Sheffield Photographic Society Exhibition 2021

[Steveee]

OK - Confession time: I've lived in Sheffield (the original UK version ) for pretty much all of my (REDACTED) years, and as a snapper I never even knew there was a Sheffield Photographic Society.

Then today I got a (presumably algorithm-driven) faceberk link to their annual exhibition, which is here: Sheffield PS Exhibition

Not sure why I was surprised by the quality, but a couple of things stood out for me, not being familiar with exhibitions/competitions, etc.

1) While the posts some of you guys put up are as good and better, I'm not sure any picture I've ever taken has been as good as any of these. There are some that aren't my particular bag (didn't care for the photo essays much) but I can't knock them otherwise. And I don't think I have the time/commitment/skill/talent to get to the general level on display. Not unhappy (much!) just saying!

2) How the (insert expletive of choice) do the judges decide between "commended" and "highly commended"? Anyone?! I mean, what's wrong with this Baby Starfish that keeps it out of the "highly" bracket?!!

Anyway, some nice pics, thought you might like to see them!

 

[Panolyman]

Thanks Steve.
Err....interesting is what I'd say.
And that term "accepted".....I mean how jolly decent of them.

To be honest, I couldn't say if the commended or highly commended were any better.
Subjective is the word isn't it?

Nice though.

 

[RichardC]

Join. You have a good chance of appearing in the next exhibition.

Once you get past the basics of good camera work, the gradings are extremely subjective and are based on judges' opinions.

I went to my local camera club the year before last to see a talk by Bob Moore Hon FRPS. I knew Bob from much earlier in my career. There was an awful lot of "you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this.....", and I agreed with some of his assessments, but definitely not all of them. No worries - it's art not science.

 

[Steveee]

@Panolyman it is subjective indeed. I think I was hoping someone might say “ah yes, but something technical on the seahorse means it isn’t quite up to ’highly commended’ standards, unfortunately”. I know it was an unrealistic expectation!

@RichardC I might join if I had the time, but even the beginner’s pics are a little intimidating!

Or, maybe I need a FF............

...just kidding.... just kidding!

 

[RichardC]

@Panolyman it is subjective indeed. I think I was hoping someone might say “ah yes, but something technical on the seahorse means it isn’t quite up to ’highly commended’ standards, unfortunately”. I know it was an unrealistic expectation!

@RichardC I might join if I had the time, but even the beginner’s pics are a little intimidating!

Or, maybe I need a FF............

...just kidding.... just kidding!

Judging by the camera club members I saw locally, they would be doing well to lift a ff.

 

[Steveee]

Judging by the camera club members I saw locally, they would be doing well to lift a ff.

Ah, but we build ‘em hard ‘n’ strong up here!

(He says from behind his EM10ii, bought because it was the only one in the shop he could lift)

 

[Seahawk]

As a native of Sheffield (well, Rotherham, but near enough) I was interested by this.
I currently live in southern Scotland and one of my friends is the 'Events Manager' for the local camera club (I won't name it but suffice to say that it is believed to be the oldest camera club in Scotland). My friend invited me to join and offered to propose me but I declined because the club is obsessed with competitions (some members have left because of this, saying that it is taking the fun out of photography).
I take photos for fun and would like to keep it that way so I avoid camera clubs.

Is this becoming an endemic issue with camera clubs in general? I'd be interested to hear of others' experiences.

 

[JensM]

I joined a a camera club late 2018, after having stopped by on a couple of occasions, have attended a couple of meeting and entered exactly one comp last month and may be entering one for this month.

The take-away for me, as of now?
Not to sure, there may be some, but the jury is still out on that one, at least untill the rona is somewhat under control and regular scheduling is back. I could do with some "formal" training in post processing and ditto CC other than posting something on the web and getting stuff back from all or none, without having any idea about where they come from, photo-wise.

If and when I get some "spending" cash, I probably should attend some sort of seminar, for emptying out my febril brain and get some sort of harnessing of ideas, discussion on the making of photograpies and such out of the way.

