Meeting Reports 11 - 12

Jenni / Delia

"Print 6"  - 15/02/12

Volunteers were still needed for ‘Doing it My Way’ next week and the following members came forward; Paul McCullagh, Brian Galbraith, Linda Fenner, Giles Wilson, Jenni Cheesman, Pam Hall, Eva Kocianova and Jane Pickles - each will do a presentation of their choice to last approximately 10-20 minutes.

Brian collected a few more entries for the Knightshayes Trophy and the deadline for entries is now closed for that competition.

Brian also mentioned another outside competition, the Smethwick International Competition, which he had entered and although he didn’t get acceptances he had brought the Competition Programme, which he left at the front for members to look at during the tea break to see the type of entries that had been accepted.

Jeremy then welcomed Diane, a potential new member, who was a visitor for this evening to see what we’re up to.
 

Overall there were just 25 prints to be viewed and discussed. 12 prints were displayed on the stand for members to view prior to the meeting and we then continued to vote on and critique them, continuing after the tea break with the remaining prints which had been viewed over tea break.

With fewer prints to view than usual we were able to take our time with the critique and there was plenty of lively discussion on all prints and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with again much diversity in the prints presented and many evoking quite different viewpoints from various members. Interestingly we also discussed how some photographs had been processed to get the image the author wanted.

Out of the 25 prints shown, 2 gained Gold awards with 10 gaining Silver, as follows:-

Gold: Sand Yachts by Penry Archer and Sheep and trees by John Rogers.

Silver: Bored by Mike Pettett, Burnett Companion by Linda Fenner, Busy at the Feeders by Paul McCullagh, Fleeting glimpse by Stewart Privett, Goshawk by Jeremy Northcott, Lasting well by Jenni Cheesman, Let’s go shopping by Stewart Privett, Padstow Lifeboat by Jeff Meachin, Lunchtime at the Liston by Pam Hall and Grace with toys by Paul McCullagh.

Next week is hand in for Print of the Year – John Rogers will be sending out an email to all members with information on what you need to do to enter. The rules being that you can enter up to 3 images, 2 of which must have been awarded either Silver or Gold or have been placed in a Special Subject Competition, the 3rd image entered can be another award winner but can, if you wish, be a ‘wildcard’ i.e. an image you have not entered in any competition in the club at all.

"John Widdows ARPS, DPAGB "  - 08/02/12

This week we were treated to a talk with prints by John Widdows ARPS,DPAGB, entitled "In Celebration of a Wonderful World"

John began his photography back in the 1960's, when he worked almost exclusively in the Dark Room, finally changing completely to digital in 2005.
His profession was as a Marine Research Scientist and he is a long standing member of the Plymouth Camera Club. His ARPS panel was on Creative Arts.
His work has won and been exhibited, all over the world.

John showed us a large number of excellent prints which covered almost all forms of photography, including Land and Sea scapes, Natural History, Travel, Architecture and Creative, finishing up with a selection of humorous images drawn from former club competitions.
He stated that his aim was to show the huge range of subjects which make up our wonderful world, and in that he truly succeeded.

The vote of thanks was given by Dave Bridges who remarked upon the diverse range of subjects and methods used to produce each image, saying how useful it is to the audience to be told how some of the effects were created. He thought we would all go away with ideas and inspiration for our own work.

Finally a couple of reminders;
Next week is the last of the club print evenings. 2 images each allowed.
Volunteers also required for the 'Doing it my Way' evening. Please sign up with John Rogers.
 

"People in the Environment"  - 01/02/12

This weeks competition was the Annual Portrait competition entitled People in the Environment. This was open to quite a wide interpretation as our Judge, Malcolm Jenkin, LRPS,AFIAP, mentioned.

Malcolm is an experienced photographer and judge; a long time member and President of Camborne/Redruth Camera Club and a member of the Nevada Camera Club in the US.

Malcolm began by pointing out the benefits of reading the WCPF and PAGB e-mail News Letters, particularly the recent articles on judging. He also promoted the next judging seminar which we are lucky enough to get here in the South West.

He then gave mention to the benefits of entering International Salons and pushed the upcoming Bristol and South Devon events.

We began by viewing the 32 dp images. Malcolm commented on them all, with many hints and tips, plus a good measure of humour.
Results of these were;
1st--Been Fishing--John Rogers
2nd--Man in The Environment 4--John Bullingham
3rd--Pizza Chef--Dave Bridges
HC--Man in the Environment 3--John Bullingham
HC--Foundry Worker--Penry Archer
HC--Buskers Break--Penry Archer

After a break for tea and the Raffle, Malcolm continued with the judging of 23 prints. Before he began he made reference to the fact that a number of prints were poorly mounted; mostly the use of a new cutting blade would solve the problems.

Results were
1st--The Arc Welder--Penry Archer
2nd--JJ in the Meadow--Linda Fenner
3rd--Le Poissonnier--Penry Archer
HC--Restaurant Workers--Jeremy Northcott
HC--A Quiet Word--Mike Pettett

The vote of thanks was given by Stewart Privett.
He thanked Malcolm for his comprehensive judging and pointed out that we now know his athletic abilities run to only a 200 yard dash. We had all surely picked up one or two hints ( ie the use of a programme, Portrait Pro, for enhancing portraits ), and that we appreciated the time and effort which had been put in on our behalf.

Jeremy pointed out that the list for prospective officers for next year will be posted next week and names can be submitted then
Volunteers would also be sought next week for the 'Do it my Way' evening.
Reminders that the hand in for Knightshayes is imminent and soon after that for the WCPF Members Exhibition.

Next week we have a talk by John Widdows ARPS,DPAGB, entitled 'In Celebration of a Wonderful World'.

