July Print Display & Evaluation

The July Photo Club meeting was our once-a-year Print Display & Evaluation session. We had a full house to admire the many distinctive printed images brought in by 28 of our members. In total 52 prints were on display in the upstairs foyer.  After some short instructions on Print Judging, we all headed upstairs to review and assess the images.  Then we handed our marked forms over to the care of our two number for the night (Bert Jenkins and Margaret Liddon) who diligently inputted the scores into the computer, in a race against time (attempting to complete the task before our meeting ended).  More on this in a minute.

Now, in the meanwhile, the rest of us sat back in our seats to enjoy some really great slideshows.  We started out with our June outing to Quinte Botanical Gardens, a relatively new venture that is located just north of Frankford.  Fifteen of our group visited the facility and came away with many wonderful images.  Following that shoot, many of us had lunch in Campbellford and then headed off to nearby Healey Falls for a few images that were included at the end of the outing slideshow.

Joe Leduc next demonstrated how to blow and photograph beautiful Bubbles in the comfort of our own homes. Joe does this in his basement and we got to see one of his rainy-day project videos on this subject.  It all looked so easy to get such richly coloured, multi-layered bubbles. 

Next on the agenda was a member slideshow from Marilyn Sprissler who recently canoed and hiked areas of Utah.  Her title says it all – Utah Rocks! - and in more ways than one.  Impressive canyons, rock formations and red soil landscapes in all directions!

Our final slideshow of the evening was from 40 of our members interpreting the theme Wings & Tails. As to be expected, there were lots of great images along with a few moments of levity, all wrapped up with toe-tapping music as the background.  We only see our images for a short 6 second each in these slideshows, but you can now see them for as long as you like as they have been posted to our Public Facebook Group – along with the set from our Quinte Gardens outing.

Our night’s mathematicians had not yet completed their tasks, so I talked to our Executive Committee make-up & duties and then asked for anyone interested in joining that group to put their name forward.  We’ll keep you posted on that at a later date.

Our Theme Challenges for the next 2 months were handed down – Close Encounters for July and The Power of One! for August. 

Bert & Margaret finally emerged from behind closed doors to show us the Top Scoring Prints (13 in number), from our collective scoring process.  As I indicated up front, we are basically a non-competitive club – everyone who participated by bringing in an image is a winner!  Only those who sit on their hands are the real losers – and there’s always next year!

June Photo Club Meeting

We had a full house for our June 2nd meeting, with a wonderfully high member participation rate of 40 people for the session. Our evening was a mix of great imagery & photo education, with lots of fun, entertainment and even a little spoofery thrown into the equation.

First up, we got a reminder from Larry Tayler of his photo show at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville throughout the June/July period - be sure to drop by and see his impressive display.

Monty (Mike Montgomery) played a major role in the night’s proceedings. He started us off with a short quick-topic on Photo Restoration and some of the processing tools he finds useful in his restoration efforts.

Next up was our first slideshow of the evening – our May club outing to Presqu’ile Provincial Park. Eighteen of us participated in that event, where we found much of the park literally “under water”. High rubber boots worked miracles for those who brought them along.

Our next agenda item was – shall I say – a little different. It was called The Debaters – attempting to nail down the question – Is the Printed Image still relevant in today’s digital world? Monty and Dave Robinet defended the venerable item, with Dave Tugwood and I describing it’s imminent demise. While the jury is still out on this one, there appeared to be a strong leaning in the clubhouse towards saving the day for the Printed Image.

Monty kicked off the second half of our meeting with a vivid slideshow of the Canary Islands which he visited a few month ago. For such a small location, it was quite amazing to see such dramatic variety of scenery – deserts, forests, volcanoes, coastal ruggedness, historic towns & villages.

Dave Tugwood & I were next up with a short talk on ideas for Photographing People. I concentrated on candid/street aspects, while Dave delved into portraiture, posing and lighting considerations. This presentation (along with Monty’s QT item) has now been posted to our "CountyFotoClub" Youtube Channel.

Our theme challenge for May was entitled Colour My World. Thirty-seven people submitted an impressive array of images of their interpretations on that theme. Our public Facebook page now has these, along with our outing images available for all to view.

