Our Club President, Dave Noordhoff, began our last meeting of the season by announcing the election results.

Executive

• President: Dave Noordhoff
• Vice-President: Vince Gagnier
• Vice-President: Laird VanderEnde
• Secretaries: Angel Rublik and Melanie Denis
• Treasurer: Larry Kearns

Executive Assistants

• Kathryn Parent
• Bob Allen
• Harry Arneill
• Gavin Stuart
• Chris Jorgensen

The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Treasurer Fred Schaller, Secretary Patricia Kral and Executive Assistant Cathy Dent for their faithful service. Your help is sincerely appreciated.

2012 Summer Walk-Abouts

• June – Maple Leaf Cemetery
• July – Lorie Cooper’s Cottage in Rondeau Park
• August – Photo Scavenger Hunt in Ridgetown

Dates and times will be confirmed by e-mail

Paul Schmoldt presented a beautiful slideshow entitled A Celebration Of The Year’s Best, which highlighted some of the best Club photos of this past season.

2011 / 2012 CCC Photo Competition Results
(from 543 photos entered)

Novice Division

1st Place – Tere Deslippe
2nd Place – Melanie Denis
3rd Place – Angel Rublik

Intermediate Division

1st Place – Larry Kearns
2nd Place – Lorie Cooper
3rd Place – Laird VanderEnde and Bob Allen

Advanced Division

1st Place – Jim Pollock
2nd Place – Mike Blazek
3rd Place – Frank Vadovic

Honourable Mention Photo Awards

Carson Plant – 1 Award
Adam Harpula – 1 Award

Patricia Kral – 2 Awards
Margaret Manson – 2 Awards
Dave Noordhoff – 2 Awards

Tere Deslippe – 3 Awards
Mike Blazek – 3 Awards
Gavin Stuart – 3 Awards
Jim Pollock – 3 Awards

Larry Kearns – 4 Awards
Paul Schmoldt – 4 Awards

Most Improved Photographer

Angel Rublik

Best Photo Of The Year

Mike Blazek and Dave Noordhoff – tied

Chris Jorgensen provided an update for the upcoming elections. If you are interested in running for office and have not yet been nominated, contact Chris at chrisj@mnsi.net

Michigan’s Stan Buell presented some of his amazing underwater photographs made possible by combining his two passions, photography and scuba diving. Starting in 1997, Stan has amassed an impressive collection of photos taken at depths of up to 200 feet with camera equipment that weighs 23lbs on land. The Club was treated to beautiful shots of fish, coral, ship wrecks and sea life that are seldom seen by our members. We want to thank Stan for making the trip to Chatham and sharing his talents.

Martha Gillier’s Fifteen Minutes Of Fame highlighted some her best work with a slide show that showed her eclectic interests in photography. Several members commented on her choice of music, which enhanced her already impressive collection.

Judging was held in the Landscape category for the Novice group, with several outstanding shots being shown.

The Intermediate and Advanced groups had their shots judged in what proved to be a very challenging New Life category.

Paul Schmoldt showed the group how he might have adjusted the lighting, contrast and cropping of some of the evening’s entries, which greatly improved their over-all look.

Special thanks goes out to Frank Vadovic for bringing in copies of Photo Life magazine for everyone as well as complimentary tickets to The Exposure, Photo & Video Imaging Expo, coming to the International Centre in
Mississauga, May 25^th to May 27^th.

Nominations Chairman Chris Jorgensen handed out forms to nominate next season’s executive. The forms need to be returned by our next meeting on April 24^th. For questions or concerns regarding the nomination procedure, contact Chris at chrisj@mnsi.net.

Tere Deslippe reported that 28 pictures have been submitted for the William St. Cafe Display and reminded everyone to e-mail your photo sizes and prices to Laird VanderEnde at laird@lp-wood.com. You can drop your pictures off on April 30^th at the
William St. Cafe.

Herman Giethoorn announced the scores from our latest submissions to CAPA, in which The CCC placed 13^th out of 29 clubs in the Nature category and 19^th out of 33 clubs in the Open competition. You can see our entries on the Club Photos page.

Paul Schmoldt gave an informative presentation on the various techniques he uses to process his pictures in Photoshop. His well organized and insightful lesson was appreciated by all.

Les McCracken led a group discussion about some of the excellent prints that our members brought in for display. The creativeness of some of these photos brought several positive comments. Thanks to all who participated.

Angel Rublik was featured in our What I Shoot segment, in which she showed many of her fine nature, landscape and scenic shots. Several of her deer photos were simply outstanding! Well done Angel.

Lorie Cooper showed the Club What’s In My Camera Bag, where she displayed her collection of lenses as well as an i-pad, a gorilla tripod and a Think Tank camera bag.

Vice-President Laird Vanderende reminded us about the opportunity to display our photos at the William Street Cafe. Details can be found below.

Treasurer Fred Schaller gave his annual financial report and received The Club’s thanks for his efforts.

Herman Giethoorn presented Nature Highlights Of Point Pelee, which showed his amazing photos of birds, plants and insects found at this nearby National Park. Herman’s collection has been gathered over many years and shows his knowledge and expertise in nature photography. Well done Herman!

