How did I do….?
The PDI and Print League tables for the 21/22 season are now in the Members Area
Ant’s Antics
A Year on Tour
Anthony Highet blogs about hosting photographic events across the UK….
The eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that I wasn’t attending meetings as often last season, and the truth is, I can’t see that improving much this coming season either. So I just wanted to share this blog to explain where I’ve been.
For a little over a year I have been lucky enough to hold the role of ‘Operations Director’ at Creativity Hub Events, a premium fashion photographic events company that delivers awesome events for photographers of all standards to empower their portfolio all over the UK.
I can hear you all asking, “but what do you actually do?”
Well, in simple terms, I am responsible for the day to day running of the business, project delivery, finance, insurance, on site health & safety and logistics.
Believe it or not, I was quite reluctant when first asked to join ‘The Hub’…lot’s of self doubt filled my mind, am I capable, am I talented enough, will people take me seriously? And in truth, I still struggle with the dreaded ‘imposter syndrome’ ahead of every event.
But would I change it? Should I have said ‘NO’? Absolutely not! Thanks to my amazing colleagues, and the incredible spectrum of people across the photographic industry that I get to work with every day, I have discovered skills and abilities that I didn’t know I had in my locker, and together with my team we’re achieving some amazing things that we were told were impossible.
Some may even remember myself and my colleagues presenting a taster session at Croxley in the New Year? Well, rather than repeat that session, I just wanted to share a little update about my rollercoaster journey over the last 12 months, and what adventures the next 12 months might entail…
And what a rollercoaster the last 12 month have been, it feels incredible to sit back and look at our progress over the last 12 months. From emerging from lockdown with our sold out ‘Daydream Believers’ fantasy themed event in July 2021, located in a stunning Treehouse with Forest surroundings…hobbling together any lighting that we could find. To our huge Art-Deco ‘Roaring Twenties’ event at the beginning of this year with our new lighting partner, Rotolight’ providing us with the most technologically advanced LED lighting available. Demand was so huge we had to run the event across 5 days, and then Sony got in touch.
Yes you read that right…Sony! The message read; “We loved your Twenties event, please can we hire you to host that same event for our Sony Alpha Ambassadors?” Some of you may have even seen us in a variety of photography magazines over the last few months. This year has been such a sharp upward trajectory that I often have to pinch myself to check that I’m not dreaming. It’s been one hell of a ride.
So where is next on the tour? Well, the trajectory only get’s steeper! Having just wrapped our sold out Utopia event in Northamptonshire, some of my colleagues are currently exploring secret locations in Italy ahead of the launch of our newest venture, ‘Creativity Hub Escapes’ where we will be providing photographic holidays for people who want to escape the norm from 2023. Of course, I wish I was out there exploring with the team…but someone has to run the show back home!
I’m also really excited about our next event which is on ‘home turf’, in Bushey. A 1940’s inspired immersive fashion experience, ‘Fashion on the Ration’ complete with air raid shelter, authentic military vehicles, dancers and some of the best agency fashion models in the country, it’s going to be an amazing show. And from there, it’s the big one. The biggest project I’ve ever managed in my career to date…we will be exhibiting at The Photography Show at the NEC with Sony & Rotolight. Someone pinch me…I can actually say that Sony…THE Sony is one of our customers!
So why am I telling you all this? Well, until 2017 I had never photographed a model, the thought seemed completely alien to me at the time. Until I joined Croxley Camera Club, and I attended one of the club studio evenings hosted by John Flynn. His advice that cold February night still rings out to me as the moment in time that changed my life entirely…
“Use these settings, point the camera that way, push this button”
Thank you John, and thank you Croxley Camera Club x
Club Night Summary #140
Stockers Lake Walk
We had an Interesting walk around Stockers lake and farm last Thursday evening, where we enjoyed a photowalk meeting, taking in plenty of photography subject matter before it got dark! Thanks to David Eckland for arranging and being our tour guide on the night.
This week we have our Summer party which Includes our presentation of all the awards and trophies for achievements from our talented members this season. Congratulations to everyone who has produced amazing photography throughout the season, giving us such enjoyable competitions and entertaining evenings. It’s great that we have achieved such strong Photography to represent the club in next seasons external competitions. Well done everyone who has entered competitions this year whatever the scoring outcome, it’s what enables competitions to take place and gives us all a purpose to produce more creative output.
Don’t forget this Saturday is Croxley Revels on the Green, where we will be showcasing our club and showing a number of prints produced by our members. It’s a great opportunity to remind the visiting public of our presence in Croxley and also remind any local budding photographers that there is an opportunity to join us for the start of next season on September 8th. Please try and visit the stand on Saturday afternoon.