"WCPF Travelling Critique"  - 25/01/12

This evening we had the privilege of seeing the 90 images which didn't quite make the WCPF Members Exhibition.
50 coloured images were presented in groups of 8 or so and members commented on them and voted each group down to 3 images which were presented again at the end and a winner chosen.

The same format was used after tea for the 40 Monochrome images.

Both groups caused much discussion and some discord as members naturally have their own preferences of style and content.
However it was a good exercise in commenting and expressing opinion on other peoples work.

A couple of reminders;
The exhibition at the Library will be going ahead, probably in April after the Print of the Year Competition.

Also, the photo opportunity and resulting exhibition at Pencarrow is also to go ahead.
Further details for these exhibitions will be discussed at Monday's Committee Meeting.

Thanks were expressed to Brian, for organising the showing of this weeks WCPF Travelling Print Critique.

 

"Monochrome"  - 18/01/12

Before the main event of the evening a couple of notices.

A final reminder for the Charles Hosken entries. So far a record 82 images have been entered.
Also a reminder to sign up for the Pencarrow exhibition later in the year

Main event was the clubs annual Mono Comp. Both print and DPI.
Jeremy then introduced Peter Bland, our judge for the evening. Peter is one of our clubs excellent Mono workers.

He began by showing 3 of his own images showing the benefits of both wet printing and digital printing. Each having their own attributes.
Firstly the 31 prints were shown. Peter spoke on them all and put 10 back to give the final result after tea and the DPI images.

Final results were;
Prints;

1st Traveller by Jeremy Northcott
2nd Remembrance by Delia Trathen
3rd Good Runner Needs Work by Paul McCullough
HC The Staff by Jeremy Northcott
HC In Need of TLC by Paul McCullough
HC 1876 by Pam Hall
HC All at Sea by John Rogers

DPI;

1st Circumspect by Jeremy Northcott
2nd In Prayer by Giles Wilson
3rd On the Right Track by John Evans-Jones
HC Shapes and Shadows by Jenni Cheesman
HC Three and a Half by John Rogers
HC Lines and Curves by Delia Trathen
HC Contra Violone 32 ft by John Evans-Jones

The vote of thanks was given by Adrian, who tried to cover his disappointment that Jeremy had won both categories!!!!
He thanked Peter for putting so much time and effort into judging our work, and also thanked Caroline for her input as well.

A final reminder that the next day Tony Worbiec was talking and showing his work at St Austell CC. Visitors were most welcome.

"DPI 6"  - 11/01/12

This weeks meeting was the final DPI competition of the season. 2 images each were allowed and 46 were submitted.

Reminders that next week is hand in for People in the Environment, and also the last chance to submit work for the Charles Hosken competition. A record entry for the club has been submitted so far. Also, the last chance to sign up for possible judging of the Charles Hosken comp.

Members were encouraged to sign up for the exhibition to be held at Pencarrow later in the year.

Adrian then showed a few images taken by Howard, who at present is not well enough to attend meetings. We all kow how passionate Howard is about climatic phenomena, and he had taken a series of pictures from his garden showing a flaming red sky. He felt it was redder and brighter than usual so did some research and found that Mount Etna had just erupted and that his view from the house was in a direct line with Etna. Could this have been as a result of the fall out from the eruption?
Good to see you are still taking photos Howard. Very interesting.

We then had the main event of the evening ; the 46 DPI images.

This resulted in just 3 Gold Awards-as follows;

In Need of TLC by Paul McCullagh
Pink Tulips by Jenni Cheesman
Study in Elegance also by Paul McCullagh

and 15 Silver Awards;

 
A Jug of Flowers by Linda Fenner
Burrowing Sand Wasp by Adrian Langdon
Camouflage by Eva
Contours by Anne Chapman
Echinops by Bob Wyatt
Heading Home by Pam Hall
Horse Eye by John Rogers
Jess by Giles Wilson
Nothing but Sea and Sky by Jane Pickles
Parrot by Jeremy Northcott
Marsh Frog by Adrian Langdon
Night in the Park by Brian Galbraith
Shadows by Mike Pettitt
Temptation by John Rogers
Wast Water by Anne Chapman

Finally a reminder that next week is the Mono competition results.

"Print 5"  - 05/01/12

Our first meeting back since Christmas and New Year was for the Print 5 competition. On this occasion 2 prints each were accepted

Firstly thanks were expressed to Adrian for arranging the final meeting of 2011. It was to have been an outdoor event, but with the foul weather those members who had braved the elements had an enjoyable meeting indoors.

A reminder from John R that he would like all entries for the Charles Hosken Competition to him asap.
On the theme of Charles Hosken, Linda asked for up to 3 volunteers to have their names submitted for possible judging of this event. Names to Linda by next week please.


A warm welcome was extended to Bob Rawling President of St Austell Camera Club, who had attended as a visitor, and also reminded us of the visit on 19th Jan at St Austell club, of Tony Worbiec.

We then began on the judging of our 37 presented prints. A wide and varied selection of subjects, styles and presentations, resulted in 7 Gold awards and 18 Silver.

Gold awards went to;

Orange Freezia by Jenni Cheesman
Tawny Owl by Jeremy Northcott
A Touch of Class by Pam Hall
Autumn Showers by John Rogers
A Gulp of Cormorants by Penry Archer
Illumination by John Evans-Jones
Orchid Flower with Bud by Paul McCullagh

Silver Awards;

Storm over St Ives by Dave Bridges
Smashed Colour by Norma Harbington
Revising by Jane Pickles
Siblyback Chaffinch by Mike Pettitt
Harlyn Sunset by John B
Looe Bridge by Bob Wyatt
Orchid Flower Detail by Paul McCullagh
Softness by John Rogers
Blue Tit by John Evans-Jones
Milkchurn by Giles Wilson
Wading the Keys by Penry Archer
Lilac Breasted Roller by Jane Pickles
Hawkers Cove by Pam Hall
Dahlia by Jeremy Northcott
Lifes a Beach by Anne Chapman
With Lemon by Jenni Cheesman
Dancer Takes a Break by Mike Grigg
Autumn Stroll by Mike Pettitt

Next week is DPI 6--2 images each allowed
 

"Natural History"  - 07/12/11

Before the report for last evening may I give a big thank you to Jenni for taking on the reports in my absence. I did suggest she continued as she did such a good job, but I understand she is suffering from writers cramp!!

