Category: Club night summary

Our online change to the season continued this week with an excellent talk from our club secretary Cat Humphries who presented ‘shooting sunset’ recreating vintage Hollywood portraits. In the first half of the evening we were treated to a potted history of Cat’s extensive Involvement with photography for theatre groups, covering many well known shows. This section was accompanied by excellent Images she had taken. Cat’s Involvement and contribution has gradually Increased with the Theatre group (Ricky players) in addition to covering their rehearsals and shows, she has contributed and produced posters for a number. In addition she recently produced a programme for ‘Sunset Boulevard’ where she developed her skill on reproducing the vintage film star black and white photography.

During the second half of the evening Cat shared details on this photography technique and equipment used, again showing superb Images to accompany her dialogue. A very entertaining presentation which was enjoyed by our members, tuned in to this now unmissable Thursday night online.

Steve

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This week, our unforgettable season continued with our first online competition, originally a print competition, but for online converted to a PDI for practical purposes. The competition will count in our season for the print league table, still as a Print competition. When things get back to normal, we are looking forward to viewing the actual prints.

The competitions went well, with topics ‘open’ and set subject ‘Urban life’. We had a total of 66 entries and as always a very high standard of Images and a good Interpretation of the challenging subjects were presented.

The evening was judged by Rojer Weightman who had volunteered to try his first ever online judging role with us. Rojer did a good job with his Informative critique and ultimate scoring.

Thank you to everyone that entered the competitions and congratulations to the high point scorers on the evening.

Once again we were joined online with a good number of the membership and as always good humour prevailed throughout the night. It really is good to keep contact through this medium.

It will be great to welcome even more of our talented membership to this forum each Thursday night.

Steve

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Because of the Coronavirus situation, we are no longer meeting at the community centre until further notice. However we are still running the club online. On Monday the committee had their first online run through, which showed great promise using audio/ visual communications.

On Thursday we had our first club programmed meeting, entitled ‘You be the judge’ where the members viewed, passed comment and scored Images that had been entries into the Portrait of Britain competition.

This gave an Interesting and Interactive evening, with the members discussing the various merits of each Image before reaching a score from the comfort of their own homes.
The online system was a great technical success with over 20 of our members using it and able to contribute to the discussion with ease. A big thank you to Stuart Craig who controlled and managed the event on the night.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and technical expertise of our talented committee, we Intend to complete the remainder of the published programme for this season, by using this online system.

Steve

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More great Images were displayed in our final league PDI competitions of this season.

Martin Patten was the experienced judge visiting the club to critique and score the Images. A number of authors were very close on points in each of the league tables, giving extra edge on the evening for the final results to decide this years PDI league winners.

The competition contained both ‘open’ and set subject ‘closed’. The membership entries gave a good Imaginative Interpretation of the topics, giving the judge a difficult task to decide the winning scores.

Thanks to everyone who entered this years PDI league competitions, producing such a high standard for the club.

Congratulations to the ultimate winners who will be announced shortly.

Steve

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This week we held our annual spring social with a fish & chip supper followed by some excellent Quizzes (cleverly put together and presented by George, Mike Collins and Rod). As always great fun, with the members on the various team tables, (as with our photography competitions), competing to win!

Congratulations to the ultimate winners on the night named ‘mostly Canon’.
The evening was rounded off by a raffle with prizes donated by our members.

Thanks to all that attended and to the organisers of the event (George, Denise, Rod, Vanessa, Tom and Alan).

Steve

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This week we had ‘talks from our members’ a very entertaining evening with 3 different photography related topics covered.

David Eckland spoke about his recent external learning course which lasts for 10 weeks and is aligned to LRPS distinction. David gave a PowerPoint presentation giving an Interesting Insight into the criteria of the course and the benefits.

Gordon Calder talked about photoshop/lightroom photo manipulation and the reason why with a little skill, you should take a second look before you press the delete button on your computer. Gordon gave some great visual examples of ‘before and after’, where he had used his manipulative skills to transform some of his Images into winners!

Archie Bagworth gave an Insightful view on the current Laws and the role of police and security with various restrictions for Photography. It was really useful to be reminded of the ‘do’s and don’ts’ within Archie’s PowerPoint presentation.

We are very fortunate to have such talented members within the club, providing a great evening and sharing valuable and Interesting Information.

Steve

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Jim Nemer was our judge for the Print competitions this week featuring set subjects ‘patterns’ and ‘open’.

We had had a total of 62 print entries over the 2 events giving the judge a difficult time in scoring and choosing the eventual winners. He stated that the overall standard of the club prints were excellent.

Thank you to all that entered and congratulations to the high scorers.

The league tables positions are now very tight, with a number of authors hitting great form at this Important stage of the season.

Once again a very enjoyable evening of creative work on display.

View the high scoring images on the Galleries section.

Steve

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This week we had a talk presented by Rojer Weightman entitled Still life, Allegory, Vanitas and Momento Mori. Rojer explained the history and explained the differences between Still life and its variants in Art and photography.

The presentation gave many examples of artwork and Rojer displayed a number of his photos where he had interpreted the work and Influences into his own photography.

The style was of paintings by the ‘Dutch masters’ with accent very much on the lighting, giving great atmosphere in all the Images.

A very stimulating topic and well delivered.

Steve

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Food photography was this weeks theme for our workshop. Members were Invited to bring along their cameras and materials (food and props) for a practical evening.

The Inspiration behind the session was to photograph food and also in some cases Incorporate a few tricks to fool the viewers eye by using some alternate materials with the food to good effect eg shaving foam as an alternative to whipped cream etc. Materials often used in professional photo shoots.

Thank you to everyone who brought along creative props to make a fun Interactive night. 

A full evening in which Tom also gave a presentation on ‘the effect of light on colour.’

Steve

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An engaging talk given by our guest speaker Kathy Chantler who gave us details about her journey to ARPS distinction from the Royal Photographic Society.

Kathy brought along and displayed her excellent prints which were used in her presentation to the RPS for both gaining LRPS and ultimately her ARPS.

She gave tremendous detail within her Inspiring talk, emphasising the commitment  required to attain the prestigious awards.

Her submitted print panel for her ARPS award was totally original, showing striking abstract art taken from reflections.

Steve.

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