Barbeque Summer Indeed!

Part of being British is talking about the weather. You hear it all the time, in casual conversation, as an opener whe meeting someone new, when planning activities and deciding what to pack or when returning from a break away. What the weather was like always crops up. We were forecast a hot sunny couple of months and instead we have rain, rain and more rain. The petunias having just delighted us with a splash of color, are now forlorn and sad after being bashed by wind and rain, and apparently August isn't looking much better. Ah well...it appears impossible to make accurate weather predictions, so being prepared with sun block, cardigan and sou'wester seems to be the answer! I spotted recently in the July edition of the PSA journal, a thing called a Cambrella, a practical DIY idea when photographing in the rain. This could be the latest thing to add to the list! (page 14 if interested). The great thing about holidaying in Britain is that we;ve got used to contrary weather and there's always something alternative of interesst when the beach is a no-no. (plug on behalf of the tourist board coming up) Have you visited our many museums, galleries, theaters and stately homes? It's certainly worth spending some time doing so if holidaying here.The kids are also well provided for with lots to do indoors, and the added advantage of not having sand on the car seats afterwards.

Now after saying all that, a couple of us left England behind last month to visit Finland, and were made to feel very welcome by the folks of Helsinki and Tampere (Vision) camera clubs. The excuse for the visit was to deliver awards and catalogs to the entrants of the First Great British Small Print Circuit. The hospitality we received was first class, warm and welcoming and we were given toours of both places. We were wined, dined and introduced to the Finnish sauna (highly recommended although the dip in the lake afterwards was declined this time round!)

Helsinki camera club has a very large membership of about 1500 and their Helsinki premises are to die for. Rooms for everything, studio, digi room, presentation room, space for exhibitions, offices etc. They produce their own magazine (managed separately) which has a wide circulation, is sold by retailers and is free to members. This seems to generate a good income as well as being an inducement to joining up. Ther is an active core membership of about 400.

Tampere is a much smaller club of 70 members but als very active. Leena, Maija, Theresa, and Ilka gave up their time to greet us, show us around Tampere and outlying areas. Over lunch there was a fair amount of discussion about how their club functioned with some good ideas for future collaboration and interactions. The black sausages, wine, strawberries and traditional sauna made the day memorable.

Thank you Leena, Lisa, Eero, Leena-Maija, Theresa and Ilka. It was a pleasure meeting you, am thankful you all spoke good English, hope I've spelt your names correctly and look forward to seeing here in England sometime in the future. Note the previous weather warning, a bit like your own!

Awards

A well deserved congratulations to the following folks:

S4C International: Les Ayres for being awarded a silver medal in the color section, and an HM in the small color print section. And keeping it in the family, we note that his son Steve also got an HM in nature. Bas Montgomery got an HM in the small color print section and John Williams an HM in small mono prints.

Algarve:Helen Herbert and Tony Potter were both awarded FIAP bronze medals.

Who's Who

Now as editor, I often court controversy by pruning/altering certain submitted articles, but this time felt you all deserved to the pleasure of reading the article below. Forget the Prozac today and have a good giggle at Bas's profile - it's nearly as quirky as his pictures.

Oh no! Not me! That nice Christine who writes those clever pieces for the website has picked on e for next "Who's Who". I'll have to think of something - what can I say? I'll be exposed as a fraud - like a Cuckoo - that was what my parents used to call me, and I thought it was a compliment until I watched springwtch on telly! The truth of it isI joined the WCPG sort of by accident.

I'd bought a new camera on Ebay and when I tried to load it with film discovered it had something called a card instead - it was one of those new digi things. So I ended up doing 2 courses, one to learn where to point the thing, and the other to learn how to make a bad pic less bad using Photoshop, otherwise known as digital manipulation. The tuttor on the 'Open College of the Arts' course said I should join a camera club. I'd ben sending him my best footy pic's, which I thought were cutting edge, but he said he thought I ought to broaden my portfolio.

Anyway, I found this club which wasn't a club, as it didn't have a constitution or commitees, which I thought would suit as it wouldn't be too serious or anything. So I went along to a meeting, and though everyone was very welcoming, there was one slight drawback - everyone elses pictures were really good - like proper photo's. The guy at the front who did all the gabbing, gave me a lorry load of paper which he said was the bees knees, and he also said he guarantee I'd have an acceptance within a year. When I said I was already married, he looked a bit confused, and patiently explained it was about getting a photograph into a saloon, and suggested I bring a photo to the next meeting. I was the one getting confused now, and wondering whether he had been watching too much Top Gear, but I didn't say anything, because I could see he was thinking I was a clot.

Well that got me really worried I can tell you. Anyway, I gave it a bit of thought, and came up with a good idea. I'd do a bit of surrealism - that should impress! So I popped down to St Bees and took a nice seascape and a pic of a van in the car park, and put them together in photoshop, and took to the meeting. The reaction! You wouldn't ave believed it! Here is me expecting an awed hush of respectful admiration and what did I get? They all fell about laughing!

Well, it was back to the drawing board, or in this case the Amstrad, and came up with what I thought was an even better idea. This time an interesting juxtaposition of nature and human artifacts and guess what happend. The same thing. They thought it was hilariuos! I will admit that, on reflection, it is a bit hard to see the artistic merit in having forgs wearing snorkels, but I thought the reaction was a bit on the harsh side.

Anyway, I remortgaged the house to send thousands of my best footy pic's all over the world, and not a peep. And then, a year to the day,My First Acceptance! Not a cutting edge footy pic though,. No, it was the only "Unconventional International Exhibition of Photography" in the world, Odlot, in Poland. And what did they accept? Only a pic of a flying fairy! And they could have had a photograph of Stevie Gerrard! You couldn't make it up!

Bas Montgomery