Last evening was the clubs keenly fought annual Natural History competition. Judge for the event was Chris Robbins, MPAGB, who is a Launceston CC member. He is an accomplished natural history photographer, so well qualified to judge our work.
He began with the 20 projected images
.
There was a good selection of natural history subjects--birds, flowers, insect, fungi, mammals, reptiles and landscapes, both from home and further abroad.
Chris approached the judging with great humour interlaced with a few of his own tales. He also gave constructive and informative remarks and criticism on each piece of work.
Results for DPI were;
1st--Bittern in Flight--Adrian Langdon
2nd--Pied Kingfisher--Jane Pickles
3rd--Monarch of the Rockies, Bald Eagle--Penry Archer
HC--Barn Owl with Vole--Adrian Langdon
HC--Common Blues, Copulating--Jenni Cheesman
HC--Silverback Jackal--Anne Chapman

After the tea break and the drawing of the Raffle, Chris went through the 19 prints. These he felt were of a slightly higher standard than the DPI's as seems to be the case in most clubs.
Again they were constructively judged, together with much humour, even to the extent that maybe a gentle prod on a beetle would have produced a spray of the blood like gunge it produced!!
Results were;
1st--Sedgewarbler--Jeremy Northcott
2nd--Adder--Jeremy Northcott
3rd Green Woodpecker at Nest--Adrian Langdon
HC--Grizzly Remains--Penry Archer
HC--Urban Hedgehog--John Evans-Jones
HC--Black Tailed Godwits in Flight--Adrian Langdon
HC--Fledgling Swallows--Paul McCullough

Chris then remarked that had he been asked to give an overall winner it would have gone to the SedgeWarbler.
Chris was then thanked for his excellent judging by Jeremy, who remarked that having had the winner it was very easy to thank him, and that he will undoubtedly be asked back in the future.

One or two notices and reminders were given out
1) Charles Hosken images should be e-mailed directly to John Rogers
2) Martin Fry would be giving a talk at Carnon Downs on Feb 18th . This is a CPA event
3) Tony Wobiec FRPS will be at St Austell CC on Jan 19th--Landscapes in all weathers.

Finally a reminder that next week we will be outdoors photographing Wadebridge lights. Recommended we bring tripods, as long exposures will be called for.


 

"DPI 5"  - 30/11/11                                                                      Click here for Points 

Before we started viewing the 40 images entered as DPIs there were a few announcements to be made:

Jeremy announced that Norma had booked Lanhydrock Golf Club for our Presentation Dinner to be held on Friday 20th April, having been there before it has proved to be one of our most popular venues for this annual event, and we hope most members and their partners will attend.

Then Linda informed members that the club is planning a joint venture with Pencarrow, our local stately home, which will, we hope, see members visiting Pencarrow to take a good variety of photographs both in the grounds and gardens, and we are also hoping to arrange a special concession whereby members will be allowed to take photographs within the house itself by special arrangement; the eventual purpose of this venture will be to hold an exhibition of member’s images at Pencarrow, including photographs taken throughout the season at Pencarrow itself, between 16th -27th September next year – we want members who are interested in taking part to sign up for this in the New Year, when we will give more details about the project; the Committee are very enthusiastic about this venture and hope members will all get involved to make sure it culminates in a really successful exhibition.

Next we quickly went through the groups that had formed to work towards an Open Group Project to be shown on the 18th April next year for the benefit of those members who weren’t there on the night or who had not yet joined a group, but did want to participate in this venture – the topics being covered at the moment are ‘Taken in Truro’, ‘Dereliction’, ‘The Camel Estuary’ and one group which still had not decided on a topic ................. members not yet involved in a group can hopefully now join in with one of the groups already formed or alternatively form a new group or groups.

So on to this evening’s DPIs, again a very varied collection of images was presented and discussed with 3 achieving Gold awards and 12 achieving Silver awards:

Gold awards went to ‘Angry sea’ by John Rogers, ‘Plain Tiger’ by Linda Fenner and ‘Preparing the Balloon’ by Anne Chapman. (See above)

Silver awards went to ‘Dead Vlei’ by Anne Chapman, ‘Discarded Lily’ by Jenni Cheesman, ‘Eventide’ by John Rogers, ‘Fireworks in English Bay’ by Penry Archer, ‘He’s behind you’ by John Evans-Jones, ‘Kite Surfer’ by Adrian Langdon, ‘Magnolia Bloom’ by Jeremy Northcott, ‘Moving House’ by Penry Archer, ‘Sennen Cove’ by Jane Pickles, ‘Sky Daisy’ by John Rogers, ‘The Path’ by Stewart Privett and ‘Turnstone’ by Jenni Cheesman.

Jeremy had also announced at the beginning of the evening that we could all relax now until Christmas as next week we have Chris Robbins judging our Natural History competition, which is already in, then the following week is our Xmas Lights’ Evening taking photographs around Wadebridge. In the New Year, however, we start on 4th January with upto 2 prints each needed for Print 5 evening and we also need to hand in our entries for the ‘Monochrome’ competition that night, so the actual deadline for all those entries will be Monday 2nd January.
 

