CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Joss Woolf reported as follows:-

At the last AGM in January, 2022, former Chairman Martyn Guess painted a picture of doom and gloom as meetings had all been held online for eighteen months until 2nd August 2021 when Martyn and Sue opened up their beautiful garden for a fabulous, if rather wet, barbecue.

Last year, our lives returned to a state of relative normality and we kicked off with the

Photosub Annual Meal – Saturday 19th March

It made a very pleasant change following a number of years at the Farnham House Hotel to move to the Cranleigh Golf and Country Club, set in the Surrey Hills. The event was attended by 25 club members as well as our guest judge Trevor Rees and his wife Caroline. Before the dinner, we did a good deal of “socialising” which was very welcome following many months of Zoom meetings and, after a lovely meal in their superb Barn Restaurant, we all migrated to the Snug for the presentation of the Annual Competition images. There were four categories with 109 images submitted by 14 members. Because of the lack of diving in 2021, members were allowed to enter images up to 5 years old instead of the usual 3.

1. Green Water Macro/Close Up (22 entries)
   1st Gill Marsh, 2nd Rob White, 3rd Martyn Guess
2. Green Water Wide Angle (24 entries)
   1st Pash Baker, 2nd Rob White, 3rd Nur Tucker
3. Blue Water Macro/Close Up (35 entries)
   1st Martyn Guess. 2nd Keith Lyall, 3rd Roger Eve
4. Blue Water Wide Angle (28 entries)
   1st Martyn Guess, 2nd Nur Tucker, 3rd Martyn Guess

The Print Competition category was cancelled due to logistical issues.

Our competition judge Trevor Rees is well known to many club members particularly through BSOUP. Trevor is a highly accomplished and well-respected underwater photographer with many competition wins to his name. Our images were provided to Trevor ahead of the event to allow him to review at his leisure and by attending the meal Trevor was able to provide feedback in person on his choice of images.

Full results are available on the website.

Len Deeley Trophy

Following the death 6 years ago of club founder and driving force Len Deeley, a new trophy was created by Pash Baker and Jo Horrocks in his memory. This trophy is presented on a yearly basis at the club annual dinner. It has been classed as a “floating trophy” and while on some occasions it will be presented on a competitive basis defined by the committee, on others it will be presented to a club member or couple who have supported the club and promoted its aims and goals in an exceptional way.

This year the well-deserved recipients were Keith Lyall and Jo Horrocks, in recognition of their enormous contribution to the club over the last few years. Particularly in the last couple of years they have kept people motivated and made sure that competitions took place, despite a dwindling number of active participants. They have been members of the club for over 17 years and are regular attendees at club events, often hosting meetings at their home.

Mike Maloney

Only a few days later, on the 24th March, very sadly, Jan Maloney announced the death of her husband, Mike, at Guys Hospital.

Mike had been in hospital for a few weeks for ongoing treatment, with Jan by his side for much of the time, often sleeping overnight on a mattress in his room. His funeral took place on Friday 29th

April and there was standing room only for many of the mourners who attended. Mike was a long- standing member of both BSOUP and Photosub underwater photography clubs and went on many underwater photography dive trips with Jan as well as a number of club members. Mike was a one off and was always great company on these trips. He was also very welcoming to any new members. He will be very much missed.

Spring Meeting in North London. May 2022

Saturday 28th May there was a gathering at my house in North London which was attended by about 20 people. There was a slide show presentation with offerings from several members, but no competition on this occasion.

Photosub BBQ and Splash in Competition Results 2022

On Saturday 13th August, Martha and Anthony opened up their home in Southampton to host the 2022 Photosub Club BBQ. Members socialised in the garden before tucking into a lovely spread prepared by Martha and Anthony with desserts including Keith and Jo’s legendary banoffee pie!

The results of the 2022 Photosub Splash-in were revealed after the meal. Due to the depleted number of people diving and taking images, it was decided to allow Images taken at any time in June or July from anywhere in the UK or Ireland. Although this enabled more members to participate, there were still only 8 members who submitted 21 images.

Judging was done by local New Forest resident, Sue Sibley who also attended the evening. Sue is a member of Southampton Camera Club and is an active photographer who regularly gives talks on her work including Photoshop tutorials.

Sue had judged the images in advance and provided her choices prior to the meeting so that Keith could prepare a presentation of the final results.

1st place Spider Crab by Keith Lyall

2nd place Edible Crab in pipe and diver by Martyn Guess

3rd place Spider Crab by Pash Baker

Open Competition 19th November 2022

17 club members met on Saturday 19th November 2022 for dinner and the annual Open Competition. This competition pits blue water against green water, macro against wide angle. The evening was hosted by Pat Deeley at her house in Wormley and she was helped by Ann Andic. It was great to be back there again.After a scrumptious dinner of chilli and jacket potatoes, the competition images were projected. There were 24 images from 8 members. Our judges on this occasion were Sandra and Ryan Stalker who are both very active underwater photographers from Swanage. They were unable to attend in person but provided the results.

1st Place – Keith Lyall

2nd Place – Nur Tucker

3rd Place – Joss Woolf

Thank you for another year’s work from Martha, our treasurer, Roger Eve, our secretary, Keith our dinner organiser, competition organiser, and webmaster and of course, Jo for her enduring support.