Our meeting opened with Deana Lee Ross and Peter Hensel extending an invitation to the members of The Chatham Camera Club to participate in the upcoming South Western Regional Senior Games, scheduled for next September 1st. Sign-up sheets for the various events will be available at our next meeting on April 26th.

CAPA co-ordinator Herman Giethoorn reviewed our entries in the recent CAPA Open Competition in which The Club finished 22nd out of 27. High marks were obtained by Les McCracken (21 pts), Nelson Harrison (21 pts) and Paul Schmoldt (21 pts). Congratulations to all.

Les McCracken critiqued our Silhouette Prints which showed some outstanding creativity. Thanks again to Vince and Frank for their excellent display racks.

Dave Noordhoff told the group about four Club members who call themselves The Viewfinders, who like to venture out together on photo shoots to interesting places in the Essex, Kent, Lambton, Elgin area. To view some of the shots obtained by Dave, Paul, Carson and Jim, go to Picasa Web Albums and search for “The Viewfinders” (quotation marks included). Club members are encouraged to open their own FREE Picasa account.

Jim Pollock gave a presentation on Auto Settings Explained in which he guided some of our newer members through their camera’s basic Auto settings. You can find a general review of those settings HERE

Paul Schmoldt’s workshop on Focus Facts explained different focusing techniques to obtain sharp pictures, which included how and when to over-ride our camera’s auto focus.

Our Featured Photographer is Harry Arneill.

Harry is a hard working Executive Assistant who is always on hand to set up and take down the equipment used at our meetings and contributes valuable ideas at executive meetings. An active community volunteer, he is also an excellent photographer who excels at all types of photography. You can see a sample of Harry’s work on our Photo In Focus page.

Treasurer Fred Schaller reviewed The Club’s financial report as well as the projected budget for 2011 / 2012.

Paul Schmoldt read the CAPA results from the “Footwear” competition in which The Chatham Camera Club finished 4th out of 27 clubs. Congratulations to Patricia Kral, Gavin Stuart, Paul Schmoldt, Les McCracken, Carson Plant and Larry Kearns, whose photos received this honour.

Paul gave his presentation called “Around My Home Town”, in which he showed us some of Denmark’s geography, unique buildings and customs. Club members especially enjoyed the pictures of Paul when he was a young lad. Amazingly, they were in colour!

Entries in The Club’s “Portrait Plus” competition were judged by Les, Vince and Jim. Top marks for the Colour Portraits went to Dave Noordhoff (21), Nelson Harrison (21), Mike Blazek (20) and Paul Schmoldt (20). In the Black And White Portrait category, high scores were achieved by Lorie Cooper (22), Laura Roy (20), Butch Dompierre (20) and Jim Pollock (20).

Textures Competition was held for the Beginners group, with Laird VanderEnde (19) and Bob Allen (19) achieving the top scores.

You can view all of the night’s highest scroring shots on our Club Photos page

Our workshop meeting featured Mike Blazek’s demonstration of how to take close up portraits.

Mike’s presentation started with a very entertaining video showing amazing portraits going back to Rembrandt up to modern day, which included some iconic portraits of Einstein, Churchill and O’Keefe.

Assisted by Frank Vadovic, Vince Gagnier, Dave Noordhoff and Sonya Blazek, Mike showed the club where to position a key light and reflectors to achieve dramatic lighting effects, how to position a model and where to place hands in a head and shoulders shot.

Les McCracken reviewed the many fine prints on display and reminded everyone to include their name on the front of the photo for easier identification.

The Club was pleased to welcome guest speaker Don Martel, who gave an excellent presentation on how to take photographs using Extreme Exposures. Don provided tips on how to shoot Lightning, Fireworks, Moonlight and the Northern Lights. Detailed notes on Don’s lecture are forthcoming.

Doug Woodman advised the Club that our 75^th Anniversary logo is now available for printing on shirts at Express Copies And Printing, 212 Queen St, Chatham. Frank Vadovic also has pins with the Club’s logo available.

Ed Hofland has started cutting mats suitable for use in framing. See Ed for details.

Judging for our Textures competition for Intermediate and Advanced members saw Frank Vadovic receiving a score of 22 and Carson Plant gaining a pair of 23s. You can see these three wonderful shots in our Club Photos section.

The Beginners group were judged on their entries in the Trash / Garbage / Litter category with Tere Deslippe and Adam Harpula scoring top marks.

Entries for CAPA’s Nature competition saw photos by Patty Arsenault, Herman Giethoorn, Margaret Manson, Carson Plant, Paul Schmoldt and Laird VanderEnde selected for submission.

Elections for Club offices will be held on May 10^th. If you are willing to let your name stand for nomination, please let Doug Woodman know.

Our Featured Photographer is Vince Gagnier.

Vince is an enthusiastic member of the club who readily volunteers to help out whenever he can. He excels at Nature and Scenic photography and is always willing to share his Photoshop skills. Vince enters all competitions and consistently scores well. He is also a member of the Chatham-Kent Metal Detection club You can see some of Vince’s fine work on our Photo In Focus page.

Club members were asked to vote on accepting the updated CCC Constitution by committee chairman Dave Noordhoff. By a show of hands, the Club passed the motion to approve by a vote of 36 for, none against. The Constitution Committee was then officially disbanded.

Entries from last meeting’s CAPA competition for Altered Reality were reviewed.

This month’s CCC competition for Intermediate and Senior members in the Trash / Junk / Garbage category were judged, with Jean De Bruyn, Dave Noordhoff and Paul Schmoldt receiving the top scores.

The Beginners Division entries for Action shots produced high marks for Laird VanderEnde, Kathy Davidson and Bob Allen.

The top scoring shots of the evening can be seen on our Club Photos page

Entries for CAPA’s Footwear competition were scored, with photos by Patricia Kral, Gavin Stuart, Paul Schmoldt, Les McCracken, Carson Plant and Larry Kearns being chosen for submission.

After the break, Les McCracken thanked the members for the large number of fine prints that were brought in for display. He also led a discussion about the methods of achieving some of the effects that were used.

To close the evening, The Club was treated to Carson Plant’s excellent slideshow of photos he took in Parke County, Indiana. Well done Carson!

Despite the snowy weather, about half of our usual members turned out for the meeting.

President Paul Schmoldt welcomed three visitors by explaining our meeting agenda and CAPA’s Altered Reality competition. The group was reminded of the upcoming Club competition for January 25^th: Garbage / Litter / Junk for Intermediate and Advanced, as well as Action for the beginners group.

Dave Noordhoff lead a discussion about this month’s print submissions in the Boats category, with Les McCracken’s overhead shot drawing several favorable comments.

Our submissions for CAPA’s Altered Reality competition were judged, with shots by Gavin Stuart, Ed Hofland, Carson Plant, Les McCracken, Paul Schmoldt and Jim Pollock being selected.

During the break, Andy Stockdill was kind enough to hand out copies of the pictures he took at the Club’s Christmas breakfast. Thanks Andy!

Les McCracken began his workshop on One Light Portrait Photography by displaying some samples of the excellent pictures he’s taken over the years. He then showed the Club how to arrange a simple, continuous lighting set-up using a diffused key light, a background light and a white cloth reflector. Using Jill Pollock and Dave Noordhoff as subjects, several members took advantage of the opportunity to practice their portraiture skills.