April 2nd 2024.
11 SPS members braved the rain & cold travelling to Wolverhampton to support SPS at the biennial interclub event at their venue. Each team supplied 15 prints & 15 DPIs. Peter Gennard was in charge of proceedings & commented on the high standard of work presented. Stourbridge were delighted to win with a final score of 515 vs Wolverhampton’s 478. A rematch at Stourbridge will be in 2026.
March 7th 2024.
Our 5-a-side battle has now become a 4 way annual event. SPS welcomed Kidderminster, Droitwich & Bromsgove to join us. Each team supplied 7 prints & 7 DPIs. The standard of work submitted was, as expected, very high. The judge Martin Cooper had to make sense of it all. After the print section, the scores were very close; the DPI round sorted out the winners. Final scores were a win for Stourbridge with 259 points, Bromsgrove & Droitwich tied with 252 & Kidderminster were awarded 237. A very close battle.
March 1st 2024.
Midphot results are in. 6 of our members entered work & everyone had at least one image accepted. Details as follows:
John Freeman 1.
Sue Taylor 1. ‘Hellebore’ gained an MCPF ribbon.
Brian Dean 2.
Alison Dean 4. ‘Lighter than air’ acheived an MCPF ribbon & ‘Snow walk’ was Highly Commended.
Jo Allan 5. ‘Allium portrait’ was Highly Commended.
Heather Woodhams 5. ‘The Bedside’ was awarded a selector’s medal.
This was an acceptance rate of 34%, similar to previous years and above the average for the competition overall.
Well done us!!
February 29th 2024.
Heather has triumphed again winning the National ‘Top Performance’ award in the National Property Photography Awards for 2023. This is 2 years in a row! She also did very well in the ‘Photography Partner of the Year’ regional award being a finalist (top 3) and was also a nominee (top 20) for the ‘Customer Satisfaction region award too. Very impressive. Congratulations from us all Heather.
February 5th 2024.
12 SPS members visted Dudley camera club where the annual 4 way battle is held. Peter Gennard was the presiding judge & we were thoroughly pleased to be declared the winners of the tournament again. Final scores were: Stourbridge 292, Dudley 272, Wall Heath 259 & Hagley 241.
December 14th 2023.
Our annual Christmas social took place at the Bonded Warehouse. A relaxed evening was spent chatting, eating & competiting in one of Shaun’s famous quizzes. The winning team-again (!!) comprised Eric & Elaine, Nigel & Jackie, Geoff & Jane. Sure they all watch too much telly & Netflix! Congrats to them. Special thanks to Shaun for all his hard work.
December 7th 2023.
We held our annual AGM where members were able to discuss the running of their club. Annual awards were also given out. Nigel won the ‘Albert’ trophy, Alison received the Phil Waldron ‘Best Landscape’ award, Peter Clarke was promoted to the Advanced group & John Millward was given the president’s award for services to SPS. Mince pies well received too!
November 9th 2023.
Stourbridge welcomed Hagley & Web Heath for the annnual evening of fun & mayhem at the Match an Image battle. Ric Harding managed to make sense of it all (& keep order) and the final score was a win for Stourbridge with 19 points just 1 ahead of Web Heath with 18. Hagley were awarded 11 marks. Rematch next year, same venue, similar date.
September 25th 2023.
The annual interclub battle vs Web Heath was hosted by them this year & we were made to feel very welcome. It was DPI images only with each club supplying 25 pictures. There was an excellent range of work entered which gave judge Terry Livesey a very hard time scoring. After a close fought contest, Web Heath were victorious; their final score 410 points vs Stourbridge’s 403. All to play for again next year.
August 10th 2023.
SPS were invited to Great Barr Photographic Society as it was their turn to host the annual interclub battle. We were delighted with our win with the final score being Gt Barr 349 & SPS 365. Judy Mainwaring was the judge for the evening.
July 22nd 2023.
Alison was delighted & quite surprised to get 5 prints accepted into the Midland Salon. Also 4 of them received awards! Nature study-MCPF ribbon; The lost key-judge’s medal; Red, Yellow & blue-PAGB silver medal & Snow walk-PAGB ribbon. What a haul! Great news for SPS too.
July 6th 2023.
We hosted the annual interclub battle vs Stourport. Both clubs submitted some lovely work. Dave Tucker was the judge in charge of proceedings. Final score was a victory for Stourbridge with 347 points & Stourport was just a whisker behind with 338.
July 1st 2023.
16 SPS folks had a really interesting morning spent at Halfpenny Green airfield. Thanks to ‘insider contacts’ (!!) we had priviledged access to the hangars & control tower-fascinating. Big thanks go to Tim for organising.
June 29th 2023.
Our summer social event was held at The Squirrel pub at Alveley. Everyone had a great time wth good food & company & plenty of skittes. Thanks to Shaun for organising.
June 3rd 2023.
