Blog No Longer Maintained

For regular Prince Edward Photography Club updates and to see what we have been up to, please go to either our public Facebook Page - facebook.com/countyfotoclub or our public YouTube Channel - youtube.com/@countyfotoclub.

2024 Awards Gala

We had 62 people at our Dec 8th Gala and everyone had a great time. We were blessed with a break in the weather that allowed people to travel from a distance. The food offerings were delicious and the room was transformed into a festive holiday event hall. We enjoyed live music performed by the talented Jon Roblin and his saxy sidekick. Our slideshow were entertaining with lots of humour and great music to accompany the photos. Thanks also to my co-host, David Gilbert, for his strong performance last evening.

The awards for this year were pared down to five categories and here are the winners:

Deb Walters - People Photographer of the 2024

Bert Jenkins - Landscape Photographer of 2024

Gail Hamilton – Creative Humour in Photography (2024)

Phil Lawrence – Wildlife Photographer of 2024

Margaret Liddon – Photographer of the Year (Club Trophy)

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thanks to eveyone who came out in support of our great photo club.

December 2023 Glitz & Glam Awards Show & Gala

A wonderful time was had by all at our Dec 3^rd Awards Gala. We had a great turnout with

delicious & plentiful gourmet food offerings.

On the Awards front, we handed out 20 Awards of Merit – a change from previous years

as these reward excellence and participation over the full course of the previous year.

Here’s a recap of our 2023 Award recipients:

Bird Photography – Phil Lawrence

Action Photography – Peter Gorski

People Photography – Deb Walters

Floral Photography – Brian Durell

Master Presenter – Mike Gaudaur

Architectural Photography – Margaret Liddon

Photographic Use of Colour – Jim Peets

Printed Image – Daphne Creasy

Abstract Photography – Mary Jane Goodchild

Landscape Photography – Bert Jenkins

Monochrome Photography – Paula Martin

Motion Photography – Alan Jenner

Photographic Storytelling – Bev Higgins

Macro Photography – Alison Germain

Slideshow of the Year – Mike Montgomery

Nature Photography – Janyce Mann

Street Photography – Bev McConnell

Night Photography – Dave Tugwood

Photographic Humour – Gail Hamilton

Photographer of the Year – Don Taylor

Thanks for all your participation during the past year and look forward to much more in future!

March 2023 - Ten Year Anniversary Meeting

 

At Sunday's March club meeting, we marked our tenth anniversary as a photo club. Many of our original members are still with us, and many more have joined over the years. We appreciate the continuing support and participation from all our members.

The meeting featured our master manipulator, Mr Joseph Leduc, who made creative self portraiture look so easy (aside note - it is not!). Joe was so entertaining and introduced us to many really creative techniques. 

Thanks to all who came out and made this another great night of photography.

In-House Club Meeting to Re-Commence

 Announcement - In-House Club Meetings to be Re-started

We have decided it is now reasonably safe & sound to re-start our in-house club meetings, after a 2 1/2 year hiatus. We have a new and much larger facility for the sessions - the Legion Hall in Wellington, situated at 364 Main St - north side of street, west end of town near the Home Building Centre. The first session will be on Sunday Nov 6th at our usual 7pm start time. We recommend people get there early to get acquainted with each other and the new location. There will be a charge of $2/person at the door to defray the costs of the new meeting hall (exact change is recommended).

We are excited to be back meeting as a club once again and thank everyone for hanging in there with us during the lengthy pandemic period. Hope to see you there!

Photo Club Activities Continue

It's well into the summer of 2022 as we post this and we want to let anyone who arrives at this site, know that we continue to operate a very active and participatory photo club. We just haven't been updating this blog page as most of our work is shown on our public Facebook page and YouTube Channel.

If you are interested in photography and live in or near the County, we'd love to have you join us. Send an email to countyfotoclub@gmail.com and we will sign you up and get you involved.

We continue to run club outings, monthly theme challenges, hands-on tutorials and special photo events. Hopefully we will soon get back to our, once regular, in-house meetings.

Here's a few slideshows from some of our recent events.

Lemoine Point

Outdoor Macro

Waterfalls Tour

Come and join us!

January 2021 Club Update

We're sure you are all up on all the latest news on the Covid pandemic front so we won't rehash any of that. But we thought it advisable to update you on how it impacts our photo club activities as we move through the next few months, especially given the heightened restrictions imposed by the government. First, let us say the obvious - normal club meetings are unlikely to recur until a large majority of the population is vaccinated and that likely means September at the earliest.

We had hoped to continue with our "outings" concept, switching it to an "outings location" activity where people could go at any time of their choosing over a given week or so period. However, your Exec Committee feels that even that concept goes against the current "Stay Home except for Essentials" decree. So, for the time being, we will suspend outings. Your Executive will re-address this on a monthly basis as we move forward. Our goal is to bring this back as soon as safety protocols allow. And that also goes for other club activities - workshops, meetings, etc. which hopefully will be phased in as the pandemic winds down.

