Tuesday 6 December 2016

2016 Awards Gala
















It never ceases to amaze one as to how many people are attracted by an event promising gormet food at its core.  We had our largest turnout ever and were still able to comfortably seat and apportion all the delicious food.

The evening commenced with two slideshows which included images submitted by 32 members. Our outing show was the Firelight Lantern Festival, coupled with some images from Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village.  These venues were great tests of high ISO, hand-held, night photography.  The month's theme slideshow was entitled Abstract, which forced some people far out of their normal comfort zone.  In addition, we rapidly realized that we do have a number of really "warped" individuals in our midst!  Both slideshow image sets have been posted to our Facebook page.


The food tables were absolutely incredible.  The variety of superb entrees and delicious (low-cal???) deserts was endless.  Needless to say, no-one left the premises hungry.

In hour two, David Gilbert and I took to the stage, to recognize and reward some tremendous imagery from our members.  After reviewing in excess of 3400 images submitted over the course of the past 12 months, the very best were assigned to 19 separate categories, eventually ending up with four contenders  for each award category - not all that original (Oscars anyone?) but very effective just the same! In addition, the club recognized the 2016 Photographer of The Year - a most deserving award for our overall winner - Mr. Dave Tugwood

The categories and the winners are:

Award
Winner
Image Title
Use of Colour
Leonard Buffett
You Can't See Me
Exotic Locale
Mags Khandis
Living on the Edge
Floral
Robert Logan
Delicate
Monochrome
Bert Jenkins


Arctic Isolation
Capturing People
Inge Radden
Tyendinega Warrior
Mastery of Light
Myra Pritchett
O'Hara Cabin Light
Winged Creature
Ian Dickenson
Parula
Architecture
Larry Tayler
 
City Hall
Funniest Image
Gail Hamilton
Will I Ever Outlive This?
Nightscape
Dave Tugwood
Another Night at Point Petre
Display of Motion
Mike Gaudaur
Tree Shake
Abstract
Dave Tugwood
Neon Sticks
Slideshow of the Year
Doug Smith
 
China & S.E. Asia
Limbed Creature
Jan Swenson
Wild Horses
Master Manipulator
Margaret Liddon
Lost in the Forest
Street Photography
Janice Ruggles-Bolton
Pirate on the Loose
Local Landscape
Glen Dobson
Point Petre Sunset
At Close Range
Alan Jenner
Follow the Leader
Composition
Marilyn Sprissler
Pacific Pier

2016 Photographer of the Year

Dave Tugwood


Congratulations to all our 2016 CFC Award winners. The full Awards Presentation is now available for viewing on our Youtube channel.

Our next meeting will be on January 8th and our theme challenge for December is entitled Member's Choice.  Our January theme challenge is Winter Ways - Laneways, Roadways, Railways, Pathways, ... – do have fun with this one.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our annual Gala event and a very special thanks to Margaret and her helpers who created a great festive atmosphere for our special night.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Monday 7 November 2016

November 6th Club Meeting


Another full house greeted our assembled presenters at Sunday’s meeting of the Prince Edward County Photography Club. The night featured inspiring works by 31 of our members. 

 
The evening started with a slideshow of our recent visit to the O’Hara Mills Homestead. This is a very photogenic location, no matter what time of year, but the colours of Autumn added a special glory to the member images.

The audience was graced with a visit from a special guest, Johnny Lam, who treated us to sights and stories of his many documentary assignments around the globe. Johnny explained his techniques from his predominant use of 24/50mm prime lenses, to exploring his subjects both up close as well as in the broader context of their environment. His available light images were captivating and resulted in compelling storylines. You can see more of Johnny’s work at his website www.johnnylam.com and on his Instagram page – www.instagram.com/johnnylam.

  
The second half of the meeting began with an insightful presentation by Larry Tayler on the topic of Contemplative Photography. This past summer, Larry attended a week long course on the subject at a Quaker gathering in Minnesota. He talked about how his ability to observe (and record) the world around him has been impacted by a new awareness and expectant eye. You can see more of Larry’s work at www.larrytayler.com.

Our third presenter for the evening was Chris Ward who wowed us with his techniques to produce unrivalled detail in images. His landscapes from recent trips to the US southwest and Italy demonstrated everything from multi-image, multi-level panoramas to busy city scenes devoid of all human form, to time lapse blending, ... Chris’ work is really worth having a second look and you can see it at his website – www.wphotography.ca.


 














The final slideshow of the evening was our October theme challenge – Transitions. Twenty-nine of us contributed images that explored the changing of the season and all the glorious colour that has entailed. Member slides from the October meeting have been posted to our public Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.


The themes for the next 60 days were handed down – Abstract for November and Your Choice for December. The club outing for November will be held on Saturday Nov 12th in Picton at the Firelight Lantern Festival (Crystal Palace).

Tuesday 4 October 2016

October Club Meeting




Sunday’s meeting was another well attended event that featured participation by 29 of our members in submitting images, attending outings or making presentations. We decided to skip our usual Quick Topic item as we had such a stellar line-up of expert presenters.

 
The evening started with a slideshow of three recent club outings- first our visit to the Picton Yacht Club on a lovely August evening, followed by a nostalgic Cruise Night session at the Belleville A&W and culminating in the majestic Tall Ship Festival in Brockville. As usual, the tone was upbeat with a little humour sprinkled throughout.

Our first presenter of the night was Malcolm Park whose talk entitled – Landscapes to Nightscapes – provided valuable information on how astro-photography images are taken and processed. However, his two slideshows – the first a sequence of superb timelapses of everything from clouds and ice on ponds, all the way to nighttime cityscapes and the second show from his recent trip to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile – had the audience in wonder at the sheer beauty of his imagery.