7 SPS members visted the Severn Valley railway at Highley station. We were treated to some awesome steam trains & then a flypast by the Red Arrows & a Spitfire plane. We also enjoyed the locos in the train museum & made good use of the cafe. A perfect summer’s day.
May 5th 2023.
The annual Ladies vs Gents battle was this year judged by Louise Hill. Each team provided 10 prints & 10 DPI images. The ladies were delighted to regain the crown with the final scores: Gents 324, Ladies 354.
May 2nd 2023.
Some fantastic news just in. 2 SPS members have had work accepted into the prestigious London Salon for 2023. Heather had 2 images selected-‘The landing window’ & ‘The feminine touch’; Sue had her lovely ‘Seashells’ picture accepted. Congratulations to you both & a huge ‘well done’ from us all.
March 25th 2023.
8 members visited the Black Country Museum. Our visit coincided with a Marvellous Machines weekend at the museum. Steam engines and industrial furnaces around the site were in use. It was great having Peter along, as being a volunteer at the museum, he knows lots about most things Black Country! Seeing the steam powered drop forge in action was fantastic.
There were plenty of photo opportunities on offer-many suitable for mono conversion images. The site is always changing and this year opened up a new visitors centre which is very impressive.
March 2nd 2023.
Stourbridge hosted the annual 5 a-side battle against Droitwich, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove & Wall Heath. Each team supplied 5 prints & 5 DPIs. What a close contest! Fianl scores: Stourbridge emerged victorious with 180 points, Bromsgrove 2nd with 179, Droitwich 3rd with 178, Kidderminster had 169 & Wall Heath 155. The judge was Anne Sutcliffe.
Another year of polishing the trophy! Same time in 2024.
February 25th 2023.
15 members travelled to Birmingham for some ‘street shots’. A planned route gave plenty of opportunities to take shots of both the old and new parts of the city.
Beginning at Snow Hill; the walk was up to Pigeon Park and the Cathedral. Stopping by the new Orelle Restaurant at 103 Colmore Row, the manager-Mr Kim Sin Tae-was a photography enthusiast and invited everyone into his nice warm restaurant on the 24th floor. Such an amazing opportunity for fantastic city views.
A lunch stop at the ICC, then on to the canal at Gas Street Basin and down to the Cube. We’re hoping to do this again, hopefully, on a warmer day!
February 28th 2023.
It’s Midphot time again. What another great year it has been for us. 7 members had work accepted & between us we managed 9 awards!! Of the images submitted (both DPIs & prints) 37% of them were accepted. Acceptances: Pauline Franks 1, John Freeman 2, Alison Dean 2, Brian Dean 3, Sue Taylor 5, Jo Allan 6 & Heather Woodhams 9.
The awards were:
Alison – MCPF ribbon for ‘Red, yellow & blue’; Pauline – MCPF ribbon for ‘Seashore’; Jo – MCPF ribbon for ‘My bloomers’ & HC for ‘Barley & oats’; Heather – MCPF ribbons for ‘A touch of frost, ‘Skimming surf’, ‘The feminine touch’, ‘Elegant entrance’ & finally a Selectors Medal for ‘The landing window’. Wow!!
February 29th 2023
SPS were delighted to hear of the recent success of one of our long standing members Heather Woodhams. She is a professional photographer & in the 2022 National Property Photography Awards she was the winner of the Top Performance (Nationally & Regionally) trophy; a Photography Property Partner of the year finalist as well as being a Customer Satisfaction nominee. What an achievement Heather!
February 7th 2023.
10 Stourbridge members travelled to Dudley to take part in the annual 4 way battle vs Dudley, Hagley & Wall Heath. Each team supplied 8 prints & 8 DPIs. The judge was John Holt. As always, it was a closely fought contest with Stourbridge again emerging the winners with a total score of 276 points. Dudley were a close second with 270 points. Wall Heath finished on 259 & Hagley scored 242. To be repeated in a year’s time.
January 29th 2023.
On Sunday Jan 29th 8 members enjoyed the first of the year’s ‘outings’. We enjoyed a lovely stroll in the sunshine at Bratch Locks Womborne returning via the Staffordshire railway walk. Plenty of shutter clicks & good conversation. We plan to make this a regular monthly occurance. Details for the next walk will be posted on the website.
January 27th 2023.
Once again, Stourbridge entered the GB Cup DPI images section. There were a total of 66 clubs nationally. We supplied 24 images & the marks of our top 12 images were added to acheive a final score. We were very pleased to find that we finished equal 15th, an improvement on our 17th placing in 2020. Our total score was 142 points, only 18 points behind the overall winner. A great acheivement.
December 15th 2022. Our annual social event, held ‘live’ for the first time since 2019. A good time had by all. Many thanks to Shaun who organised the food, ran the quiz and also provided the prizes for the winners.
November 28th 2022.