That is probably some of the stuff I look for in a camera club, a milieu if that makes any sense.

 

[Steveee]

As a native of Sheffield (well, Rotherham, but near enough).....

blasphemer!



On a serious note, I went on a couple of what you might call photowalks with a camera club some years ago and while they were all very pleasant, they did take it all a bit too seriously. A couple of them were a bit.....condescending too. I suppose it’s luck of the draw?

 

[Snowonuluru]

@Steveee Thanks for posting this. I agree with you: the "accepted" ones are pretty good already! I'm not a native of Sheffield, but "near enough". Spent 7 years there when I was a student!

 

[Steveee]

@Snowonuluru Well, I'll go to't'foot or orr stairs! It's almost a Yorkshire MU-43 group we have! I've lived in one of the student-land areas near the Uni (Crookes) for about 25yrs - maybe our paths crossed at some stage.

I didn't mind the "accepted" until @Panolyman mentioned it - now I think they should look for another way of describing those entries. "Good enough" maybe?!!

 

[Panolyman]

By 'eck Steve, we too may have crossed paths, as our lad were at Sheffield Uni for 6 years and lived in Crookes for a while.
I have to confess that of the six Uni's we visited with him prior to choosing, it was bottom of my list.
However, we did come to appreciate the City, were amazed at its parks and if nothing else......discovered Yorkshire Tea.

 

[Brownie]

Aside from the Sheffield residency discussion...

I thought about joining a local club a few years ago. I find I shoot more (and try harder) when there are requirements. The club meets monthly for the most part so I stopped by one of their meetings. It was mostly people around my age, although not all members were present. They have a weekly contest, three actually, but I can't recall the categories other than one was an assignment.

The quality of photographs ranged from very good to awful. There was one guy who seemed to know a lot about photography, a few who had a little experience, and the rest were either completely inexperienced or blind.

That last comment comes into play when the photo judging started. Photos were submitted anonymously. Judging was done by the entire group with public commentary and anonymous voting. Most of the comments (and voting, I learned as this progressed) had nothing to do with the technical or artistic but rather how cute cousin Suzie's child is.

Ok, I could deal with all (most?) of that on a limited basis. Maybe I pick and choose which assignments sounds like fun and go every other month or something, but there was one issue I couldn't overcome. Every photo, no matter how it was made (all were made digitally) had to be submitted in printed form, matted, with an entry tag on the back. They had no digital review at all. The photos were displayed on a stand that with lighting made for display.

Bear in mind that there were three monthly contests and each person could submit three photos per contest. Almost everyone did. So these people were getting nine photos printed every month, matting them, and then? I don't have the desire to print 100+ photos a year and then store them. And when is there time? The assignment photo had to be made in the month of the assignment. So, you'd have to make the shot (assuming you had your subject pre-picked), process, send it off to a lab, pay for printing and shipping and get it matted before the meeting.

At the end of the meeting they asked for my contact information so they could put me on their member list. I told them I would email the contact on their website. Needless to say, I didn't. If they ever decide to come into the 20th century (the 21st may be a bit much for them all at once), I may reconsider.

 

[Snowonuluru]

I thought about joining a club several years ago because I figured that learning around others would be more efficient than learning on one's own. I was relating to the fact that when I had to start using a computer at work, it was the ready availability of knowledgeable colleagues that gave me confidence and helped me gain competence in changing from pen and paper to working fully with a computer. (Goodness, the above sentence describes ancient history!) However, the whole internet environment is so abundantly rich now and ever accessible (barring the occasional power outage and network breakdown), that one can find any fact or knowledge one needs to answer any question one has anywhere anytime! And when I stumbled on this forum, I never thought again about joining any other club. This is my club and it is enough for me.

 

[Snowonuluru]

Crookes

Rings a bell. Used to have some mates who stayed there. Being from "the other side of the track", I could only afford a cheap room in a working class neighbourhood.