The second half of the meeting started with an introduction from Ian Dickinson of his long time passion for nature, especially the avian sort. His slideshow, Things with Wings, depicted a large number of different species of birds with a few insects thrown in for good measure, in their natural setting. Each slide was well labelled to identify the species. Fortunately there was no test at the end to see how many we could recognize!


Next on the agenda was a mini workshop on Printing, put on by a very energetic Mike Gaudaur. It was mini only in terms of time as Mike covered the whole gamut of key considerations around printing including Colour Management, Cropping, Resolution and Paper. Everyone there now knows how to properly calibrate their monitors and how and why to use appropriate colour profiles for the specific printer/paper/ink combinations.

The final slideshow of the evening was our September theme challenge – HorsePower. Twenty-one members submitted images ranging from over-powered car engines to white horses on the beach. All of the member slideshows from the October meeting have been posted to our public Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.

The themes for the next 60 days were handed down – Transitions for October and Abstract for November. The club outing for October will be held on Saturday Oct 15th (note changed date due to projected rain-out) at the O’Hara Mills Conservation Area. It is a gorgeous location in the forest with an old mill, water wheel, dam, waterfalls, covered bridge, lots pioneer buildings and artifacts and many trails through the woods. Hopefully there will still be some colour left on the trees.

Thanks to all who showed up at the meeting and participate in our various club activities.

Tuesday 13 September 2016

September Meeting



We had our largest gathering yet on Sunday with over 40 people in attendance. While I’d like to think it was the wonderful presentations that attracted such a large gathering, in reality it was the chance to get our many dirty sensors cleaned at a very special rate by Douglas Banks. We thank him very much for coming out to our meeting to perform this essential service.


The meeting started with our Quick Topic for the night, namely Sharp Shooting. In putting the material together, it was surprising how many things really contribute towards getting that tack sharp image that we all yearn.

 
The first slideshow of the evening was a compilation of three recent club outings. It commenced with our Milky Way shoot at Ameliasburgh, followed by the annual Pow Wow on the Tyendinaga reserve and culminating in the nighttime stroll along the Moira River in Belleville.
 







We were then introduced to a rather different area of our craft, namely Infrared Photography. The primer explained what it was all about, why you might want to try it and some of the intracacies of the medium. The images for this presentation were taken by Lew Mitz and Judith Bain, both of whom ably demonstrated this creative way of portraying nature’s beauty.




The second half of the meeting started with a breathtaking view of Kayaking in Glacier Bay National Park. Marilyn Sprissler’s slideshow depicted a far away area of the continent that few of us have ever seen. It depicted a serene landscape filled with wildlife encounters.

Next up was a discussion of Digital Editors & Essential Editing Tools that I tandemed with Doug Smith. Doug provided the wonderful images (& colour commentary) from his many trips to all corners of the globe in order to depict the impact of selected editing effects. All three presentations from the September meeting will be posted shortly to our club’s Youtube channel – go to Youtube and search “countyfotoclub”.

 









The final slideshow of the evening was our August theme challenge – Abandoned. We had 150 submissions from 24 members – demonstrating how easy it is to find abandoned items in and around the County. We were even treated to some unique creativity from the estranged mind of Robert Logan. All of the slideshows from our September meeting have been posted to our public Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.

The themes for the next 60 days were handed down – Horse Power for September and Transitions for October. We also discussed club outings for September which will start with the Tall Ship festival in Brockville.

Thanks to all who came out and especially to the 35 members who participated during the month in our various club activities.







Tuesday 16 August 2016

August 2016 - Better Late Than Never!


We finally managed to get in our August meeting that had been postponed due to a tiny critter infestation at our Library clubhouse. Well all had been thoroughly fumigated and our session went off without a (h)itch!













The meeting started with a discussion of the Raw file format and why photographers prefer to Shoot in the Raw. The material has been posted to our Youtube page.

The first slideshow of the evening was actually an amalgam of four smaller club outings that we had over the past several months but had not yet had chance to view. It began with the macro workshop held at Spindle Tree Gardens located near Tamworth. That led into the Night Photo Shoot that started at the Harbour and then migrated to Picton's main drag. Following that, airplanes flew from the Trenton Air Show that was held in late June and our initial show ended with Canada Day Fireworks from various locations around the area.

We had another instalment of our What, Why, How segment with Robert Logan and Adam Nogrady doing the honours. The first half was closed out by Glen Dobson who displayed all our club member submissions to the CliC Photo Show that got selected for hanging. After tightening the noose, he also showed the final 4 major category winning images.

The second half started with our Presqu’ile Marsh Boardwalk outing slideshow, which was attended by nine of our members. It was followed by an introduction to the works of Six Contemporary Master Photographers which Margaret & I collaborated on. The six photographers we selected included Sebastiao Salgado, Annie Leibovitz, Andreas Gursky, Steve McCurry, Cindy Sherman and Nick Brandt. Each has a very different style and focus. Their images are truely masterful!



The final slideshow of the evening was our July theme challenge – Main Street. We had submissions from over 20 members, who demonstrated great street photography techniques and decisive moment catches. All of the slideshows from our August meeting have been posted to our public Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.

The themes for the next 60 days were handed down – Abandoned for August and Horse Power for September. We also discussed club outings for August which will be held on Wed August 24th for a Night Shoot at the Picton Yacht Club and on Tuesday August 30th for a Belleville Cruise Night session.

Next month’s meeting on Sept 11th will feature camera sensor cleaning by Douglas Banks. This is great opportunity to get our sensors professionally cleaned at an incredibly low price for all DSLR and CSC camera owners.

Thanks to all who came out and especially those who participated during the month in our various club activities.