Our Photo In Focus feature this time around is Angel Rublik.
Traveling to our meetings from La Salle, Angel is an enthusiastic shooter who enjoys all types of photography. Always anxious to learn, she makes excellent use of her artistic ability and has made great strides in her knowledge in the year and a half that she has been with The Chatham Camera Club. Have a look at some of her work in our Photo In Focus section.
This month’s main meeting featured the judging of our CAPA entries for Sports Action as well as Club competition for our Novice group in the One category and Intermediate and Advanced in the Panorama category. The top scoring images by Colin Cooper, Angel Rublik, Dave Noordhoff, Harry Arneill, Doug Cooper, Paul Schmoldt and Mike Blazek, can be seen in our Club Photos section.
Jim Pollock showed us the various tools he uses to modify flash, including:
Our next meeting is on February 12th, when printmakers are asked to bring in a print of their choice. (Open)
Photography is no more about cameras than mathematics is about calculators.
Our first meeting of the new year, called Novice Night, was an evening of instruction in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements. Adam Harpula, Dave Noordhoff and Jim Pollock provided tutorials that were designed to show the power of these programs and encourage those not shooting in RAW to venture into a brave, new world. Several members expressed their thanks and we look forward to doing more of the same in the future. Because of the length of both programs, Margaret Manson graciously agreed to re-schedule her 15 Minutes Of Fame to another meeting.
Our topic for print display was Black and White Portrait, which saw several fine examples of this type of photography.
Dave Noordhoff gave a brief tour of our website and urged us to explore the pages and links provided.
Our next meeting, on January 22nd, will feature
See our Meeting Schedule for details.
Good photos are like good jokes, if you have to explain, it just isn’t that good.
Our final meeting of the calendar year featured Mike Blazek’s segment on High Key Portraiture, a lighting technique in which the background is two stops lighter than the subject. With the help of our lovely model, Chanel, Mike used a white paper background, a softbox as a key light and two shoot-through umbrellas to make several beautiful images. The Club offers its thanks to Mike and Chanel for a very informative evening.
View Mike’s Powerpoint presentation on High Key Portraiture
For more information about High Key Lighting, watch this YouTube video.
For something simpler you can do at home, check this out.
Our CAPA Co-ordinator, Herman Giethoorn, reported the scores from our latest submissions in the Nature and Open categories. Several good marks helped The Chatham Camera Club rank in the middle of the pack, which is quite respectable for an organization our size.
Thanks to Andy Stockdill for the pictures from our recent Christmas Breakfast. Great job Andy!
The Prince of Prints, Les McCracken, reviewed our displayed photos, pointing out several strong images. We would encourage all of our members to bring Black And White Portraits to our next meeting, Tuesday, January 8th, 2013.
Time did not permit Dave Noordhoff to show his tutorial on Removing All But A Little Colour, but you can view it now by clicking Leaving Just A Little Bit In.
Great gear is all very nice, but it’s the six inches behind the camera that makes a photograph.
Our evening began with reviewing and judging this month’s CCC photo competitions. Our Novice members contributed their Things With Wings shots, while Intermediate and Advanced members competed in a challenging category called One, which focused on a single item, standing alone. As always, many excellent and imaginative pictures were displayed, with Top Scores going to Mike Moynihan, Angel Rublik and Paul Schmoldt. See our Club Photos page to view all of the entries that scored 23 or more.
The highlight of the evening was our guest speaker, Dave Chidley, a professional photographer based out of London, who graciously found time in his busy schedule to show The Club some of his most interesting photographs. Dave’s presentation was filled with insightful pictures of people, travel, news and sporting events. Among the most moving were his shots of life in Africa, which showed the amusing, the emotional and the heartbreaking side of their everyday life. Some of Dave’s work there can be seen at the web site of Art For Aids International, an organization dedicated to educate people about HIV and AIDS and encourage them to play an active and creative role in the global AIDS response through art.
Dave also shared some of his photography knowledge with these pearls of wisdom:
The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Dave for his thought provoking presentation and we look forward to seeing him again in the near future.
Our next gathering will be the annual Christmas Breakfast on December 8th at 9 AM at the Chatham Breakfast House. Be there or be square.
The Chatham Camera Club was saddened to learn of the passing of Keith McLean on November 20th at the age of 90. “Old Buzzard”, as he called himself, hosted several of our summer picnics at his 300 acre property on Country Rd. 15, just outside of Rondeau Park. His 2 acres of lotus ponds made a fascinating place to take photos and Keith was always pleased to have us and any other visitors stop by. He was earlier quoted as saying “There’s no admission. It’s free. No donations are accepted.” You can see some pictures of his wonderful gardens in our Club Photos section.
Photo In Focus shines its light on Chris Jorgensen.
As an Executive Assistant, Chris is always willing to tackle any assignment in order to help The Club, including organizing our annual elections. Voted as The CCC’s Most Improved Photographer in 2011, he has shown that he is capable of producing much more than just excellent rodeo shots, as you can see in our Photo In Focus page.
Our busy workshop meeting started with Bob Allen reminding us of the annual Christmas Breakfast at the Chatham Breakfast House, 525 Grand Ave E. on December 8th at 9 AM. All of our members are encouraged to come out and join us for this event.
Bob and Val West will be featured at ARTspace, 165½ King St. West in Chatham on Thursday, November 15th at 7PM. Be sure to stop by and have a look.
Tom Townsend showed The Club a free panorama stitching program from Microsoft called I.C.E. (Image Composite Editor), that will produce high quality panoramic shots. This easy to use program can be downloaded from Microsoft by clicking HERE. You can see how to use the program on the YouTube video below.
Dave Redfern demonstrated a more sophisticated and powerful photo stitching program called Kolor Autopano Giga, available for free trial from Kolor.com. Many of our members expressed great interest in both of these programs and The Club wishes to thank Tom and Dave for bringing them to our attention. Great job gentlemen!
Dave Redfern also suggested these alternate photo stitching programs:
Print Manager Les McCracken reviewed and critiqued a collection of member’s prints that showed “Strong Graphic Design”. Thanks go out to Les for once again challenging us to expand our photographic horizons.
Our featured presenter for What I Shoot was Melanie Denis, who showed The Club a small sample of some of her favourite images. Melanie’s collection not only showed her great imagination, but her strong eye for composition, which gave us all something to aspire to. Great shots Mel. Thanks for sharing these!
We remind everyone of our next meeting on November 27th. Details can be found on our Meeting Schedule page.
Any camera will record what you see… but YOU have to see!