Print 4 - 23/11/11                                                                                   Click here for images

Jeremy opened the evening by saying what a good meeting last week’s had been, particularly the great quality of pictures from all 3 clubs taking part and he gave special thanks to Bob for organising such a delicious and plentiful array of food, and thanks also to everyone who contributed. It had been a close run contest which we eventually won by 1 point. For those that weren’t able to attend the following is a list of our entries and the points awarded to them by the judge on the evening:

Looking ahead, we have a Committee meeting next Tuesday evening; next week’s club evening is DPI 5 and importantly 2 images can be entered in DPI and Print evening for the rest of the season, so Jeremy encouraged us all to ‘let our hair down’ and try entering 1 conventional image but to try something that was ‘a bit different’ for our 2nd image entry and ‘be daring’ – that should make for an interesting meeting!

This week we have submitted our entries for the Natural History competition which will be judged in 2 weeks time by Chris Robbins and the week after that Adrian will be leading our night out in Wadebridge, photographing the Xmas lights and practising long exposures.

Adrian then congratulated Jeremy on winning the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Fauna Print and DPI competitions.

We then proceeded to view and vote on this evening’s prints, there were some very good images being presented and 3 Gold awards and 11 silver awards were achieved:

Golds were awarded for Knot by Jeremy Northcott, Thistle by Boy Wyatt and Barn Owlets by Adrian Langdon.

Silvers were awarded for Minster Tower by Jane Pickles, Risk Assessment by Anne Chapman, Three to go by Stewart Privett, Argentine Tango by Penry Archer, Sicilian Avenue by John Evans-Jones, Sundown Valley by John Rogers, Little Egret by Mike Clemo, Evening flight by Paul McCullagh, Female Badger and cubs by Mike Grigg, Truro lights by Jenni Cheesman and Marina Apartments by Linda Fenner.

For the second part of the evening John Evans-Jones gave us a workshop on producing Monochrome prints based on conversion in Photoshop CS3 or later. First he illustrated the difference between black and white and monochrome which actually includes many shades of grey between the black and the white. He noted that there are about 16 ways of turning colour images into monochrome in photoshop and he briefly showed a few ways before he came on to the method he recommends. He also pointed out, with the aid of images projected on the screen containing various solid blocks of the main colours in the form of words, the different effects these various methods gave, most of which tended to make all the various colours just one uniform shade of grey. Basically he went through 4 questions relating to converting images from colour to monochrome – these were ‘why’, ‘which’, ‘what method’ and ‘how’. It was a fascinating insight into the processes one needs to go through to successfully produce monochrome images with a full tonal range and our thanks go to John for putting this workshop together and presenting it to the club in such a clear and thoughtful way.

Jeremy thanked John and hoped all those present had learnt enough from the evening to enter some really good images in to this year’s Monochrome competition.

Don’t forget next week for DPI 5 you can enter 2 images.

"Rain"  - 09/11/11                                                                                Click here for images

Our judge for the evening was Barbara Jenkin LRPS, and the subject we had asked her to judge was Giles’ suggestion for a special subject ‘Rain’. Barbara started off by saying how impressed she was with the huge diversity of the images she had viewed, showing that lots of thought had gone in to the various member’s interpretations of the given subject.

We started off the evening with her judging of the dpi section of the competition. Her judging was some of the best and most informative we have seen at the club, she went through her thoughts on each image in turn, always in a positive and constructive manner with sometimes subtle suggestions as to possible improvements that could be made.

The winners in the dpi section were:

1st           Outlook Rain by John Rogers

2nd          It’s Coming by Stewart Privett

3rd           Puddle Reflection by Anne Chapman

HC           Raindrops and reflections by Delia Trathen

HC           Night Rain by Brian Galbraith

HC           Garden Rain by Stewart Privett

After our interval for refreshments we continued with Barbara’s judging of the print section.

The winners in the print section were:

1st           Two’s company, three’s our Dad by Penry Archer

2nd           British summertime by Pam Hall

3rd           Aquaplaning by Penry Archer

HC            Rain by John Bullingham

HC            When will it stop by Mike Pettett

HC            City rain by John Evans-Jones

Jeremy closed the evening by thanking Barbara for a fabulous evening, at which point she told us that this was in fact her first venture into the judging arena; this, I think, amazed us all as her judging had been so assured and professional, and Jeremy went on to say that knowing that made the evening even more fabulous and commenting on how positive her judging had been showing such great insight and being both helpful and constructive about all the images presented. All members were impressed by the quality of the judging and the comments given about each and every entry, so thank you Barbara and hopefully you will do more judging for us in the future.

We hear that Howard is now flitting about Rock in a mobility scooter, he would love to come to the club but obviously this has been difficult, but we are hoping that he may be able to attend quite soon with the help of some of the member’s that live near him; he is continuing to take photos of the fabulous Cornish skies around Rock and would love to hear from any of us who have ‘sky’ images that need some explanation .................. we have missed seeing your ‘skies’ Howard and look forward to you being able to get to the club sometime soon to keep us up to date with some of the fabulous sunsets etc. that we have had recently.

Next week is the 3-way battle with Camborne/Redruth and St Ives, John has posted the images that the club will be entering and you should all have been sent the link to them; please remember to bring your ‘promised’ contributions of food and raffle prizes for the evening, food on a plate please so it is easier to set out.

DPI 4 and Jo Clegg "Abstract Nature"  - 02/11/11                         Click here for images

Jeremy opened proceedings by announcing we had 21 images submitted for this evening’s dpis and then introduced Jo (Joanna Clegg) who was to show us some of her abstract nature images during the second half of the evening.

He went on to say that we could all relax, from a competitive point of view, for a few weeks as there is nothing to be entered for a while until Print 4 and Natural History, which are both due in for the 23rd November.

Next week is the judging or our special subject ‘Rain’ by Barbara Jenkin.

