This year the Exhibition is now in the second year of the new venue at The Apex Gallery, Charter Square, Bury St. Edmunds, IP33 3FD, running from Saturday 2nd May 2026. The official opening will be at 2.00pm by the then Federation President, Paul Radden, DPAGB, E/FIAP/g, PSA4*, followed by the presentation of awards and a full-screen-projected display of the accepted PDI images. The Exhibition closes at 1.00pm on Sunday 17th May. With this newer location we are hoping that more people will attend and visit the exhibition, with more on offer around the local area.
On Thursday 13th November, we travelled to Halstead for the Twin Towns competition. This year there were a full complement of 6 clubs taking part, submitting 11 PDI images to the competition.
On Tuesday 21st October, we enjoyed the 8 by 8 competition at Christ Church. It was lovely to see such a high standard of print on display from a variety of different genres and authors which goes to show the art of printing is still a strength in this region. It was neck and neck at half time, with a three way tie for the lead. The scoring was high on the night and one low score proved to be tough to make up. We were fortunate in that the judge liked all of our prints and although we only had one 20 (Colin Westgate’s ‘The Guardians’, well done Colin!) we averaged 19 across all 8 prints, 3 marks ahead of our nearest rivals. Thanks to all members who helped to put on a delightful buffet in the interval and for being so welcoming with our guests from other clubs.
On Saturday 18th October, the PAGB Inter Club Print Championship 2025 was held at Blackburn. This was the third time in three years that Colchester had qualified for this event and our available image bank had been depleted after the previous two years. Nevertheless, we had a strong set of 12 images for the ‘qualifying round’ and had some hopes that we would finish in the top 8 and qualify for the final.
The EAF is thrilled to announce a brand-new event designed to bring our photographic community closer together — the EAF Duxford 26, taking place at the iconic Duxford Imperial War Museum!
Wow, didn’t we do well on Sunday! One never expects to come out on top, and we certainly didn’t. So, it was a shock when it was officially announced. There had been murmurs over the lunch break that we may have won, but you don’t count your chickens until they have hatched.
The 2025 EAF PDI Championship was held at Fulbourn and there were 23 clubs taking
part, rather fewer than usual this year. Sport and Nature images scored very well.
This year the Exhibition has moved to a new venue at The Apex Gallery, Charter Square, Bury St. Edmunds, IP33 3FD, running from Saturday 3rd May 2025. The official opening will be at 2.00pm by the Federation President, Nick Akers, ARPS BPE4*, followed by the presentation of awards and a full-screen-projected display of the accepted PDI images. The Exhibition closes at 1.00pm on Sunday 18th May. With this new location we are hoping that more people will attend and visit the exhibition, with more on offer around the area.
CPS qualified to enter this event by finishing in the final at last years event. There were 38 clubs qualified to enter one of which withdrew, leaving 37 participants.
The 29th April was the annual CPS V Ipswich competition at Ipswich this year, Judged by Julie Hutson
Ipswich won the print competition by a tiny half point margin, but CPS came back well on the PDI competition beating Ipswich by 6.5 points and thus won the overall competition by 6 points.
The championships that were held at Fulbourn, the result has been amended as Norwich entered 6 nature images, one more than the permitted! Have had the score for that image deleted from their total dropping them from 3rd to 9th position.
This event wil take place at the Wingfield Barns in Suffolk from Saturday 4th May 2024 with the official opening by the President followed by the presentation of the awards at 2.00pm and a full screen projected display of the accepted PDI images. The exhibition closes at 1.00pm on Sunday 19th May, is well worth a drive up there.
CPS qualified to be one of the clubs representing the EAF at this event by coming 4th at
the EAF InterClub Championships in March 2023. The other EAF Clubs were PICO Beyond
and Melbourn.
Last Tuesday evening Colchester Photographic Society hosted their annual “8 x 8 Inter-Club Competition”, so called because eight clubs are invited to compete each offering up 8 prints from 8 individual club members.
This season marks a very special anniversary as it is Vic Hainsworth, our Club Presidents 50th year as a member of Colchester Photographic Society. The first night of our 2023/24 season saw a celebration by the club of this acheivement.
