S is the Word!

We almost had a rather confused judging session when our guest judge Dennis Jones thought the theme was "Things Starting with the Letter F". Fortunately that misapprehension was quickly sorted out and Dennis proceeded to share his valuable insights with our members during the course of the evening's deliberations.

Ordinary to Extraordinary

At our last meeting Alison Lyons presented a fascinating insight into how a bit of imagination, and some photo editing skills, can transform what started out as a fairly mundane image into something quite spectacular. Alison illustrated the process by presenting the same image at different stages of the creative process, which was a real eye opener.

Open for New Talent

We had a surprisingly small number of entries for this year's second Open theme competition, after the bumper crop for the Summer theme last month.

This made the task a little easier for our judge Tony Egan, and left him with ample time to share his interesting thoughts on photography in general after he had completed the judging.
(To see some of Tony's work, look here).

Prior to this discussion, Tony shared his feedback and insights on the submitted works before awarding 11 Acceptances, 10 Credits and 8 Merits across the three image categories. Our Merit awardees for the evening were - Kylie (4!), Monica, Pat, Ben and Jenna.

In the Members Choice vote, the evening's winners were:
Large Prints: Pat Murray for Steps and Shadows
Small Prints: Kylie Nichols for Apple Brick Road
Digital: Monica Bailey for Russell Falls
(So for the second month in a row we had a new member shine on the evening; well done Kylie).

It is Open Slather

Our next competition night is fast approaching and it is another Open theme. So wipe those hot cross bun crumbs from your view finders and get cracking. If we can get over 90 images for a Summer Theme after the season we have just had, then there ought to be a bumper crop for an "anything goes" theme.

BTW - If anyone is interested in buying some mounting board pre-cut to 20"x16" (which can be used as is for large prints or cut into quarters to make four mounts for small prints) there will be a pack of 25 on sale for $2 a sheet at the meeting. First in best dressed to buy some, or all 25.

On Our Selection

Our meeting on Photoshop Selection Tools was a very intesting evening. Everyone present was most appreciative of Scot (a club member) sharing his expertise in this field.

As well as covering a lot of intertesting information about the various selection tools available - such as when to use which one - Scot managed to touch on a number of related hints such as keyboard short cuts and layer masks.

The Sunday workshop coming up soon would be a good time to practice the new skills.

"History is a gallery of pictures..."

The new Member's Gallery is finally up and running, check it out here.

The three user accounts from the old Gallery server have been updated and the users concerned will have received an email with their new login details.

Enjoy!

Summer Days - Summer Nights

Round 2 of our competition program was staged this evening with a bright and sunny array of photos on display, as befitting the theme of "Summer". Evidently Sydney's unsettled summer weather didn't deter our members from capturing suitable images. Our guest judge for the evening, Ivan Finlay had the task of sifting through 32 digital images, 20 small prints and (what must be nearly a club record) 41 large prints to provide feedback and awards.

The final result of Ivan's deliberations was the awarding of 15 Acceptances, 13 Credits and 12 Merits. Our Merit awardees for the evening were - Ben (2), Ashley (2), Monica, Geoff, Rob, Jenna, Denis, Kevin, Peter and Bee Poh.

In the Members Choice poll, our winners this time were:
Large Prints: Jenna Hore for Gone Fishin'
Small Prints: Ben Knight for Sunlight and Grass
Digital: Peter Westerman for Beach
(It is nice to see new members, Jenna and Peter, taking out two of the three categories).

Congratulations one and all!

Putting a label on it

Oops! Almost forgot to announce that the Competition Rules page now has a link to an MS Word version of the labels template. This can be used to print the labels you need to put on the back of all Large and Small Prints you enter for competition.

(Or just click on this link if you want to go to it directly).

A Portfolio of Possibilities

We had another great turn out for the second instalment of our club's Portfolio Program. This time in addition to Des Crawley's insights we heard each member's first tentative ideas of how to tackle this challenging exercise. A number of interesting stores and insights were shared during the course of a very instructive evening.

However there is still much thought required to firm up ideas and plans in the weeks ahead.

It's time for a Summertime dream...

Our next competition night is only a little over a week away with a theme of "Summer", so here's hoping you made the most of Sydney's summer (I think it was in the first week of January?) to capture some quintessential and/or quirky images.