Our panel, to be entered into the Kingswood Salver this year, was displayed for everyone to see and he thought it was ‘looking pretty good’ – now we wait to see what the judges think! Brian reminded us that the Kingswood Salver judging presentation is in 2 weeks time on the 12th November starting at 10.30am at Clyst St Mary, coffee being served from about 10 o’clock. It is a great day out and worth going along, 23 clubs have entered this year and Margaret Salisbury from Wales is doing the judging and will also be giving a talk in the afternoon.

Jeremy had forwarded to all members a notice from Newton Abbott Camera Club about a presentation by Andy Rouse on 21st November at their clubhouse, he had put a poster on the noticeboard and tickets are available if anyone is interested in going.

Mike Pettett reported that the votes for last week’s showing of the images from the Maltese Photographic Society had been collated and sent back to them; he added that although the sheets had been anonymous this year, if members were happy to, next year we might have the sheets identifiable. He had worked the results out on the 23 sheets that were complete, and had to eliminate the 2 that were incomplete as including the partial voting on them warped the outcome.

Bob Wyatt then announced that most members had signed up to bring food for the 3-way battle in 2 weeks time but it would be good if a few more members could add their names to the sheet on the noticeboard to provide something towards the evening.

Having counted members present we then got on with voting towards the evenings DPI4 entries.

Another good variety of images were sent in this week with 2 Gold and 7 Silver awards being given:

Gold for Cheetah Family by Anne Chapman and Roughtor Dawn by Mike Pettett; Silver for Black Tailed Godwit by Adrian Langdon, Evening on Sulphur Mountain by Norma Harbinson, Myrtle by Bob Wyatt, Seascape by Giles Wilson, Small Tortoiseshell by Jenni Cheesman, Tight Turn by Paul McCullagh and Tulip Shadows by Linda Fenner.

After tea and raffle, Jeremy said he was very excited about tonight’s event and proceeded to do his best to embarrass Jo with fulsome praise for her images, this being the first time she has given a presentation of her work she was understandably slightly nervous; Joanna lives on a rugged coastal farm in the far south west of Cornwall and says of herself: ‘ I have a fascination for scenes in the natural environment, taken out of context, as close-up or macro images or with undefined backgrounds. Nature is my favourite artist, be it animal, plant or rock. My photos are more about composition than technique.’

Anyone who watches Autumn Watch may well have seen some of her pictures over the last few weeks and she has also done well with entries to the International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition.

Jo then started her presentation with an abstract image of the detail of feathers of an Egyptian Goose which she took on her original digital camera a Fuji Finepix S5000 about 6 years ago, thus illustrating what fantastic images can be captured on today’s compact cameras; she afterwards progressed to a Pentax K10D mainly using a Sigma 105mm macro lens for her work and is now working with a Canon 5D Mark II using mainly a Tamron 90mm macro lens. For her photography she finds foggy and overcast days are ideal as they give her better colour saturation, but she does often struggle with the movement caused by the winds down here in Cornwall when photographing plants. Interestingly when she wants to take indoor shots of things like feathers, she simply uses window light as a rule, with no additional lighting or flash whatsoever.

She showed an inspirational mix of images from the Egpytian Goose feathers through flowers and plants all with her particular style, to her last shot which was the inside of an Agapanthus thrown beautifully out of focus;  she obviously has a very keen eye both for composition and particularly for colour and uses diffuse natural backgrounds to enhance her shots. It was a great evening and finished off by Eva who gave thanks to Jo, on behalf of the club, for showing us her amazing shots, which even made our Eva ‘speechless’ with admiration! Thank you Jo and for any members who missed the evening you can catch up with some of her images on http://www.flickr.com/photos/abstractnature/.           

Print 3 and "Maltese Critique" - 26/10/11                                  Click here for images

A busy meeting tonight, with 20 images for Print 3 evening as well as 30 images from the Malta Photographic Society to be critiqued and voted on.

Delia is continuing to improve and will be on crutches for another month, although she has managed to get away for a holiday, so we all wish her well and look forward to seeing her back sometime soon.

Bob gave us a reminder that the list is on the noticeboard for us all to fill in stating what refreshments or raffle prizes we are contributing towards the 3-way battle evening being hosted by the club on the 16th November between ourselves, Camborne/Redruth and St Ives Camera clubs.

Another good mix of images this evening, resulting in 4 Gold awards and 7 Silver awards:

Gold awards to Little Egret by Adrian Langdon, Swallow feeding young by Paul McCullagh, The Prisoner by John Rogers and Urban hedgehog by John Evans-Jones.

Silver awards to Badger family foraging by Mike Grigg, Morning gallop by Jane Pickles, Space by Anne Chapman, The Old Town by Mike Pettett, Victory Salute by Bob Wyatt, Wren fledgling by Norma Harbinson and Sea horses by John Bullingham. Well done to all!

After the tea interval we got on with the critique of the images sent to us by the Malta Photographic Society, after a quick run through of the 30 images Mike Pettett handed out the score sheets for us to record our votes and we went through the images again, first giving each a vote on our sheet, and then doing a critique of each to send back to Malta. The images were quite varied and Mike did explain that the club, which has been going for 45 years, they do not do an awful lot of wild life photography but are very good at creative, general and landscape photographs. There was a lively debate about all the images, we were most impressed by the portraiture and apart from the individual critiques we did send back a general comment about the thick white borders around some of the images which we felt were often overwhelming and were a negative distraction from the subject matter of the photographs themselves.

A thoroughly enjoyable end to the evening and thanks to Mike Pettett for arranging this exchange of images between the two clubs, giving us a chance to see images from a very different culture to our own.

Next week is DPI 4 evening followed by Joanne Clegg’s presentation ‘Abstract Nature’ which should be an inspiration to us all, perhaps giving us an alternative way of looking at the natural world all around us.