Isabelle has had some recent success with her bee pictures. They were entered into the National Bee Supplies POTY competition. Winning images were selected for a calendar. ‘Spring Flight’ was the winner for the flying category & featured as the March picture; ‘Lavender Buzz’ was chosen for July & ‘Mellow Yellow’ was used as a background on page 1. We are all delighted to hear of her acheivements.
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November 17th 2022. Match an Image is back! We were delighted to welcome Hagley & Web Heath to the Bonded Warehouse for the first time since 2019 to play this battle. Steve Clifford was the judge & he just about managed to retain order during the good natured banter. The worthy winners were Web Heath with 20 points followed by Stourbridge with 18 & Hagley 12. Same again next year……….hopefully!
September 29th 2022.
We welcomed Web Heath digital camera club back to the Bonded Warehouse after a very long time (thanks to Covid) for our regular annual battle. Each club supplied 40 DPI images. Our judge was Kim Walton from Malvern. The final score was Stourbridge 363 points vs Web Heath’s 337. A pleasing win for us. Web Heath will host in ’23.
August 11th 2022. On a very balmy evening at the Bonded Warehouse we welcomed Great Barr PS for our annual interclub battle. It was very close with Great Barr taking the lead by 1 point after the prints; however, after the DPI round Stourbridge emerged the winners by just 4 points. Final scores SPS 346, GB 342. Claire Carter was our judge.
July 7th 2022.Our annual interclub battle vs Stourport was this year hosted by them. On a very warm evening, 10 of our members made the trip over to Stourport. Each team supplied 10 prints & 10 DPIs. We were pleased to be declared the winners this year with a total score of 351 points compared to Stourport’s 335. The judge, Judy Mainwaring, had quite a difficult task separating the teams as the standard of the work was high. All to play for again this time next year.
June 30th 2022.
Though many of our members were away on holiday, 12 of us enjoyed a very pleasant evening in good company at the Swan in Blakedown. We had lovely food & Shaun put together an excellent quiz which resulted in quite a bit of whispering & head scratching. The victors were Alison & Brian. The top 3 teams all received very nice prizes. Definitely a place to consider for another outing.
April 27th 2022.
Stourbridge are delighted to hear that Peter Jackson has now accrued another 25 acceptances in BPE exhibitions which enables him to apply for his BPE 2. Congratulations Peter from us all.
April 7th 2022.
We hosted the annual interclub battle vs Wolverhampton last night. This is always very closely fought & again proved to be the case. Each team supplied 20 DPIs which were judged by Dave Tucker. This time Wolverhampton were very pleased to be declared the winners with a total of 352 points with Stourbridge trailing by a mere 5 points with a score of 347. In future this will become a biannual event so we look forward to Wolverhampton hosting in 2024.
March 31st.
We welcomed Claire Carter to the Bonded Warehouse to judge our annual Ladies vs Gents battle. Each team provided 10 prints & 10 DPIs. It was a close contest & the Gents just edged ahead with a total of 346 points compared to the ladies 338. Closer than last year; they were the worthy winners.
March 15th 2022.
The reults have landed for Vale of Evesham BPE exhibition. Peter J had 2 acceptances & was especially pleased to receive a selectors’ medal & 14 points for his awesome hare image. Thoroughly deserved. Alison managed 3 acceptances.
March 3rd 2022.
Last night Stourbridge hosted the annual 5 a-side battle vs Droitwich, Wall Heath, Kidderminster & Bromsgrove. The judge, Leigh Woolford, gave us great feedback on all the images. The competition was very tight with Stourbridge the winners with 177 points closely followed by Droitwich with 171 marks. Bromsgrove had 168, Kidderminster 162 & Wall Heath 154. We’ll all be back again-hopefully in person (I’ve said this before!!) next March.
February 24th 2022.
The results are in for Midphot 2022. 8 of our members entered images; 18 of which were accepted. Jo Allen & Sue Taylor had 1 acceptance each, Sophie Craven also had 1 on her first time of entering (excellent). John Freeman had 2 successes, Alison Dean & Brian Dean had 4 each & finally Peter Jackson was rewarded with 5 acceptances. Though our % acceptance rate was a little reduced (probably due to Covid spoiling our outings) we also noted that a further 29 images only missed being included by 1 point. Encouraging.
February 7th 2022.
Our first battle for 2022. The 4 way competition was between us, Dudley, Hagley & Wall Heath-hosted by Dudley. The judge was Dave Russell from Wales. We were delighted to be top of the tree with 291 points. There was a tie for 2nd place between Dudley & Hagley (270 marks) & Wall Heath was only a whisker behind with 265 points. Good start for the year.
December 17th 2021.
SPS held their Xmas Social via Zoom last night. Shaun compiled a brilliant quiz for us; he now has a job for life. After the 4 rounds of questions Dave A was declared winner followed by John Fr & Sheila in 2nd place & John & Julie Fox secured 3rd spot. A nail biting tie break question was necessary to determine 1st & 2nd places! They will all be rewarded with gift vouchers. Members’ also shared some of their favourite images. Let’s hope we’ll all meet up in the Bonded next year!!
