Author: wordpress

With the week’s now fast disappearing towards our new season starting on 3rd September we now need to focus on where we will meet and the shape of future meetings.
We have been given the green light to resume using the Community hall on Thursdays, naturally providing we meet the current law on safe distancing and overall safe practice regarding numbers etc. We will also need to carry out a risk assessment to ensure we meet the stringent compliance practice.

However this could be academic at this time, because the Important question is how do all our members feel about meetings. Understandably everyone will need to feel comfortable and confident in physically meeting in the hall. We feel that a short survey will help gauge everyone’s current feelings regarding resuming hall meetings or continuing as we are currently doing using online Zoom meetings. Please help us by completing the below survey. We value everyone’s Input to help decide the direction, which of course will be decided by the majority vote.

The Zoom meetings, in both completing last season’s competitions and programme and the recent light summer schedule have been very successful but we appreciate it hasn’t been right for everyone to attend online.

Zoom has been a learning curve for most of us. We would love to help assist any current or potential new members in using the Zoom system, if you would like to join in. Please contact to let us know your needs.

The excellent challenges and Informal catch up sessions we have run over the last few weeks have been well received by the members and have produced some outstanding work. Some examples can be seen below from the various challenges, or you can see more detail in the members area of our website.

We have a great camera club, but like many other clubs at the moment are suffering with not being able to recreate the meetings as they were. This of course can put a strain on communications.

We value every member and would love to be able to harness our loyal membership for another season of exciting events and Inspiration for all. Things will change along the way as the world eventually gets to grips with this awful pandemic and we return to some form of normality.

In the meantime please complete the survey to Indicate your preferences and if possible, if you haven’t already done so, get signed up for another year (details below) and we will come out of this period together and stronger as a club.

Steve

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

---

It’s hard to Imagine in four weeks time our new season will start. There are still many unknowns regarding how and where we will meet. There are a lot of considerations ahead to ensure that we can meet safely in the community centre hall, to ensure compliance with social distancing safety measures etc.

In the clubs sixty years of existence there has never been a more challenging time at the start of a new season, a conundrum currently shared by all camera clubs. One thing is for sure, we will be up and running on the 3rd of September either online using ‘Zoom’ or back in the hall when we all feel comfortable with the safety arrangements. We have an exciting programme planned for this year with all judges for competitions, guest speakers etc confirmed and ready to go, either on ‘Zoom’ or in the hall. We have a number of members already renewed their subscription for next season and it would be great to get the same commitment from all current members prior to the start of next season.

In the meantime, last week we continued our wonderful light summer programme with the latest challenge. This time it was a post processing challenge. Three Images were provided to download from our website to edit as our talented photographers saw fit. In addition there were further Images provided to create a composite Image using their Imagination to create a scene.

Once again the members excelled in their creativity and gave great documentary on how they had gone about their editing process to create the stunning results.

Another fun and Interesting night which ensured we are still keeping together during these difficult and uncertain times.

Steve

---

One of the things we all miss from not meeting in the community centre each Thursday is the social Interaction. The opportunity to just talk to like minded people about anything and everything, normally photography related, but always Interesting and often Informative.

Our weekly summer programme tries to provide a platform to have the opportunity just to exchange views and share Information within the group. Although it’s online and we are viewing each of us sitting in little boxes, it does provide a forum for two way communication within the group.

Last week was a great example of this relaxed evening where we exchanged many Interesting topics, from discussing lighting for both indoor/ outdoor shoots, the merits of each product and of course the all Important budget to finance the purchase.
We talked about, if you want to share your Images to the outside world and the various platforms on social media etc to creating your own website.

We also managed to fit in a discussion on photo books comparing the various providers and the ease of putting a book together.

In addition to the exciting challenges we have issued and had a great response too during this period of online activity. The blend of Informal get together on Zoom has proved a winning formula for the difficult time we are all currently experiencing in the world.

Thursday evenings online are open to every club member, with easy access Instructions in the members area to join.

We look forward to seeing you this Thursday ?

Steve

---

As we get further into our ‘summer’ programme with a more relaxed approach of weekly meetings, the enthusiasm for our love of photography never wains. Whether it is one of our summer ‘challenges’ or just a meet up to discuss anything photography related it has been a great series of online meetings. We have had a number of Interesting photography challenges so far, which have produced some excellent Images.

 Last week we Invited everyone to step outside their normal photography comfort zone to create a ‘stop motion animation’. This presented a whole series of challenges, which involved different techniques in both shooting and software use. In addition much more time needed to be devoted to the production of this challenge. As with all of the tasks set so far, our dedication members set about producing a number of creative and well thought out stop motion animations.