DPI 3 and Brian "Outside Competitions" - 19/10/1                    Click here for images

Jeremy opened the meeting with apologies from Albert for his non-attendance and welcomed Adele back as well welcoming Damian, both of whom had entered images for the evening.

Mike reminded us that the closing date for the architectural competition was next week, so do get your entries in ................ he was asked to re-send details in an email.

Bob had put up the notice for contributions to the 3-way battle on the 16th November, and we need to enter what food we are bringing or if we are bringing a raffle prize – food to be brought ready on a plate for ease of serving.

Linda reminded everyone that David Clapp was giving a talk at Goonhavern this Saturday, tickets were available but no-one had shown interest in attending.

Before we started showing the 24 images entered for tonight’s DPI 3, Jeremy reminded us that next week is Print 3 and also importantly it is also time to hand in entries for the special competition ‘Rain’.

The entries for DPI 3 were another real mix of subjects, hard judging this week and no-one attained a Gold but 11 did attain Silver awards. They were: Canal reflections by Pam Hall, Cheetah by Penry Archer, Descent by Giles Wilson, Golitha Falls by Jenni Cheesman, In or Out by Mike Pettett, Indian Summer is over by Peter Glaser, Last light – Port Quin by Sylvia Rogers, Our street by Anne Chapman, Robin by Jeremy Northcott, Sailing at sunset by Dave Bridges and Spider scrapheap by Bob Wyatt.

After our tea-break Brian gave us his presentation on Outside Competitions; his aim he said was to clarify for members the various ways of entering outside competitions and this would be our introduction on how to go about it.

Having discussed the whys, whats and hows of going about this, he followed with a run through of the various external competitions that all members regularly get the chance to enter each year, with details of each one. He encouraged us all to have a go, and also to try and take the opportunity to view the entries of these competitions as well to get fresh ideas for our own photography.  The starting point being getting used to entering the club competitions and then having a go at the various external competitions to gain experience and not to be put off if one’s images don’t always go down well within the club, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t do well in other competitions.

Jeremy thanked Brian for his presentation, which was a very helpful summary for all of us and, now we know how easy it is, we will all hopefully be encouraged to have a go and enter some of our images into the various external competitions when they come around.

Detail - George Collings - 12/10/11                                          Click here for images

Tonight’s meeting was for George Collings to give his judgement on our entries for the special subject competition of ‘Detail’. Jeremy announced that there were 34 dpis and 21 prints to be judged and George has brought along a set of prints he is preparing as his panel of 15 towards his ARPS, for us to look at.

Jeremy then reminded members that next week will be our DPI 3 meeting and on the 16th November we are this year’s hosts for the 3 way battle with St Ives and Camborne & Redruth. Norma has suggested it might be a novel idea for her to hand over her normal role of organising the catering side of this event to a ‘bloke’ (Jeremy’s word I think) ..............  he asked for a volunteer from the male members present and Bob Wyatt bravely stepped forward to fulfil the role ........... many thanks to Bob for taking that on; so the rest of us need to help him out when the lists go up requesting food for the evening.

Some members saw Delia at the CWT meeting on Monday and were pleased to report she is doing well and has started physio – hope to see you back amongst us soon Delia!

Mike Pettett then said that during the forthcoming evening that is down as time to get the feedback from the Maltese Club on the images we sent over there, he advises that we plan to do our judging of the images sent to us from Malta that night and leave the feedback from them for a later date, as he doesn’t feel there will be time to fit everything in otherwise.

Jeremy then introduced George Collings to members by saying that we were very lucky tonight to have him here to judge ‘Detail’ for us.

George began by saying that DETAIL was not an easy subject to judge; and explained that he had taken it as something with real ‘oomph’. This explained he got straight on to judging the DPIs; many of us know George from previous talks he has given us which included some of his own varied, thought provoking and very interesting images, and also from our evenings and collaborations with the St Austell club of which he is a founder member.

George gave first impressions and critique on each of our images and despite some banter from ‘friends’ that were present, gave clear advice if he thought certain crops or actions would have improved an image; as we would expect, his judging was fair and helpful.

Winners of DPI Section:

1st           Mullein Moth Caterpillar by Linda Fenner            

2nd          Swallowtail by Jeremy Northcott

3rd           Last Days by Mike Pettett

HC          The devils in the DETAIL by Giles Wilson

HC          Lion’s face by Anne Chapman

During the tea break George put his proposed panel for his ARPS up on the display board for members to have a look at and also John Evans-Jones had some small prints of his suggested images for our Kingswood Salver panel entry with him for members to peruse and comment on.

George’s chosen Winners of the Print Section were:

1st           The Old Smithy by John Rogers

2nd          Dragon fire by Mike Pettett

3rd           Red Castle by Stewart Privett

HC          Architectural Detail by Anne Chapman

HC          The Model Engineer by Steward Privett

Adrian gave thanks to George for his judging and congratulated all the winners, saying how much we appreciated George coming over from St Austell and giving us the benefit of his knowledge in the judging of our images.

Print 2 / Peter Bland "Camera History" - 05/10/11                   Click here for images

Jeremy started the meeting by reminding everyone that we were struggling to put together a panel of 5 images for this year’s Kingswood Salver and needed everyone’s input to come up with something. At present the only theme we seem able to put together with 5 images from 5 different authors is ‘Birds’ ............. members seemed to feel they would prefer to go with either ‘Movement’ or ‘Patterns’ and so were encouraged to send images with those 2 themes in mind to John Evans-Jones as soon as possible in the hope that we could come up with 5 images that worked together to form a panel on one of those themes.

John Rogers then announced the results of this year’s Celtic Challenge in which Cornwall came 6th of all the Celtic Nations entering and that of the 30 images entered by Cornwall 8 of those were taken by members of Wadebridge Camera Club; Linda said she had put a list of points scored by all entrants up on the club’s noticeboard.