November 25th 2021.
Frome BPE exhibition have just published their results. Peter J had 3 images accepted with a Highly Commended for his superb image of a hare; Alison was delighted with 4 acceptances.
November 15th 2021
Peter Jackson has had 4 images accepted into the Smethwick International Exhibition, ‘Dewy morning’, ‘River of red’, ‘Queen of the Nile’ and ‘One more push ought to do it’, they are shown on this Gallery. Alison Dean’s composition ‘Red letter day’ has been used as the banner image for the 2022 MidPhot competition.
October 13th 2021.
Peter J & Alison continue to enter images into the BPE exhibitions. Peter recently had 1 acceptance into Shrewsbury & 2 in Dingwall whilst Alison had just the 1 acceptance into the latter. It’s a slow process!
August 17th 2021.
Peter Jackson had 4 of his images accepted into the recent Beyond BPE exhibition. 3 of them were old favourites: Katelyn, Ella in blue, Osprey fishing and a 4th new stunning photo called ‘Gyr peregrine & Tegan’. He’s on his way for a BPE 2 award!
August 5th 2021
Gt Barr hosted the annual battle against us this year. 22 SPS members Zoomed in to watch the proceedings. Each team supplied 20 DPIs and the judge, Anne Sutcliffe, had a difficult task as the standard was high. Eventually, Stourbridge emerged victorious with a score of 315 points compared with Gt Barr’s total of 294. All to play for next year.
July 8th 2021
Peter J has had more successs with his classic images Princess Claudia, Sea eagle with mackerel & Osprey fishing. These 3 fabulous photos were accepted into the local Midland Salon. More congratulations Peter.
July 1st 2021
Stouport joined us last night for the annual interclub battle via video link. Both teams supplied 20 DPI images for judge Peter Cheetham to scrutinise. There was an excellent selection of work from both clubs which made Peter’s job quite difficult. A close fought battle from which Stourport emerged the winners by a mere 4 points. Stourport 339, Stourbridge 335. Same again next year.
June 25th 2021
Last night 18 Stourbridge members enjoyed a socially distanced walk with cameras at Kinver edge as our summer social event. The rain held off & there was plently of chat & even some picture taking!
June 19th 2021.
Peter Jackson’s hard work has now been rewarded as he has acheived a BPE 1 (25 acceptances). He has just received his certificate & ribbon in the post. Congratulations Peter from us all.
May 13th 2021
Quality shines through yet again. 😉 Our judge Steve Clifford thought the work presented by the Gents was 17 points better than the images shown by the Ladies. ( written by one of the Gents 🙂 ). You can see all the Ladies entries and the Gents entries by clicking on the links.
April 28th 2021
More BPE results have just landed. For the Neath exhibition, Peter J had 3 acceptances & Alison 2. Rushden awarded Peter with 1 acceptance & Alison 4. The good news is Peter now has the 25 points required to apply for his BPE 1.
April 6th 2021.
Wolverhampton were the hosts for this year’s annual battle which is always very closely fought. This one was no exception. Each team supplied 30 DPIs which were judged by Dave McGuire. Stourbridge were very happy to be declared the winners with a total of 500 points with Wolverhampton finishing just a whisker behind with 496 marks.
March 21st 2021.
South Birmingham have just published the acceptances for their BPE exhibition & Peter & Alison have both had more success. Peter had 3 images accepted: ‘One giant leap’, ‘Osprey fishing’ & ‘Princess Claudia’; Alison’s 2 acceptances were ‘Rainy day bike ride’ & ‘Holy cross’. Good news for Stourbridge too.
March 18th 2021
This is the time of year for a glut of BPE exhibitions. Vale of Evesham & Basingstoke have recently published their acceptances. Peter Jackson was pleased to get 4 images accepted into Evesham & ‘Sea eagle with mackerel’ scored an impressive 14 points. Alison Dean managed to get 1 in Evesham but fared better in Basingstoke with 5 making the grade.
March 5th 2021.
Last night Stourbridge hosted the annual 5 a-side battle vs Droitwich, Wall Heath, Kidderminster & Bromsgrove. The judge, Roger Evans, gave us great feedback on all the images. The competition was very tight with Droitwich emerging victorious with 177 points closely followed by Stourbridge with 175 marks. Bromsgrove had 170, Kidderminster 169 & Wall Heath 165. We’ll all be back again-hopefully in person-on March 3rd next year.
March 2nd 2021.
Midphot results are in & we were very pleased to receive an excellent set of results. 10 of our members had images accepted: Peter Jackson 2, John Freeman 3, Dave Tomlinson 1, Jo Allan 3, Pauline Franks 3, Stuart Hancox 3, Phil Turner 5, Heather Woodhams 6, Alison Dean 8 & Brian Dean 10. Special congratulations go to Heather who received a commended and MCPF ribbon for ‘Work of a bygone era’; Alison was awarded a first & PAGB gold medal for ‘Seeds that fly’, an MCPF medal for ‘Red sand beach’, a highly commended for ‘Flowers and feathers’ & a commended & MCPF ribbon for ‘Bearded Iris beauty’.
