Juniors shine after we gained 20 new members
We should have seen it coming last year, when we gained 15 new members. It did not stop. So far this year we have another five. This total gain of 20 members equals 40% or more of our average paid- up membership over the last decade.
Most of the new members join on a junior level – from 1-Star to 3-Star – based largely on their experience. But that says little about their talent. We just got a glimpse of that. No fewer than three junior club members were given a score of 13/15 in the monthly assessment of images at our club meeting on Wednesday 5 June. That score translates into the highest possible club assessment award, a Merit, for a senior photographer.
So the judge [David Benn] had three exceptional images from which to pick our junior image of the month, which would also be our entry in the junior monthly club competition organized by the PSSA (Photographic Society of South Africa). He chose “Just around the corner” by Louise Krüger, a 1-Star photographer.
The two PSSA competitions, one for juniors and one for seniors (4-Star and higher), are indicative of the quality of our club’s photography on both senior and junior level.
After a fairly average performance during the first half of the competition, which began in July 2023, we shot up to 2nd place among Western Cape clubs, and a place in the top 10 countrywide, in both competitions in the beginning of this calendar year. But our junior entry has been outperforming our senior entry, with a higher score in the PSSA competition in five of the six months since December. Based on the total scores so far, we are still 2nd in the Western Cape in both competitions, but countrywide 6th in the senior and 3rd in the junior competition.