Peter Bland had laid out an array of part of his camera collection prior to his talk later in the evening and invited anyone interested to have a look at the camera and indeed pick them up and handle them if they so wished.

We then got down to viewing and voting on the 20 images entered in this evening Print 2 competition; again there were a good variety of subjects and the evening produced lively discussion. Golds were awarded to Adrian Langdon for ‘Green woodpeckers’, Jeremy Northcott for his ‘Lady’ and Mike Pettett for ‘Truro spires’; Silvers were awarded to Bob Wyatt for ‘Neck and neck’, John Rogers for ‘Night boat’, Linda Fenner for ‘Pink waterlily’, Ann Chapman for ‘Yosemite’ and John Bullingham for ‘In concert’.

The second half of the evening was reserved for Peter Bland’s ‘A Century of Cameras – Or how I could have been rich if it wasn’t for Uncle Ernie’.

Peter’s talk was a fascinating mixture of how his own interest in photography developed and the history of cameras, the history of photography and photographers. He started with how he himself became interested in photography at an early age because his Uncle Ernie had a camera which fascinated the young Peter and then when he passed his 11+ his mother bought him his first camera to encourage that interest. Having mapped out his own photographic development he came to the very beginning of our art – the camera obscura. His talk was illustrated with some early family photographs and then progressed to the early cameras themselves and the men who developed the various photographic processes through to the legendary photographers that took up the art and developed their own styles. From Roger Fenton, founder of the RPS; Matthew Brady who is mostly known for his photographs of the American Civil War to Frank Hurley, an Australian photographer who served in and photographed the First World War, became the official Australian war photographer in the Second World War and then went on to be the official photographer on Ernest Shackleton’s famous expedition. His knowledge of the development of the photographic process and the whole history of the cameras themselves and their manufacture shows a real passion and was a treat to listen to; sadly we were beaten by ‘the clock’ and had only had Parts 1 and 2 of the history of the camera, so we are hoping he will  come back and give us Part 3 another time.

Brian Galbraith gave thanks to Peter on behalf of us all.

DPI 2 - 28/09/11                                                                     Click here for images

Jeremy opened the meeting by welcoming new members and visitors including Geoff, who had been a member of the club some time ago, and Steve a friend of Peters; also welcome back to Joe and Sam. There were apologies from Howard for non-attendance but he had sent a message through that there was a chance of seeing an aurora from Cornwall tonight in the northern sky. Adrian reported that Delia was fine but would not be able to return to her own home just yet and it was confirmed that she has had an image accepted in the Maltese International Competition.

John Evans-Jones then reminded us that our entry for the Kingswood Salver, which we won last year, needs to be ready to hand in to the WCPF 4 weeks from today. He would appreciate any thoughts on suggested subject matter and images; he will be sending out various suggestions by email in the coming days. So he does urgently need members’ input with ideas and even images towards this year’s entry, as time is crucial now to produce a panel in the time. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to actually retain the trophy!

It was good to see more like our usual numbers this week and so we continued to viewing the 20 DPI2 images that had been submitted; there were a good diverse selection of subjects and discussion was interesting and constructive for all. There were 3 images which attained Gold awards, these were Charlestown by Giles Wilson, Le Louvre by John Evans-Jones & Watch House Dawn by John Rogers; Silvers were awarded to 7 images – Camel Evening by Stewart Privett, Gladioli Floret by Jenni Cheesman, Salt Lakes by Ann Chapman, Spray Lake in Winter by Norma Harbinson, Summer Sunset by Jane Pickles, Winter Light on the River by Adrian Langdon and Young Alligator by Penry Archer.

After Tea and the Raffle, the second part of the evening started with Jeremy explaining that we had decided to postpone the proposed Portrait Partners project in favour of a new idea which was to be proposed by Jenni for club members to consider. Briefly the suggestion is for members to form small groups of between 2 and 5 who would then choose a subject to pursue as a group. Subject matter was completely open for the group to decide on, the object being for the members of each group to work together to create a small exhibition or slideshow giving their own take on their chosen subject. Various questions were posed by members and then Jeremy suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea for the members present to take a few minutes to form into groups and discuss the possibilities of this idea and how they might approach it. This done each group announced the sort of project they were intending to pursue and the idea seemed to have been very well received; the resulting collections of images will be shown to the club by the each group on 18^th April next year.

Next week is Print 2 evening with entries to be submitted as usual, digital files being sent in by Monday midnight to comply with rules of entry; also Peter Bland will be giving a talk on the History of the camera which would be an interesting look at the history of photography and some of the iconic photographers that had inspired interest.

Print 1 - 21/09/11                                                                          Click here for images

Jeremy opened the meeting by welcoming Howard back and also remarking on how nice it was to see a few more members in attendance this week. He also then informed that Delia is now out of hospital and her recovery is progressing but slowly; it was also noted that she, as well as Mike Pettett, had images accepted in the Maltese International Exhibition.

We then welcomed Joe, a former pupil of Jeremy’s, aged 13, who had come along as a visitor to see what goes on at the club as he has a keen interest in photography.

The format for the meeting would be judging of the 18 prints submitted for the evening first, then after teas we would start the process of choosing 2 special subjects for next season to be followed by Adrian’s talk on the advantages of using RAW.

Linda briefly reported from the CPA meeting she chaired last week. The CPA are looking for a volunteer to take over as minutes’ secretary for their meetings; also she gave dates for the Charles Hoskin competition, the Annual competition date and David Clapp’s re-booked presentation at Goonhavern – all these dates are now on the noticeboard and also on the board are dates for St Austell’s very interesting programme of various speakers, all of which we are all invited to attend.

