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


Club Night Summary #143

Welcome Back After Easter

We hope everyone had a good Easter break.

This week we have our PDI ‘Landscape’ and ‘Portrait’ trophy competitions, an event that always brings out some excellent Images and gives the judge a difficult time in choosing the ultimate winners of these coveted awards.

It is bound to be an enjoyable night for both authors and audience back in the community centre.

The following week 28th April we have our Croxley camera club open competition. This event was planned to give non members the opportunity to enter Images to be judged and receive valuable feedback on their submitted work. 

Despite extensive local publicity we were not able to attract a large uptake of photographers to take up the challenge. However we do have a number which will come along to the hall for the evening for this event.

With the absence of Croxley revels for the last two years, this Initiative was seen as a possible new member enticement to the club.

It would be great to have a number of ‘seasoned’ members at the meeting to encourage and make the entrants feel comfortable during the evening. Interestingly there is a higher percentage of ladies than men that have entered the competition.

It is envisaged the judging and awards will take place during the first part of the evening and in the second section we will have a couple of Interactive activities. Ant will demonstrate single flash lighting for portraiture and Gordon will set up a still life scene and create ‘painting with light’. Bring along your cameras and tripods to get some great shots.

Just another quick reminder of two Important events;

AGM on the 19th May please put in diary to attend if possible. Anyone who would like to get more Involved in the club. Please let us know of your Interest.

Croxley revels 18th June. We need lots of help on the day to make this a successful event. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are able to get involved in some capacity. After two years without the ‘revels’ let’s make this a great day and let everybody know who we are!

Thanks, see you on Thursday 

Steve ?


Club Night Summary #142

Another Print League Competition

Our latest print competition produced another fine collection of photography. Judged by Paul Burwood, who kindly visited at short notice following the original judge having to cancel. It was an ‘open’ league competition giving a wide and diverse variety of Images, we had 33 entries on the night. Congratulations to the ultimate high scoring authors and thank you to everyone that entered and also all that attended the evening. Also a huge thank you to Rod Lacey who hosted the evening in my absence, along with the very experienced team running the competition Vanessa and Denise.

A sign that normality is gradually being resumed with the return of ‘Croxley Revels’ on 18th June. We have booked a stand using our marquee to display some of our wonderful photography. After two years it’s a great opportunity to remind the local community about our club and to entice new members to join us. We obviously needs lots of help to run the event e.g putting up and dismantling the marquee and helping throughout the day. Please let us know if you can help on the day with the event.

Our club AGM is on the 19th May, a very Important event in the club calendar. Any member who would like to get more Involved in the running of the club, either in being part of the committee or to offer support to the committee, please let us know. No meeting this week, enjoy the Easter break and look forward to seeing your entries for our next trophy competition on the 21st April ‘ Landscape and Portrait’ cups two entries per author and entries in by Sunday 17th April.

Look forward to seeing everyone on 21st April

Steve


Club Night Summary #141

Print League Competition

Over the season our talented photographers produce a tremendous amount of original Images to present in competitions. In last Thursday’s print competition the originality was once again evident in the themed set subjects ‘Close up’ and ‘Symmetry’. Our experienced visiting judge was Peter Prosser. The members Interpretation of each theme was well represented with some really outstanding Prints. It is always appreciated by the club, the additional effort and time taken to produce a print for competitions. Thank you to everyone who entered these league competition and congratulations to the higher scoring authors on the night.

This week in the hall, we have another league print competition, which this time is an ‘open’ event, therefore unlimited choice of subject matter to present. Another evening to enjoy with our creative likeminded members which continually Inspire one another by producing outstanding photography.

See you on Thursday

Steve ?


Club Night Summary #140

Reptile Workshop Night

Once again another triumph in our return to using the community centre hall for our Thursday meetings, with a great workshop night organised by Anthony Highet. This follows the highly successful evening Ant had run with the ‘Creativity hub’ a few weeks earlier. Where our members had two models and excellent lighting supplied by Ant and the hub to photograph the themed evening. On Thursday Ant arranged two more themes to photograph in the hall. Joined by his colleague Calvin who provided live creatures such as the red eyed tree frog and many more species in a realistic setting to photograph. Once again Ant provided excellent lighting and technical support to get the best from each of the evenings themes. Also a big thank you to Calvin who controlled the creatures and shared great knowledge with the members on each species. In addition we also so had a great ‘still life’ arrangement thanks to Gordon Calder who provided spooky materials to photograph.

Although Zoom has been a saviour for meeting safety reasons , to have Interactive evenings back in the hall is a real boost to the club and hopefully a situation we can now build on to Inspire us all in our creative quest.

