• Meeting host Julie Faas introduced our guest speaker, Kas Stone.

Kas gave a presentation called “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”, where she told us how she would go about titling a photo for public display by describing the visual content or meaning of a photograph. The Chatham Camera Club would like to thank Kas for her fascinating lecture. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. To see more of her beautiful photos, be sure to visit her website at KasStone.ca

• Our next Zoom meeting will be held on March 22^nd 2022

– Dave Noordhoff will discuss what lenses to use when shooting landscape photos.
– Julie Faas will be featured in What I Shoot
– We will review our March Photo Challenge results
– For our “digital print” segment, all members are asked to submit a photo of any subject for display and discussion.

“It’s an illusion that photos are made with the camera. They are made with the eye, heart and head.” – Henri Cartier Bresson

A Comprehensive Guide to Spherical Aberration.

• Meeting Co-ordinator Julie Faas introduced Keith Blackwell, who shared his thoughts on How To Take Better Black And White Photos.
For more on how to produce compelling black and white photographs, check out this YouTube video.

• Gavin Stuart was our featured photographer in this month’s segment of What I Shoot.

Gavin’s impressive collection of scenic, nature, and abstract photos should serve as inspiration to us all. Thanks Gavin. Your show was excellent!

The February Photo Challenge entries were reviewed with Cindy Taleski (23.5 and 22.5 pts), and Jeff Dease (23 pts), scoring top marks for the Novice Division’s Looking Through Windows category. The Intermediate, Senior and Salon groups’ Bridges photos provided high scores to Linda Pepper (24.5 pts), Mary Craig (24 and 22 pts), Jim Pollock (23 pts x 2), and Tere Deslippe, Carson Plant, Martha Gillier and Jana Smith, all with 22.5 pts. Congratulations to all who entered. Your images continue to impress. You can see the top scoring photos on our Club Photos page.

• Dave and Keith reviewed the digital prints that were sent in for display and discussion, and as always, we saw many excellent images taken by our members. The next digital print display will be held on March 22^nd and we would love to see a couple of your favorites, any size, any subject. Just e-mail them to Dave at dnoodhoff@cogeco.ca

• Our next meeting will be held on March 8^th when our guest speaker will be Kas Stone of KasStone.ca, whose topic will be “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”.

“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” – Irving Penn

• Wendy McDonald asked us to kindly send in some photos for Chad Barry to discuss during his presentation on “How To Critique a Photo” on April 12th.
– Rename your images to include your name.
– Resize your images to our club sizing: 1400 x 1050 max for horizontal (landscape) and 1050 max x 1400 vertical (portrait)
– Forward your images to : ccc.picsubmissions@gmail.com with Chad Barry Critique as your Subject line.

• Meeting host Julie Faas introduced our featured presenter for the evening, Dave Noordhoff.

Dave showed us another of his comprehensive tutorials, this time on how to use Topaz Sharpen AI, Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Gigapixel. He reviewed the various settings for each of these excellent post processing programs and showed us how to use them effectively. The Club thanks Dave for his time and his talents. If you would like to try any of these products, visit the Topaz website.

For a quick review on what each of these programs can do, check out these videos.

Topaz Sharpen AI

Topaz DeNoise AI

Topaz Gigapixel

• Our next Zoom meeting will be held on February 22^nd 2022
– Keith Blackwell will teach us how to take better Black And White photos
– Gavin Stewart will be featured in What I Shoot
– We’ll review the February Photo Challenge Results
– Our “digital prints” will be displayed for all to enjoy. All members are invited to submit a photo of any subject for display and discussion to ccc.picsubmissions@gmail.com Regular Club sizes of 1400 pixels wide / 1050 pixels tall are requested. If you don’t know how to size your photos, send them anyway and they will be resized for you.

“Prizes and honours seldom stimulate creativity.” – Freeman Patterson

ZOOM Co-Ordinator Julie Faas welcomed everyone to our January 25^th meeting.

• Club members were treated to a slideshow by Herman Giethoorn.

Herman’s show featured a wide variety of birds, turtles, snakes, frogs and animals that he has photographed at Point Pelee. He also showed pictures of some of the Park’s points of interest, including streams, paths, beaches, the lookout tower and the DeLaurier House. Thanks Herman, we thoroughly enjoyed your presentation.

• Entries from our first CCC Photo Challenge of the new year were reviewed, with Stacy Arnold getting the high score of 22.5 pts in the Novice Division’s Lakes And Riverscapes category. Top marks in the Intermediate, Senior and Salon groups for Through A Window went to Mary Craig (23.5 pts and 22 pts), Jeff McDonald (22.5 pts), Tere Deslippe (22.5 pts), Barb Ferren (22.5 pts), Clarke Warner (22 pts), Bill Henry (22 pts) and Jana Smith (22 pts). You can see the top scoring photos on our Club Photos page.

• Bill Henry was featured in our What I Shoot segment.

Bill showed us an impressive collection of floral, abstract, scenic, nature, macro and lens ball photos. Thanks Bill. Your show was awesome!

