Monday 3 December 2018

2018 CFC Awards Gala - December Session




Close to seventy people came out to our sixth annual awards gala on Sunday evening. Margaret and her efficient crew of helpers, transformed the hall into a wonderful festive boutique. And, with access to the expansive kitchen facilities at the Parish Hall, we were assured of hot food waiting for us on the numerous tables lined with gourmet delights.


We did manage to get in two slideshows before the dinner serving. Beth Ernst started off our session with a colourful show on her recent trip to India’s Golden Triangle, with strong emphasis on the local people and their way of life in that part of the globe. Thanks Beth – it was fascinating. Next up was our November Theme Challenge slideshow entitled Spaced Out, which had submissions from 33 of your fellow members. Many interpreted the theme using the “negative space” concept, but many others brought in active space with balance and other strong compositional elements. Even outer space was well represented in the slideshow! These images have been uploaded to our public Facebook page for all to see.


We then got to start doling out the gourmet goodies! There was so much food and such great variety. Thanks to everyone for their pot-luck offerings – they were truly amazing.

The second half of the meeting consisted of our 2018 CFC Awards Show hosted once again by the Blue Hour Brothers – also known as David & Ken. Twenty-one individual category awards were handed out from more than 3800 images submitted over the course of the past 12 months to club theme challenges, outings and workshops.

Award
Winner
Image Title
Feathered Friend
Gloria Sprung

Blue Jay Takes Flight
Abstract
Mary Robinet

Fountain Glow
Street
Ramesh Pooran

Love is a One-Way Street
Wildlife/Animal
Dave Robinet


Unbridled
Travel
Doug Smith

Chateau Lake Louise
Water
Gilles Bisson

Root Cause
Funniest Image
Joseph Leduc

Where Did Those Vermin Go?
Candid/Portrait
Paula Martin

Couch Sitter
Floral
Derek Figueira

Floral Attraction
Nightscape
Marilyn Sprissler

Reflective Splendour
Altered Reality
Gail Hamilton

White Cow
Town or City
Larry Tayler

Notre Dame
Light Painter
Margaret Liddon

Flaming Rose
It's a Small World
Ian Dickinson

A Leprechaun's Paradise
Use of Colour
Don Taylor

Colour Gradients
Slideshow of the Year
Mike Montgomery

South America, 2018
Winter Scene
Dave Tugwood

Frigid Wellington Beach
Composition
John Dufour

Game Over
Monochrome
Deb Walters

Ballet Slippers
Landscape
Bert Jenkins

Lush

Use of Light
Doug Smith

Steam Fog at Sunrise




Our top prize of the night – 2018 Photographer of the Year – was awarded to Joseph Leduc in recognition of his consistently high quality imagery throughout the year along with his very helpful involvement in many club activities and workshops. Congratulations to Joe on a well deserved victory.


Our Theme Challenges for the coming two months are – Portfolio Picks for December and Winter Fantasy for January. Our next club meeting will be back in the Wellington Library on Sunday January 6th.

Thanks for all who made the Gala event so much fun and congratulations to all our trophy winners and runner-ups. We’ve all come a long way over the past 6 years and your imagery is certainly showing that.

We wish everyone a very safe, happy and healthy Christmas and holiday season.

Monday 5 November 2018

November Meeting Recap



This month 36 members trotted out on Sunday night for another fascinating evening of photography. Ramesh Pooran started us off with a live demo and talk on connecting our modern cameras via WiFi to our smart devices and the wonderful things that such technology now allows us to do.

The first slideshow of the evening came from 20 of our members that attended our Lemoine Point outing. There was lots to see and shoot on this very pleasant Fall day with great colour in the foliage and some rather unexpected chance meetings along the many trails.

This month, we invited Malcolm Park to talk to us about his Storm Chasing activities. We came away with a good understanding of the “system” around the massive thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes, especially in the mid-west USA area known as Tornado Alley. Malcolm’s images and especially his timelapses, gave us a thrilling appreciation for the awesome power of Mother Nature.

Janice Ruggles-Bolton opened up our second half with a slideshow on Morocco - From Casablanca to Marrakesh. Janice provided a wonderful mix of varying landscapes (lush green fields to golden sand deserts), local people and impressive architecture.

Our next item on the agenda was something devised to encourage audience participation. We displayed a number of images from various Master Photographers on the big screen, and asked our members to critique the images. We first attempted to guess the photographer and then discussed the various elements that made that particular image so compelling. Before we got half way through the material, we realized that we were nearing our normal meeting closing time and still had a major slideshow to air! This item will very likely reappear at some future meeting.

The theme challenge for the month of October was Turn, Turn, Turn... Thirty-two members submitted images for the slideshow, some with real twists on the theme interpretation. These images along with our outing photos have been uploaded to our public Facebook page for public viewing.


The theme challenges for the next 2 months were handed out – Spaced Out! for November and Portfolio Picks for December. Our outing for this month will be to the Picton Firelight Lantern Festival.