As well as these results both Peter Jackson & Alison Dean had an image accepted into Southport BPE. The photographs were ‘Princess Claudia’ & ‘All lined up’ respectively. What a great week for SPS.
February 25th 2021.
Peter Jackson’s image ‘White tailed sea eagle’ continues to perform well as it was accepted into the Clay Cross BPE exhibition. Well done Peter.
February 8th 2021.
Our first interclub battle took place….on-line of course. The 4 way battle hosted by Dudley included Hagley & Wall Heath too. 13 of our members joined in to view the fun. We were pleased to tuck another win under our belts; a good start for the new year. Final scores were: 1st Stourbridge 274, 2nd Wall Heath 243, 3rd Hagley 242 and Dudley 230. Very close contest for 2nd & 3rd places. The judge was Vittorio Silvestri from Northern Ireland.
December 3rd 2020.
More good news in this dire year! One of our newest members, Sophie Craven, has had one of her images accepted into Digital Camera magazine. The stunning photograph ‘Chinese lanterns’ (which was taken using small bulbs inside them to give a lovely glow) will be published in the issue available on January 8th. We look forward to seeing Sophie’s work in print.
November 18th 2020.
We all send our congratulations to Peter Jackson who continues to do well with his images. Peter had 2 acceptances in the recent Frome BPE exhibition: ‘Osprey fishing’ & ‘Sea Eagle with mackerel’. He also had 5 pictures included in the prestigious Smethwick International Exhibition. The 2 images from Frome together with ‘Ella in blue’, ‘Princess Claudia’ & ‘Osprey’ made up the collection. Keep going Peter!
October 21st 2020
Peter Jackson continues to do well in the BPE exhibitions. He acheived 4 acceptances in the Shrewsbury Open. The images were: ‘Ella in blue’, ‘Sea eagle with mackerel’ & ‘White tailed sea eagle’. Even better, he received a PAGB ribbon for ‘Osprey fishing’. Some good news in these strange times.
August 22nd 2020
Peter Jackson has had more success with his wonderful wildlife images ‘White tailed sea eagle’ & ‘White tailed sea eagle with mackerel’ in the Neath BPE exhibition. Alison Dean also had ‘Hellnar Rainbow’ accepted into the Beyond Group. Congrats to both.
July 30th 2020
Stourbridge battled against Great Barr last night with each club providing 20 DPIs. Claire Carter judged the battle for us & did a great job using video technology. The final score was Great Barr 328, Stourbridge 345. We were pleased to win.
July 3rd 2020
There was good news recently for Stourbridge member Peter Jackson who had 3 of his images accepted into the Robin Hood BPE exhibition. They were 2 of his fabulous wildlife shots: ‘White tailed sea eagle’; ‘White tailed sea eagle with mackerel’ together with a portrait image ‘Princess Claudia’. Congrats Peter from us all.
July 2nd 2020
Our annual battle took place on-line between ouselves & Stourport. John Haines was the judge. There was a good variety of photographic styles from both clubs. It was level pegging for much of the battle but in the end Stourbridge triumphed with a score of 330 points against Stourport’s 314. All will be repeated July 1st ’21.
May 28th 2020
Our 2nd ‘Knockout style’ competition judged in-house by members. The challenge was ‘Lockdown images’ & all photos had to have been taken after March 1st this year. Tanya Skelding won the General group with her clever image ‘Whoops’; Alison Dean won the Advanced section with ‘Musical spoons’.
May 21st 2020
The annual Ladies vs Gents battle took place judged by Terry Livesey. In view of Lockdown restrictions the competition was held using a video link & each team entered 20 DPIs. The Ladies run of luck was overthrown with the Gents winning by a mere 6 points (336 vs 330).
March 28th 2020
In these strange times it is great to have some good news. Dave Tomlinson has recently had his dramtic image ‘Storm at Blackpool’ accepted into the South Birmingham BPE exhibition. Congratulations Dave.
March 5th 2020.
The annual 5 a-side battle took place at the Bonded with Stourbridge up against Droitwich, Kidderminster, Wall Heath & Bromsgrove. Graham Heywood was in charge of judging so there were plenty of smiles. Yet again Droitwich were victorious with a total of 166 points. Kidderminster came in 2nd with 159, Bromsgrove & Stourbridge both had 157 & Wall Heath finished with 148. We have to admit that Droitwich were worthy winners with some superb images. Back again March 4th next year.
February 26th 2020.
The results for Midphot 2020 are in. We are pleased to report that Stourbridge did very well acheiving a 35% acceptance rate from images submitted. 6 members had images accepted: Paul Robinson 2, Brian Dean 3, Alison Dean 3, Jo Allen 3 with a PAGB Silver medal for ‘My Hat’ & an MCPF ribbon for ‘Still Life in Blue’. Peter Jackson had 6 accepted & Heather Woodhams a stupendous 9 acceptances with 2 of her entries ‘Architectural Figures’ & ‘High Tide, Bude’ Highly commended. What a set of results!! 🙂
February 20th 2020.
