Have a happy, safe and wonderful photographic time.

We look forward to seeing your images throughout 2012.

On display will be our best images for open prints, monochome prints and open EDI entries and trophies will be awared for the top entry in each section. The trophies for aggregate points will also be awarded, as will the president’s trophy.

As always we ask that you bring your partners/loved ones and a small plate of food.

The club is always looking for committee members so why not come along, get elected and make a difference to your club.

The meeting will be held at Wadham House, downstairs. 7.30pm

Update: We have switched to new hosting and the issues are resolved.

Mary and her family would also like to thank those members that attended the memorial service on Friday, for their kinds words and support.

It is with a sad heart that I have tell you all that one of the clubs prominent members, Roger Howell passed away on Sunday 3rd July 2011. I know that you all will join me in sending Roger’s partner Mary, our sincerest condolences.

Roger has been a prominent member of WCC since Feb 1997 and for as long as I’ve known him he has been a member of the committee. We will all miss his very large contribution to the club; he was always there with wise council, support or anything else that was needed. This may not have always been a visible contribution but I can say without a shadow of doubt that you ALL have benefited from his membership. Roger’s photographic knowledge and skills in mounting prints were second to none and he would always be happy to pass on this knowledge to members, new members and guests. It was always a pleasure to introduce guests to him.

You may not know it but Roger was the big driving force behind getting the Audio Visual Group into being and always had a very active role in the group, his latest creation being about ‘Orchids’ which you can see here. Roger was always an active participant in the club outings; I would always have a chuckle to myself when I saw him lugging behind him the largest camera bag known to man. A bag that which he had to replace with an equally sized wheeled version when things got too heavy for him to carry.

One thing I know is that I and others in the club will never forget Roger, his love and devotion to Mary, their relationship was a thing of beauty. Our hearts go out to her and both families in their time of grief.

On Friday 13th May a message from the President arrived in our mailboxes which said “It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this, one of our members, Don Boyle has passed away”. We all must have had a heavy heart when we read the news of Don’s death.

Don and his wife, Kathy have been members of the club since February 2008 and in that time both Don and Kathy have been valued and very popular members.
Don was always a very friendly person with a very positive approach. Maybe you may consider he was like ‘a dog with a bone’ gently shaking it until he got the intended outcome……

Don had got the idea that a beginner’s class was needed and perhaps not everyone will know that Don was the one who ‘founded’ the beginners group. Not only did he ‘solicit’ the members to join the new group but Don and Kathy generously opened their home to hold the first of these meetings, until Don had drummed up interest from so many members alternative arrangements had to be made for the group. Don and Kathy always made everyone very welcome into their home even providing tea, coffee and homemade cakes! (After all Don’s efforts and everything was in place I guess Pete D couldn’t refuse to teach the members).

We may not know a great deal about Don’s life in the years before he joined us yet what we do know is that for three years we were very fortunate to have him as a member of Waverley Camera Club. A very brave and positive man and we appreciate all the efforts he made for the club especially so when he knew he was seriously ill.

Don will be missed yet we will remember his contribution to the club and we can look forward to seeing Kathy at the club later in this year as she intends to return, hopefully earlier as we all look forward to seeing her again.

• President: Pete Davies
• Vice President: Ian Hansen
• Treasurer: Rodelle Keogh
• Secretary: David Burton
• Webmaster: Stephen Edmonds
• Assistant webmaster: Dave Sumner
• Print Comp Steward: Albert Hutchison
• EDI Comp Steward: Stephen Edmonds
• Membership Secretary: Jill Myers
• Social Secretary: Andy Armitage
• Wadham House Rep.: Fred Bullock
• Judge Coordinator: Peter Myers
• VAPS Representatives: Roger Howell, Dave Sumner, Rodelle Keogh
• Ordinary Members: Roger Howell, Allan Scott, Jenny Boyle

Dennis Eric Creasy, 1931 – 201ish or so

Born in London, Dennis was one of a very rare vintage: 1931 was the year of the lowest birth rate ever recorded in both Britain and Australia. Surviving 250kg aliquots of HE, V1s and V2s he was finally bequeathed his mother’s Box Brownie during his last years of schooling. Hard economics set in: two rolls of “120” film = 16 exposures of 2¼ x 3¼ = One week’s pocket money. Fortunately his father was an amateur photographer so he learnt early to do his own processing (in open dishes) with the cost of chemicals “on the firm”. Developing tanks were unheard of in his household.