As usual, digital images are due in over the coming weekend. Please remember that the file size limit is 500KB and the dimension limit is 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. Images which do not meet the specification will be returned to you for adjustment. (Check the Digital Sizing Hints if you need some tips).

Note that the Competition Entry Form is now also available as an MS-Word document, which means you can type up your form so that the poor Competition Secretary doesn't have to decipher your hurried scrawled-at-the-last-minute hand writing!

HDR on HDR

We had a packed house for our Highly Detailed Report on High Dynamic Range photography.

Club stalwart Chris Pritt's presentation included the history of HDR photography, some excellent examples of the craft, instruction on how to go about capturing images for HDR and a demonstration of software techniques to produce the final outcome.

It was a most informative evening and the audience of members, joined for the occasion by two visitors, have been given a lot of food for thought and a range of new techniques to try out.

A richly deserved thank you goes to Chris Pritt.

A Portfolio of Challenges Awaits!

There was a large turn out of members on 23rd Feb for our club's first foray into Portfolio photography.

Our mentor Des Crawley gave a very entertaining lecture on the principles involved, which had more than a few members realising this will be no walk in the park. This exercise promises to be an exciting learning opportunity and a big challenge to the conceptual thinking of all involved.

There is scope for a significant shift in focus for all participants, with a matching development in our photographic images.

What In The World is HDR Photography?

If even knowing that HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range" does not make it any clearer, then our next meeting on 1st March is one you should not miss.

The human eye is a wonderful thing, able to simultaneously perceive detail across a much greater range of light and shadow that any mere camera. In delivering his talk on HDR Photography, club member Chris Pritt will explain what HDR means, and how to use it to create striking photographs that more closely mimic what our eyes are able to do naturally.

Chris's talk has proved to be popular at photographic clubs around Sydney, so it is sure to be an informative evening.

Open for Competition

The cobwebs have been blown away with our first competition night for 2012, with some great images on display. It was an 'Open' theme, and our members have obviously been busy during the summer break with a wide variety of subjects on display across the 37 digital images, 19 small prints and 24 large prints submitted to our guest judge Susan Buchanan.

Susan provided lots of useful feedback but still had a tough job with so many good images to choose from when allocating awards. When the dust settled there were 11 Merits, 22 Credits and 24 Acceptances.

Congratulations to all members who received Merit award(s) - Monica (2), Ashley (2), Geoff (2), Ben, Denis, Robert, George and Pat.

Finally, a special mention to our Members Choice winners for the evening:
Large Prints: George Condolen for Spaghetti Mary Nara
Small Prints: Geoff Clark for Anyone For Change?

Well done everyone!

Competition is Coming

Our first competition night for the year is coming up next on Thursday 16th February. It is open subject so feel free to enter any of your favourite images on which you would like to get a judge's feedback. Please remember, if you have not done so already, that you need to have paid your membership dues for the year before you can enter competitions.

Digital entries are due by 6:00pm Sunday 12th, using the Digital Competition Entries link on the Contact Us page. Note that we are breaking in a new Competition Secretary this year, so apologies in advance if there are any teething problems!

Back In the Frame

Our first meeting of the year has come and gone, and if you weren't there you missed an interesting and informative session. Although the presentation was primarily about Macro Photography, a number of other topics were touched on during discussions, including simple lighting and editing techniques and useful pieces of equipment. Our thanks to club member Scott for his time and effort in making the presentation.

It was particularly pleasing to see six visitors join us for the evening, so we hope to see a number of new members sign up in coming weeks.

Time to Get Ready for 2012!

It is time to dusk off your camera, empty your memory cards, and start gathering images for our 2012 competition subjects. To see what is in store for us go to the Schedule page to read up on this year's full program of activities.

It promises to be a busy but interesting year.

Our Committee for 2012

Just a reminder that our 2012 Executive Committee is as follows:

President: Monica Bailey
Vice President: Pat Murray
Secretary: Bernard Hanlon
Treasurer: KP Ho
Competition Secretary: Ashley Cooper
Past President: Vince Nash
Returning Officer: Denis Jenkins
Webmaster: Ashley Cooper