Our annual battle vs Wolverhampton took place at our venue. It is always a very close affair & last night was no exception. We made judge Terry Livesey’s job very difficult. Stourbridge finally emerged the winners with a total score of 343 with Wolverhampton just a whisker behind with 335. Everyone enjoyed the high quality of the images. Wolverhampton will be hosting in 2021.
February 3rd 2020.
11 SPS members travelled to Dudley for the annual 4 way battle involving ourselves, Dudley, Hagley & Wall Heath. Each club supplied a variety of prints & DPIs. As expected all of the pictures were of a high standard. We were pleased to be the overall winners with a total score of 288. Wall Heath were 2nd with 262 with Hagley on 260 & Dudley 254. The judge was John Haines. Same time next year.
January 31st 2020.
We recently entered the GB cup which is a national competition run by the PAGB. Clubs submit images (DPI format) & enter either as small clubs (10 pictures) or large clubs (15 pictures). We chose the latter with work from 6 club members. Images are scored (out of 15) and a league table is produced. We are delighted to report that we came 19th out of 71!! This is an excellent acheivement. 6 of the images were also accepted to be included in a downloadable slide show.
December 19th 2019.
Our annual Christmas social event was held at the Bonded Warehouse. There was a choice of food with most members opting for fish & chips whilst others enjoyed a cold buffet. We only managed 2 rounds of the quiz as the evening flew by. The Christmas questions went down well & the music round of popular TV theme tunes delighted some & foxed others!! More of this next year.
The victorious team consisted of John, Julie, Eric, Elaine, Nigel & Jackie who obviously watch lots of telly!!
December 2nd 2019.
7 members enjoyed a trip to Birmingham at dusk to take images of the German market & view the Christmas festivities outside the Birmingham library. The Ferris wheel, skating rink & lights looked spectacular from the library terraces. More trips are planned for the next 2 weeks. Contact Dave for more details.
November 28th 2019.
Our last practical night of the year was all about water. We had a go at photographing abstracts using oil & water, ink trails in a fish tank (beautiful patterns) & soap bubbles. The latter proved quite difficult but was great fun.
November 24th 2019.
6 members went for a leisurely stroll at Kinver edge. The morning was dry with some mist & we were surprised to find that there was still autumn colour in abundance & quite a lot of fungi about. There was also plenty of opportunity to photograph hundreds of cute pooches all out for their Sunday walk. 🙂
November 7th 2019.
Chris Palmer presented his lecture ‘What makes a competition judge happy’ to us and what an eye opener it was! He started by asking what we didn’t like about judges (plenty of answers to that question!) & then explained some of the things he is looking for when judging. After tea 8 volunteers (some arm twisting) had a go at critiquing sets of 3 images & we were asked to pick out the best image. It was much harder than we all thought.
Overall a really entertaining evening with plenty of audience participation.
October 31st 2019.
Our annual ‘Match an Image Battle’ vs Hagley & Web Heath took place with judge Peter Gennard. There was a variety of images-most of them not matching anything else!! Scores were close. Web Heath were the winners with 15 points; Hagley & Stourbridge were joint 2nd with 14 points each. See you all again next year on Thursday November 12th.:-)
October 24th 2019.
This year is turning out to be one of ‘firsts’. We had our first print panel competition. 14 members submitted images on a range of subjects with each panel comprised of between 3-5 photos. 1st place was ‘Iris study’, 2nd ‘Trees of sand’ both by Alison Dean. Dave Allen was 3rd with his imaginative panel called ‘5 a day’. It was a great night-worth doing again next year. 🙂
September 26th 2019.
Our first ever ‘Knockout competition’. 48 images were submitted & whittled down by members’ votes to a final choice of 2. The winner was Dave Tomlinson with his atmospheric image ‘Misty Kinver gate’. The photographic quiz got folks scratching their heads with joint winners being Phil Turner & Dave Allen. A very enjoyable evening which would be good to do again.
September 23rd 2019.
We had our annual battle vs Web Heath digital camera club at their venue. The judge was again Ken Hudson (he’ll be sick of seeing us so much…………!!) Each club provided 25 DPIs & we are pleased to say that we won the battle this year with a score of 440 points to Web Heath’s 412. Similar time next year at the Bonded for a re-match. 🙂
September 5th 2019
The practical session featured a model shoot at the warehouse. We welcomed experienced model Kat who was dressed in her steampunk outfit. We had 2 lighting set ups and although there was only a small group of photographers we all enjoyed the session made so much easier by Kat ‘knowing how to pose’. All participants came away with some great shots.
Alison Dean has finally caught up with Brian & achieved a BPE 2. Onward & upward!
July 25th 2019
Our annual battle vs Great Barr PS took place at their new venue in Great Barr. A small cohort of members attended. Ken Hudson was the local judge in charge of proceedings. In the print section we scored 181 points to GBs 167 & for the DPIs it was 179 vs 173 respectively. This meant Stourbridge was the overall winner with a total of 360 points to Great Barr’s 340. 🙂
Similar time next year with Stourbridge hosting.
July 20th 2019
A group of SPS members travelled to Clay Mills Victorian Pumping Station (nr Burton On Trent). This was the first of 2 visits arranged through John Freeman who volunteers there. After a welcome coffee in the café we were treated to a tour (> 1 hour) with John who gave us a personal introduction around the site including access to a couple of hidden places. The visit was really interesting & very informative. We were then free to wander at leisure with our cameras to capture shots of these atmospheric buildings. Highly recommend the home made cake & delicious pasties in the café too!
The next visit is arranged for Saturday August 17th. Anyone who would like to go & hasn’t yet put their name on the list see John Freeman on a club night. Any difficulty you can also contact Alison.
July 4th 2019
Our annual battle vs Stourport took place at our venue. The judge Steve Clifford was impressed by the quality of the images from both clubs who each provided 10 prints & 10 DPIs. There were many excellent nature shots in the work. Stourbridge won the print round (176 vs 167) & it was a draw for the DPIs (171 each). This meant that Stourbridge was the eventual winner with 347 points against Stourport’s 338. A close match. 🙂 Steve’s contribution made for a very relaxed evening. Re-match same time next year at Stourport.
June 13th 2019
We had a very pleasant evening at The Squirrel at Alveley playing skittles. In the elimination competition Tanya was first, Zac 2nd & Brian 3rd. A great evening with plenty of time for chat.
May 16th 2019
The annual battle of the sexes took place & was judged by Jon Baker (he likes a challenge!). Each team (a minimum of 10 members) supplied 13 DPIs & 13 prints. It looks like the ladies are currently a bit invincible! The final score was Ladies 429 vs Gents 405. We will do it all again same time next year. 🙂
April 13th 2019
Last Saturday we were privileged to welcome fine art landscape photographer Rachael Talibart to Stourbridge. She travelled from the South East to be with us & presented her lecture ‘Tides & tempests’. We were joined by many guests & friends & we were all totally captivated by her stunning images of the coast. Not only was Rachael’s work superb; her delivery was very professional & relaxed. She also shared with us many hints & tips relating to her work. It was a very successful evening & hopefully Rachael will return in the future with more of her inspirational photographs.
Rachael Talibart
March 19th 2019
Jo Allen entered her first BPE exhibition recently (Vale of Evesham) & was delighted to have 3 acceptances. The successful images were: ‘Striding out’, ‘Sailing in the blue’ & ‘Fantasia in Blue’. Brian Dean, Alison Dean & Paul Robinson also had work accepted.
Brian Dean’s successful image ‘Senja Aurora’ continues to do well & was awarded the Selectors silver medal in the Landscape section of the Basingstoke BPE event. 🙂
March 14th 2019
The annual 5 a-side battle took place at Stourbridge vs Kidderminster, Wall Heath, Bromsgrove & Droitwich. Each team presented 5 prints & 5 DPIs. As expected the standard was very high. The result was very close with Droitwich winning AGAIN……..They retain the shield for another year. Final scores were: Droitwich 184, Stourbridge 178, Bromsgrove 175, Wall Heath 170 & Kidderminster 169. Phil Cooling was our judge for the evening. The re-match will be March 5th 2020! 🙂
February 23rd 2019
The 2019 Midphot results have just been announced & SPS has done well. 6 members had a total of 25 images accepted. Paul Robinson & Dave Tomlinson had 1 acceptance each; Jo Allen had 2 acceptances; Brian Dean & Alison Dean each had 5 acceptances with Brian gaining an MCPF medal for ‘Senja Aurora’. Finally Heather Woodhams did brilliantly well with 11 acceptances; ‘Wollescote winter’ was highly commended & ‘Kids’ play’ was awarded an MCPF ribbon.
February 17th 2019
Dave Tomlinson continues to be successful with his wonderful image ‘Stormy lighthouse’ which was accepted into the Clay Cross BPE exhibition. Paul Robinson also had an acceptance with ‘Going Up’. Brian Dean was the 3rd successful SPS member with 2 acceptances: ‘Pingvellir’ & a commended for ‘Senja Aurora’.
February 7th 2019
SPS are delighted to hear that one of our newly promoted Advanced members-Dave Tomlinson-has had his first acceptance into a BPE exhibition. His powerful image ‘Storm Brian’ was accepted into the Solihull exhibition. Congratulations Dave.
February 4th 2019
Our annual 4 way battle vs Dudley, Hagley & Wall Heath took place at Dudley’s venue. This competition is a mix of prints & DPIs. We were pleased to be the winners with a total score of 279 points. Wall Heath scored 250, Dudley 239 & Hagley 228. Peter Siviter was the judge. Thanks to the 10 SPS members who supported the cause!
January 22nd 2019
A small group of hardy SPS members braved the cold weather & travelled to Wolverhampton to attend the annual battle. The standard of images from both clubs was very good. Sadly Stourbridge were defeated by ONLY 2 points (349 vs 347). Congratulations to Wolverhampton. Until the next time……….!
2019
December 13th 2018.
Our AGM was held at the Bonded Warehouse. The committee was re-elected & we are pleased to have a new President for 2019 – Jo Allen. Many certificates were awarded for work that has been submitted throughout the year. 3 members of the General group have been promoted to the Advanced section; they are Paul Robinson, Dave Tomlinson & Stuart Hancox. Tanya Skelding also received the ‘most improved photographer award. Congratulations to them all.
November 8th 2018
We had a very successful evening playing ‘Match an Image’ against Hagley & newcomers Web Heath. Due to a mix up with the rules for scoring a draw was declared! It was great fun & especially successful thanks to the sense of humour of our judge Steve Clifford. See you all on October 31st next year.
November 7th 2018
We are very pleased to hear that one of our younger members Paul Robinson has been shortlisted in the British Photography Awards. He has entered a drone image from his recent trip to Iceland. Good luck Paul.
Also Phil Turner has been successful in the Birmingham Photography Festival competition. People were asked to submit images taken around the city. He was one of the 8 winners and his prize is 3 hours in the penthouse apartment in the Rotunda this weekend where he can take sunset shots (hopefully) of the city. Fantastic prize.
September 27th 2018
Our annual battle versus Web Heath Digital camera club took place. There was a very strong set of images from both clubs & sadly for us Web Heath emerged victorious! Final score was Stourbridge 358, Web Heath 369. Thanks to Terry Livesey for judging.
August 16th 2018
Our first ‘Question Time’ evening involved a panel of our 6 Advanced members answering questions on anything photographic. The evening went well & we all picked up some useful information.
July 26th 2018
A ‘bit too close for comfort’ win in the battle against Great Barr, ( by 2 points ). Stourbridge needs more portrait images in its portfolio.
July 12th 2018
12 Stourbridge supporters travelled to Stourport to attend the annual inter-club battle. The contest was judged by Mike Sharples. Each club won one round but the final score was a victory for Stourbridge with 341 points vs 328 for Stourport. 🙂 We will welcome them to our venue for the return match next year.
June 7th 2018
A very pleasant evening was spent at ‘The Squirrel’ in Alveley with good food, good company & skittles. The first round was won (by a complete fluke throw) by Brian; the ‘knockout’ round was very close between Shaun & Simon – Simon was the eventual winner!
May 11th 2018
More Stourbridge members’ success. Alison Dean has just gained her BPE 1 crown award whilst Brian Dean is racing ahead & now has a BPE 2.
May 4th 2018
The Ladies of Stourbridge Photographic were very pleased to have been successful again in the annual battle against the Gents. Images from both teams were excellent but the final score was Ladies 472, Gents 443. Our thanks go to Ralph Duckett for great judging.
May 3rd 2018.
We are very pleased to hear the news that Heather Woodhams has recently enjoyed success in the prestigious London Salon. She has had 2 prints accepted: ‘Wayside Flowers’ & ‘The Pink Coat’. Only 177 images were accepted. Even better: ‘Wayside Flowers’ was also awarded A London Salon medal-one of only 9 awarded. Congratulations Heather-well deserved.
March 8th 2018.
Our winning streak was a little dented last night when we finished in 4th place at the annual 5 a-side battle. Droitwich were the worthy winners with Bromsgrove 2nd, Wall Heath 3rd, Stourbridge 4th & Kidderminster 5th. Congratulations to Droitwich & we’ll see you all next year.
February 22nd 2018.
We have just received our Midphot results and were delighted to find out that 9 of our members had submitted images that were accepted.
Phil Turner, Sue Taylor, Pauline Franks, Isabelle Johnson and Jo Allan all had 1 image accepted. Pauline’s picture ‘Lincoln cathedral knave’ was highly commended. David Tomlinson had 2 acceptances; Clare Chamberlain had 4 accepted. Alison Dean had 5 accepted with ‘The harbour’ receiving an MCPF ribbon. Finally Brian Dean had 7 acceptances with ‘Blue farm’ being also highly commended.
It was especially good that 2 members had acceptances on their 1st time of entering.
Onwards and upwards!
February 6th 2018.
We had our first battle of the year last night at Dudley Camera Club’s venue. This annual battle involves Stourbridge vs Dudley, Wall Heath & Hagley. It was very close but we managed to win with a score of 286 points. Wall Heath were second with 281; just one point behind with 280 were Dudley and Hagley finished with 243 points.
Our thanks go to Dudley for hosting & to Ralph Duckett for his judging.