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This year's Perspectives exhibition in the Winter Garden runs from 27th September to 3rd October, instead of the usual week early in November. Because of this Keith Allchin's preparations have to start much earlier, and entry forms, payment and prints will need to be handed in by September 14th at the beginning of next season. Keith has provided the documentation that you need; all you need to do is go out and take some wonderful pictures to print. As Keith explains in the letter to entrants, there are two sizes of boards in the exhibition, and the allocation of large and small boards has been decided randomly. Look in the Board Allocations document to find which size you have been given, and then start planning what you are going to put on your board.

Sheffield Photographic Society moves into the 21st century! Peter Matthews has been working very hard to set up the SPS Members Forums so that we can discuss between ourselves everything to do with photography and the club. If the idea of forums, user groups and avatars doesn't mean anything to you, don't panic - it is just a way of running discussion topics in a reasonably controlled manner. Have a look at what is there, see how you can read down a discussion thread, and you will soon get the idea.

The first thing to do is to read at least some of the document that Peter has provided; click here for the document. You might find it useful to print out the document so that you can scribble on it and underline the important bits. The first part of the document shows you how to register on the forums, and it then goes on to tell you about finding your way round, reading posts, and adding your own comments to a thread or starting off a new discussion thread. When you are ready click here to visit the forums.

I think the forums will be a huge benefit to the club, allowing us to ask questions and discuss what goes on in meetings. They can only be seen and added to by bona-fide members of SPS so they will act like an extension of the lively discussion that goes on in the gaps in meetings. Bear in mind that all members will be able to read your comments, so think before you type, and maybe even proof read your message before you click the Submit button.

Paul Cutts has almost finalised the programme of outings that runs in the early part of the summer after the end of the season of meetings. The details as they stand at present are on the web site here, but they will be updated as more information becomes available.

Terry Irons has provided these actions for Photoshop users, following up what he was talking about last Thursday. He has also provided extra information for Elements users.

The vote by members of the public for favourite print in the exhibition has now been counted by Keith Allchin and the winner is 'Rob on Stanage Edge' by Kerry Long. There were 344 votes in total and 64% of the images on display received at least one vote.

Keith Allchin and his team have managed the almost impossible and organized our annual exhibition in the teeth of the hardest spell of winter weather for XX years (insert your own number according to which weather bulletin you listen to). Click here to see the poster, or here to see the press release.

The current snowy weather, striving to be the worst winter we have had for decades, has wrought havoc with our plans at this busy time of the year. Last week the main meeting on Tuesday and the AV Group meeting on Thursday were both cancelled. Prints and entry forms for the annual exhibition were due to be collected on the Tuesday evening, so Keith Allchin has had to get them in however they would come, mostly by people visiting his house, or by handing them in last night on the revised last possible date. Time is of the essence because this weekend is judging weekend, with Hugh Milson lecturing on Friday evening and judging the exhibition entries on Saturday.

The Beginners' Course, announced to start on Thursday 14th January has also had to be cancelled, for which we have to apologise. We just couldn't get everything done against the background of the transport disruption. The course will be rescheduled for later in the year.

Keith Allchin, ably assisted by several experienced members, will be running a beginners' photography course starting on the 14th of January. Many new members of SPS say that they want to learn more about using their camera and getting the best out of it, so this course should be just what you need. Keith has provided a document about the course, and you should contact Keith if you are interested in attending the course meetings.

Keith Allchin has provided these documents to help you prepare your entries for the exhibition next February. Remember that the last date for handing in entries is at the first meeting after Christmas, which is on Tuesday 5th January 2010.

Click here to see a slide show of images from the Danish club Filmrullen Horsens.

This informal competition, judged by show of hands from members present, will take place on Tuesday 8th December. You can submit one set of six digital images on a theme, and they must be handed in one week before, on Tuesday 1st December. For information about how to prepare and submit your set of images click here.

You can now take a tour of the Perspectives exhibition at the Winter Garden by clicking here.

PERSPECTIVES 5, an exhibition of recent photographs by members of Sheffield Photographic Society, will be held at the Sheffield Winter Garden from 2nd to 8th November 2009.

