Plenty of new things happening at Hermanus – Hermanus Photographic Society

A number of interesting changes are to be rolled out at the Hermanus Photographic Society (HPS) from March 2024. The club is changing its scoring points, will start its meetings an hour earlier (18:00), is kitted out with new scoring boxes and will officially adopt a new logo.

The decision to score images at the monthly meetings out of 15 and no longer out of 30 has been in the making for a while. The driver behind this is closer alignment to the PSSA guidelines. The majority of PSSA-affiliated clubs are scoring out of 15 and we are following suit.

This should be an easy transition. Members just need to get used to a set of lower scores to earn their awards (Bronze, Silver, Gold or Merit). Hermanus implemented the TOP system last year and will also re-introduce a panel of three judges, kicking off on 6 March. There won’t be a panel at every meeting, but the plan is to have at least three HPS judging sessions in 2024, and the balance external accredited JAP judges. Not only will this provide the opportunity for club members to expand their skill sets as judges, but it will also balance out the judging by external judges.

The New Scores
minimum points requirement (max 15)
Star rating	1	2	3	4	5+
Bronze	4	5	6	7	8
Silver	6	7	8	9	10
Gold	8	9	10	11	12
Merit	11	12	13	13	13

In general, the new scores have been created by dividing the old scores by 2, with some rounding-adjustments. In some cases, these will benefit members, especially 3- and 4-Star workers compared to the 30 scale system.

The Old Scores
minimum points requirement (max 30)
Star rating	1	2	3	4	5+
Bronze	7	10	13	16	16
Silver	11	14	17	20	20
Gold	15	18	21	23	24
Merit	21	23	25	26	27

The scoring system out of 30 is no more.

Starting meetings at 18:00

The majority of members were keen to start the monthly meetings earlier. Together with this, we are introducing a Camera Cafe concept, where we will focus more on the informal discussion of images and skills development in the first hour before the formal assessment session. We will implement this in March and see how well this works, but during the stormy winter months it sure will be an advantage.

Adopting a new logo

For a while we have been using a new logo on marketing material and on social media. The new logo that incorporates a whale, the ocean, waves, mountains, golden hour all seen through the eye of a camera lens was discussed at the recent annual general meeting and will now be officially accepted as the new logo. It is only the third logo since the club was started in April 1997. The major driver behind the recent change is to be more visible in the public, especially on social media.