5th May: Virtual Club Meeting – led by Julia Wainwright – A new competition challenge revealed!

Many thanks to Julia for hosting last night’s interactive virtual meeting.  Julia has produced our May programme which culminates in another online competition at the end of the month.

Before revealing the competition challenge,  we had feedback on last week’s online competition,  including lessons learned/tips/pitfalls of Flat Lay photography as well as the online judging experience.  Extremely positive on all counts so everyone is looking forward to preparing this month’s competition challenge of producing one or two Triptychs.

Braving the complexities of real-time photo-editing, (brave indeed!) Avril Candler demonstrated how she created a ‘kaleidoscope’ image combining  photos of a dahlia head and  ‘bemused’ butterfly………Some of the techniques shown may well help with the Triptych challenge.  She complemented the demo with a PowerPoint presentation and a short question and answer session at the end.  Avril said “it is a very strange experience – talking into a (muted) sea of hidden faces…………..”

We are on a very steep learning curve – embracing new technology and the vagaries of internet bandwidths!  But at least we are ‘here’ and we are trying!

Thanks again to Julia and to Avril for an enjoyable and informative meeting.

 

 

28th April: Online Club Challenge #1 – Flat Lay Competition judged by Paul Burwood LRPS

So many thanks go to our judge, Paul Burwood LRPS, who judged our first club challenge “Flat Lay”  live last night.  It worked brilliantly.  Having the ability to ‘meet’ up virtually, see each image perfectly as Paul made constructive and informative comments in the comfort of our own homes was great. Paul commented that usually it is the judge who watches the audience so having the audience’s eyes on the judge is slightly unnerving!  but probably not as unnerving perhaps as waiting for one’s image to be judged………..

Congratulations go to Alan Graham who won the competition with “Seeds to Plants”;  Judith Gimber’s “Scrabble” was second and Judy Buckley-Sharp’s “Watercolours” third.  Judy’s “Handmade” was highly commended as were “Making a Home” by Mike Kass and Julia Wainwright’s “Print Making”.  Julia’s “Coffee Time” and Trevor Alexander’s “Engineering” were commended. We may be in lock-down but there are no boundaries to imagination and creativity!

All the images will be on view in our Facebook page.

Thanks to everyone who participated and came along to view the competition and thanks again to Paul Burwood for his excellent judging.

We look forward to May’s programme culminating in another online challenge competition.

Stay safe and well.

21st April: Talk – The Art of Macro by Tony North

What a great evening thanks to Tony North, South Manchester Camera Club.  Watching Tony’s presentation via Zoom worked brilliantly as he took us through his approach, philosophy and technical expertise. Full of information, wonderful macro images, pictorial and creative – much food for thought.  As a bonus, Tony shared some of his magnificent landscapes with us.  An inspiring evening enjoyed by all.