay Harries

The final DPI competition of 2015 takes place in December and the theme is “Boxed In”.

The summer break has now ended so that signals the start of the autumn/winter programme at Llanelli Photographic Society. It’s been a busy summer for the group so look out for some images from the Wednesday Walkabouts soon but for now it’s time to look forward.

The new session officially kicked off on the 2nd September with the judging of our Summer Challenge competition. A handful of brave souls took to the streets of Llanelli to take a series of seven images in just over an hour. Victory was sort of shared between Dave Rees and Tony Collis who earn the pleasure of setting the challenge in 2016.

That’s some way off, so what’s on offer over the coming weeks at LPS?

On the 9th September we welcome David Alexander to the club for a presentation on “Travel Photography for Real People”. This is followed a week later by the fourth digital image competition of the year. “From The Hip” is possibly the hardest theme on the calendar so it’ll be interesting to see the variety of images submitted. The last couple of weeks in September are more practical based. A night photography evening is planned for the 23rd whilst on the 30th is another of our group discussion critique nights.

We start October with an Open Print competition and welcome Brian Coleman back to the club as guest judge. On the 14th October we’ll be heading over to Kidwelly for a three way battle competition whilst on the 21st we have another speaker. This time we’ve been lucky enough to book Paul Richards for a talk about his wildlife photography. The annual Our Carmarthenshire print competition concludes the month on the 28th.

One thing not mentioned for October is the club’s annual exhibition. This is scheduled for the 9th and 10th October at St Elli Centre in Llanelli. We hope to be putting on a display of work from current members of the club plus possibly some images from past members. The reason for the latter is that in 2016 LPS is celebrating it’s 125 year anniversary and it’s a nod to our heritage.

November and December are made up of more presentations (Andy Freem and David Rowley will be our guests), competitions (5 panel print, Boxed In DPI and final Open Print of 2015), and social events.

At the end of June, Llanelli Photographic Society held it’s annual six way battle. This special competition pits LPS against camera clubs from Tenby, Carmarthen, Trostre, Amman Valley and Pembrey. This year the judge was Mikaela Tocziki who is a lecturer of Arts and Photography at Coleg Sir Gar.

Mikaela was a tough but fair judge and dished out a wide range of scores. It was a close run thing in the end, but Tenby managed to retain their title by just one point.

The scores were as follows;

Tenby – 88
Llanelli – 87
Trostre – 77
Carmarthen – 74
Amman Valley – 69
Pembrey – 65

A big thank you to all the clubs for entering and attending. Congratulations to Tenby for winning and thanks to Mikaela for judging. Finally a special thanks to our visitors from Carmarthenshire Council and The Rural Council.

Temby incidentally get to keep the Sosban Trophy for two years as next year there’s a special one off version of the event to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of LPS.

At the start of the year it was the newer members of LPS who were taking the top honours in print and DPI competitions, but the more established members aren’t taking that lying down. After a good showing in “Old Things” they’re doing it again with Open Print competition 3.

This competition was held in June and our judge for the evening was Andy Leslie who kindly stepped in as a late replacement. Andy chose Pete’s Ghost Car, Ghost Town image as his number one for the evening. Well done Peter!

The full top six was as follows:

1. Pete Francis – Ghost Car, Ghost Town
2. Steve Milton – Self Portrait
3. Arthur Mallett – No Vacancies
4. Jennifer Williams – Dreaming
5. Jason Dale – Swan Lake
6. Jason Dale – Three Cliffs Sunset

Well done to all and our thanks to Andy Leslie for judging on the night.

Back in May LPS held it’s third DPI competition of the year with the theme being “Old Things”. This brought forward a number of entries ranging from old people, old cars, old boats, old trains and even old members of the club. Images from Cuba dominated the top six with three images taken from a recent holiday featuring, however none of those managed to take the top spot.

First place went to Netley Davies with the simple, but very powerful, image of his Mum’s hands.

The full top six were as follows

1. Netley Davies – Mother
2. Alun Lewis -The Things I Have Seen
3. Tony Collis – The Old Car
4. Tony Collis – The Old Hats
5. Arthur Mallett – My Radio Joy
6. Ed – Ageism

The next DPI competition will take place after the summer break and has the tough theme of “From The Hip”.

June is a busy month for external competitions and LPS have been involved in three – The Swansea Battle, Amman Valley Battle and Barrian Cup. Prints from members of LPS were pitched up against those from other clubs but how did we get on?

The Swansea Battle took place on the 1st June where we tied in 4th place alongside Rhonnda Camera Club. Not too bad a placing after a shaky start. Gareth Martin was the judge and did a fabulous job. Tenby came out as clear winners ahead of Swansea and Merthyr who snuck into 3rd at the end with a cheeky 20 points.

LPS Scores – Swansea Battle

Jason – Poppy Memorial – 15
Arthur – Content – 19
Graham – Once A Busy Place – 16
Joyce – Rabari Tribal Woman – 18
Phil – Nordschiefe 911 – 19

The Amman Valley battle took place on the 3rd June and involved a number of clubs including Pembrey, Amman Valley, Carmarthen and Neath. LPS won this one with 107 points – putting us just ahead of Neath. Well done to all and especially Joyce for collecting a 20 point score.

LPS Scores – Amman Valley Battle

Graham – The Festival – 18
Ed – Fall – 16
Alun – Room With A View – 17
Joyce – Village Elder – 20
Netley – Sunset Beach – 17
Jay – Trafalgar Square – 19

Completing a hat-trick of external competitions was The Barrian Cup. This took place on the 6th June and involved entries from 27 different camera clubs. John Tilsley ARPS,DPAGB,APAGB was the judge. The winners were Brigend with 95 points, followed by Gwynfa on 93 and Inn Focus with 92. LPS were 11th equal with Swansea with a score of 78.

LPS Scores – Barrian Cup

Graham – Life on Hold – 14
Jamie – Sunset – 15
Peter – Pre Dawn Lift – 17
Jennifer – Feeding the Idea – 16
Jason – Sun Soaked Clams – 16

Well done to all LPS members who had work selected for these battles – and a big thank you to Barry CC, Swansea CC and Amman Valley CC for hosting the events so well.

The Ken Jones Trophy is one of the highlights of the Llanelli Photographic Society. The reason being that it has one of the most stylish prizes and the winner also gets to keep a small replicate of the trophy, all thanks to Mark Mathias – nephew of Ken Jones and sponsor of the competition. This year there were 40 prints battling out in this monochrome themed competition.

Gareth Martin made a quick return to LPS to deliver a critique and judge the competition. Gareth selected eight prints from the 40 as his favourites including a handful of portraits and landscapes. However, he chose as his overall winner “We Walked This Pier” by Jason Dale.

Well done to Jason for winning and a big thank you to Gareth for his informative and entertaining critique.

LPS would also like to thank Mark Mathias for visiting us again and for his support of the club.

Mark announced that he has commissioned a further 10 years worth of miniature trophies for this competition – a very kind gesture and LPS would like to express sincere thanks for this support. Thank you Mark!!

Our next competition is on 20th May and it’s a Digital one. The theme is “Old Things”.