Are you an RPS member?

[catem]

Hilarious ! I thought Catem was an unusual masculin name lol

Sorry! 'm' is just the initial of my surname...

 

[Steve Roberts]

Tim, I greatly respect your expertise as a printer, I sense that you are a nice guy and I fear that if I gave you a full and honest reply, it would seem to be staggeringly rude and ungracious, given the openness you have displayed in your postings here. At the risk of being accused of boundless arrogance (which I have been, more than once, on APUG), let me just say that, on the basis of my 40-year professional career in the media, as a photographer, technical writer on photography, commissioning editor and photographic exhibition curator, I would back my experience and judgement over anyone (and I do mean anyone) I have met who was associated with the RPS. Sorry, but there it is.

Regards,

David

David,

Despite the disclaimers contained within this post, I am (to borrow your word) "staggered" by it !!!!!!!!!

Steve
(who freely admits to knowing less about photography than DHB and many/most others!)

 

[David H. Bebbington]

David,

Despite the disclaimers contained within this post, I am (to borrow your word) "staggered" by it !!!!!!!!!

Steve
(who freely admits to knowing less about photography than DHB and many/most others!)

The way it works, Steve, is that after 40-odd years I'm probably as good (or bad) as I'm going to get, even though I always try to do something different. I produce work the best way I know how to try to please my clients (which oddly enough is what the RPS means by "working in isolation"). If you think for a minute, you may understand why I feel disinclined to take my work to a distinctions workshop and receive "advice" from a retired medic, chartered accountant or whatever, because I ask myself the perhaps brutal but valid question "Just what do they know that I don't?" If this attitude makes your blood boil, there's always the "Ignore" button!

Regards,

David

 

[Dave Miller]

For once David we can align ourselves on that point; for I too have long been convinced that I know more about everything than any man alive, and that of course included photography.

 

[David H. Bebbington]

For once David we can align ourselves on that point; for I too have long been convinced that I know more about everything than any man alive, and that of course included photography.

I know your remark is meant tongue in cheek, but just for the record I am in no way claiming to know more than anyone else. Rather, what I am saying is that my position is in some ways the same as yours, that I have decided what area of photography interests me, am determined to pursue this and don't really care what others think!

I might add that, as someone who made contact with the amateur world for the first time only after several decades as a pro, I was amazed by the disconnect between the two worlds - pros as a rule have nothing against amateurs, but there are a frightening number of amateurs who have built reputations based on experience of a very small sub-area of photography, who take this situation as the basis for laying down the law on everything under the sun, and who will not be told anything!

To take one example (although I am really trying not to make this personal), pros generally recognise that cutting-edge photographers are very often not the greatest darkroom operatives (although there are significant numbers who like myself have done both image capture and darkroom work for extended periods), while conversely there are people with phenomenal darkroom skills who are mediocre or even completely incompetent as camera operators. You wouldn't believe the number of expert workers in other fields of photography I have known who, for example, simply cannot turn out and do a simple "grip and grin" assignment (person A interacting with person B by welcoming him/her, presenting an award, etc.), using a 35 mm camera, 35 mm lens and on-camera flash, together with an appropriate measure of blarney!

None of this would matter if people recognised their limitations - sadly, in the amateur world, there are SO many who don't!

Regards,

David

 

[Dave Miller]

Dam, rumbled.

 

[Stoo Batchelor]

Rather, what I am saying is that my position is in some ways the same as yours, that I have decided what area of photography interests me, am determined to pursue this and don't really care what others think!

And that, although sometimes difficult, is the best attitude to have in life aswell. Something you have mastered David (and that was said tongue in cheek :rolleyes

I don't know who said it, but, it is said that when you start to photograph for other people, and not yourself, your photography will die.

Stoo

 

[Steve Roberts]

you may understand why I feel disinclined to take my work to a distinctions workshop and receive "advice" from a retired medic, chartered accountant or whatever, because I ask myself the perhaps brutal but valid question "Just what do they know that I don't?" If this attitude makes your blood boil, there's always the "Ignore" button!

Regards,

David

David,
Your attitude doesn't make my blood boil, it just amazes me. Firstly, that anyone could have such a high opinion of himself and correspondingly low opinion of others and then secondly, that that person would publically admit to holding such a view! Personally, I'm quite prepared to accept that however much I might know, or think I know, about any subject, there's always something else to be learned, even from the most unlikely sources.

I certainly wouldn't use the "Ignore" button on your posts - they are far too entertaining for that!

Best wishes,
Steve

 

[tim rudman]

I would back my experience and judgement over anyone (and I do mean anyone) I have met who was associated with the RPS. Sorry, but there it is.
Regards,
David

I mean no disrespect by this David, but I suspect this is a refection on your experience of RPS members, rather than on the RPS.
The RPS membership is littered with luminaries from the photographic world.
Like the rest of the world though it contains a typical cross section of the (photographic) population.
Tim

 

[Terrick E. Meakin]

Hi there Delphine, regarding camera clubsm just google PAGB and go from there.

 

[David H. Bebbington]

Maybe I could just tidy up some loose ends here without mortally offending anyone.

Do I have an over-inflated opinion of myself? Some individuals here may think so, I personally think that as a qualified and experienced professional, I am entitled to feel confident in my photographic abilities. Like any other professional, I have subjected myself to a ruthless analysis of where my strengths and weaknesses lie and act on the basis of this. In all my postings to APUG, for example, I have never made any pronouncement on any area in which I don't know what I am talking about - as regards photochemistry, for example, I state openly that I have used D76/ID-11 almost exclusively and know very little about the more exotic brews on which some other APUGers are experts. In the case, for example, of lith printing and toning, I have some basic knowledge but very little in comparison with someone like Tim Rudman, who is an acknowledged world authority in this area.

The OP on this thread wanted to know about the value of RPS membership and distinctions - I think a balanced picture has emerged, the distinction panel members have solid technical understanding and profound experience of the pictorial tradition as practised in camera clubs. With few exceptions, they are not professionals and do not claim to be. I feel the views expressed on this thread will help people to make up their own minds concerning the value of the RPS. My personal needs and interests are met by talking to working pros rather than RPS stalwarts, of whom I have much wider experience than Tim might think. These people are held in high esteem, obviously, by the RPS membership, the point I was making was that their take on photography is not the only one (and professional photography means much more than mere commercial prostitution).

I have a long mental catalogue of the names of individuals and the (to me) shocking way in which their pronouncements revealed severe ignorance of large areas of photography - in the interests of civility, I have refrained from naming names and will attempt to continue to do so. Suffice it to say this - someone recently on APUG posted the URL of a joke website on which the crass and petty comments of camera-club judges were imagined on iconic photographs submitted anonymously to a club competition. This was very funny - sadly, the selfsame thing happens all too often in real life.

Regards,

David

 

[RobC]

http://www.thecameraclub.co.uk/

 

[Terrick E. Meakin]

Hi there delphine, just a couple of things, first google "PAGB" (Photographic aliance of Great Britain) there are about about 500 clubs in this lot, bound to be one near you; second yes you can form a group, 10 years ago I formed a group called "Crown Monochrome" (named after the pub we used to meet in), we are a bunch of dedicated mono workers, most of us still doing it in the dark, we meet once a month with some members traveling quite a distance to be there, meetings average attendance 30/40, go ahead and try it.

 

[jdhealey]

new analogue imaging group within RPS

I have been asked by the RPS to get a new special interest group off the ground for the RPS

For details see

http://rps.org/events/2015/january/31/analogue-group-inaugural-meeting

Members and non-members welcome to the first meeting!

Dave Healey