John Rogers, by going direct to the Printers, has managed to get our programme for this year printed and was able to distribute them – Jeremy thanked him for this and John also drew the members attention to Clemens Photography offer to all members on the back cover, of a free 16” x 12” colour print on presentation of the programme as proof of membership of the club.

Before we started judging the prints Peter Bland asked members to note that his talk on 5th October entitled ‘History of Cameras’ would be more about the history of photography and certain renowned photographers rather than cameras as such, although he would have a few of his collection of cameras with him.

Of the 18 prints shown 2 achieved Gold awards and 7 achieved Silver awards, there were a good variety of subjects which promoted some interesting discussion and critique.

After the tea break 13 various titles for next season’s special subjects were suggested by members, 2 of which were clearly most popular and 1 of which, Youth, was immediately voted as a good subject for next year’s Portrait Competition; the others will be discussed in Committee but it looks as though ‘Creative’ and ‘Night Time’ will be 2 of our special subjects for the 2012-2013 season.

Adrian then took over the meeting for his illustrated talk on using RAW, saying he felt this was definitely the way forward for photographers as it afforded so many more opportunities for getting the best from your images. He also mentioned that it is now necessary to have the RAW file available when entering large competitions, especially Natural History competitions, in order to prove the eligibility of the image and the fact that it hasn’t been altered in any way that could break the rules of those competitions.

He described shooting only jpegs as like keeping the print and throwing away the negative when shooting film. He said he started by shooting both RAW and jpeg, as most slr cameras can, but now just shoots in RAW. The advantages being you have much more information available to you in the RAW file although it is consequently a much larger size file and does introduce another process in order to produce your final image; although you can batch process a set of shots to simplify this process. RAW files do need to be converted to tiff or jpeg files in order to use them in whatever software you use, but the advantages are enormous. He illustrated the advantages briefly by showing the various ways you could convert and merge files from just one RAW file to get the best final image possible from the one file. Adrian and Jeremy encouraged us all to try RAW and recommended magazine and internet articles on the subject to learn more about the conversion possibilities.

Next week is DPI 2 evening, 1 image needs to be sent in by midnight on Monday, and also it is hand in day for the ‘Detail’ competition.

DPI 1 - 14/09/11                                                                              Click here for images

We started the evening by greeting a potential new member, Sam.

Jeremy then told members of an accident which involved Delia as she was leaving the CWT Photographic Group meeting at Allet on Monday evening. We were informed that she has a possible fractured pelvis but was in good spirits. We wished her and Howard, who collapsed recently, a speedy return to good health.

Adrian reported that the birding community has been very excited this week by the appearance of a Greater Yellow Legs in the area – a first sighting in the UK, so Wadebridge is once again on the map with appearances of birds blown off course during their migration.

John Rogers reported a problem with the production of this year’s Programme and it was agreed that most people were happy to refer to the club website for information although if anyone was unable to access this he was able to provide a paper copy on request.

We then got on with our 1st ‘critical’ evening and Jeremy asked for critique of images to be fair, but to have ‘teeth’ – the 14 images that followed were certainly varied.

“Greater Spotted Woodpecker” by Adrian and “Pair of Small Blues” by Jenni both won Gold. While “White-fronted Bee Eater” by Jane, “Nightflight” by John R and “Robin” by Jeremy all won Silver.

After a break for tea we discussed RAW file management (Adrian will tackle this in full next week), the usefulness of contemporary magazines like Digital Photo for learning techniques, the emphasis on film in higher education, the emerging popularity of blogging sites like Google for providing a platform for showing images, Photoshop actions, ways of sharpening images and preparing images for digital projection.

Next week is our 1st Print evening.

Members' Travelogues - 07/09/11

WELCOME BACK FOLKS.

The first meeting of the new Camera Club Season. Did I sleep through summer?  I don't remember seeing much sun !

Several notices and bits and pieces of business were dealt with first.

New lights have been purchased and fitted to facilitate better viewing of our prints when diplayed on the big stands.

Adrian was commended on his success in the Slovenian Salon. An International success no less.

Brian then spoke on the 2 WCPF events--members print and dpi successes. Print awards are already on the website, but the dpi was only held last week and a Silver Medal was awarded to Adrian in the Nature section, and another Silver to John EJ in the Creative. Acceptances also went to other club members. These will be on the website soon, I'm sure.

Linda then told us that as a club we had done well in the CPA selection for this years Celtic Challenge. Work from Adrian, John EJ, Paul Mc and Giles were in the print selection and from Adrian, John EJ and John R, in the dpi. A very good representation from our club.

Jeremy then quickly went through the first 4 weeks on the programme, as the hard copy will not be available till next week. ALL information is available however on the website.

We then saw images from Dave B taken on his recent holiday in Sorrento. Starting with views of weary passengers at the airport, and followed by lovely blue skies and clear seas, busy harbours, street markets and quiet peaceful areas.  Brought memories floding back to one member--Adrian--who had spent his honeymoon there-------aaaaahhhhhh.

We were then taken on  a trip to Tremadog in Wales by John and Sylvia. Lovely scenery, a visit to a Slate Museum, slate mine, Beddgelert, Port Merion (who remembers The Prisoner?) Porthmadog and the Glaslyn Osprey Hide. Nice reminders for me too, as I went to that area twice during the holidays.

Then a break for teas, and Linda's cake, and the drawing of the Raffle.

Before we recommenced with images, a welcome was given to a new member, Steve, who we hope will join us.

The next images should have been from Brian, but at that moment the computer decided to play up and we only managed a couple of his car images taken at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. We look forward to seeing the rest at a future date.

All was not lost however as the computer accepted a disc of the possible entries from the WCPF into the inter Federation Competition later in the year. Some really excellent work was to be seen.

Next week the competitions begin with Dpi 1.

Delia

Meeting Reports 10 - 11