Evening all

hope you’ve been enjoying the warm day as much as you could, before the winter comes back in the next couple of days. I’ve just been out to find my pitch for next Sunday’s cycle-past and it’s interesting to note that many of the small country lanes around Stocksbridge are in the middle of resurfacing. After pedaling up all those hills, I suppose it would be uncomfortable on a bumpy road. How thoughtful.

Monday evening – don’t forget that this is not our final meeting. We meet again on 8th May at Emmanuel when we’ll be reviewing the year so far, discussing what’s set up for over the summer months, finalising the programme for the rest of 2017 (more or less done, but we’re still trying to get judges for some), then discuss how you’d all like the activities to pan out for next year and beyond. In the absence of a volunteer to be the Programme Secretary, the programme will remain much as it has been, with as many amendments as members request on 8th May, and our current big headache is the number of competitions between September and December, especially when judges are becoming a rarity across the YPU circuit.

One important activity I have to do on the 8th is to set the President’s Trophy Competition topic for over the summer. This is a photographic challenge for everyone to join in. General description/definition is on the website, in that it will be one entry presented on a 50x40cm (20x16inch) mount/card. To enter, you must bring it in on, and for the duration of, the President’s Evening (first Monday back in September) and we will judge it by member ballot, as with the little gems scoring system. I will then keep you entertained for the rest of that evening – and try not to mention any Dubai photographs.

Back to Monday 24th. The judge will be coming to Wade Street Chapel, as it’s actually easier for her to get to than Huddersfield Road – straight off the M1 at Dodworth, etc. For those who haven’t been before, the car park (a pay & display, but it’s free after 6pm) is just about opposite the Jet garage, 150 yards from the Chapel.

As I’ll at Stocksbridge on the night, judging, and Bill is being forced to enjoy his birthday with his family, this will be a nice quiet evening for everyone else, so come along and enjoy the peace and quiet. The place should be opened up between 7:30 and 7:45 and the key holder only lives across the road, so locking up is no problem. One thing we do have to do when using the Chapel is get all our projection stuff there, screen and all, so a few strong volunteers may be sought to help do some carrying in and out.

Hope the competition goes well for all those who’ve entered, and I’ll see you all at our extra meeting, 8th May, around 7:45 for 8 o’clock start.

Brian

PS – a quick reminder – if you haven’t yet been to Wath Library to see the Yorkshire Monochrome Group’s black and white exhibition, then make sure you do – it’s well worth the trip, and closes on 28th April.

Monday 10th April – what’s on?

Little Gems competition.
As mentioned last week, this is for members to bring in two prints on the night – maximum size of print is 5x7inch, they don’t have to be mounted, but they generally lay flat easier if they are, and look a little better. Entries are anonymous, members vote for them by number and the results are announced when counting has finished.

Question time.
No questions have been sent to me, yet, so I assume we’re all happy to have a general discussion and include a few queries as we go along.
One thought – if you’ve entered images for a competition and disagreed with, or didn’t understand, the feedback/criticism given, or if they suggested some amendments and you want some help to start making them, bring the image(s) on a memory stick and we’ll see what we can do.
These could be:
– ‘using aperture to control depth of field (to make the background blurred);
– increasing interest by using a foreground object;
– using fill-in flash to soften shadows or show detail in the dark parts;
– sharpening the image (essential with almost all images taken in digital cameras.
(note – if you prefer to use your own system on your own laptop, bring it in and we can try to set it up for everyone to see on the projector, while you drive it)

Or, if you want help understanding the competition categories – let us know which one and we’ll go through where to find the details, and help to explain them.

Don’t forget, if you’ve a question about your camera, please bring the instruction manual AND your camera and we’ll find someone to help out. Interestingly, nobody mentioned user manuals at our ‘my favourite accessory’ evening – and I always keep the manual for my camera and my flashgun in the bag, with the camera and flashgun. I’ve never had a good memory, and now – well, I can’t even remember what I was going to put next…..

see you Monday night

As it’s half term, there should be no group in before us

Brian

Subject: Fw: Oaks memorial dedication day

I’ve been asked to forward this to all members as some of you may be interested in the progress of this memorial.

If you know of anyone else who may be interested, please pass it on.

Brian

*******

Please fined attached Invite to the Oaks Colliery Disaster 1866
Memorial Dedication Day, on the 7th May 2017.

Thanks

Pete

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

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