It was great to both see the final clips on Thursday and hear from the authors who managed to find the time to produce. All the members that managed to produce clips agreed, it was a good exercise, going into previously untrod territory and learning new techniques. The clips can be viewed in the members area the website.

Thank you to all that attended the meeting and in particular to those members that took up the challenge and produced such Inventive stop motion clips.

We look forward to the next few challenges during August

Steve

---

In the year that we are celebrating our club 60th anniversary, no one could have predicted or Imagined what was going to happen this year.

Our last club hall meeting was on the 12th March and then the corona virus lockdown started. A number of other camera clubs stopped their activities causing all sorts of issues with their activities and members.

We were able to Immediately adapt to using ‘Zoom’ on the Internet. Our meetings all be it online continued and we were able to successfully complete our season’s planned programme.

Judges and speakers were also quick to adapt to the new way of working. Many of our members have been able to continue and enjoy the normal weekly meetings. We appreciate that it doesn’t suit everyone and we hope as things progress we will be safely be back in the community centre in September with all members.

We are now a few weeks into our ‘light’ summer programme, a great selection of ‘challenges’ which has proved a hit with those able to take part. A combination of photography and communications, keeping everyone in touch during this difficult time.

Last week we had a great evening as an ‘Informal get together’ on Zoom. An opportunity for the online members to discuss any subjects with the others. This proved to be a really enjoyable evening with a wide range of topics covered and even Included some members sharing Images online, that they were working on.

The joining details for the Thursday night weekly meetings are in the members area of our website and we look forward to welcoming as many members as possible each week.

Steve

---

We all have them and carry them around, but how seriously do we take mobile phone cameras, when it comes to our photography. Our latest challenge ‘mobile phone photography’ put this theory to the test. The challenge was to produce Images of any subject taken on a phone camera and if needed, only use the edit programmes available on the phone.

We had 31 Images to review, using our proven enjoyable method of displaying the Image while the Individual authors gave a commentary, of how they came about in producing the Image and thoughts behind it. In addition to taking questions from fellow members. A high standard with a wide variety of subjects and styles were covered, giving plenty of Inspiration to everyone, with much discussion on the many techniques applied.

The clubs summer programme is providing a great alternative for our talented photographers, without some of the constraints of formal competitions, in giving an opportunity to try out more new techniques and different subject matter, within the various challenges set.

Thank you to everyone who joined us online and a special thanks to all the entrants giving us a great evening. It certainly highlighted the mobile phone cameras quality, which provide us with a viable alternative to the DSLR’s and other cameras.

You can view the entries for this latest challenge on our website in the members area.

Steve

---

The club has slipped seamlessly into the summer programme and is producing some great and fresh Ideas to occupy our talented members.

A series of challenges began last week with ‘household objects’ as the first theme. These entries showed huge originality and produced some really striking Images.

We have now set the scene for a further challenge on the 23rd July featuring ‘stop motion animation’. The members creative appetites were fed by George Purchase, giving an excellent stop motion tutorial. This Included some examples of work produced and technical tips on the project. You can see this section of the evening in the members area, if you were unable to make the meeting or you just want a refreshed look at the Information for further Inspiration.

The meetings are also giving an opportunity for our like minded group, to compare notes on any number of photography related items. Sharing views on all sorts of topics, with everyone having a welcome voice in their opinions or responses.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the evening providing such an Interesting, relaxed and engaging couple of hours.

In these difficult times it’s great to have the technology of the Zoom online meetings to enable the communication platform and keep everyone one at the club in touch.

Steve

---

As photographers we are always looking for fresh Inspiration and the ‘challenge’. On our first night of our new summer programme, everyone certainly produced plenty of diverse progressive thoughts within their work.

Our first topic of our challenges was ‘home objects and still life’ a title that Inspired plenty of Imagination from our talented photographers that contributed to the evening.

We had 24 Images to view with each author giving a commentary on their Images and fielding questions from the members.

Although this wasn’t a normal judged competition, the standard reached on the produced Images suggested our photographers normal quality of work was naturally very high. This produced a very enjoyable, good humoured evening of review.

Unlike normal competition evenings where there is very little time for Interaction and review of the work produced. This was a refreshing change giving the authors time to explain the thought process and techniques behind the Image.

Our webmaster George has put the Images from the evening onto the members section of our club website.

I would recommend anyone who may have missed the evening, to view the Images and perhaps be Inspired ready for our next challenge in the summer series.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the evening and we look forward to seeing as many members as possible next Thursday.

Steve

---