Our first meeting of the 2014 / 2015 season was attended by 57 returning members and 8 guests.

• President Vince Gagnier announced a Nature / Wildlife Photography Exhibition by Herman Giethoorn will be held at the Wallaceburg & District Museum, 505 King St, Wallaceburg on November 7th from 6 ’til 9 PM. Everyone is invited to attend.

• Vice-President Tere Deslippe reviewed our competition classes, noting that a new division called Salon Council has been added to our Novice, Intermediate and Advanced groups. The Novice group will have their competition entries judged separately, one month after the other three. All CAPA entries will be judged together. You can see what group you will be competing in on our Members page, which will be updated in the near future.

• Vince Gagnier reported that the Executive decided to sell the Club’s seldom used printer as the ink was due to be replaced at a cost of $680. The slide scanner was included in the sale, but we still have access to it should the need arise. Proceeds from the sale went into our general funds.

• Helen Heath presented an opportunity to travel to Guatemala with a youth group from the YMCA as a project documentary photographer. Anyone interested can contact Helen at helen@uwock.ca

• CAPA Competition Manager Paul Schmoldt explained how to properly title and size competition entries. Complete instructions can be found on the CCC website at Instructions For Submitting Photos For Competitions.

• Dave Noordhoff requested that anyone interested in having a particular subject covered in our Technical Challenges segments, fill out a request form that he has made available. If you missed the forms, you can e-mail your suggestions to Dave at dnoordhoff@cogeco.ca

• Dave’s first Tech Talk of the year covered Metering Options And Exposure. You can review a similar lesson on the YouTube video below.

• Filling in for Print Manager Les McCracken, Carson Plant and Dave Noordhoff reviewed the fine group of prints that were brought in. We invite all of our members to take advantage of this opportunity to show their work by bringing in a favourite picture for the Club to enjoy. Prints can be of any size and if you wish, can be mounted on the cardboard sheets provided free of charge by Maple Art Gallery. See Dave to obtain them.

• Paul Schmoldt offered a critique of some of last season’s pictures by suggesting how they could have been improved with a more attractive crop. He pointed out how some shots can be made more interesting by eliminating distracting elements and dead space.

• We have now added a page for Photographers For Hire to the Club’s website. The link can be found under the Links section on our Home Page or by clicking the Contact Us button. Club members’ business cards and contact information will be displayed in alphabetical order according to the photographer’s last name. To have your information included, give your card to Jim Pollock or scan it and e-mail it to Jim at jim@jamespollock.com

• The evenings activities were capped off with Dave Noordhoff’s slide show of shots from last summer’s Walk-Abouts at Maple Leaf Cemetery, Keith McLean’s farm and the Buxton Museum.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, it’s all part of the learning curve.
Just don’t keep making the same ones.

If you need to know how many RAW or JPG files your memory card can hold, you can find out at MemoryCardCalculator.com

As the Chatham Camera Club enters our 80th year of operation, our current membership of over 75 of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet would like to invite anyone interested in photography to join us on Tuesday, October 14th at 7 PM at Evangel Community Church, 76 Sandys St. Chatham. (across from Sarah’s Market)

Regardless of your experience level or what kind of photo equipment you have, if your interest is better pictures of family, nature, sports or vacations, our instructional workshops and guest speakers will help you change your snap shots into great shots.

Check out our Meeting Schedule for more details.

Our featured photographer for October is Collin Cooper.

Although his job in Niagara Falls has kept him from attending all but a few CCC meetings a year, Collin is a regular contributer to CAPA and CCC competitions. His main photographic interests are Nature and anything outdoors. His vivid imagination and eye for the unusual helped him finish 3^rd in the CCC’s Intermediate Division last year and as his experience mounts, he is sure to continue to advance.

For a brief look at his fine work, see our Photo In Focus Page

Around 30 members and 10 guests attended our third and final Walk-About of the summer at the North Buxton Museum. We had full access to the church, schoolhouse, barn and log cabin, which provided many unique photo opportunities. Special thanks to Patricia Kral for setting up our visit and to our hostess, Shannon Prince.

Photos by Carson Plant

Photos by Dave Noordhoff

Our friend and active CCC member Noel Courtice passed away on September 4^th, 2014 at the age of 83. Noel, a retired pharmacist who joined us five years ago, was an accomplished nature and scenic photographer whose trip to Africa provided him the opportunity to capture a series of once-in-a-lifetime pictures which he proudly shared with The Club. Always quick to make new friends among his fellow members, he will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege to know him.

About 20 members of the Chatham Camera Club gathered at the former Keith McLean residence to photograph the lotus ponds, water lilies and wildflowers.

Our third and final outing of the Summer season will take place on September 9th at the North Buxton Museum. See the Meeting Schedule for details.

Our first “Walk-About” of 2014 was a huge success, with nearly 40 members on-hand.
Club members and guests broke up into small groups and those who are still early in their photographic journey were able to seek the guidance of some of our more experienced comrades.

Among the topics covered were:
• How to adjust the diopter
• How a histogram works
• How aperture and subject distance affect depth of field
• Understanding the Mode dial
• How to shoot in Manual
• Using the Exposure Lock button

Several of our newer members expressed their gratitude for this learning opportunity and a desire to have repeat lessons in the near future.

Our next “Walk-About” will be held at Keith McLean’s Lotus Ponds on Tuesday, August 19th. See the meeting schedule for details.

Summer Walk-Abouts have been organized at three local venues.
Everyone is welcome to join us.
Check the Meeting Schedule for details.