Our February 11^th meeting was attended by 52 members and 1 guest.

• President Dave Noordhoff reminded us that submissions for CAPA’s Open and Nature competitions are to be sent to Paul Schmoldt at Viking@mnsi.net no later than Friday, February 14^th at 8 PM. CCC entries for April 8th are due by Friday, March 21^st at 8PM. Novices are submitting Shadows and Intermediate / Advanced are entering Weathered.

• CAPA Representative Herman Giethoorn announced that The Chatham Camera Club finished tied for 8th place out of 26 in the recent Altered Reality contest, with Carson Plant receiving an Honourable Mention. Once again, The CCC finished in the Top Ten. Great work everyone!

• Dave Noordhoff reviewed our Tech Skills Assignment #2, where we experimented with the effects produced by different focal length lens settings. Some of the things we learned from this exercise were:

Focal Length and Depth of Field
– the longer the focal length, the shallower the DOF.

Focal Length and Portraits
– short focal length and close proximity to subject results in a distorted image.

Focal Length and Perspective
– using a short focal length will cause objects in the background to appear farther away.
– using a long focal length will cause objects in the background to appear closer

Focal Length and Field of View
– a long focal length will produce a narrow Field of View
– a short focal length will produce a wide Field of View

Special thanks goes out to Dave and Keith Blackwell for putting this “must know” lesson together.

• Bob West was featured in our What I Shoot segment, where he showed us his beautiful sunrise / sunset shots as well as his spectacular star trails and wispy cloud pictures. Congratulations Bob, the Club loves your work.

• Judging was held for our Novice group in an Open competition, with shots by Shannon L’Ecuyer, Mike Moynihan and Chad Barry receiving top marks. The Intermediate and Advanced members competed in the Food category, with Gavin Stuart, Frank Vadovic, Keith Blackwell, Richard Armstrong and Larry Kearns receiving the highest scores. You can view these excellent works on our Club Photos page.

• Les McCracken and Dave Noordhoff perused and commented on the wide variety of prints that our members displayed and made several favourable comments. As always, great job gang! Keep up the good work.

• Our next meeting on February 25th will feature Adam Harpula’s tutorial on Photoshop Elements

You won’t grow as a photographer unless you make mistakes and learn from them.

Our featured photographer this month is Clarke Warner.

Clarke first joined the Chatham Camera Club in 1979. Back in those film days, he often experimented with various table-top set-ups and cutting edge shooting methods. After ten years, he took an extended break, but re-joined The CCC in 2007. His easy-going manner and willingness to help others has earned him many friends. The proud owner of one of Canon’s finest lenses, Clarke excels at Nature and Scenic photography and says he enjoys shooting “Everything but weddings.” You can view some of Clarke’s work on our Photo In Focus page.

A gathering of 60, including 3 guests, braved the chilly weather to attend tonight’s meeting that featured guest speaker, Gary Toth of the Welland Camera Club.

Mr. Toth presented his Introduction to HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography, where he showed his amazing collection of HDR images, both on-screen and in poster size prints. Taking us through his process from capture to processing, Gary explained step by step how to produce these brilliant photos in Photomatix and Capture NX2. The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Mr. Toth for sharing his time and knowledge in this unique and fascinating area of image creation. You can see more of his work at ItJustClicks.com.

You can view a Beginner’s Guide To HDR in the YouTube video below.

• Our CAPA entries for the Humorous category were judged, with photographs by Jim Pollock, Dave Stewart, Mike Moynihan, Dave Noordhoff, Frank Vadovic and Butch Dompierre receiving top marks.

If you would like a transcript of tonight’s meeting, you should have taken notes.

With our five week “Winteruption” behind us, it was great to re-connect with old friends and meet some new ones at The CCC’s first meeting of 2014. The Club welcomed 3 visitors and 2 new members to our gathering of 63.

• Keith Blackwell and Dave Noordhoff presented their Tech Skills Assignment #2: Effects of Different Focal Length Lens Settings. You can download the instructions by clicking Review The Lesson and then How To Submit . This project is designed to help us expand our knowledge of photographic techniques and Keith and Dave have given a considerable amount of time and effort in putting it together. We encourage everyone who wants to be a better photographer to participate.

• The Chatham Camera Club’s own “Duke Of Display”, Les McCracken, reviewed and critiqued the many fine prints that our members brought in. As always, the group showed their outstanding ability to capture unique images in a wide variety of scenarios. Keep up the great work gang!

• Dave Paddick was featured in our What I Shoot segment, where he showed his prowess in capturing Nature, Landscape, Action, Portrait and Enhanced images, as well as his stunning Weather photos. Great job, Dave!

