125th Anniversary Sosban Trophy

On 25th June 2016, a number of camera clubs from across South Wales came together to celebrate Llanelli Photographic Society’s 125th Anniversary. LPS’ annual Sosban Trophy usually involves six clubs but for 2016 only the competition was opened up to sixteen clubs and a special one off trophy was put up as the prize.

A good crowd was treated to an entertaining and excellent critique by Rob Mitchell. Rob managed to provide comments and advice on all 80 images – and still give everyone time to get back home in time for the Wales v Northern Ireland kick off.

There was a high standard among the entries and after three rounds LPS were in first place alongside Tenby. Could LPS hold on and win their own 125th Anniversary trophy? Sadly not! At the end of the competition Tenby were in first place, Bridgend second and Llanelli third.

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Our congratulations to Tenby who have now won the Sosban Trophy for three years on the trot. They get to keep the special glass trophy as a memento of the 2016 competition. The scoresheet for the competition is below.

sosbanscores

As well as scoring all the images, Rob was also asked to select his favourite image from the competition. This time it was good news for LPS with Steve Milton’s Anti-Social Butterfly taking home the prize. Well done Steve and a big thank you to Rob Mitchell for being the perfect judge for our celebration.

The day however wasn’t just about the prizes. It was an opportunity for LPS to celebrate a milestone and display images from glass photographic slides, taken by the founders of the club, that have recently been processed by current members. It was a successful event and we hope all who attended enjoyed the day.

Our thanks goes go to all the clubs who got involved in our competition – Abertawe, Bridgend, Carmarthen, Cymru Mono, Gwynfa, Kidwelly, Morriston, Neath, Porthcawl, Pyle & Pembrey, Tenby, Towy Valley, Trostre, Swansea – and of course a massive thank you to everyone who attended on the day.

Events like these don’t run themselves and LPS would like to thank everyone who has sponsored, helped and/or supported the event. We had a beautiful cake supplied by Jenkins Bakery and wonderful raffle prizes supplied by a number of companies including DS Colour Labs, Fotospeed, Carmarthen Cameras, Pure Creations and Llanelly House. We’d also like to thank Fotospeed for taking the time to visit us and show off some of their products.

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Thanks also goes to Llanelli Library, National Library Of Wales, Mrs Barbara Willis, Llanelli Town Council, Llanelli Rural Council, Dafen Welfare, Selwyn Samuel Centre and Signs Express of Llansamlet.

Finally thanks to all at LPS who worked hard to ensure that the day ran so well. The good news is that we now have 25 years to plan the next milestone event.

Event day photography by Jennifer Williams and Graham Harries.

LPS Sosban Trophy Is This Saturday

On 25th June Wales will be playing either Northern Ireland or Turkey in the first knockout stage of Euro 2016. However before the big match there’s another huge event taking place. The Selwyn Samuel Centre, Llanelli, will be hosting a special one off version of Llanelli Photographic Society’s Sosban Trophy competition to celebrate the club’s 125th Anniversary. The competition usually takes place on a Wednesday evening with six clubs involved, but for this year only 16 clubs will battle it out for a one off trophy.

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Details of the event can be found above, but the key points are that the doors are open from 12.30pm with the competition getting underway at 1.30pm. Early visitors will be able to view exhibited printed images created from scans of glass photographic plates that were taken by founding members of LPS. In addition we hope to have small stands from Fotospeed and Carmarthen Cameras.

Our judge for the day is Rob Mitchell MA Photography and he has the unenviable task of scoring the images as well selecting one stand out image from the entries. There will be refreshments at half time and we aim to have wrapped up proceedings by 4.30pm which hopefully will give everyone who wants to watch the football sufficient time to get home and ready for the game.

Note also that we will be holding a raffle on the day. There are prizes donated by DS Colour Labs, Carmarthen Cameras, Llanelly House, Fotospeed and members of LPS. Finally a thank you to everyone who has supported, helped and sponsored LPS – good luck to all the clubs involved – and we hope to see you on Saturday.

The LPS Sosban Trophy will be at The Selwyn Samuel Centre (Lliedi Suite), Llanelli. There’s free car parking at the site and hopefully plenty of space. Visitors who are looking for lunch beforehand may like to try Wetherspoons or any of the cafes, such as Avos, in town. You’ll also find Nandos, Costa and Burger King.

It’s A Mess For Roy!

Our annual AV competition gives members the chance to show off more images by putting together a slideshow of photographs accompanied with a musical soundtrack. It also allows members to show a bit of creativity and humour with their photography. This year there were a number of strong entries however the stand out entry was from Roy Watkins with his entry called “Mess”.

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The image shows Roy collecting the AV Trophy (kindly donated to LPS by In The Frame) from Ray Rees.

Well done Roy.

16 Clubs For The Sosban Trophy 2016

On 25th June, LPS will be holding a special one off competition to celebrate 125 Years of Llanelli Photographic Society. Sixteen clubs will be taking part in the competition which is being held at The Selwyn Samuel Centre. Doors will be open from 12.30pm with the competition starting at 1.30pm.

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We will be holding a raffle and are grateful to Carmarthen Cameras, DS Colour Labs, Fotospeed and Llanelly House for donating prizes.

Fotospeed & Carmarthen Cameras we hope will be joining us on the day.

As it’s a celebration we will have a cake – which has been kindly donated by Jenkins Bakery.

In addition to the competition we will also be showing a few images from our forthcoming 125th Anniversary Exhibition which will be on display in Llanelli Library from the 27th June and also in Llanelly House in August.

