March Meeting - Behind Bars!

We had a stellar turn-out at last night’s meeting, attesting to the power of the creative still image – even during Hollywood’s special Oscar global gala. The meeting represented the fifth anniversary of our commencement as a photography club. We’ve come a long way in that time, as evidenced by the quality of the images and presentation material. But most importantly, our member participation continues to grow with a full 40 members contributing towards last night’s proceedings.

We started with a reminder of “A Moment in Time” photo show by ten of our members that is currently on display at the John M Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville and continues until March 21^st. 

Our first presenter of the night was Bert Jenkins who explained the impact of a camera’s sensor size on hyperfocal distance (HFD). Notwithstanding mathematical formulae and tables galore, the key take-away was that smaller sensor cameras such as micro four-thirds are excellent alternatives for landscape type photography where you want everything from close-up to far away in sharp focus. Larger full-frame cameras have shallower depth-of-field (all things being equal) and are a favoured choice by portrait and wedding photographers where HFD is not the key criterion.

The first slideshow of the night was from the nineteen members who attended our Belleville Moira River Walk on a snowy grey winter’s day last month. Following our trek into downtown Belleville, we ended up gorging ourselves at Bourbon Street Pizza.

Our feature presenter of the evening was one of our new recruits - Joseph Leduc who has been in the photography business for many decades. He teaches and puts on workshops at a number of other photography clubs. Earlier this year, Joe offered to put on a workshop for some of our members. Our Executive Committee members leapt at the opportunity and were tutored by Joe in early January. After escaping from Joe’s in-house jail cell, the group was put through their paces on some really neat macro workstations. At last night’s meeting, Joe re-capped his Fire & Water workshop and his simple, yet creative approach to photographic magic! He treated us all to a humorous and informative account of macro photography the “Leduc” way.

We started the second half with a short slideshow of the Exec Committee’s macro photo images from Joe’s aforementioned workshop – even the pyrotechnics!

Next up, I put on a short discussion on How to Make an Effective Slideshow. We discussed various pre-planning, image selection/ordering, audio prep and video encoding ideas, including a number of excellent (and free!) software programs to get the job done right.

Our final slideshow of the night was our theme challenge entitled – Line, Shape, Texture & Rhythm. Thirty-five members contributed images to this challenge, so we broke it into two separate parts. The images, along with those from the Belleville outing and the Macro Workshop, have now been uploaded to our public Facebook page – do go over and have a look as there is some really superb imagery there.

The theme challenges for the next two months have been handed down – Fifty Shades of Grey for March and Everyday Items with a Twist! for April.

Thanks to all those who came out to the meeting and we look forward to another great month of photography ahead of us all!

Super(Bowl) Sunday in Review

Nothing like a bit of inclement weather to identify the real hard core photo enthusiasts in our group!  Neither the nasty weather, nor the competing Super Bowl could keep 30 avid members from attending last night’s session.  My role for the night was to be time keeper and I must admit that I didn’t do a very good job as we certainly ran into overtime – aah but what wonderful images!!!

We started the meeting with Derek Figuiera taking the quick topic entitled Trap Focus.  He discussed a little known technique for setting up your camera to automatically trip the shutter when something enters a narrow focus zone.  It sounded very useful for situations where you could predict where your subject was likely to land – such as photographing birds at feeders.

The first slideshow of the evening was our club outing on a very cold Sunday in January to Wellington Beach that was attended by 24 of our compatriots.  The imagery was quite diverse and creative for such a relatively short walk. It was really surprising to see some of the things that Wellington Beach has to offer –  swans, ducks, vole, otter and even a walrus!  Take a look for yourselves.

One of our recent recruits, Dave Robinet, has been a professional photographer for many years and we asked him to talk to us about one of his specialities – Sports Photography.  Dave provided us with a pretty good idea of a typical work day – starting at 5 am and finishing near midnight, all the while shooting many thousands of jpg images that must be almost immediately uploaded to the web!  He demonstrated the gear he uses and some of the techniques he uses to get those “money shots” that are so highly sought after.

Our second half commenced with a four part slideshow from Janice Ruggles-Bolton that covered a multitude of excursions she made during 2017.  It started with a cruise along the Danube, then off to a road trip of Alberta, BC and the Yukon. Following that, she took us on a photo excursion of the Faroe Islands and ended up with a tour of Wales and Iona (Scotland).  What is this girl running from???

Next up was John Dufour who talked to us about the Human Visual System and how our brains interpret multiple stimuli to produce visual images.  He also discussed what constitutes a Great Photograph – emotion, intrigue, story-telling, ... - and how we can use our cameras to produce an “aesthetic” result.

Our final slideshow of the evening was a rather lengthy one with the interpretation of our Frozen theme challenge from 32 of our compatriots.  This really is a must see collection of images with some great use of natural light on our frigid surroundings.  These along with our Wellington Outing images have been posted to our public Facebook page – go and take a look!

The theme challenge for February is Line, Shape, Texture & Rhythm – picking up from Bert Jenkins talk about Freeman Patterson’s approach from last month.  The March theme challenge is Fifty Shades of Grey.

Thanks to those who made it out last night and also to the 35 people who contributed images to last night’s meeting in order to make it such a success.

