Our November 11th meeting was attended by 76 members and guests, including 5 new members.
President Vince Gagnier announced that The Club’s Bruce Warwick has become the Chairman of the local Time Capsule Committee, who are planning a time capsule which will be opened in 100 years. Bruce is looking for photos of Chatham – Kent to be included. Submissions may be dropped off at the Chatham News, attention Editor, Dean Muharrem.
• Our usual Christmas Breakfast will be replaced by a get-together at the end of the year, when more people are available.
• Our guest speaker, Ted Kloske from Henry’s Photo in Windsor, showed The Club some of the images he has captured of Urban Decay in and around the Detroit area in a slide show titled Deserted Beauty. The collection included shots from the Packard factory, the Fisher Body plant and Bob-Lo, as well as abandoned houses, churches, theatres and hospitals. The graffiti covered walls, broken windows, antiquated office equipment and archaic manufacturing tools made for a fascinating glimpse into the past.
These photo-ops are not without some risks however, including sketchy people, unsafe structures, potential trespassing fines and equipment loss. Ted offered these safety tips:
– Don’t carry a lot of expensive equipment. Use an old camera and an inexpensive lens, along with a tripod, a spare battery, extra memory card and a wireless remote trigger.
– Beware of black mould or asbestos, often found in abandoned places.
– Wear steel-toe boots and long pants. Carry a cell phone, bring food and water and make sure you have out-of-province medical coverage.
As always, Ted’s work left us with new inspiration to try to seek out scenes we may have overlooked in the past. The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Ted for making the trip to Chatham and we look forward to seeing him again soon.
The YouTube video below shows scenes similar to Ted’s slideshow.
• Keith Blackwell and Dave Noordhoff presented their Technical Challenge #1: Photographic Design.
The challenge is to find your photos or take new ones that include the photo design principles of The Rule Of Thirds, Diagonal Lines, Triangles, The Golden Ratio and The Golden Spiral.
An excellent review that explains Keith’s challenge can be found at Digital Photography School’s article on Devine Composition
When you have found examples of four of these design principles, overlay your shot with the correct lines, size them to the regular competition size of 1400 x 1050 and e-mail them to Keith at keithblackwell@xplornet.ca by December 5th so that he may review them during our January workshop meeting.
Remember, if you came to The Club to learn, this is your chance. Don’t just blow this off. Take a few minutes and get into this little project. You’ll become a better photographer for it, and isn’t that why we’re all here?
• Les McCracken commented on some of the prints that were brought in for display, with several gaining high praise, including shots by Dave Summerfield, Clarke Warner, Paul Schmoldt, Dave Paddick, Chad Berry, Angel Rublik and Carson Plant. If you would like to show The Club a favourite print or two, your next opportunity to do so will be on December 9th. Any size and subject matter is more than welcome.
Not everything in every light and at all moments will translate into a great image.
Always carry an extra camera battery. It’s not that you will often run out of battery, it’s that you will always worry about running out of battery.