The Committee

South West Regional Organiser

southwest@rps.org

I find photography a great way to engage and record real world events, at the same time being a rewarding activity. I am a member of both the Analogue Group and Nature Group. I enjoy both digital and analogue photography. Analogue photography, in particular, slows me down in my thinking of the final image and getting the exposure right. I also enjoy putting together photobooks and have created one on Iceland based on several recent visits and, in 2021, between gaps in lockdown, I created two street photography books focusing on the City of Birmingham

Secretary

southwestsecretary@rps.org

My father was an enthusiastic photographer and had a darkroom set up at home. As a small child I spent time with him developing the negatives and printing images. Though I doubt I was much help.

Since then I've had an on off relationship with the pastime and it is only over the last decade or so that I have become truly engaged with the art and process. Doing so has lead to me exploring the history of art as a way of developing my skill. I have over the years photographed aviation, landscapes, nature and the built environment. Lately my interest has turned to themed projects. A new one is an intention to document rural decay as changes in agricultural practice and population leave older structures redundant. I like to print and now instead of being in the dark room of my childhood, I spend my time in Lightroom, next to a rather big printer.

Finance Officer

southwesttreasurer@rps.org

I started doing photography when I was 11 years old with a box camera that my parents used for holidays.

I founded with a couple of friends the Tiverton Heathcoat Photographic Club some fifty four years ago and I have been there programme secretary, chairman and president.

I also look after the archives for the Western Counties Photographic Federation and I have been member of the RPS for several years and was Treasurer of the Western Centre which Sheila Haycox and myself ran up to the pandemic.

I am interested in all genres all photography but with a leaning to landscape photography, but I am turning my photographic leanings to Audio Visual.

During my working life I partnered a photographic business in Tiverton and was also a local councillor.

South West Regional Committee Member

southwestdevon@rps.org

Hi – this is me, an independent minded photographer who does her own thing and (these days) does not worry about the accolades of others. 

I have chased the gongs and gained the letters – DPAGB, EFIAP, GPSA, FIPF and ARPS.  Don’t get me wrong there is a lot to be said for doing this as you learn a lot along the way: what works, what doesn’t.  How to improve.  But I love Photoshop and fiddling and diddling, so produce fantasy work and that is very often not seen as ‘real photography’ by many.  In the defence of creative work I do point out that often my images can have many layers of different elements to complete the final image and that means every part has to be a good image or the finished article pays the price. 

RPS wise I have had an interesting volunteer career here.  My many roles have included organising a local DI Centre, Sec then Chair of the Digital Imaging Group, the Chapter Organiser for the Netherlands whilst living there for 6 years, a Distinctions Assessor on the Licentiateship panel and from 2019 to 2021 a RPS Trustee.  Volunteering has bought me into contact with many interesting and inspiring people over the years 

Webmaster

southwestweb@rps.org

Sheila lives in Exeter and  started her photography with slides in 1986,  and joined Exmouth Photo Group where she was Secretary for 18 years, Chairman for 3 and now the webmaster.  She joined the RPS in 2010 and gained her ARPS in both prints and audio visual. 

A keen photographer who enjoys all genres of photography and her main enjoyment is giving presentations with her prints and audio visuals to clubs and Associations far and wide.  Sheila has also had many years of judging experience.   At present Sheila has immersed herself into the Audio Visual World as she feels this is making the best use of all her photographs and a way of telling stories.

Sheila's Portfolio

Regional Contemporary Group leader

contemporarysw@rps.org

I got involved with photography on a reasonably serious basis when I was in my mid-teens and joined the RPS some thirty-five years later in 2010.  I shoot mainly digital images but also do a little experimentation taking monochrome images using vintage and antique 120 roll-film cameras and developing my own film.   Apart from record photography my work tends to be a cross-over between Travel and Contemporary Photography and I am a member of both RPS Special Interest Groups.   My ARPS (in Contemporary Photography) was based on the relationship between geology and human habitation in Greenland.  I also convene Contemporary Southwest and am a member of the national Contemporary Group Committee where I seem to have written the Groups definitive non-definition of Contemporary Photography (available on the RPS website).  Although I am not a landscape photographer as defined by the RPS, I am interested in landscape as defined within geography, namely as the interaction of people, places and things and the way in which this relates not just to photography but to other disciplines.  I have degrees in Chemistry and Theology, am a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Member of the Royal Geographical Society, although the word member here has two very different meanings. I also enjoy writing and have lectured to a wide range of audiences in many different subjects.