Next two Monday evenings

Subject: Next two Monday evenings

Afternoon all

I thought I’d do a double billing today, anything to save the price of a stamp.

Monday 13th March – ‘Members – my favourite accessory’.
This is an evening which we hope will turn out to be a good natter about a broad range of photographic equipment, along with many ideas and suggestions for improvement. It is not intended to be a ‘sit down and listen’ session, but an open session for members, and any visitors, to take part in the evening’s discussions about what works for them and, perhaps, what doesn’t.

The essential items required to take a photograph are a camera and a lens. Anything else which helps with this task is an accessory – so what’s your favourite? What could you not manage without?
Perhaps it’s a 2-X convertor;
a particular filter (such as a CPL, starburst, UV, R72, ND, graduated, etc);
a piece of software (for post-processing; or something like the Photographer’s Ephemeris, etc);
a monopod;
a lens adaptor (to fit an old lens on a new camera, or to fit a Canon lens on a Nikon; etc);
an intervalometer; an IR remote;
a flash repeater; a diffuser or softbox; a Rogue Flashbender;
a wifi transmitter; a GPS logger; a note book.

My favourite accessory seems to be the spare bedroom, where I keep most if it. It may be a challenge, but I’m bringing my spare bedroom.

All photography is about learning the rules, then you can break them – so if you’ve bought an accessory that turned out to be the worst thing you’ve ever bought, tell us about that one as well. Or, if there is an accessory which you are currently thinking of buying, let us know and perhaps some of us already have one, or more, and we’ll be able to share our experiences with it, good or bad.

Monday 20th March – ‘A year on the East Coast’ – Andy Kent.
Just over a year ago, Andy left Barnsley and moved to the East Coast to be near some different areas to walk in and take photographs of. As an honorary member, he asked if he could pay us a visit to share some of the scenes he’s been capturing, reminding us of the high standard of images which he regularly submitted for our competitions and AV shows. For the members who have joined since Andy left, I hope you come along for the evening and learn about some new places and subjects from Andy’s talk.

As we do for all such talks/lectures, please feel free to bring a friend, partner or family member to Andy’s talk. Seeing images of the east coast at this time of year is much better than going out in the wind and rain – and the more people we have here on the night, the quicker we’ll get rid of that awful coffee, then we can buy some good stuff.

Now, what’s the best way of carrying a spare bedroom?

see you Monday

Brian

Details of meeting on Monday 6th March

Subject: Details of meeting on Monday 6th March

The main item on the agenda for Monday evening is our second internal competition of the year – Nature.

Entries for this have shown a healthy interest, particularly the digital projected images, with around 3 dozen to work through. This is partly due to the increase in the maximum entries being raised from 2 to 3, whilst keeping the print entries at ‘up to 2’.

For the newer members, the categories of some competitions may appear confusing, and as we all investigate them further, they seem to get more confusing. If you did enter any images, please come along to see how they do and to receive feedback from our judge on the night. Very few will leave written feedback, and this will disappear altogether once we fully move over to ‘judging on the night’ to save the trouble and expense of delivering them to the judge a few weeks early.

If you didn’t enter any, viewing the entries of other members and listening to the judge’s feedback and recommendations is always very enlightening, so please make the effort to come along and listen.

After appraising all our images, the judge’s final task is to select the winners by awarding a score to each of them – basing this evaluation on a mixture of things – their own knowledge, their own skills and their own photographic experiences, but the thing to remember above everything else is that any one judge can only give their own personal opinions. If any of the members particularly like, or don’t like, that opinion, please let us know – after the judge has left – and this will help us with selection of judges in future years.

I’ve received some short notice details of a couple of events from Camera Clubs/Photographic Societies, which I’ll mention on Monday night – basically: 1 – an exhibition at Hull, open on several days from 10th March to 1st April: 2 – A lecture on ‘Creative Techniques with Camera and Software’ being given at Wetherby. The exhibition at Hull doesn’t mention an entry fee, and the lecture at Wetherby is free, but by ticket only due to a limited number of seats.

This month’s theme is ‘Abstract’ – and I thought it would help if I could find a definition, but rapidly wished I hadn’t started looking.
Despite being a word which can be an adjective, a noun or a verb – with a range of meanings in each, I think we’ll settle on the following:
Abstract – ” ..(an image) that does not attempt to represent reality, but rather seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, colours, and textures” [so it’s just shapes, colours or textures – including monochrome]

I’m just glad we haven’t got an external judge looking at this one…..

see you Monday

Brian