Competing with the Elements as well as the Super Bowl

Over thirty of our members braved the snowy conditions and forsook the stiff Super Bowl competition on Sunday to see and hear the creative works of many of our group. The evening showcased Alan Jenner’s recent experimentations with Smoke Photography. Not only did Alan show and tell us about this craft, but he also demo’ed the procedure and got some pretty impressive results to boot! Alan’s presentation materials are in the process of being prepared for upload to our Youtube channel for your viewing pleasure.

The evening started with a quick topic item on Tone Mapping where I explained one of the tools in your digital editing arsenal for handling the dynamic range issue and getting the most out of your camera’s raw file. That presentation will also be up on our Youtube channel in the next day or so.

Slideshows dominated the night’s agenda starting with our club outing to the Dunes in Winter (Sandbanks). Well it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with no snow to be seen! Twelve of us put our cameras to work and the results have been posted to our public Facebook page – so go over and take a peak. Lewis Parker treated us to a topside view of the Grand Canyon that he took on a trip there last year. It truly is one of the natural wonders of the world. Our final slideshow of the evening had to be split in two as we had such great member participation in our Winter Ways ... theme challenge. Thirty-one members contributed well over 200 images in total to that theme. Both Part 1 and Part 2 slides have been uploaded to our public Facebook page.

We had one other significant agenda item – namely our What, Why, How segment where four of our own got up to talk to one of their images and how they crafted the fully processed version. Thanks to Mike Montgomery, Gail Hamilton, Doug Smith and Chris Ward for participating in this recurring feature.

As usual, the theme challenges for the next 60 days were handed down – Our World – First in Colour, Next in B&W/Poly for February and Shadows & Silhouettes for March. To clarify the February theme, we are asking for 4 pairs of images, the first in full colour and then the same image in B&W (or polychrome).

First Meeting of the New Year

Our first meeting of 2017 was attended by over 40 enthusiastic photographers – most of whom actively contributed to the many slideshows of the night.

The session started with a quick topic item directed to DSLR owners. Ian Dickinson demonstrated how to calibrate our lenses to ensure precise accuracy in focusing. The procedure utilized a small focussing target mechanism which can be down loaded freely from this Lens-Calibration-Tool link.

The first slideshow centred on our closest celestial orb – namely the moon and, in particular, the recent series of SuperMoons over the past few months. These images demonstrate the trade-offs photographers must make when capturing something so bright, quite often at the darkest hour of the night.

Our annual Show & Tell had participation from about a dozen of our members and featured everything from the latest mirrorless camera models to an antiquated dual lens film camera from sometime "BC". We were shown a number of very handy widgets including a photographer vest (converted fishing variety) and a clamp for securely supporting your camera when/where tripods are not appropriate.

 

The first half concluded with a slideshow of Part 1 of our Members Choice theme challenge. Over 260 images were submitted and as such it was decided to separate it into two slideshows. The quality of the imagery was incredible, featuring photos from exotic far-away places and those much closer to home.

Starting the second half of our meeting, Bert Jenkins depicted the cold majesty of our nearby Sandbanks dunes and shoreline (The Other Sandbanks) during the din of winter. Bert’s use of Black & White imagery not only suited the icy subject matter but also led nicely into our main art feature of the evening – a presentation by Margaret Liddon entitled The Art of Black & White Photography. Margaret touched on the importance of lines, shapes, shadows, patterns and contrast in achieving an effective monochrome image.

 

The final slideshow of the evening was a longer version of Part 2 of the Members Choice theme challemge. Slides from this meeting have been posted to our public Facebook page for your viewing pleasure. In addition, the two presentations will be available on our Youtube channel.

 

The themes for the next 60 days were handed down – Winter Ways – Pathways, Laneways, Roadways, ... for January and Our World – First in Colour, Next in B&W/Poly for February. For this later theme, we are asking for 4 pairs of images, first in full colour and then the same images in B&W.

Thanks again for all the participation and support.

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

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 12^th in Picton at the Firelight Lantern Festival (Crystal Palace).

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.