Photosub AGM 2021

With the ongoing UK COVID19 lockdown, the Photosub 2021 AGM was held as a virtual meeting. 22 club members attended the meeting held on Sat 6th Feb 2021. 

Key points from the AGM were:

Chairmans Report (Martyn Guess)

Well  – what a difficult year we have all had! Hopefully all our members have escaped the dreaded virus and are keeping well and safe. The Lockdown’s  during 2020 and into 2021 have played havoc with our day to day lives and also from the perspective of us all  at Photosub getting together to meet socially and share stories and discuss our passion  for underwater photography. We are not alone and many, many clubs and societies have had to adapt, and many are continuing to run  successfully through online meetings. This is the fourth online meeting for Photosub. They take a fair bit of organising and my thanks to all of the Committee for sticking with it and enabling us to at least meet online to have a chat and see some photographs

Hopefully at some point this year we will all be able to get together again socially and for some of us to dive together. Speaking for myself I can’t’ wait to get back in some nice warm blue water and am hopeful that the workshops I run will  start again later in the summer. A few of us have been able to meet and dive in the UK, Joss and I and Maria and Daniel were able to join a trip to Lundy that Peter Tatton organised for his dive club and a very enjoyable time was had. A few of us also met at Swanage and at Selsey ( where I saw my first UK Seahorse!) and all enjoyed what British Diving can offer. Sue and I spent some time at St Abbs and dived the Farnes with Alex Mustard and Nick More and had a very enjoyable few days taking landscapes images along the Northumberland coast last autumn. I suspect that summer 2021 will bring more of the same and it would be great to dive with other members.

If you count the last AGM, we had 3 online meetings during 2020.

The 2020 Photosub AGM was very different due to the COVID19 lockdown. Using video -technology, a virtual AGM was held from club members various houses. 20 club members attended the meeting held on Wed 15th April. This meeting had already been delayed from earlier in the year due to winter storms. 

In light of the 2020 Covid-19 social distancing measures, the Photosub Club members continued to  keep in contact  throughout  2020 via video conferencing. On Saturday 18th July, 24 members attended a virtual meeting for a general catch-up and to present a series of images, both underwater and topside.

12 members provided images which were presented during the meeting. As Chairperson  I  led the meeting with each photographer presenting their images and answering questions from other club members.

There were a varied collection of images including underwater images from the film days. In addition, Anthony Holley provided a short video of trout taken by putting his iPhone into the river at Mottisfont! I made  a short presentation on my use of a trioplan lens to create interesting bokeh backgrounds.

Under normal circumstances, the Photosub Annual Competition entries would have been projected at the club annual meal in March, the results announced, and the trophies presented during the evening. However, given the unique and unprecedented events of 2020, both the original dinner date in March and the revised date in September were cancelled in line with government guidelines. 

Consequently, an online virtual meeting was held on Sat 21st November attended by 22 club members. This competition comprised 4 categories:

  • Green Water Macro/Close Up
  • Green Water Wide
  • Blue Water Macro/Close Up
  • Blue Water Wide

The print competition category which is judged on the evening based on members prints was removed as not being practical. A total of 132 images were submitted from 16 members.

Our honoured judge was JP Trenque, who is well known to many members as a past Chairperson of BSOUP and a previous Photosub Competition secretary. JP is an award-winning underwater photographer, although has not been able to dive recently due to family and work commitments. However, judging the images has rekindled JP’s urge to get wet again and hopefully we will see more of him and his images in the future. Our thanks to JP for judging the competition, and for attending the virtual meeting to present his judging comments.

Results can be viewed at Photosub Annual Competition 2020 – Results

These events do not run successfully without the help of a number of club members. Thanks to Roger Eve for providing all event communication, Keith Lyall for organising and running the competition, and Martha for setting up and hosting the virtual meeting.

Thanks to all who entered and congratulations to all winners.

My thanks go out to all who participated during the last year under very difficult circumstances, for attending meetings, entering competitions and also for taking some great photographs. My special thanks as always go to your committee for their hard work behind the scenes, Roger for his work as secretary and for keeping all the members informed, for Martha for her advice and work on the club’s finances and for Keith for keeping the competitions going during Lockdown, and Social distancing. A thankless task sometimes chasing members for entries and then sorting them out and putting slide show presentations together. Most of all my thanks to all of you for being members and supporting Photosub.

Treasurer’s Report (Martha Tressler)

Subscriptions are down slightly as a couple members left and a couple more joined right at the end of 2019 (those subs recorded in 2019 but carried through 2020). It was a very low cost year with only costs for the website, a cancelled meeting in January and some engraving costs. We have a surplus for the year of almost £300. This coming year will also be low cost and it is proposed (and was agreed) that no subs be paid in 2021. Two members had already paid subs by standing order and they will be contacted by the Treasurer.

Election of Officers

The current officers were willing to be re-elected and as no others came forward the meeting agreed to the following:

  • Chair – Martyn Guess
  • Treasurer – Martha Tressler
  • Hon Secretary – Roger Eve
  • Competition Secretary and Webmaster – Keith Lyall
  • Committee Member – Bert Lee

2021 Activities

Tentative plans for 2021 will include:

  • Club Mid Year meeting – probably May and likely to be online
  • Club BBQ (and Splash-in Results) – Martyn/Sue Guess have offered to host, probably in Aug/Sept
  • Club Annual Meal – Martyn to contact the Farnham House Hotel to determine possible dates.
  • Open Competition – typically November

Given the current COVID situation the organising of face to face events will require assessing in line with the situation and guidelines nearer the time and will be communicated to club members when known.

AOB

There being no other Business the AGM part of the meeting was closed at 20:30.

Thanks to all who joined the meeting, to Martyn for use of his Zoom and chairing the meeting, Roger for the numerous email communications, Martha for the Treasurer’s report and Keith for coordinating the follow on show and tell session.

Show and Tell

Following the AGM, a Show and Tell session was organised where a number of members offered to present some of their memorable images. There was a varied agenda including still images and videos with Q&A by the members. This made for a different a varied evening.

Show’n’Tell

  • Mike Davidge – Mike presented a variety of memorable images.
  • Dario Navaro – Dario presented some shots from his lockdown in Bodrum, Turkey
  • Joss Woolf – Joss used lockdown to extract a few images from previous trips to Komodo and Raja Ampat.
  • Anthony Holley – Anthony presented a few shots from his 70th Birthday present which was a flight in a Spitfire from Biggin Hill heading South to Beachy Head.
  • Martyn Guess – Martyn presented some shots from UK dive trips between UK lockdowns including a B&W shot of a Blue Shark which was recognised in the 2020 UPY competition. 

Short Presentations

  • Lundy & UK Diving – Peter Tatton
    • Peter presented a mixture of still and video from various UK trips in 2020, including Kimmeridge, Lundy and Norfolk Weybourne
  • UK Garden Visitors – Jo Horrocks
    • Jo ran a video of various birds and squirrel visitors to the garden during lockdown. The video was taken using a Bushnell camera trap which was adapted using lenses to allow closer focus. 
  • Overview of Landscape Photography – Keith Lyall
    • Keith presented an overview of the equipment and techniques for landscape photography.

The meeting ended at 22:15. Thanks to all who attended and contributed to the meeting.