The theme challenges for the next two months are Wings & Tails for June and Close Encounters for July.

Thanks to all who participated in our events over the past month.

May Meeting - Retrospect

Sunday night was fun night at our Wellington Library clubhouse! With 40 attendees and 31 members having participated in the night’s proceedings, it certainly was a fine way to spend the evening with a great group of photo enthusiast friends.

Ramesh kicked off the meeting with a short talk on Focus Modes in our DSLR and mirrorless cameras, identifying when and how to use them to achieve sharply focused images. We next went into our first slideshow of the evening - a humorous take on the Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny festival held in Port Hope each Spring. There appeared to be no end of brave and outlandish individuals willing to risk both ‘life & limb’ for a brief glimpse of glory on the frigid rapids of the Ganaraska River. Seventeen of our members contributed images for this rather humorous slideshow, with lively music to match.

Next up on the agenda was a timely presentation on Landscape Photography by our in-house expert, Bert Jenkins. He emphasized the benefits of travelling light when hiking (his trusty Olympus micro four-thirds camera and monopod as his preferred tools of the trade) and using the hyperfocal distance concept for keeping images sharp throughout. He discussed concentrating on the aesthetics principles of line, shape, texture, tone & hue while recommending we “peel off the labels” as we shoot. Our Youtube channel will shortly have both Ramesh’s and Bert’s presentation material for your reference.

The second half commenced with a long awaited slideshow from Dave Tugwood on his trip down-under (Australia) from a while back (think biblical era!). Dave had a great mix of scenic beauty, with a smattering of comic relief from his kangaroo friends. Dave’s slideshow ended with a fantastic show of lights on the “sails” of the Sydney Opera House.

Joseph Leduc next took to the stage to discuss how to creatively photograph the miniature world that exists right under our noses. Joe talked about his Macro equipment (his ever faithful 90mm macro lens) and lighting concepts (ring flash and softbox) along with many of his “basement” tricks-of-the-trade, to achieve his creations. His images were truly inspirational.

Our theme challenge for April was entitled To Pose or Not to Pose! Twenty-seven people submitted images, mostly of people. However, a good few of you found various animal and aviary friends to pose for the camera. Our public Facebook page now has these, along with our outing images available for all to view.

Our theme challenges for the next two months are Colour My World for May (reference to Margaret’s Artistic Use of Colour presentation in March, available on our Youtube channel) and Wings & Tails for June.

Thanks again for all your great support.

April Meeting Recap

A full house was in store, anxious to greet and listen to our guest speaker for the night – Kyle Blaney.  Kyle is an avid birder and nature photographer who has levered his love of nature into a career position as Outreach Lead of the Shad development & leadership program for pre-university teens.  Kyle’s presentation, entitled Life Lessons from the Arctic, took us to many outposts of Canada, far from the popular tourist destinations.  He parlayed these into life concepts that work exceptionally well for him.  Kyle presented impressive images of Spirit Bears, Breaching Whales, glaciers, icebergs and much more. He also stirred the juices of many in the audience to some of the geographic locations he has frequented.

As Kyle’s talk was a bit longer than anticipated, we only had time to run the slideshows prepared for the evening. We displayed our Point Traverse/Long Point Outing slideshow. The outing occurred last month just after a fresh coat of snow from the night before leaving, according to our landscape expert Bert Jenkins “drop dead gorgeous” conditions.  Have a look at the images on our public Facebook site to see for yourself.

Larry Tayler, recently back from an extensive stay in Tasmania, kicked off the second portion of our meeting with an entertaining slideshow featuring his street photography expertise, entitled Not So Mean Streets. Larry’s images will serve well in setting up this coming month’s theme challenge relating to photographing people.

Our final slideshow was for our March theme challenge entitled Soft & Shallow.  Thirty-two of you submitted an array of wonderful images, ably demonstrating this effective artistic tool.  These images have also been posted to our public Facebook page for everyone to view.