We still have our monthly theme challenges, along with one other creative monthly endeavour - i.e. January's is entitled - A Study in Black & White. You need not stray far, if at all, from your home in order to participate in these activities. It might require a little more creativity, but it certainly can be done. Over the past several months we have had great member participation in activities such as Dungeons & Daemons, Click the Light Fantastic, Kingston Night Shoot, Changing Moods, Lighting Fiesta, ... Lots of great imagery has been submitted and we have the images posted on our public Facebook page and also assembled them into entertaining slideshows on our YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure.

Our January theme challenge is Life in Winter while February's is Fifty Shades Of White. We will continue to active during this unprecedented period of time. Contact us at countyfotoclub@gmail.com for more information.

July Club Update

Our club continues to operate even through the exceptional times that we are all going through. Our meetings and group outings/workshops have been put on hold until officials get the pandemic under control. We do not want to risk the health of any of our members, nor the public at large. However, we are determined to keep our photographic talents sharp and enhance our abilities by ongoing monthly theme challenges and additional photo-related activities.  One of our club's strengths has always been our high participation rates and that continues to this day. Instead of in-house meetings, we have temporarily turned to the web to post our images (our Public Facebook page) and also our slideshows (our YouTube Channel).

Let's sumarize what we have been doing. Our last actual club meeting was in early March and our last club outing was that same month over at Amherst Island. In easrly April, we completed and posted the YouTube slideshow for Amherst Island as well as one for our March theme challenge - People & Pet Portraiture.  For the month of April, we devised a game of image bingo - aptly named IMGO. Participants were instructed to complete their card of 16 items - here is a sample board from one of our members.

In early May, we also posted all the bingo images to our Facebook page as well as preparing four separate YouTube slidshows to display the 400 or so submitted images from 24 participants. We also prepared a YouTube slideshow for our April theme challenge -  Subject Placement is Everything! Thirty-two members contributed images for that show.

During the month of May, we engaged in a new exercise called Processing Trilogy.  Members were asked to select any image that they had previously taken and then process it in three entirely different manners. Twenty-nine of our members participated. In early June, we prepared YouTube slideshow of the results. The images were initially displayed on a single page, starting with the Raw image from the camera along with the 3 processed varieties - here is an example card.




Also in early June, we posted our May theme challenge entitled Reflections & Distortions. Thirty-two members submitted images with their interpretations of that theme.




Our June extracurricular activity was called The Hunt is On! It was a photo scavenger hunt which required participants to  complete three tiers, each of which contained 4 elements.

Above is the blank board along with a completed example to the right.









In early July, two YouTube slideshows were posted that covered all the elements of our scavenger hunt activity. Approximately the same time, we posted the June theme challege video - Spring has Sprung. Twenty-one members participated in the Hunt exercise, while 28 contributed images for our Spring show.

Activity continues as I write this blog.  We have a Double or Nothing event underway for the month of July where members are asked to select 6 subject/processing combinations (out of 9 alternatives). We then want to see a camera type jpg image along with a specific processed one to demonstrate the difference.  This event will test the processing skills of our troupe! In addition, during July we have a theme challenge entitled - It's a Small, Small World. So lot's still going on here in the County! Come and join with us!

Early April Update

Normally. I’d be posting a blog detailing what happened at last night’s photo club meeting.  Only problem – it and foreseeable future meetinga are currently suspended until society gets a leg up on the pandemic front. However, life must go on, and so should your creative photographic endeavours. In the interim, we are switching to a virtual, on-line mode using Facebook, Youtube, this Blog and, of course, email as our sources for dialogue and sharing.


Our March outing was to Amherst Island and 20 of our fellow members took the ferry over to the island for a great day’s photoshoot.  The individual images are available on our public Facebook page, while the video slideshow version is available at out Youtube channel.

Our Theme challenge for March was People &/or Pet Portraiture and we had 25 members submit images that ranged from formal portraits (full studio lighting set-ups) to some rather broad interpretations of the words “portraiture” and “pet”.  Lot’s of good humour was evident in the image submission – a welcome relief from current anxieties  that we all are facing.  These images and the slideshow are up on our Facebook and Youtube site for public viewing.



We have a new event underway for the month of April – called IMGO – short for Image Bingo. A Bingo card has been sent to all members with 16 marked squares that you are asked to submit images for. We will complete the cards as the images are submitted and will post them once they are completed. You just need to submit the images, sized and watermarked as normal.  To keep this manageable, we ask that you submit the images to us, a completed row, column or diagonal at a time. The idea is to have all the cards completed by the end of April.  We will also post the individual images, amalgamated under the separate 16 headings in early May – at least that’s the current plan.

The April theme challenge is entitled – Subject Placement is Everything. Here we are asking you to have a clearly identifiable subject within your image and use your compositional skills to effectively place the subject within the image frame. Your five theme images will be due in by Wednesday April 29th. Keep your cameras close at hand, especially if you do venture from the house for groceries or other essentials – always a photo op available to the trained eye!

