Celebrity Profile _ Rod Wheelans

      Rod Wheelans MPAGB APAGB EFIAP ARPS is a member of Dumfries Camera Club which is affiliated to both the Scottish Photographic Federation and the Northern Counties Photographic Federation. He is Chairman of the NCPF Western Area, a post he has held for several years.

     Rod joined the Dumfries club in 1983, has been a continuous member of their committee since 1984 has twice served as their President. He has been a member of the SPF Executive for more than 20 years and he and his VP Clive Turner are widely credited as the key movers in the modernisation of the federation during his term as SPF President. This included a complete rewrite of their constitution bringing the SPF closer to its member clubs.

     He joined the PAGB Executive in 1990 and last year was elected as President. He has organised and chaired the PAGB Inter-Club Print Championship since its inception in 1997 but he considers his most important contribution to be the PAGB Awards for Photographic Merit. Rod prepared the first draft of these awards, defining a structure which was soon agreed and remains little changed to this day. In 1999 he succeeded Ian Platt as the non-voting Chairman of the adjudicators.

      He and his partner Anne Greiner are now successful professional photographers with a busy wedding and portrait studio but they have never lost their amateur roots, competing and exhibiting widely. Two years ago one of his acceptance at South Shields took Rod to over 2000 acceptances in National and International exhibitions.

      I asked Rod to write about some of the highlights of his life in amateur photography.

      "Apart from family things - (I have 2 children, Anne has 5 and there is now a full football team of grandchildren) - we do very little that isn't involved with photography. It is our work and our hobby and we don't even take holidays that don't present photographic opportunities. I'm very, very lucky to have a partner who shares the obsession of my life!

      My Dad won a working toy camera at a fair when I was 6 or 7. I loved it but I didn't become a serious photographer until I was 12. I graduated through a series of box cameras, (do you remember the Brownie 127?) and bought my first SLR when I was 17. I had gone to work for Post Office Telecommunications in London and was working part time for a wedding studio when I was 18 - I still don't believe they allowed me to take on weddings single-handed! Then, like lots of young people I drifted away from the hobby and for 10 years I hardly took even a snapshot.

      In the mid 70's, now with British Telecom., I got involved with the "works" camera club and within a few years I was running a national exhibition for employees of the Post Office and British Telecom. At that time they employed more people than our armed forces and there were some well known photographers including Leo Palmer who is still very active in the NCPF. Despite this I never came in contact with camera clubs until I moved back to Scotland. I was a member of the Glasgow Telephones Club and briefly Kirkintilloch C.C. before moving to Dumfries. I was lucky that I joined Dumfries C.C. at about the same time as a number of other enthusiastic photographers such as Simon Allen, Derek Ross and John McVie who are now well known on the lecture circuit. The way in which Dumfries has established itself as a force in UK amateur photography remains a thing of wonder and gives me enormous pleasure - and a little pride!

      For us, the highlight of every year is the PAGB Inter-Club Championship and Dumfries winning it in 2000 was fantastic!

      I've been very fortunate to be invited to clubs all over the UK and Ireland and a few years ago Sean Casey (Dundalk) and I started the Celtic Challenge. You won't have heard much about it in the NCPF as most of England are not invited! Cornwall and the Isle of Man are accepted as having sufficient Celtic connections to join Scotland, N. Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales and Brittany in this annual competition. It still represents a spirit that I think represents the very best of amateur photography where the craic is more important than the competition!

      I've won a few awards and had some really nice things happen. It was great to be elected to the SPF Roll of Honour, my APAGB was delightfully embarrassing and I treasure my Hon. Life Membership of Dumfries Camera Club which I still cannot find permitted by our constitution!

      All of this, however pales into insignificance compared with the most exciting photographic event I have ever attended. At Swansea in 1999 ten members of Dumfries C.C. were all present, with supporters, to try for the Distinction Award for Photographic Merit (DPAGB) and they all succeeded! A weekend I will never forget!

Rod Wheelans