Steve
Penultimate Meeting of the Season
This Thursday 9th June for our club meeting we have a photowalk, a chance to meet up and enjoy a stroll around Stockers farm and lake in Rickmansworth. A great social opportunity to catch up with other members and potentially take some Interesting photos on the walk. David Eckland will be leading the walk (all details in this newsletter) which I am sure will be a good evening.
The following week 16th is our Summer party/Awards presentation night. Once again a not to be missed evening. A chance to celebrate the successful Images of this season in a nice sociable atmosphere.
Our season finale is on the 18th June where after a three year absence Croxley Revels on the Green is back and we are proud to have our marquee amongst the many stalls at the show. It’s an opportunity to remind everyone local of our club and encourage a few new members to join us and help them develop their Interest in photography.
It would be great if as many as possible of our current members could visit the stand during the Saturday afternoon and help fly the club flag in this promotion day. We need some of your prints to display in the Marquee so please bring along up to three prints each to the awards night for us to proudly display and show our talented members work to the visiting public at the Revels.
Thanks to those members that have volunteered to help with the day, whose help is greatly appreciated by the club and enables this Important event to take place.
See everyone on Thursday
Steve
Club Night Summary #139
Last Competition of the Season
Our last competitions of this season took place on Thursday, this time to find the best colour and mono prints from the high scoring Images taken from this season’s competitions. We had a total 46 prints ( 33 colour and 13 mono) for experienced judge Chris Palmer to critique in his quest to choose the overall winners. The very accomplished judge gave great commentary along with his critique, on every Image during the evening. The Judge also remarked on the overall high standard of the clubs prints and felt we should do well in external competitions next season.
It was good to see this print collection on display in the hall and all authors should be proud of their work throughout the year.
Congratulations to the overall winners which Included 2nd and 3rd and highly commended and commended in each category. This years cup winners for print of the year were Cat Humphries for her excellent ‘Hurdy-gurdy man’ Mono print and I was fortunate to win the colour cup with ‘Restrained’.
All details and Images on our excellent gallery on the club website. Thank you to all that attended this enjoyable evening in the Community centre.
There is no meeting this Thursday and we hope everyone enjoys the Queens jubilee over the long weekend. The following week on Thursday 9th June we have a photowalk planned with Ant and David Eckland leading the walk in the Stockers lake area. Details in next weeks newsletter for meet time and parking etc Should be a fun relaxed evening in a good area for some great shots.
Enjoy the celebrations this weekend
Steve
Club Night Summary #148
Last week we held our annual AGM at the community centre. Thank you to everyone who attended to enable the formal process to take place. All of the details of this years AGM can be found on our website including reports and details of the committee members. There are changes within the committee for next season with Stuart Craig unfortunately moving out of the area. We thank Stuart for all the great work he has done for the club over the last few seasons as external competition Secretary.
I also made the difficult decision to step down as Chairman and thank the committee and everyone at the club for their support over my tenure in the role as Chairman. David Eckland will be the new Chairman and Alan Rhodes has been elected as Membership Secretary.
In addition Mike Brankin will take over the role as external competition Secretary. I wish the Committee well with these changes that have been made, ready for the challenge of next season.
We still have some great events to go as we approach the end of this year’s programme. This week we have our final competitions of both the colour and mono prints of the year. This is followed by a photowalk on 9th June and we complete our season on the 16th June with our summer party/ presentation evening. Don’t forget partners are Invited to this event and if you would like the fish and chip supper for £10 a head, Denise needs to know by this Thursday.
See you on Thursday
Steve
Club Night Summary #147
PDI of the Year!
Hard to believe we are in the last few weeks of our season once again. Another season of managing living with the pandemic trying to ensure we met safely and still enjoy our passion of photography.
So it was great to have our PDI of the year competition last week with 68 Images on display, all high scoring Images from the season. It was lovely to reflect on the high standard of creative photography that had been produced during the year, while we all tried to dodge the virus. Judge Kevin Day gave great critique and commentary on each Image in his quest to find the winning Image for the trophy. He was also very complementary about the overall club standard for the competition. Thank you to everyone that came to the meeting and congratulations to the representing authors in the competition and many congratulations to Alan Rhodes who won the ‘2022 PDI of the year trophy’ with his excellent Image.
This week we have our Club AGM (Annual general meeting) a very Important date in our Calendar to ensure we have our formal process in place. We have sent everyone more Information than usual to help with the communication and hopefully explanation of the process we follow. Please come along this Thursday to support your club with this Important event. It would be really appreciated, even if you haven’t managed to make too many meetings this season, everyone is welcome.
