54 members and 1 guest were on hand for our January 26^th meeting.

• Sonya Blazek presented a volunteer opportunity at the Thames Art Gallery for those who are interested in emulating the work of Quebec photographer / artist Holly King. The Gallery is looking for one of your landscape photos that will be turned into transparencies. You would then work with other artists who would use miniature sets to create a second scene. Your group would collaborate on the lighting and the picture style and you would take a second photo to produce the final image. Printing and framing costs will be covered by The Gallery. If you would like to participate in this event, contact Sonya at: sonyab@chatham-kent.ca. The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Sonya for her presentation and we encourage our membership to take advantage of this chance to spread your creative wings and be a part of something special.

• Long time member and seasoned photographer Nelson Harrison was featured in our What I Shoot segment where he showed his fine collection of photos that covered virtually every genre. He also explained his process, locations and equipment used to produce his excellent images. At the conclusion of his presentation, Nelson received several compliments from the group. Well done Nelson! Thanks from all of us.

• The results of this month’s CCC Photo Competition were revealed with those members competing in the Novice group showing their Sill Life / Table Top shots. The top scores were given to Barb Ferren, Debbie Venne, Glen Spooner, Mary Craig all with marks of 21. Bob Miller and Danielle Gagnier both had two images that scored 21.
Cityscapes from the Intermediate, Advanced and Salon groups produced scores of 22 for Tere Deslippe, Dave Noordhoff, Angel Webster, Keith Blackwell, Linda Pepper and Carson Plant. Doug Woodman and Jim Pollock had two scores of 22 and John St. Pierre had the top mark of the evening with a 23.

• Several of our members brought in some of their prints for display, followed by a brief discussion led by Vince Gagnier and Keith Blackwell. If you would like to show The Club some of your favourite prints, your next opportunity will be on February 23^rd. Any size, any subject is more than welcome. Remember, an 8 x 10 print is available from Shoppers Drug Mart on St. Clair St. and from Wal-Mart for around $4. Books and binders to keep them in are also readily available and will provide a lasting memory of the work you’re currently doing. Don’t be shy. Show us what ya got.

• Mike Blazek presented Twelve Photos In A Year Is A Great Crop, where he displayed examples of some of his finest Nature, Abstract, Table Top and Portrait work. As always, Mike provided motivation for us all to try to achieve his level of excellence.

 
Before heading out to shoot photos, have a plan. Hoping to have luck is a lousy method of photography.

Always use your lens hood. Besides protecting the front element of your lens, they keep out stray light and improve the contrast of your photos.

Despite the inclement weather and poor driving conditions, 44 members and 5 guests attended our first meeting of the new year.

• Jim Pollock kicked off Flash 101 by showing how portraits can be greatly improved by using a Hot-Shoe Flash that swivels as opposed to an on-board Flash or an economy unit that does not turn. We also saw how flash modifiers, such as a Rogue Flash Bender, a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce and a Gary Fong Lightsphere give different lighting effects.

After a break in which members experimented with different flash techniques, Dave Noordhoff instructed the group on how to darken the background and highlight a subject using Manual Mode and Flash.

Special thanks goes out to Jacqueline Gruszka for serving as our model during our flash demonstration. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

You can review Dave’s notes on Flash 101 and Read More About Flash by clicking the icon and choosing to Open or Download these PDF files. They are well worth the read.

Check out this Review of Flash Modifiers.

For more about flash photography, read this page on Getting To Know Your Flash

• Printed photos were on display before the meeting and during the break, with some interesting work being shown. We invite all of our members to take advantage of this opportunity to show the group what you’ve been shooting in a non-competitive environment. Your next opportunity will be on January 26^th

• Our next meeting will be on January 26^th, 2016 when Sonya Blazek will present a volunteer opportunity at the Thames Art Gallery, Nelson Harrison will present What I Shoot and Mike Blazek will be featured in Twelve Photos In A Year Is A Great Crop. Also on tap will be our first Photo Competition of the calendar year, with the Novices showing their Still Life / Table Top shots, and the Intermediate, Advanced and Salon groups displaying their Cityscape photos.

If you haven’t mastered light, then you’re doing it wrong.

The sunnier the day, the more you need flash. Not for necessity, but for creativity.

January’s featured photographer is the late Margaret Chrysler.

Learn more about our friend and former Welcoming Manager in our Photo In Focus page.

• Our December 8^th meeting will surely go down in Camera Club history as one of the most challenging we ever faced. Locked out of our regular meeting space, 58 members and 2 guests drove across town to St. Paul’s Congregational Church on Park Ave. West, where we were kindly invited to use their beautiful auditorium. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to church officials for their hospitality and to our own Doug Woodman for making the arrangements. You saved the day, Doug!

• President Vince Gagnier invited the membership to submit photos that would be used as the banners you see across the top of our web pages. The pictures should be sized 1000 px wide by 288 high and e-mailed to Jim Pollock at Jim@JamesPollock.com

• Les McCracken repeated the thoughtful eulogy he gave at Margaret Chrysler’s funeral earlier in the day, giving us some insight into the life of this fascinating lady. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to her memory.

• Our guest speaker, Michigan area nature photographer Dale Vronch gave a presentation he called Intent and Capture, where he showed the group how he goes about shooting his beautiful Abstract Macro photos. He also explained how he takes advantage of the Five Types Of Natural Light: Twilight Before Sunrise, Sunrise And Morning Light, Mid-Day Light, Overcast Light and Sunset Light. Dale not only encouraged us to venture into a new and exciting area of photography, but he left us with these inspiring words: Let your intent determine your subject. Let your subject determine your capture. The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Dale for his excellent tutorial and for being so gracious under challenging circumstances. We look forward to seeing him again.

