Newport Photographic Club
The first meeting of the New Year was a showing of the GB Cup portfolios of the General and Nature Classes. As usual with travelling portfolios there was a mixture of exceptional, good, bad & indifferent images (I hesitate to use the word “photographs” as some of the images looked as though they had never started out life inside a camera). However, I suppose the judges saw some merit in them.
The Second Themed competition on the subject of “A Splash of Colour” took place on 10 January when David Venables was judging. There was a very large entry of images with a correspondingly large audience of members.
The results were as follows:
1. Mike Warrender Poppies
2. Bob Colman Watercolour
3. Jim Shaw Improved Street Image
4. Hugh Stanton Parked on the Line
5. Mike Warrender Going Home
6. Robert Leishman Fountain Avenue
1. Joan Macey 2 Faces make a Coloured Vase
2. Dave Clarke Brush Strokes
3. Bob Colman The Washing
4. Colin Taylor Leading the Way
5. Colin Taylor Graduation Parade
6. Charlotte Nadin Infractions of Light
Congratulations to all who took part and to those members awarded places. The next club competition will be on 21 February when Geoff Sellars will judge the “5 on a theme” competition
Gary Groucutt was the guest speaker on 17 January. Gary is well known for his stunning landscapes and he brought along a large number of examples of his work, both as Projected Images and Prints. He gave a very good insight into how a professional photographer goes about his business and provided some excellent advice on visualising the scene before you actually compose the picture and press the shutter.
On 24 January, Bob Colman conducted a teach-in on the basics of putting an Audio/Visual presentation together. This was a precursor to the A/V competition on 6 March
The Annual Dinner was held at Lilleshall Golf Club on Friday 27 December. This was an exceptionally good evening and the catering at the golf club was first class. Our thanks go to Kathy Flanagan for organising such a great evening.
The final meeting of the month of January was billed as the “New Members PI Competition”. This was a fun competition to encourage new members to dabble their toes in the competition pool. There was a disappointingly low number of entries although the membership has specifically asked for this competition at last year’s planning meeting. To make up the numbers, a few of the more experienced members were asked to send in some PIs. Dave Clarke did the honours as judge. The interactive marking was a big success and it was interesting to compare notes and scores at the end of the evening. There may have been some minor differences in how each of the images was marked but there was widespread agreement on the final 6 places, which were as follows:
1. On top of the world Simon Hughes
2. Winter Jay Mike Warrender
3. Busy Bee Derek Bennett
4. Red Fox Mike Warrender
5. Born to Run Rachael Beech
6. National Gallery of Canada Peter Evans
Congratulations to those who took part. I hope all the entrants received some useful feedback from Dave.
On 7 February, Bryan Lloyd & Graham Burns will be conducting a workshop on Sound Activated Flash Photography. Bryan has provided some guidance notes which I have included below
The following suggestions are
listed in order to save time on the evening.
There may be a need for some slight adjustments as we proceed with the
various set-ups. Please do not feel
that there will be no help on the evening.
These suggestions are made so that you have your camera set in something
like the right mode to be able to go straight in to taking pictures.
Our trials have shown that the
following settings work.
1.Set camera to
the Manual setting on the dial
2.Set the ISO
to 100
3.Set Aperture
to about 5.6
4.Set Focus
to Manual
5.Set Shutter
Speed to Bulb
6.Ideally use a
tripod, it will be easier but it is not absolutely necessary.
Before we
start there will be a run through the above and then there will be an
opportunity to make sure that your camera is focussed in the right place.
Once we are
ready to go, your part is the easiest because all you will have to do is to
open the shutter when told and shut it after the flash has gone off.
Please do not
expect perfection immediately because that is not what the evening is
about. The idea is to experiment, learn
and have fun. You might take a dozen pictures before you get something
acceptable but that is where digital cameras come into their own – the results,
good or bad are seen instantly. It is
not like the film days when there may be a delay of weeks before seeing what
you had taken.
For those
of you who are using compact cameras it is probably more important for you to
do a little homework with the instruction manual to be sure that you know how
and whether your camera has a way of getting the settings. If in doubt don’t
despair bring your camera anyway, we will sort you out somehow.
Bob Colman will be giving a talk on 14 February on the subject of Creative Photobooks. Photobooks are an ideal way to store and show your images. They can be put together using text, scanned items and photographs of any size and combination.
The “5 on a Theme” competition will take place on 21 February when Geoff Sellars will judge. Please look at the website for the competition rules which are completely different from the rules for other club competitions. As this is a “prints only” competition, all Bob Colman needs is the title of your panel by 10pm on Friday 17 February
The last meeting in February will be on 28th when the guest speaker will be Jim Price AFIAP, DPAGB, a member of the Beyond Group of photographers. You can get a good impression of Jim’s exceptional work from his website www.jim-price.com
Name Badges.
At the end of January the club passed a major
milestone when the club membership passed the 100 mark for the first time. With
so many members could I make a plea that everyone wears their name badges at
club meetings? With senility creeping on I am finding it increasingly hard to
put faces to names and it would really help if you were wearing your badges!
Many thanks
The club has now formed an Exhibition Group. The aim of the group is to encourage members to take part in outside exhibitions and competitions. In doing so, it might lead to some qualifications and recognition, raise the club profile and help develop member’s photographic skills. The group will work together to advise on submissions, suggest improvements and generally try to raise the standard of our photography. The inaugural meeting is on 11 January. Any member can join the group and there is no charge.