Great Start to 2018

Even inclement winter conditions couldn't stop forty photo enthusiasts from coming out and enjoying some really wonderful imagery, submitted by 35 of their fellow members. What fantastic participation! We thank you all for sharing with us.

Keeping with the outside conditions, our first item (the Quick Topic) for the night was a discussion of Winter Photography. It stressed safety, comfort and offered numerous shooting tips for various winter scenarios.

This was followed by the first slideshow of the evening – our walking tour outing in Picton on November 11^th, entitled Our Town. The show opened with Remembrance Day ceremonies near the Picton Cenotaph, while the latter portion displayed the town of Picton and its many attributes.

The featured speaker for the night was Bert Jenkins who, not long ago, spent 8 days with several of Canada’s premier photographers - Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant. Bert discussed the course he took near Shamper’s Bluff in New Brunswick on the beautiful shores of the Bay of Fundy. He discussed Freeman’s approach (line, shape, texture, hue & tone) and how it had changed and enlivened his own photography.

Our second half commenced with a warm slideshow from Doug Smith, depicting the tropical paradise of Costa Rica. As Doug put it - in Costa Rica, even he became a successful bird photographer. Doug’s images were rich in colour and oozing texture in the rainforest foliage.

We had so many submissions to our open theme challenge, entitled Anything Goes, that we broke it into two sections. Images from far away places, as well as much closer to home, graced our big screen. The images were impressive and we would recommend that you take a second look at these photographs which have now been posted to our public Facebook page (along with the Picton outing images).

One more item was on the agenda. We asked members to bring in some interesting/useful photographic gear or ideas and share them with the group in a Show & Tell segment. We got to see many helpful items from a light cube to a Roto light, camera carrying paraphernalia, cameras (old & new), tripods and much more. Thanks to those who participated this time around.

Our meeting ended up with doling out the theme challenges for the next 2 months – Frigid for January and Line, Shape, Texture & Rhythm for February.

2017 CFC Awards Gala

This year we moved the venue for our Awards Gala and Gourmet Pot luck to the Parish Hall at St Mary Magdelene Church.  In retrospect - what a very wise move it was!  We had an exceptional turnout - many more than we could have accommodated at our Wellington Library clubhouse.  As well, the fully equipped kitchen, meant our food was keep toasty warm throughout.  Our many volunteers transformed the room into a festive bistro.

The evening commenced with two slideshows. The first was from a Night Photo-Shoot held at Point Petre in late September, where we were anxious to capture the Milky Way and other celestial phenomena. The second slideshow was entitled Fall Fiesta - our theme challenge for the month - which was both colourful and rich in variety. The two image sets have been posted to our Facebook page.

The food tables were so appetizing!. The variety of superb entrees and delicious deserts was incredible. Needless to say, no-one left the premises hungry.

In hour two, the Dynamic Duo - David Gilbert and myself - took to the stage to recognize and reward some fantastic imagery from our members. After reviewing 3249 images submitted from 58 individual members over the course of the past 12 months, the very best images were assigned to 20 separate categories. Four contenders were chosen for each award category. The judges presented their rationale for choosing each of the images. With great drama, the winners were announced and trophies were awarded. Half way through the presentation, a slideshow was aired that capsulized everything our Club has done in the past 12 month (Dec 2016 - Nov 2017). It was surprising how much we have all accomplished in the past year.

At the end of the evening, the club recognized it's coveted award - the 2017 Photographer of The Year. This year, the award was presented to a truly great photographer and most worthy winner – Chris Ward. Chris' name has now been engraved on our Club Trophy.

The award categories and individual winners are:

Award	Winner	Image Title
Floral	Deb Walters	Standing Tall
Abstract	Daphne Creasy	Liquid Cascade
Wildlife/Animal	Marilyn Sprissler	I've Got My Eye on You
Monochrome	Alan Jenner	Underneath
Exotic Landscape	Ellen Koteen	Seaweed Harbour
Candid/Portrait	Ramesh Pooran	Fair Ride
Funniest Image	Leonard Buffett	Loch Jenner Monster
Water Motion	Mike Gaudaur	Angry Sea
Feathered Friend	Ian Dickinson	Migrant
Nightscape	Dave Tugwood	Forest Mills Falls
Architecture	Margaret Liddon	Marilyn Buildings
Shadow/Silhouette	Larry Tayler	Going Home
At Close Quarters	Doug Smith	Fungus Among Us
Slideshow of the Year	Bert Jenkins	The Other Sandbanks
Urban Scene	Mike Montgomery	Rest Stop Below
Local Landscape	Dave Tugwood	Super Moon Bus
Use of Colour	Mags Kandis	TomaToes & Toes
Mode of Transport	Gail Hamilton	Ghost Ship
Use of Light	Terri Korkush	Misty Morning
Winter Scene	John Dufour	Frozen

Congratulations to all our 2017 CFC Award winners. The full Awards Presentation will soon be available for viewing on our Youtube channel.

Our next meeting will be on January 7th, back at the Wellington Library location. Our theme challenge for December is Anything Goes. The January theme challenge is simply entitled Frozen – I understand the weather is about to turn on us very shortly!

Thanks for everyone who came out to our annual Gala event. Each year it seems to get bigger and better! I'd like to offer a very special thanks to Margaret and all her helpers who created a great festive atmosphere for our special night.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays