The friendly photographic society
This week we celebrated Halloween with our own ‘spooky’ studio night, a workshop evening where members brought along their cameras and spooky materials to photograph.
During the evening we explored ‘painting with light’ using long exposures and used some of the Halloween themed materials to great effect.
A good evening, where we all enjoyed the Interactive workshop and creative use of the themed night. – Steve
Our first print competition of the season featuring ‘Open’ and set subject ‘people at work’ judged by Kathy Chandler. We had a good response to entries with 35 prints in the open and 33 in the set subject.
Once again some great Images were produced by the members giving the judge another difficult task of choosing the eventual winners on the night.
It is appreciated the extra work in producing a competition finished print over PDI’s but hopefully the rewards of personal satisfaction on the finished item outweigh the extra effort.
We also received the results from our first external competition of the season held at Park Street CC during the evening, where we learnt we had finished 7th but only 3 points behind the winning Club. We look forward to the next external competition.
Steve
This week we held our Autumn social, a chance for members to share some of their Images with the group and talk about photography experiences. A good social evening complemented with nibbles and drinks and some excellent cakes provided by Vanessa.
In addition, we covered preparing for our forthcoming Triptych competition by viewing and discussing examples of previous entered Images, to help the newer members understand the concept.
Steve
Our Second PDI competitions of the season featured set subject ‘Colour’ and ‘Open’.
Once again we had great enthusiasm for the competition with Initially 110 entries from 28 authors. This quantity was reduced to 82 giving each author 2 entries in the open and 1 entry in the set subject. Still a very full evening of viewing!
A very high standard of Images gave the visiting Judge Damon Guy a tough task in awarding the points and choosing the ultimate winning Images.
Steve
This week we held a Video evening where members where Invited to bring along AV’s (audio visual) photographic slideshows, with music or narration.
We had a great response, with members creating twelve AV’s for the evening. We had some really Interesting sets of Images and all set to appropriate music.
For the talented members to produce AV’s to such a standard was really appreciated and made for a very enjoyable evening.
We also had a presentation of this season’s external competition entries, also set to music!
Steve
Our first League competitions of the season with open and set subject ‘Sky’ the challenge for the members.
We had huge enthusiasm for the competitions, with over 125 entries initially submitted. This total was based on Two entries per competition per person. To make the night meaningful and to give visiting Judge Micki Aston quality of time to critique we reduced the second entry for each author, giving a total of 65 Images over the two competitions.
Some great Images were produced by our members and it was particularly good to see the work of eleven new members entering the competitions and gaining points in the league.
Steve
This week was our first Workshop of the season where we gave a presentation on preparing for print Competitions. This Interactive evening covered many issues including discussions on printers, paper and mounts. We gave a number of options to discuss, whether to print your own Images or purchase from external services. Also we demonstrated two different mount board cutters and discussed the various options of mounting Images.
In addition ‘Ant’ gave an overview of colour control, comparing colour on screen to actual printed Image. Amongst the detail demonstrated, was how to achieve the correct calibration to ensure best results.
Steve
This week we had an entertaining talk given by Andy Sands who owns Chiswick Camera Centre and is an excellent Wildlife Photographer.
Andy highlighted the latest Olympus camera and lenses by showing us the brilliant Images he had captured using the state of the art Olympus equipment.
Among the many features, the camera was capable of focus stacking using the in built software which Andy demonstrated through his many Images on show, which Included birds and Insects focus stacked to a final Image with amazing results.
Andy shared with the members many humorous stories of his trails while capturing his great shots, giving a very enjoyable and Informative delivery.
Steve
We finished our current season with our annual awards night. Where we celebrated the excellent photography that had been produced during the season.
A fun filled evening where the successful members were presented with the trophies and certificates of achievement. Each award was presented with the winning Images shown on screen, reminding everyone, what a high standard had been achieved in all competitions, both PDI and Prints.
Congratulations to everyone who achieved an award and for raising the bar once again with the Clubs standard of photography.
The evening was completed with drinks and nibbles and highlights were discussed of events during the summer break and new features for next season starting on September 5th.
Steve
This week we had our last competitions of the season, choosing the best colour and monochrome prints. We had 50 entries that qualified from previous competitions in the season (37 Colour and 23 Monochrome) All prints had scored 19 or 20 points in the Colour and 18 and above in the monochrome.
Our judge was the very experienced Dave Hipperson who had the difficult task of choosing the winning Images.
Congratulations to the ultimate winners of these closely fought competitions and a big thank you for all members who have entered throughout the season.
The standard has been very high this season in all competitions PDI/prints and we have had a tremendous response of entries, for every event
Steve