The EAF enters the PAGB Inter-Fed Competition and Exhibition every year, with images selected from the high scoring and award winning entries to our Exhibition held immediately beforehand.
Chelmsford Camera Club Challenge Shield Competition for a Panel of 6 Prints
The competition is open to all EAF clubs and requires competing clubs to submit up to two panels, each of six prints. The production of panels is a valuable discipline we would like to encourage and this competition is one way of doing so.
It’s nearly the end of the 2022/23 season and it seems like a good time to ask people to share their thoughts on a couple of topics that the club committee would value your opinions on.
Last weekend the EAF Print Championships were held at Fulbourn when we did exceptionally well to come 2nd out of 18 clubs competing, only one point behind the winners, (full report elsewhere). CPS will now go on to help represent the EAF at the PAGB Inter-Federation Print Championships at Blackburn in October.
This event will take place at the Wingfield Barns, Eye, in Suffolk from Saturday, 29th April, with the official opening by the Federation President and presentation of the awards at 2.00pm, and closing at 1.00pm on Thursday, 11th May. Showcasing some of the best photography in our region, this is well worth a visit. You could have lunch at the nearby De La Pole Arms restaurant, Church Road, Wingfield, IP21 5RA, (advisable to book in advance).
A competition between Halstead, Braintree, Colchester and their twin European towns of Haubourdin, Pierrefitte and Wetzlar.
Eleven images entered from each club.
Mike Fuller judged the competition and gave a very considered critique of each image.
The event was sponsored by London Camera Exchange and was attended by Mayors from all the UK clubs.
Vic Hainsworth, our illustrious club President, has now assumed Presidency of the EAF having been handed over the responsibility from outgoing President Colin Birch.
Our President, Vic Hainsworth was recently awarded the PAGB distinction of APAGB. The letters signify ‘Award for Meritorious Service’ and are in recognition of services over many years within the PAGB community of member Federations and affiliated Clubs. The presentation of Vic’s Certificate and badge was made by the current EAF President, Colin Birch, at a meeting of Colchester PS on 4th January.
I regret to advise you that the North Essex Inter-club PDI competition, due to be held on the 30th November, has had to be cancelled due to several clubs disappointingly failing to support the event this year. As we were the winning club last year, we were due to host the event this year, but this will now be carried over to next season, when it will be held in November or early December.
However, the cancellation is a “mixed blessing” , as I am delighted to say that our own Tony Bramley has kindly agreed to step in and will be giving his talk “Principles and Elements of Art in Photography”. This promises to be a fascinating and instructive presentation and I am looking forward to it.
Last night the 8 x 8 Print Trophy took place with Sarah Kelman, ARPS, DPAGB having the job of appraising the prints. The standard was quite high considering the majority of clubs have not been holding print competitions. Results are as attached.
On Saturday afternoon, 16th October, Chelmsford’s 4C’s Panel Competition took place in the Springfield Community Centre. Each club can enter two panels of 6 prints on any theme. Sadly, the number of clubs entering was down this year; however, the standard was very high. The judge, Clive Tanner FRPS MPAGB, was from Tonbridge, Kent, who had the unenviable task of appraising them and did an excellent job of selecting the top three plus four highly commended. (You will be able to see Clive in action next month when he pays us a visit to judge a print competition)
The Committee now feel sufficiently comfortable to proceed with the programme as presented and to recommence normal meetings at the hall from our start date on 14th September.
The PAGB wishes, if at all possible, to hold the Inter-Club Print Championship in 2021. They do not know what restrictions may be in operation in October, the usual time to hold this competition, and so their objective is to plan for maximum flexibility.
Revised and updated guide and rules for preparing PDI’s for competition
The requirements for image entries into PDI competitions have been revised, in that the inclusion of the members’ name in the image file name is no longer required. This makes things a little easier for members and also the competition secretary when offering entries for remote judging. However, it is to be noted that such details are still required to be entered into the image meta-data.
Images submitted are judged to standards set by whomever they have received patronage from and a week or two later, the results for the salon are published. Photos that have won awards, commendations or honourable mentions are then sent certificates, small trophies/medals and in rare cases a salon may offer cash prizes. The rest of the images are either accepted or declined and each photographer is given a report card showing how well they did.
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