We now turn our attention back to the print leagues where we have two weeks of print competition. This Thursday we have a themed set subject challenge ‘ Close up’ and ‘Symmetry’. Although there is more effort in producing finished prints, there is also a satisfaction for the authors in seeing the photograph mounted and displayed in the hall and Inviting the judges critique.

As always our members tirelessly produce great creativity in their work which makes for great club evenings, which I am sure once again this week, we will not be disappointed with the entries.

See everyone on Thursday

Steve ?


Club Night Summary #139

The Art of Macro

We had a really Good presentation from Tony North on Thursday at our ‘Zoom’ meeting. The talk was entitled ‘The art of macro’ in which award winning photography Tony shared his excellent Images alongside some really Informative dialogue, covering everything from equipment to a guide on best times get out and photograph. Thursday’s talk was the last scheduled presentation for the season, made possible to Invite speakers from greater distance by using Zoom to broadcast to everyone. Thanks to Denise for her great choice of presentations and bringing such variety of subjects for our members to enjoy.

Ant was responsible for bring the ‘creativity hub’ to the club a few weeks ago where we all enjoyed a great Interactive night back in the community centre hall. This week Ant once again is running a workshop and Invites everyone to bring along their cameras and macro lenses etc for another opportunity to photograph live creatures which he and Calvin will be controlling! The workshop is entitled ‘Vertebrate’s’ and ‘Amphibians’ an evening not to be missed! It’s good to be back using our hall for meetings again, which provides a great platform for both photography Inspiration and also renews our social gatherings on a weekly basis.

Look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.

Steve


Club Night Summary #138

Final PDI of the Season

Last week we had our latest PDI competition in the hall. It was an ‘open’ league competition and we had 40 entries. As predicted our talented members produced another fine selection of Images to challenge our visiting judge Micheal Lurie. Who had the difficult job of critique and awarding the points from the wide variety of subjects entered. The judge also commented at the end of the evening about the high standard of PDIs entered and felt all members should be commended for their work. Congratulations to the higher scoring authors and thanks to everyone who entered and to all that attended the evening, which as always was a very enjoyable event.

After a number of weeks back in the hall, this week we return to Zoom for a presentation by Tony North with his topic entitled ‘ The art of Macro’ where Tony demonstrates how to get up close! I’m sure this will be a really Inspiring and Informative evening for everyone to tune into. The macro presentation evening sets the scene nicely for the next few evenings back in the community centre hall. On the 24h March Ant and Calvin will give an Interactive presentation entitled ‘Invertebrates and Amphibians’ with live creatures to photograph. An evening not to be missed! Bring along your cameras and macro lenses. On the 31st March we have our next print competition with one of the set subjects being ‘Close Up’.

So a nice few weeks to get Inspired, get more experience about macro photography and also the potential to take a few close up contenders for the competition.

See everyone on Zoom on Thursday. Steve ?


Club Night Summary #137

Every Picture Tells a Story

Our second week back in the hall was another really enjoyable evening featuring our latest competition. This week it was an open print league competition which naturally featured a wide range of topics for the judge Michael Lurie to critique and award the points. Once again it was great to see the finished prints around the hall for the judging, giving everyone a chance to view and appreciate the work of the authors who entered the competition. We had 27 prints to enjoy and each was given the quality of time within the judging process, which also gave each author constructive feedback on their work. The judge remarked the standard of entry was very high from our talented members who often push the boundaries with their work. Thank you to everyone who attended the evening and congratulations to the higher scoring authors on the night.

This week in the hall, we have a members evening where club member Mike Brankin takes to the floor to discuss female Imagery. Mike states his presentation will look at the way women have been portrayed in art and photography through the ages and will consider the power of the visual artist to Impact on social and political change. His presentation will pose questions as to what degree of responsibility do club photographers have when contributing to this social change in their Image making.

Look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday Steve


Club Night Summary #136

Print Open

Our second week back in the hall was another really enjoyable evening featuring our latest competition. This week it was an open print league competition which naturally featured a wide range of topics for the judge Michael Lurie to critique and award the points. Once again it was great to see the finished prints around the hall for the judging, giving everyone a chance to view and appreciate the work of the authors who entered the competition. We had 27 prints to enjoy and each was given the quality of time within the judging process, which also gave each author constructive feedback on their work. The judge remarked the standard of entry was very high from our talented members who often push the boundaries with their work. Thank you to everyone who attended the evening and congratulations to the higher scoring authors on the night.

This week in the hall, we have a members evening where club member Mike Brankin takes to the floor to discuss female Imagery. Mike states his presentation will look at the way women have been portrayed in art and photography through the ages and will consider the power of the visual artist to Impact on social and political change. His presentation will pose questions as to what degree of responsibility do club photographers have when contributing to this social change in their Image making.

Look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday Steve