• Dave and Keith reviewed the “digital prints” that were sent in for display and discussion. As always, we saw some wonderful pictures from all genres of photography. Our next “digital print” display will be held on February 22^nd and we would love to see a couple of yours, any size, any subject. Just e-mail them to Dave
at dnoordhoff@cogeco.ca using the regular club sizes. If anyone would like to see how Mary accomplished her fence removal in front of the caged lion, check out this YouTube video by Anthony Morganti.

• Our next meeting will be held on February 8^th when Dave Noordhoff will teach us how to use Topaz Software, Sharpen AI, DeNoise AI, Gigipixal and Adobe Super Resolution

Photography is a language more universal than words.

• Meeting host Julie Faas introduced our guest speaker, Peter Baumgarten of CreativeIslandPhoto.com who presented “Nature and the Natural World”. Peter went over the following photo tips and techniques:
Understand The Light
Every shot requires some planning. Check the Local Weather and refer to Photoemeris to see how the light will fall.
Add Depth To Your Images
Have points of interest in the foreground, midground and background of your images. Use focus stacking and focus bracketing to increase the depth of field. Isolate your subject by using a shallow depth of field.
Frame It
Force the viewer’s eye to go to the subject
Include People
People tell a story and give scale to your photos
Use The Fifty Shades Of Grey
Black and white images remove the distraction of colour.
Wildlife Photo Tips
Be patient. Take the time to find the best view of your subject. Keep your distance if wildlife show signs of stress. Get up close if you can. Try to catch wildlife doing something interesting instead of just taking static photos. Use a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 to freeze wildlife in action.

Peter recommended reading Photography And The Art Of Seeing by Freeman Patterson.

• Our next Zoom meeting will be held on January 25^th 2022
– Herman Giethoorn will show his presentation on Point Pelee.
– Bill Henry will be featured in What I Shoot.
– We will review the January Photo Challenge results
– For our “digital print” segment, all members are asked to submit a photo of any subject for display and discussion. Kindly use the regular club sizes of 1400px wide and 1050px tall maximum, and e-mail them to Dave at dnoordhoff@cogeco.ca. If sizing your photos is a challenge, don’t let that stop you. Dave will do it for you.

Read or Download your favourite past issues of PHOTONews for FREE!

• Meeting host Julie Faas introduced our guest speaker, Dave from Freaktography.com, who spoke to us about Urban Exploring Photography. Photographing the typically off-limits and unseen parts of civilization, Dave is a modern day explorer who chooses to seek out the wonders and mysteries of our own backyards through unconventional photography and adventurous Urban Exploring. His presentation took us through 80 minutes of photos, videos, stories, humour and intrigue as he took us into abandoned houses, power plants, mental asylums, and prisons that looked as if the prior owners just vanished, leaving all their belongings behind.

The Chatham Camera Clubs thanks Dave for his fascinating presentation. We loved it!

• Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go Urban Exploring in Chatham’s former Darlings plant? Now you can, without trespassing.

• Recently, our own Mike Blazek posted a YouTube video that shows his photo project called “The landscape in Flux” that was featured at The Chatham Cultural Centre last Spring. Congratulations Mike! We’re so proud to have you as one of us!

• This month’s featured club member is Bob Downey. You can learn more about him and his excellent work on our Photo In Focus page.

• Our next Zoom meeting will be held on January 11th 2022 when our guest speaker will be Peter Baumgarten of CreativeIslandPhoto.com who will talk about “Nature and the Natural World”.

You will never be criticized by someone doing more than you. You’ll often be criticized by someone doing less.

• Meeting host Julie Faas introduced our guest speaker, Ted Kloski from Henry’s in Windsor, who presented a tutorial on how to effectively use a flash to improve our photos. Ted showed us some of the limitations of natural light and on-camera flash before demonstrating how off-camera flash can introduce interesting shadows. He also showed us a variety of flash triggers and receivers as well as different types of light modifiers and studio strobes. The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Ted for sharing his time and his knowledge with us, and we look forward to seeing him at an in-person meeting in the near future.

• We reviewed our November Photo Challenge, with high scores in the Novice group going to Barb Delanghe (24 pts), Kim Charron (22.5 pts x 2) and Gord Myers (22.5 pts x 2) for their Reflections photos, while top marks in the Intermediate, Advanced and Salon divisions went to to Tere Deslippe (24 pts and 23 pts), Clarke Warner (23.5 pts), Linda Pepper (23 pts and 22.5 pts), Jim Pollock (23 pts and 22.5 pts), Carson Plant (22.5 pts), Martha Gillier (22.5 pts) and Debby Venne (22.5 pts). Thanks to all who submitted. We saw some excellent work across the board. You can see these top scoring shots on our Club Photos page.

Dave and Keith reviewed the “digital prints” that were submitted and led conversations with some of the makers on how they went about producing their images. This has proven to be a very popular feature and we thank Dave and Keith as well as all who participated.

• Our next Zoom meeting will be held on December 14^th at 7 PM when our guest speaker will be Dave from Freaktography.com, will speak to us about Urban Exploring Photography.

It’s exciting to set a photographic goal and then reach it, but as soon as you do, it’s time to set another goal.

Photography Aspect Ratio: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?