LPS would like to thank everyone who has donated prizes and/or sponsored the event.

We hope to see you there!

Joyce Wins The Ken Jones Trophy

The Ken Jones Trophy is one of the most hotly contested competitions during the LPS season. It’s our only mono competition and it’s also the one where the winner gets to keep an amazing glass trophy – provided by club patron Mark Mathias. Sadly Mark was unable to join us for the competition this year.

However Ed Cloutman, fresh for judging the WPF Salon, did join us as the judge for the evening. Ed gave us a good critique and plenty of advice about printing mono images. He also had the difficult task of picking a winner from a large number of entries but in the end it was good news for Joyce Mollet who became the sixth different member to collect the coveted trophy.

Joyce Mollet - 'The Tilemaker'Ken Jones Winner

Joyce won with her image titled ‘The Tilemaker’

Although this competition doesn’t have a top six, Ed did have a selection of images that he’d singled out – and these are listed below.

Dave Rees with ‘Roof Shadow’
Roy Watkins with ‘South Dock London’
Graham Harris with ‘City Stroll’
Ed Shum with ‘Storm Gazing’

Big congratulations to Joyce for a well deserved win.

Alun Repeats Nautical Comp Success

Back in March, LPS held it’s annual Dave Roberts Memorial Trophy competition. This competition is in memory of Dave and is always on the ‘nautical’ theme. For 2016 we welcomed Mike Clatworthy to LPS as our guest judge. The competition attracted a number of entries including images of Burry Port, San Francisco and even a toy boat.

However there could only be one winner – and Mike chose ‘Golden Gate Bridge’ by Alun Lewis as the best image.

Alun Lewis - 'Golden Gate Bridge' Dave Roberts Memorial Winner 2016

Alun also won the competition back in 2015 – so the trophy has returned back to his mantelpiece for another 12 months.

Congratulations to Alun and a big thank you to Mike for judging the competition.

Ed Is Under The Weather

Our second DPI competition of 2016 was held back in April on the theme ‘Under The Weather’. The competition attracted numerous entries featuring weather but there were also one or two on who chose to utilise the illness meaning of the phrase. As with all our digital competitions, the top six is chosen based on scores given by fellow members.

The winner was Ed Shum with his image called ‘Storm Gazing’. This amazing shot was taken in 2015 during a club trip to Iceland.

Ed Shum - 'Storm Gazing'Under The Weather DPI Winner

The top six for the competition was as follows:

1. Storm Gazing – Ed Shum
2. Hold On – Jason Dale
3. In From The Rain – Yvonne Pace
4=. Double Luck – Graham Harries
4=. Don’t Look Down – Arthur Mallett
6. Take Two With Water – Jason Dale

Congratulations to Ed and well done to all those who’s images finished in the top six. The next DPI competition is in June and the theme is ‘Camouflage’.

It’s A Caribbean Beauty For Arthur

Llanelli Photographic Society’s second print competition of 2016 was held on the 27th April. Brian Coleman was the invited judge for this particular competition. As usual Brian gave a thorough and entertaining critique but there could only be one winner – and Arthur came out on top with his image ‘Caribbean Beauty’.

Caribbean Beauty

The full top six was as follows:

1st: Carribean Beauty – Arthur Mallett
2nd: Computer Chess – Steve Milton
2nd: Gesture – Dave Rees
4th: Tile maker – Joyce Mollet
4th: TBC – Dave Rees

Well done to Arthur – and to all those who finished in the top six.

5 Panel Success Again For Joyce

In March, LPS held their annual 5 Panel DPI competition. This popular competition requires members to put together 5 images on a theme – with the images working together as a panel. It’s not as straightforward as it sounds and each year there’s a debate about DPI 5 panel format versus Print 5 panel format.

This year we had entries that featured selfies in Amsterdam, Orchid Phalaenopsis Hybrids, The Rat Pack, Alternative Uses Of A Parachute, Costa Rican Wildlife, The Rat Pack, Bruges and Market Traders. Peter Francis stepped up to give an entertaining critique of the panels but the winner was chosen by the members of LPS.

Joyce Mollet - 'The Potter At Work' 5 Panel DPI Winner
Joyce Mollet – ‘The Potter At Work’
5 Panel DPI Winner

This year’s winner was Joyce Mollet with her beautiful panel called “The Potter At Work”. As you can see from the above image the 5 panels link together and flow from left to right. The images are positions 1 and 5 are like bookends holding the panel together whilst the centre image shows the potter standing tall and looking out of the panel.

Well done to Joyce for winning this year’s 5 Panel DPI competition and a big thank you to Peter for the critique.

WPF Salon Acceptances 2016

The acceptance list for the 2016 Welsh Salon has been released and Llanelli Photographic Society will be represented with both prints and DPIs from six members of the club. Images will be shown along with other selected images in an exhibition later in the year.

Print Acceptances
Anciano Cubano – Arthur Mallett
Girl With Donkeys – Peter Francis

DPI Acceptances
Gower Gold – Jason Dale
Abandoned – John Ellis
Burmese Monks In Mist – Peter Francis
Home By The Sea – Graham Harries
3-Gullfoss Falls – Arthur Mallett
Grindewald Sunset – Arthur Mallett
Feeding Time – Arthur Mallett (Highly Commended)
The Tile Maker – Joyce Mollet

Congratulations to all in LPS who had acceptances – and also put work in for selection. A big well done also to Arthur with four acceptances – one of which was highly commended – and Peter who had two acceptances.

Llanelli Photographic Society