Following our successful "Sheffield Life" exhibition during the snooker tournament this year, we are returning to the Winter Garden for Perspectives 5. Forty of the Society's members (including some new members) will be showing some of their recent work, which will be accompanied by the authors' comments on their own images. Members of the Society will be on hand over the lunch periods to give further information about membership or simply to chat about the images or photography in general. The exhibition will be officially opened by Councillor Graham Oxley, Lord Mayor of Sheffield, at 12 noon on Monday 2nd November. Some sample images from the exhibition:

Harlequin by Mavis Mottishaw
Lilac Breasted Roller by Judy Smith LRPS DPAGB BPE3
Out on her Own by Kate Brown LRPS
Silver Birch, Bole Hill by Jim Charlton
The Norfolk Knife by Clive Haslam

Erica Oram, our internal and external competitions secretary, has provided two documents giving details of the internal print and slide competitions for this season; click here for prints and here for slides. Information on how to mount your prints for entry can be found in this document. She would also like members to provide digital images for possible selection for the increasing number of external digital image competitions that we enter; details can be found in the print competition document.

Keith Allchin has provided this information about the Perspectives 5 exhibition at the Winter Garden in November.

From Keith Allchin: SPS has the use of the library showcase on the first floor landing of the Central Library in Surrey Street for the whole of August 2009. You may remember that we have mounted a small exhibition therein for some years past. You are invited to submit small mounted prints for this exhibition. There is limited space and we want to show as many authors' work as possible. Hence the maximum print size should be A4, with an appropriately-sized card mount. Even then we might not be able to show all the work submitted. I need about 30 prints in total.

Please ensure that your work has not been shown before in an SPS exhibition. This is a good opportunity for new members to show their images in public. If you would like to show some work, I expect to be at the Tuesday evening outings from now on. If you cannot make them, you can deliver prints to my house - please phone me (Keith Allchin) on (0114) 2360267 first.

The programme of summer outings for this year is now available by clicking here. Some of the information is still provisional so keep checking the web site for the latest details.

Last summer we were all sent out to take pictures for the Sheffield Life exhibition, which is now on in the Winter Garden. We are not doing a similar thing this summer, but do get out again in Sheffield to record what goes in. This sort of picture, with real 'life' in it, can be very satisfying to take, and they can do well in competitions too! To help you along, Steve Dorey has prepared a short list of events in Sheffield this summer, and he will update it from time to time.

Erica Oram, our external competitions secretary, has produced a list of National, International and Local Photographic Salons and Exhibitions which you might like to enter. She produced the list for her own use to remind her when the various deadlines for entries came up, but then realised that members would find the information useful. Click here for the list, which will be updated from time to time.

As announced by Keith Brown on Tuesday, the Sight and Sound AV show has been moved two weeks later than planned and will now take place on Saturday 9th May. This is because several of the AV Group members who organise the show will not be available on the original date.

Every year at our annual exhibition we encourage the visiting public to vote for their favourite print. This year the winning print, by a very big margin, was "199 Steps, Whitby" by Stephen Elliott. Joint second were "Swaledale" and "Tinsley Cooling Towers", both by Steve Dorey, and fourth was "Standing Alone in the Frost" by Peter Matthews.

Terry Irons has provided a set of Photoshop actions for the meeting tomorrow night. Click here for more information.

Although the snow is still lying, there appears to be no more heading our way at present so tonight's meeting will go ahead as planned. Peter Jeffery will be talking about the Galapagos Experience.

Tonight's meeting has been cancelled because of the exceptional amount of snow that has fallen. We have managed to rearrange Robert Falconer's talk, which will now take place on Tuesday 17th March, replacing the 10 Prints in 10 Minutes evening.

Judging of our 2009 annual exhibition took place on Saturday 17th January. Click here to see Margaret Salisbury at work, with Keith Allchin and all his helpers working hard on the day.

The images for this exhibition have been selected and handed back to the owners. What happens now is as follows.

During January Gerry Sweetman will obtain the mount card that we need, and various volunteers will cut this up into 14 x 11 inch mounts. These mounts will be supplied at cost to everyone who has had pictures accepted for the exhibition, and they will be responsible for mounting their pictures - if anyone has any problems with this let us know and someone who is a dab hand with a mount cutter will give them a hand. The mounted prints are to be handed in by Tuesday 30th March.