• Printed photos were on display before the meeting and during the break, with some interesting work being shown. We invite all of our members to take advantage of this opportunity to show the group what you’ve been shooting in a non-competitive environment.

• Our next meeting will be on January 12^th, 2016 when we will take part in Flash 101. Bring your camera and your hot shoe flash and we’ll learn flash basics as well as some advanced techniques. We’ll have extra flashes to lend for those who don’t yet have one.

Don’t compare your photos to those taken by other photographers. We see all of our own shots, but only the best of theirs.

Light is everything in photography. Spend your time looking for light, even if you aren’t taking photos. Look for sun beams and breaks, reflections, shadows, natural light and artificial light. See how light interacts with the environment. See light.

Our long-time welcoming manager, Margaret Chrysler passed away on December 4th at the age of 87. Although she never made the jump to digital, Margaret continued to be an active member of The Club, making sure that new and prospective members felt at ease in a room full of strangers. She also took on the considerable task of handing out and collecting our name tags. In her traveling days, she captured excellent images from far away places and was proud to show them to her fellow Club members. We will always remember Margaret for her great organizational skills, her warm smile and her dedication to The Chatham Camera Club. She will be missed.

December’s featured photographer is Carson Plant.

Learn more about one of the most highly accomplished members of The Club
in our Photo In Focus page.

• 54 people, including 1 new member attended our November 24^th meeting.

• President Vince Gagnier reminded us that Dave Noordhoff would like the members to send him some pictures that would be shown on-screen during our breaks. The rest of us would love to see what you’ve been shooting lately. Just e-mail a half dozen or so to Dave at dnoordhoff@cogeco.ca
Remember: This is your club. It can’t function without your participation.

• Chad Barry presented his slideshow Travel To Olympic National Park which featured his beautiful images from a recent trip to Washington State.
Chad also shared his advice on How Not To Get Your Camera Gear Stolen, where he offered some tips on how to avoid his own unfortunate experience.

• The results from our latest photo competition were displayed, with the Novices showing us how they made interesting images out of Flowers. The top scores were Jana Smith (23), Glen Spooner (22), Barb Ferren (22), Mary Ellen Plouffe (22) and Bob Miller (22).

Sill Life / Table Top was the category for the Intermediate, Advanced and Salon members, with high marks going to Mike Blazek (23) and John St Pierre (21).

• Bob Miller was featured in our What I Shoot segment, where he showed The Club a collection of his scenic, nature, people and travel images. Well done Bob! We enjoyed your work.

• Our Twelve Photos In A Year Is A Great Crop feature continued with John St. Pierre displaying his excellent slideshow of Minimalist Photos. John showed us that concentrating on a few essential elements and casting unnecessary things aside can produce some outstanding images. Check out these other examples of Minimalist Photography.

• Our final meeting of this calendar year will be held December 8^th when our guest speaker will be Michigan area nature photographer Dale Vronch
This will be a Toonie Tuesday where we ask those in attendance to contribute $2 to help offset our extra expense.

Once again, we invite all of our members to bring in a print of any size, any subject, to be viewed before the meeting begins and during the break. We recall the wise words of our own Les McCracken who is fond of saying, “It’s not a picture until it’s printed.” So take a minute and bring in a printed image. I’ll show ya mine if you show me yours.

If you want people to not like one of your photographs, show them two.

A good flashlight often helps focus on close-up objects in dim light. Some cameras have flash assist or focus assist, but these usually don’t help when focusing manually.

• 56 people, including 3 visitors and 3 new members attended our meeting.

• President Vince Gagnier cautioned Facebook users against posting the pictures that they plan on using in a CCC competition. If someone who is going to be a judge sees them, the pictures many not have a much impact as they would if they were being seen for the first time.

Vince also reminded us to check out the Buy / Sell section of the CCC website, where there are always good deals to be had from people you know.

• Our guest speaker was Antony Chodas from Camera Canada in London.
Antony discussed the progression in size of digital camera sensors and how many megapixels we really need to make the common sizes of prints. He also showed us some of the latest trends in photography equipment, including underwater cameras, mirrorless cameras, 360⁰ cameras, ultra-wide and ultra-zoom lenses and instant print systems.

The Chatham Camera Club would like to thank Antony for making the trip from London to Chatham to give his highly informative and entertaining presentation. We encourage all of our members who are in the market for photo equipment to visit CameraCanada.com or their store at 217 Dundas Street in London.

• Herman Giethoorn presented his tutorial on Macro Photography where he showed us different methods of achieving up-close photographs, including Close-Up Filters, Focusing Rails, Bellows, Ring Flashes and Macro Lenses. We were also treated to a slideshow of some of Herman’s excellent Macro pictures. Nice job Herman! Thanks a lot.

• A handful of members brought in prints for display and conversation. We would love to see more people take advantage of the opportunity to show some of your work in a non-competitive environment. Any size, any subject is more than welcome. Print services are available from Wal-Mart and Shoppers Drug Mart on St. Clair St.

• Our next meeting will be on November 24^th when our own Chad Barry will present Travel To Olympic National Park and
How Not To Get Your Camera Gear Stolen.

The results from our latest photo competition will be displayed, with the Novices entering Flowers and the Intermediate, Advanced and Salon groups submitting Sill Life / Table Top.

Beauty can be seen in all things. Seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the photograph from the snapshot.

Dedicated macro lenses are usually prime lenses with the ability to focus very close to the subject. Though most prime lenses can also perform well at infinity, they are optimized for close range work and are used for rendering small objects very large in the frame.