Your continued support, participation and creative input are greatly appreciated.








Monday 22 October 2018

Delayed October Meeting


We finally got in our October meeting (usually held on the first Sunday of the month) following delays for Canadian Thanksgiving and a special Library book sale that made our meeting room unavailable. Not to worry, as 40 of us gathered for an entertaining 2 hours of photography - as well as getting our cameras cleaned during the meanwhile! 

Our meeting aired two presentations in the first half - the first, a quick topic item by Bert Jenkins, on how to Scan 35mm Black & White Negatives. Bert's talk was concise and informative.  I personally was surprised by the quality of the resulting images restored from almost a half century locked in the closet.  Mike Montgomery then put on a very helpful talk - Monty's Travel Tips - on how he gets himself ready - physically, mentally and equipment-wise - for his many world-wide photo trips.  He made it meaningful, simplistic and something that a non-photographer spouse could cope with!

In the second half of our meeting, we had six members volunteer to talk to one of their images in our What, Why, How??? segment - a recurring item we use to get to know one another a little better. We thank David Gilbert, Beth Ernst, Mary Robinet, Richard Marcotte, Renee Fisher and Deb Walters for being great sports and for showing/telling us a little bit about their approach to photography.




The highlight of the session had to be the three slideshows to which 40 of our members submitted images to.  All three were very upbeat, with two having a definite night-time focus on scenes in full technicolor!  Kingston has never looked better than in our Kingston Bye Knight show and who would have thought that a small Ontario town fall fair could look so energetic as in our Picton Fall 2018 review.  Our theme slideshow certainly didn't take a backseat either, as the Country Life theme garnered enthusiastic support from 30 submitting members.  All in all, great sights and sounds filled the room.  The outing & theme images have been posted to our Public Facebook account and the two presentations to our CountryFotoClub Youtube Channel.

We will be having a special Graphics Workshop coming up soon on Wednesday evening Nov 7th.  We will be displaying most of the best processing options for taking your images to the next level! 

We also have our 2018 Awards Gala and Gourmet Pot Luck Buffet coming up on Sunday December 2nd.  This is the one chance during the year where we recognize the best imagery created in this "neck-of-the-woods" over the past 12 months.  Tickets are now available - $10/person.  We encourage you to invite a friend or family member(s) who might have an interest in photography - we will make it entertaining!

Tuesday 11 September 2018

September Meeting in the Books!


 

Approximately 40 photo enthusiasts filled our clubroom on Sunday evening to see imagery ranging from glamour & fitness models to exotic South American landscapes, from winery vineyards to performances on the stage of life! We started the meeting with Ramesh Pooran delivering the goods on your camera’s Metering Modes - spot, centre-weighted and matrix, all the while reminiscing about the good old days when things were manual and hand-held meters were the technology of the day!

Our first slideshow of the evening was a whirlwind tour of 21 of the County’s wineries that a dozen or so of our members undertook on a lovely summer day last month. We first arrived at Huff Estates Winery where there were literally hundreds of photographic treasures awaiting us in their gardens and surrounding areas. Each participant was then assigned 3 wineries and afterwards we all met up at TerraCello Winery for some fantastic pizza and suitable libation.

                                                      Next up was our sports and fitness guru – Dave Robinet. Dave recapped a Glamour & Fitness workshop he led in July of this year on the shores of Lake Ontario (Point Petre) with eleven club photographers and two highly photogenic models. The day’s events were well documented by Ramesh so that we could all get a sense of the work and effort that goes into the making of this type of imagery. Dave discussed lighting issues and his preferred use of light panels, reflectors and diffusers to shape the available light. Dave ended his section with a short slideshow of images taken by the workshop participants.

Mike Montgomery opened up our second half with a slideshow of his recent trip to South America to visit both family & friends and to explore the area’s vast photographic potential. His show entitled From Buenos Dias to Boa Noite included many really amazing images of the South American countryside and its people which captivated our attention.

Margaret Liddon provided another discussion in her The Art of Seeing series – this time on Image Space. She discussed four types of space – Active Space, Dead Space, Positive Space and Negative Space – and how each of these could be used to best advantage to draw the viewer’s eye to your subject while providing environmental context and telling a story. This presentation is available on our club's Youtube channel for your review.

The theme challenge for the month of August was Dance, Music & Performance! Twenty members submitted some highly creative/interpretive images on the subject. These images along with our Winery Tour outing photos have been uploaded to our public Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.


The theme challenges for the next 2 months are – Country Life for September and Turn, Turn, Turn... for October. Our outing for this month will be a night walk in Downtown Kingston, to be held this Sunday September 16th.

We also have a workshop planned for Wednesday evening, Nov 7th in the Parish Hall at St Mary Magdalene Church in Picton. It will be on Graphics Editing and will have separate areas to demonstrate each of your many image processing options.