With his second roll of film he cycled down to his old haunt where he had been a war time evacuee for a while and photographed the old Saxon church near Didling, W. Sussex, at the foot of the South Downs.

This was a church noted for having kept its head down and hence was overlooked during Henry VIII’s gold grab of 1536 to finance his many girlfriends. This effectively destroyed any vague interest Dennis may have had for bricks and mortar but not for girlfriends.

Ten years later his father bequeathed to him his “620” Kodak folding camera. Frustrated by this continued “large” format being wished on him while “everyone” else had 35mm he opened it up and glued a mask inside to give 16 half size negatives. Consequently he then had to build an enlarger.

Another decade rolled by and, in spite of the cold war, Russian cameras were in the shops. Now he had a wife, a mortgage and money in the bank! Gentlemen, he advised, should always marry a rich woman. So he splashed out on a “Zenith E”: 35mm and colour prints at last!

The “E” saw him through the next 1½ decades and into Australia. But by now Anno Domini had caught up with him and his arms had grown too short for him to be able to read his slide-rule (Slide-rule? What the hell’s that?) let alone focus his camera.

Fortunately for his coronary and blood pressure, autofocus widgets were appearing in the shops and in 1986 a quick trip back to Britain facilitated the duty free acquisition of an autofocus Minolta 7000 and extra lenses. Right up until the death of film, the 7000 never gave him the slightest trouble.

Being an old fashioned “see the wheels go round” engineer, Dennis did not welcome the advent of the digital age. So much so that he retired early to avoid having to use the ghastly electronic widget with which his employer insisted on decorating his desk. Rumour has it that he was latterly in possession of some form of digital Sony gadget which enabled him to use his 7000 lenses. However, he professed to the very end that until he had confined the progeny of his 1469 rolls of film safely into albums he had no intention of getting involved with “all this new fangled digitry”.

In order to preserve a level of insanity he took up playing cards and also became a rowing coach.

In mid 1992 a portrait of WCC then President, Marcia Brown, appeared in the local rag and he immediately applied to join the club. By 1996 he had graduated to Club secretary and also succeeded Christine Anfried as Newsletter editor for several years (with the able assistance of Prue McColl) In 2005 the WCC held an exhibition at the Highway Gallery and beside his two offerings was Epitaph 1:

“Dennis Creasy is a retiring retired engineer. He is very selfish and takes snaps purely for his own personal erotic pleasure with no interest whatever in what others may think. Those who view his images must be prepared to put their own brains into gear if they wish to get anything out of them”.

Eventually he joined that noble band of A Graders. Not, he would hasten to point out, because he was a good photographer but because, like any devious student, he read the (then) rules and then religiously applied them. His mental state declined as he lamented the mutation of the Newsletter to the Blog and he appeared not to have had a remission. He had always hoped that one day he would have had his own private studio in his home and taken pictures of women which they would one day have been proud to show to their grand-daughters.

“The report of his death was an exaggeration” (with apologies to M. Twain) but he will leave a wife, four children and ten grandchildren.

Epitaph 2: “Come back hard copy; all is forgiven!”

If you already have a Facebook account:

Become a fan of the club and use it as one way of following what the club is doing.

If you do not have a Facebook account:

Do not use this as your only reason to create an account. The email list will remain as the primary means of communication with members. The website, and now the Facebook page, serves both as an archive of what the club has doing and as a means of promoting the club.