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
Our workshop meeting featured Mike Blazek’s demonstration of how to take close up portraits.
Mike’s presentation started with a very entertaining video showing amazing portraits going back to Rembrandt up to modern day, which included some iconic portraits of Einstein, Churchill and O’Keefe.
Assisted by Frank Vadovic, Vince Gagnier, Dave Noordhoff and Sonya Blazek, Mike showed the club where to position a key light and reflectors to achieve dramatic lighting effects, how to position a model and where to place hands in a head and shoulders shot.
Les McCracken reviewed the many fine prints on display and reminded everyone to include their name on the front of the photo for easier identification.
The Club was pleased to welcome guest speaker Don Martel, who gave an excellent presentation on how to take photographs using Extreme Exposures. Don provided tips on how to shoot Lightning, Fireworks, Moonlight and the Northern Lights. Detailed notes on Don’s lecture are forthcoming.
Doug Woodman advised the Club that our 75th Anniversary logo is now available for printing on shirts at Express Copies And Printing, 212 Queen St, Chatham. Frank Vadovic also has pins with the Club’s logo available.
Ed Hofland has started cutting mats suitable for use in framing. See Ed for details.
Judging for our Textures competition for Intermediate and Advanced members saw Frank Vadovic receiving a score of 22 and Carson Plant gaining a pair of 23s. You can see these three wonderful shots in our Club Photos section.
The Beginners group were judged on their entries in the Trash / Garbage / Litter category with Tere Deslippe and Adam Harpula scoring top marks.
Entries for CAPA’s Nature competition saw photos by Patty Arsenault, Herman Giethoorn, Margaret Manson, Carson Plant, Paul Schmoldt and Laird VanderEnde selected for submission.
Elections for Club offices will be held on May 10th. If you are willing to let your name stand for nomination, please let Doug Woodman know.
Our Featured Photographer is Vince Gagnier.
Vince is an enthusiastic member of the club who readily volunteers to help out whenever he can. He excels at Nature and Scenic photography and is always willing to share his Photoshop skills. Vince enters all competitions and consistently scores well. He is also a member of the Chatham-Kent Metal Detection club You can see some of Vince’s fine work on our Photo In Focus page.
Club members were asked to vote on accepting the updated CCC Constitution by committee chairman Dave Noordhoff. By a show of hands, the Club passed the motion to approve by a vote of 36 for, none against. The Constitution Committee was then officially disbanded.
Entries from last meeting’s CAPA competition for Altered Reality were reviewed.
This month’s CCC competition for Intermediate and Senior members in the Trash / Junk / Garbage category were judged, with Jean De Bruyn, Dave Noordhoff and Paul Schmoldt receiving the top scores.
The Beginners Division entries for Action shots produced high marks for Laird VanderEnde, Kathy Davidson and Bob Allen.
The top scoring shots of the evening can be seen on our Club Photos page
Entries for CAPA’s Footwear competition were scored, with photos by Patricia Kral, Gavin Stuart, Paul Schmoldt, Les McCracken, Carson Plant and Larry Kearns being chosen for submission.
After the break, Les McCracken thanked the members for the large number of fine prints that were brought in for display. He also led a discussion about the methods of achieving some of the effects that were used.
To close the evening, The Club was treated to Carson Plant’s excellent slideshow of photos he took in Parke County, Indiana. Well done Carson!
Despite the snowy weather, about half of our usual members turned out for the meeting.
President Paul Schmoldt welcomed three visitors by explaining our meeting agenda and CAPA’s Altered Reality competition. The group was reminded of the upcoming Club competition for January 25th: Garbage / Litter / Junk for Intermediate and Advanced, as well as Action for the beginners group.
Dave Noordhoff lead a discussion about this month’s print submissions in the Boats category, with Les McCracken’s overhead shot drawing several favorable comments.
Our submissions for CAPA’s Altered Reality competition were judged, with shots by Gavin Stuart, Ed Hofland, Carson Plant, Les McCracken, Paul Schmoldt and Jim Pollock being selected.
During the break, Andy Stockdill was kind enough to hand out copies of the pictures he took at the Club’s Christmas breakfast. Thanks Andy!
Les McCracken began his workshop on One Light Portrait Photography by displaying some samples of the excellent pictures he’s taken over the years. He then showed the Club how to arrange a simple, continuous lighting set-up using a diffused key light, a background light and a white cloth reflector. Using Jill Pollock and Dave Noordhoff as subjects, several members took advantage of the opportunity to practice their portraiture skills.
Our Featured Photographer this month is Les McCracken.
Les McCracken is a past President of the Chatham Camera Club, presiding in the years 1969-71. His support for the club has been invaluable during his many years of membership and his willingness to help other members has made him many friends. Les has a superior eye for colour and his favorite aspect of photography is printing, making him the obvious choice for being the Club’s Print Manager. Give Les 100 square yards anywhere and he will find something interesting to shoot. Perhaps due to his background as an architect, Les has the unique ability to see what many others don’t, and the way he composes and depicts his images makes them come to life. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Les often refers to “The Luck of the Irish”, but there is no doubt that luck can’t replace the knowledge and experience that he has accumulated over his 70 years of taking photos.
One of Les’s greatest assets is his wife Jean, who for over 60 years has stood by his side and contributed to his success. They both carry the distinction of being ‘Honourary Lifetime Members’ of the Chatham Camera Club.
Les often serves as a judge in our monthly competitions and has received many awards over the years. He was the first member to be featured in the clubs ‘Photo In Focus’ with a single front page image of the ‘Chatham-Kent Phone Guide’. You can see a few examples of Les’ outstanding work on our
Photo In Focus page.