Our guest speaker, Don Martel, gave an extremely entertaining and informative lecture on Available Light Portraiture, followed by an enthusiastic Question and Answer period. It’s always a pleasure to have Don speak to the CCC and we look forward to his next appearance.

Les McCracken led a group discussion about some of the fine prints that our members brought in for display.

Vince Gagnier kicked off this season’s series on What’s In My Camera Bag where he talked about backpacks, belts, lenses, lens caps, extension tubes, filters, sensor cleaning swabs and memory card cases.

Gavin Stewart showed the club some of his recent pics in our What I Shoot segment. Excellent work Gavin!

At our first meeting of the 2011 – 2012 season, the club welcomed back many familiar faces as well as nine new ones.
Vice-President Vince Gagnier summarized the Club’s activities over the past summer, which included Walk-Abouts in Chatham, Wallaceburg and The Kral Farm, as well as our annual picnic, the CAPA Conference in London, photos of the Ontario Senior Games and a CAPA Judging Course in Sarnia.

Paul Schmoldt presented a wonderful slideshow from his 2010 trip to Southern Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland.

The club judged our entries for upcoming CAPA competitions, with many excellent shots being shown.
Those photos chosen to be submitted were taken by –
In the “Nature” category:
Margaret Manson, Harry Arneill, Keith Blackwell, Carson Plant, Jim Pollock and Paul Schmoldt.
In the “Open” category:
Gavin Stuart, Jean DeBruyn, Dave Noordhoff, Carson Plant, Jim Pollock and Paul Schmoldt.

Paul presented a slide show which featured many of the creative shots caputured during our three Walk-Abouts.

Those in attendance were reminded not to miss the October 11th meeting which will feature pro photographer Don Martel’s workshop on Available Light Portraits.

Photo Competition Themes for the 2011 / 2012 Season are:

• Sept 27 – CAPA – “Open” and “Nature”
• Oct 25 – CCC – “Domesticated Flowers” for Intermediate & Advanced
  CCC – “Open” for Beginners
• Nov 22 – CAPA – “Altered Reality”
  CCC – “Rust” for Intermediate & Advanced
  CCC – “Domesticated Flowers” for Beginners
• Jan 24 – CAPA – “Architectural Interiors”
  CCC – “Purple” for Intermediate & Advanced
  CCC – “Rust” for Beginners
• Feb 28 – CAPA – “Open” and “Nature”
  CCC -“Doorways” for Intermediate & Advanced
  CCC – “Purple” for Beginners
• March 27 – CCC – “Landscape” for Intermediate & Advanced
  CCC- “Doorways” for Beginners
• April 24 – CCC – “New Life” for Intermediate & Advanced
  CCC – “Landscape” for Beginners

Print Themes for the 2011 / 2012 Season are:

• October – Print Maker’s Choice
• November – Farm
• December – Print Maker’s Choice
• January – Close-up or Macro
• February – Print Maker’s Choice
• March – Marine Landscape
• April – Print Maker’s Choice

Steve Hook was an active and valued member of the Chatham Camera Club until sadly passing away on July 3rd, 2011 at the age of 78. We are remembering our friend and featuring his talents in our Photo In Focus section. He will be greatly missed by all of our members.

Our guest speaker was Brent Foster, a photojournalist and multimedia producer who has traveled the world while working for The Windsor Star, The National Post and The Los Angeles Times. Club members were fascinated with Brent’s powerful images from the Middle-East that showed a way of life far removed from our own. Brent is also a wedding photographer and cinematographer who documents weddings from Windsor to Toronto and now works out of Wallaceburg, where he shoots family, maternity, pet and commercial pictures in his studio and on location. As well, Brent also offers a wide variety of photographic workshops that will interest students of all levels. You can view Brent Foster’s website at www.brentfosterphotography.com

Competition shots for Beginners in the Portrait Plus category were judged, along with the Intermediate and Advanced member’s submissions for Unusual Angle, with several excellent shots receiving high scores.

Club members are reminded of our annual Awards Night and elections, which will be held at our next meeting on May 10th.

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