After the AGM we still have some great evenings remaining in our programme with the Print of the year (mono and Colour), an evening photowalk workshop and our Summer party and presentation of awards. ( don’t forget if you would like the fish and chip supper for £10 at the Summer party please let Denise know as soon as possible). Partners are also most welcome for this fun evening
See you on Thursday Steve
Club Night Summary #146
Final League Competition of the Season
After she was unable to attend the previous week, It was good to meet and present to the winner of our open competition, held for non members, the trophy and certificate, plus a years subscription to our club. We once again enjoyed seeing the entrants Images and the outstanding winning Image from Lisa during the presentation.
We then settled down to our final open print league competition of this season with 25 Images to enjoy. Judged by Peter Cox there were once again some outstanding prints on display giving him a difficult task to separate the Images. Peter gave each Image critique and good commentary throughout with various tips for possible Improvements, were needed, including some useful Information about printing paper types to suit the Individual Images. Congratulations to the higher scoring authors on the night and many thanks to everyone that entered giving a really enjoyable night of appreciation for the members creative output.
This Thursday we have the first of our best of the season competitions starting with the ‘PDI of the year’ it will be great to see these images pitted against each other to find the winning Images. I’m sure it will be a good night!
Our AGM is on the 19th of this month, so please come along and support this necessary date in the clubs calendar, to ensure your club has good representation. Don’t forget if you would like to be more Involved in the club please let us know. Or If you would like to be part of the committee, we have identified a new position we would love to fill; Membership Secretary- to help run activities, to attract new members and assist in promoting the club in the Three rivers area. If your interested and would like more details, please contact anyone on the committee.
Finally if you would like to suggest any topic for next years set subject competitions, for our soon to be completed programme, please let us know.
See you on Thursday
Steve
Club Night Summary #145
External Competition 2022
Last Thursday we welcomed our contestants who had entered our non members competition where the prize was a trophy and a years free subscription membership to the club. There was some real talent among the authors who had entered, providing an interesting competition.
Cat Humphries judged and gave a really balanced and supportive critique throughout the competition. Ultimately she chose the winner and also awarded highly commended and commended certificates to the other authors whose Images she had held back during her selection process. We hope the contestants enjoyed the experience and will consider joining the club.
In addition on the busy night, we had a practical demonstration of ‘painting with light’ from Gordon Calder and Ant (Anthony Highet) who set up a single light flashgun to demonstrate lighting for portraiture. Huge thank you to both for enabling and presenting this part of the evening, which was enjoyed by everyone who brought along their cameras. Thanks for all that attended the evening, making such an enjoyable night.
This week we are in the hall for our final open League print competition of the season. A night the print league positions will be finalised.
Thanks to those who have committed so far to ‘Croxley Revels’ on 18th June. We still need more support for the day, so please contact if you can come along and assist.
The AGM is getting closer on 19th May. Please come along to this meeting to support this Important event for our club. If you would like to be part of the committee or want to offer further support in any capacity, please let us know.
Also if you have any questions regarding the club please advise.
See you on Thursday
Steve
Club Night Summary #144
Landscape and Portrait Cups
More enjoyable competitions were held last week for both the ‘Portrait’ and ‘Landscape’ trophies. We had 46 PDI entries competing to win the prestigious cups awarded to the winners.
The competitions were judged by Amanda Wright who gave great commentary and clear critique throughout the evening.
Once again the members produced a worthy set of Images of a high standard to contest for the winning Image.
Thank you to everyone entered the competitions and to those who attended the evening. Congratulations to the higher scoring Images and to the Ultimate winner of the trophies which this year was Mike Brankin who won both of the cups with his excellent Images. You can see Mikes and the other high placed Images in on our excellent gallery on the clubs website.
This Thursday we look forward to meeting some non club members as we host our open competition to judge and choose a winner. It will be great to have a full audience to cheer them on and make our visitors feel welcome to our ‘friendly’ club.
In the second half of the evening ‘Ant’ will be demonstrating single flash lighting for portraiture and Gordon will be setting up a still life and demonstrating ‘painting with light’. So bring along your cameras and tripods etc for this Interactive section.
Don’t forget if you would like to get Involved with the running of the club by applying to join our committee or pledge help in any capacity, please contact us as soon as possible. The Club AGM is on 19th May.
Also Croxley Revels is on the 18th June and we would appreciate any support to help with the organisation on the day. Please let us know if you can help.
See you on Thursday
Steve