We ran out of time, so we had to defer to a later date, a presentation that Dave Tugwood & I had prepared on photographing people – no worries! We set the theme challenges for the next two months – April is To Pose or Not To Pose!, while May’s theme is Colour My World.

Cheers!!!

March Club Meeting

We had a very good turnout to our Sunday meeting on what turned out to be a rather snowy March evening.  Our participation rate for the month remained high with 35 members submitting images for our meeting.

The overall theme for the meeting was Colour and I started it off with a discussion of how the Human Eye sees colour. I also mention the concept of Colour Space (Adobe RGB vs sRGB, ...) along with a few suggestions in that regard.

Our first slideshow of the evening was our Ice Box Festival/ Macaulay House area outing from early February.  Twenty-two members contributed many colourful, abstract images from inside the “Ice Boxes” as well as many great available light images from the historic Macaulay House interiors.

Margaret Liddon was our night’s featured presenter, with another in her Art of Seeing series – this one entitled Artistic Use of Colour.  Margaret made extensive use of the Colour Wheel to demonstrate how some colours go much more effectively together than others.  She also offered 8 options that photographers could employ to improve the use of colour in their imagery. Margaret’s material has been uploaded to our Youtube channel along with the other presentations from the night’s proceedings for your review.

Our second half commenced with Gilles Bisson taking us aboard his Kayak for a trip down a number of local waterways to capture some incredible nature imagery. His images of beavers and swans were priceless!

Mike Montgomery was next up with a discussion on LUTs (stands for Look Up Tables) and how they have been used for years in the movie industry to change the tonal appearance of scenes and how they are now entering into the world of still photography.  Most modern digital editing programs now include some use of the concept for preset modification of images.

Our theme challenge for the month was entitled Mono Plus One.  Thirty-two of you submitted images, most using a monochrome backdrop with a coloured (usually single coloured) main subject.  Many of us had to do a little extra photo manipulation to get the results we were looking for.  The images were very diverse and highly creative.  Our public Facebook page now has these along with our outing images available for anyone to view.

Our theme challenges for the next two months are Soft & Shallow for March and To Pose or Not to Pose! for April.

Another great session - thanks!

The Arctic vortex subsided and the forecasted ice rain never materialized, allowing us to achieve a fine turn-out at our February 3^rd meeting – much better and more exciting entertainment that the dud bowl being broadcast to many TV sets that evening! We had 39 members submit images for the meeting – just about the same number as our night’s turn-out – thank you all.

I kicked the meeting off by showing three different methods that we could use to achieve images for our February Mono Plus One theme – requiring a monochrome image with just one additional colour remaining. Go over to our Youtube channel where this presentation will be available for review.

Our first slideshow of the evening was from our Frink Conservation Centre outing held earlier in January on a crisp, cold winter’s day. Twenty members contributed images from that day’s event, depicting lots of ice, but little snow. It always amazes how different and creative images taken at essentially the same place and time can be!

The featured speaker for the evening was Dave Tugwood, who discussed Depth-of-Field and other techniques that could be employed to produce artistic images that separated the subject from its surroundings. Dave’s fine selection of images demonstrated his techniques in all sorts of photography - from wedding shots to Landscapes, macros to telephotos. He ended with images incorporating the Bokeh concept for silky smooth backgrounds. Dave’s material will also be available on our Youtube channel. His presentation material essentially sets up our March theme challenge discussed below.

Don Tayler started off the second half with a colourful slideshow of the people and their environs in the small but unique country of Nepal. It depicted a friendly but impoverished populace with the heavy influence of Buddhism throughout their culture. Thanks Don for a great slideshow of a far-away location.

Our theme challenge for the month was entitled Winter Fantasy. With over 200 images submitted, we split the showing into two separate portions. Some members took the “Fantasy” theme in unexpected directions and locales. The images were tremendous and several members comic creativity made the shows really entertaining! These images along with our Frink Outing ones have already been posted to our public Facebook page for anyone to view.

We did manage to spend a while on our Critiquing the Masters process, whereby the audience was asked to participate in discussing the merits and effectiveness of a number of great photographs by Master Photographers.

Our theme challenges for the next two months are Mono plus One (colour) for February and Soft & Shallow for March.