The exhibition will take place at the Winter Garden from Saturday 18th April to Tuesday 5th May; set up will be on Friday 17th April and take down on Wednesday 6th May.

A few months ago Ken Doney did a session answering questions about digital cameras on Radio Sheffield, and Terry Irons did the same in September this year. These must have been successful because they have asked us again and I will be doing an hour this Friday morning (2nd January 2009) from ten to eleven am. I will be attempting to answer any questions that listeners phone in, but also telling the audience about SPS and the two exhibitions we have in the near future.

Update 4/Jan/2009: The session seemed to go OK, but nobody rang in with any questions. However, someone was listening because I got an email about it later in the day, asking about SPS.

The first run of this new competition was on Tuesday this week, and you can see the result by clicking here.

Entries for this exhibition have now been handed in and the ones to be exhibited were selected on Friday 21st November by Rony Robinson of Radio Sheffield and Dennis Lound, former picture editor from Sheffield Newspapers. This picture, supplied by Meg Jullien, shows them making their selections.

Guy Brown's talk on Tuesday 11th was very good. On his web site you can read articles about some of the techniques that he used for producing his images. Take a look, and then go away and produce something different with the same ideas!

"Perspectives 4", an exhibition of photographs by members of Sheffield Photographic Society, will be held in the Sheffield Winter Garden from 3 - 9th November 2008. Admission is free. The exhibition will be formally opened by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Jane Bird, at 12 noon on Monday 3rd November.

This year a record number of 42 authors will be exhibiting a panel of their work, accompanied as usual by a piece of text by the author describing their pictures, their technique or equipment or simply their philosophy regarding their hobby. Our previous Perspectives exhibitions have proved very popular with the public and we expect this year to be no exception. Stewards from Sheffield Photographic Society will be on hand around lunchtime on all days to answer any questions you may have about the pictures, the Society or just photography in general.

The results of the first round of the internal print competition are now available here.

Erica Oram, our internal and external competitions secretary, has provided two documents giving details of the internal print and slide competitions for this season; click here for prints and here for slides. She would also like members to provide digital images for possible selection for the increasing number of external digital image competitions that we enter; details can be found in the print competition document. Please remember to bring along any digital images by 7th October.

The summer newsletter has now been sent out to all members who paid their subscription for the 2007-2008 season, together with a copy of the programme for the new season. This copy of the newsletter is now also available online here on the web site; click here to see it or follow the newsletter link on the front page.

During the month of September there are two local exhibitions on. The SPS display is on in the Library showcase window, upstairs in the Central Library on Surrey Street. Castleton Photographic Society have their annual exhibition on in the Castleton Visitors' Centre, next to the main car park, throughout September 2008; the exhibition is presented very well, and the entries were judged by Erica Oram.

The library showcase (outside the Reference Library, on first floor of Central Library on Surrey Street), is booked for the whole of September 2008 for an exhibition of SPS members' print work. The Society has mounted a small exhibition therein for some years now.

I need mounted prints from members, preferably of images not shown at the Winter Garden or Annual Exhibitions. Because the showcase has limited space, I would prefer images no larger than A4 size, mount extra. Small prints, submitted to the Annual Exhibition but not accepted, would be welcome. The images will be selected by Eileen and I and we will do our best to include at least one image from every member who submits work, space permitting of course.

I would like to have the images in my possession by the end of July. You can let me have them at the summer outings, or drop them in to my house (advisable to ring first). At Digital Group last Thursday I said they can be given to me at forthcoming Digital Group meetings, but I have since discovered that I will probably not be there in June and July - sorry about that.

Colin New kindly arranged to collect and take along prints for the London Salon, which encouraged more members than usual to send in entries. Colin now has the results:

Congratulations to those people who have had acceptances and medals in this year's London Salon. It was the Salon's biggest entry for years and the most successful for SPS ever. Commiserations to those who were not successful on this occasion. Better luck next year.

Guy Brown 2 acceptances (one Gold Medal)
Fred Bean one Gold Medal
Adrian Richardson 1 acceptance
Rebecca Nex 1 acceptance
Keith Lord 2 acceptances

The complete list of those who had acceptances is now up on the London Salon website http://www.londonsalon.org/ along with images showing the gold medal winners. The exhibition will be opened in London at the Cottons centre on 28th June at 2.30. It will be on show from 28 June to 11 July. The exhibition will have its second opening at Smethwick Photographic Society on 19th July at 2.30. It will remain on show from 19th to 31st July.

