October saw Camera Club get back into its stride with the usual pattern of meetings taking place. It turned out, as far as learning was concerned, to be a month involving a lot of head scratching. As they say, Every day is a school day!
Speaker, Ian Daisley a local photographer, showed us some familiar images of Derbyshire scenery but in Black and White and showed how different the local area can look in Black and White. How to see an something in black and white is quite different and difficult giving members a lot to experiment with and to try their own take in this genre of photography which is becoming much more popular.
Member James Potter, whose images have often appeared attached to this report, gave a well illustrated talk about his wildlife images and what he has learned as a member of the club. He has a passion for wildlife, especially birds, which he has expressed through stunning images taken in places well known locally and nationally as sites of interest. We all saw how his skills have developed in his wildlife images.
Competition was next, our first Open Trophy Competition of the year. No specified subject as the name suggests. This was the first chance for our new members to submit some of their images to test their skills in a judging scenario. We had a variety of images in a well balance set of entries which for the first time had to be reduced due to numbers. The competition was judged by Paul Hands, from Hinckley, who stood in for the judge who was unable to attend. The projected image was won by Peter Edge with a butterfly feeding and new member Mike Henley took the print win with Lofthouse Portrait. Congratulations to both and of course to all who entered especially those in their first competition.
On the theme of competition, during October, members have submitted entries for the annual NEMPF competition. We compete against other clubs in the East Midlands Federation and have had some success in the past. This year more members were encouraged to enter and we are hopeful that we can achieve more acceptances and winning images. Good luck to all those who have entered.
Back to the learning theme. A talk by Paul Martin about Urban and Street Photography. Paul is a well travelled and experienced photographer from Macclesfield and his images were very thought provoking and very much different from some of our own images in competitions. In fact, it is as a genre very much a Cinderella subject. Much is done in Black and White to emphasise elements such as tone and detail. He presented his own work as well as some from famous photographers who work within this subject genre. Have a look at www.martinp.photography, see what do you think? We may see more images both in Black and White, as well as Street and Urban, in our future competitions.
So, a learning month and quite thought provoking. Interesting times and anticipation of new images. Join us and watch what happens! thanks, back next month.