Bob Allen was featured in our What I Shoot segment, which gave us an inside look at Bob’s excellent photography skills.

It was Kathryn Parent’s turn for Fifteen Minutes Of Fame, during which she showed her dramatic storm photos. Her thrilling display was both entertaining and inspiring! Thanks Kathryn for showing these fantastic shots.

CCC judging was held for Novices in the Doorways category with top marks going to Melanie Denis, Tere Deslippe and and Angel Rublik.
The Club also judged our Intermediate and Advanced members on their Landscape photos, with Mike Blazek and Carson Plant receiving the highest scores.

The evening’s highest scoring pictures can be seen on our Club Photos page.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 10th.

Purpose:

• Exposure for the Chatham Camera Club
• Individual exposure
• Opportunity to showcase artistic talents
• Opportunity to improve abilities with the possibilities of personal gain

Type of Submissions

Ready to hang, complete picture framed (matted or unmated, your choice) or on canvas. Any size. Open theme. We are looking for approx. 20 pictures

Timing

We hope to have the pictures displayed for the entire month of May.

All pictures are to be submitted electronically to Laird at
laird@lp-wood.com prior to printing and framing.

Candidates will be contacted in early April and given most of the month of April to get their pictures ready for display and to determine their selling price. When and where to submit finished products will be communicated at a later date.

Procedure

Deadline – April 01
Submit your selections electronically to Laird at laird@lp-wood.com
Submit in the following format:
All images must be sized no larger than 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixels vertically
First Name and Last Name ? Short title of Image ? Deadline date.jpg
Example: LairdVanderEnde-The Landing-April 01 2012.jpg

Candidates will set the price of their own project. This will be done just prior to submitting the work to be displayed, so that the candidate can take their costs into consideration. An emailed request for your pricing will follow in April.

Note: A card with the Photographers name, Name of Picture and Selling price will be displayed beside the picture. This will be done by the committee: Laird VanderEnde, Gavin Stuart, Cathy Dent, Diane Guay, Tere Deslippe

If you have any questions please contact Laird or Gavin Stuart

Diane Guay and Gavin Stuart have helped co-ordinate a display opportunity for The Chatham Camera Club. Details will be sent by e-mail or facebook.

Our member’s entries for the CAPA Open, and Nature competitions were judged, with many excellent photos being shown. Congratulations to all who entered.

Melanie and Angel told the Club about the recent photography workshop that they attended with our friend Don Martel. You can find out more about Don’s upcoming workshops at DonMartel.com

Carson Plant led a discussion about the member’s Marine Landscape prints that were set up for display.

Judging was held for the CCC’s photo competition for our Novice group in the Purple category and for the Intermediate and Advanced group in the Doorways category. As always, the entries were highlighted by several wonderful photographs.

Club members had the opportunity to buy and sell camera related equipment at our annual Swap Meet, which saw several items change hands.

Veteran photographer Mike Blazek explained the uses of various camera filters, instructing our members on how and when to use Neutral Density, Circular Polarizer and Ultra Violet filters. Vince Gagnier led a demonstration of different models and styles of tripods and tripod heads. Thank you gentlemen. Your guidance is much appreciated.

Herman Giethoorn reported the scores of our latest CAPA entries in the Altered Reality category in which the CCC placed 10th out of 24 clubs. You can see The Club’s submitted shots in our Club Photos page

• Les McCracken – 22 pts
• Jim Pollock – 22 pts
• Larry Kearns – 20 pts
• Gavin Stuart – 20 pts
• Jason Wamboldt – 19 pts
• Paul Schmoldt – 15 pts

Bill Godfrey used his 15 Minutes Of Fame to show his wonderful collection of photos. Bill is blessed with an amazing eye for black and white photography as well as the ability to capture beautiful shots of birds, butterflies and landscapes.

Mike Blazek gave us a look at his well stocked selection of equipment during his turn at What’s In My Camera Bag, which included top-of-the-line cameras, lenses, flashes, filters and carrying systems.

Our next meeting on Thursday, March 15th will feature:

• CAPA Judging: “Open” and “Nature”, 1 entry per member in each category
• CCC Judging and Critique: “Purple” (Novice), 2 entries per member
• CCC Judging and Critique: “Doorways” (Intermediate & Advanced), 2 entries per member

Members are invited to bring in a print in the “Marine Landscape” Category

Carson Plant shared his Photoshop techniques by demonstrating how he adjusts his photos in Adobe Camera RAW, using the various sliders to adjust colour temperature, exposure, brightness, saturation and sharpness. You can view a similar lesson on the YouTube video below.

Chris Jorgensen was featured in our What’s In My Camera Bag segment and showed us the wide variety of gear he uses to capture those amazing rodeo shots.

It was Bob Allen’s turn to show The Club What I Shoot in a brief, but entertaining slide show that contained some of the highlights of Bob’s recent work. Great stuff Bob!

Thanks to all those who brought in their prints for the rest of us to enjoy. As always, we saw some excellent photos and we encourage all members to share their printed pictures in the “Marine Landscape” Category on March 13th.