We are planning to hold a special exhibition in the Winter Garden in Spring 2009 to show prints on the theme of Sheffield Life. The plan is that members should take photographs on that theme between now and around September 2008 and submit them in the autumn for possible inclusion in the exhibition. There will be a lot going on in Sheffield during that period so there should be plenty of opportunities to get interesting pictures of Sheffield people at work and play. If you can get pictures of places or events that are not very well known you will obviously stand more chance of getting your pictures selected for the exhibition - if you go for the Peace Gardens or the silver balls outside the Winter Garden you will have to come up with something really special to stand out from the crowd!

To help us on our way, Steve Dorey has produced a list of events happening in Sheffield during the summer - click here to see it. If you know of any other interesting events, contact Steve at a meeting or via email (to Steve dot Dorey at gmail dot com) and he will add details to the list.

Jim Charlton has now produced a document giving the details of this exhibition, and suggests that you look at this page of events in Sheffield to see what is coming up.

This year's Bakewell Photographic Circle outing (which many SPS members go on) is heading for Whitby on Sunday 18th May. The pick up times given earlier were wrong, as we are in fact setting off half an hour earlier than usual. The correct times are 07:30 Bakewell, 07:35 Baslow, 07:45 Robin Hood pub, Springfield Road, and 08:00 Rustlings Road / Ecclesall Road junction. Please don't be late!

Terry Irons has provided information about the meeting topics for the next few digital group sessions, and dates of meetings for the next year.

29/Feb/08: Colin New exhibition

Colin New has an exhibition on in Barnsley from 4th March to 29th April 2008. Click on the poster for more information.

At our exhibition at the cathedral we asked the visiting public to vote for the picture that they liked best. The results were: first (16 votes) "Ready for Battle" by Ray Brightman; second (15 votes) "Stonelow" by Stephen Elliott; joint third (14 votes each) "Foggy Bottom" by Stephen Elliott and "Burbage Sunset" by Peter Matthews. This is the second consecutive year in which Ray has won the Favourite Print Poll. Click here to see the winning print.

Our annual exhibition in February this year took place in the new 1554 Gallery at the Sheffield Cathedral. Click here to see the award-winning images.

Gerry Sweetman has provided me with some pictures of one of the summer outings that I did not go on, and Eileen Cooke has provided pictures for last year's Winter Garden exhibition.

In the early days of the digital group we had an outing to take photographs of the Christmas lights in Sheffield, and this has been repeated several times since them. Last year the weather was extremely wet, which is good for night photography, but somehow most members preferred the inside of a cafe to venturing out into the rain. We are going to try again this year, a little earlier in the evening to catch the twilight, and in time for you to get some good shots and take them along to the December digital group meeting one week later.

Details are: Meet at 4pm in the Winter Garden on Thursday 29th November. You don't need to tell me if you are coming: just turn up. If you can't make the early start time, come along later and ring me on my mobile (07903 071768) to find out where we have got to. Don't forget to bring your tripod. Peter Mason.

The Winter Garden exhibition has been very successful and featured several times in the local papers. Many thousands of passers by saw the exhibition, and many of them took time out to thoroughly enjoy it. You can relive the exhibition on the web by clicking here.

This year's Winter Garden exhibition will run from 5th to 12th November 2007; if you want to take part you need to sign up soon on Keith Allchin's sheet. Keith has provided a document giving full details of the exhibition and the timetable of events leading up to it.

This competition will be run in a different way this year to try to improve the organization of the evenings. There are two new documents available, one giving the rules of the competition, and the other offering guidance on mounting your prints and slides, and preparing digital images.

On Tuesday 13th February 2007 some past and present members of Sheffield Photographic Society were invited to take tea with Jackie Drayton, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield. Jackie gave the invitation after opening our exhibition at the Winter Garden last November. Here are a few photographs of the occasion.


Jackie shows us the mayoral robes	Eileen presents an AV to the mayor	Gerry Sweetman tries the mace for size	Jackie telling the story of the Bapaume vase