Keep healthy, socially distant, and please stay virtually close.

Corona Virus Update

Our Executive Committee met to discuss the implications of the corona virus threat to our club operations. As the experts say, we are currently in unchartered waters. After lengthy discussion with arguments on all sides of the equation, we decided to err on the side of caution and temporarily suspend our regularly scheduled club meetings. While this may not be the optimal decision, it will certainly not be the wrong decision, nor something that we will regret in future.

The reasoning for the decision is threefold.  First, the virus was transmitted from it’s original source by human travel – and photographers, by their very nature are ardent world travellers. Second, once the virus takes up residency in an area (which it is close to doing even here in North America), it is transmitted by air borne droplets and from people touching surfaces where the virus has landed,  In this regard, close contact with others makes it easy to transfer the virus and our Library Meeting Room is quite small for the size of our membership, with limited ventilation.  Thirdly, once infected, the older a person is, and those with compromised immune systems, the greater the liklihood of a serious complication from the disease.  Our membership consists of many retirees and others in the above high risk category.

This decision will be re-evaluated on a monthly basis by your Executive. Let me be clear that we are not closing the club – just temporarily changing our mode of operations.  We plan to have more outings and smaller workshops in place of the large club meetings.

We will be asking any member that has recently travelled by air or on board a cruise ship, to not participate in club workshops/meetings until 14 days following their return. This is also applicable for anyone showing signs of colds, coughing or fever. Participation by these people in outdoor outings is optional, but we’d ask them not to come into close contact with others. This is likely overkill, but we’ve not yet seen any reasonable alternative.

Let's all keep active on the photography front and work through this threat together. 

March Session Review

Our March 1st meeting was another well attended session with great participation from our members.  We had 37 members participate in the slideshows giving us a great diversity of subject matter and photographic techniques to admire.


I started out the session with a short talk on Computer Monitors and screen resolutions – critcal for successful photo editing! We followed that up with a wintry view of the Lemoine Point Conservation Area in Kingston. This outing was attended by 14 of our members and we literally had birds eating out of our hands!





Our featured presenter of the night was Larry Tayler - who never shies from using his photography to put an edge on matters. Larry’s topic was entitled Using Photos to Motivate. It was part of a larger set of material from a week long workshop that he will be leading at the significant Quaker gathering this summer in Virginia. His material was highly provocative and emotional.

Following our break, Doug Smith introduced his slideshow from a trip late last year to Argentina with special emphasis on the Patagonia region. The icefields and mountain ridges were utterly spectacular.

 

Next up was a new agenda item - The Road to the Winner's Circle -  where we had 6 of our award winners from last year’s Awards Gala (Ian Dickinson, Daphne Creasy, Alan Jenner, Margaret Liddon, Gail Hamilton & John Dufour), tell us about their winning image and why it was so effective. Interestingly, chance timing seemed to play a role in a number of the shots, along with swift and effective action from the knowledgeable group of photographers. It was agreed that all six had well defended their winning entries and should therefore retain their trophies for the current year! Thanks to all of them for this fun discussion.

Our final slideshow of the night was our theme challenge entitled – High Key!  Thirty-five members submitted images that were shot with an emphasis on the right hand side of the histogram (whites and light tones predominate). These images, along with our Lemoine Point shots have been uploaded to our public Facebook page for anyone to view (facebook.com/countyfotoclub).

Our theme challenge for March is People & Pet Photography, while April’s theme challenge is Subject Placement is Everything! 

Thanks to all who participated during the month.

February Meeting Recap

Super B Sunday was an event attended by approx 40 of our members. We commenced the session with our Dunes Outing slideshow that 20 of us attended during a rather nasty weather weekend in mid January. The images were daunting – Sandbanks devoid of human interaction, barring a few appreciative photographers – what a delight!




Next up was an upbeat Joseph Leduc, who’s enthusiasm for photography is highly infectious. As Joe put it, "I love faces" and his presentation on Portrait Photography stressed creativity and fun while still paying heed to the critical details of light, shadow, backgrounds, posing - all essential for effective results.


Following our break, Daphne Creasy put on her slideshow – Roma & The Allure of Tuscany – images taken during a guided photo tour to Italy last May. The music and imagery certainly demonstrated the unique charm of that ancient area of Europe.

Our next speaker was Bert Jenkins who dicussed the Colour Grading technique as a method to further improve our landscape imagery. Using Adobe Photoshop’s Gradient Mapping and Blend-If functions, Bert demonstrated subtle but noticeable improvements in scenic images.


We ended the night with our theme challenge slideshow – Structurally Speaking... to which 31 members participated. Photos of local man-made structures, as well as those of far-off locations around the globe, adorned the screen. These images, along with the Dunes Outing photos have now been uploaded to our public Facebook page for all to see.


Our theme challenges for the next two months are – High Key for February and People & Pet Photography for March. Our outing this month will be at the Lemoine Point Conservation Area in Kingston.

Thanks to all who attended and especially those who participated during the month.