• Our entries for CAPA‘s Altered Reality category, which were judged before the meeting, were reviewed by Paul Schmoldt. Creative efforts by Carson Plant, Gavin Stuart, Mike Blazek, Frank Vadovic, Dave Stewart and Keith Blackwell were selected for submission. There were also several other fine entries that were worthy of representing The Club. Congratulations to all who participated.

• Last Autumn, several of our members spent a week in Algonquin Park, capturing nature at its finest. Thanks to the efforts of Frank Vadovic, Club members can see some of the highlights of that outing in the video below.

• As an extra treat, we were able to look back at our season so far in a slideshow assembled by Paul Schmoldt, which included candid shots from some of our meetings. Thanks to Paul and everyone who provided their photos. It was fascinating to see how much younger we all looked last year.

• Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 28^th, when guest speaker Gary Toth will present his introduction to HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography. This is one session you won’t want to miss. To help off-set the cost of bringing in a lecturer of this stature, a donation to the CCC of $2 is kindly requested.

You will be remembered for the images you create, not for the gear you use.

Our first featured photographer of 2014 is Wendy Beasley.

An ordained minister since 1981, Wendy and her husband Bob have served in that capacity across Canada and around the world. Wendy first picked up a camera to keep a photo record of her family, with her favourite subjects being Children and Nature. She also contributes photos for use on the St. Clair Community Church’s website as well as Bible League Canada, who have used her pictures in their promotional material. You can see a small sample of Wendy’s work on our Photo In Focus page.

Our final meeting of 2013 was attended by 61 members and 8 guests. The Club has now grown to 84 paid-up members.

President Dave Noordhoff announced that the CAPA Nature and Open entries for February 25^th will be judged off-site instead of at the meeting. CAPA, the Canadian Association of Photographic Arts, is an organization that promotes the art and science of photography in all its forms throughout Canada. As a member of CAPA, The Chatham Camera Club participates in their Canada-wide photo competitions and we encourage all of our members to submit their work and enjoy the contests as a great learning experience. The next competition category is Altered Reality, to be submitted to Paul Schmoldt at viking@mnsi.net by 8 PM, Friday, January 10^th, 2014. This category allows you to manipulate your own photographs using post-processing software to create surreal images, abstract, impressionistic and experimental effects using montages, collages, composites, or any other techniques. There is no limit to what you can do.

CAPA representative Bill Hall of Woodstock was on hand to present a 5^th place certificate for our submissions to CAPA’s Fall Digital Nature Club Competition. A total of 31 Clubs participated. In presenting the award to Chad Berry, Mr. Hall complimented the images he found on the CCC website and reminded us that we collected just two fewer points in the last contest than The London Camera Club, which has more than twice our membership. You can see the certificate and the entries that enabled us to win it on our Club Photos page.

Keith Blackwell and Dave Noordhoff reviewed their Exposure / Contrast exercise, which demonstrated the differences in under and over exposing a shot in-camera, as well as the effects achieved in adjusting the contrast in post processing. We wish to thank Keith and Dave for putting this excellent learning opportunity together and encourage all Club members to participate in the next lesson, Effects of Different Focal Length Lens Settings, which will be explained at our January 14th meeting. Remember, you only get as much out of this club as you put into it. If you came here to learn, now is your chance.

Our displayed prints were reviewed by The Earl Of Ink, Les McCracken, with several shots receiving high praise. Some of our members mounted their shots on cardboard which was donated by Maple Art Gallery in Chatham. If you would like to have a couple of these sheets, drop in and see Ken at 554 St. Clair St. in Chatham. There will be no charge to CCC members. Different ways of mounting the print to the cardboard are still being discussed, with some members reporting difficulty using Scotch brand re-usable tabs.

Judging was held for our Novice group’s Night shots, which saw Chad Barry given two scores of 24, while John Rehner achieved a 23 and Mike Moynihan received a 22.
The Intermediate / Advanced members competed in an Open category, where Keith Blackwell led the way with a 24 point entry, Carson Plant, Frank Vadovic and Jim Pollock were all awarded two scores of 23, while Kathryn Parent, Dave Paddick and Mike Blazek also scored a 23. You can see the top scoring shots on our Club Photos page.

Dave Summerfield was our featured photographer in What I Shoot, where he showcased his excellent work in a beautifully assembled slideshow. Congratulations Dave on a job well done!

Due to the upcoming holidays, our next meeting will be held on January 14^th, 2014, when we will judge our CAPA Altered Reality shots and display our favourite prints.

Eventually, the initial thrill of using a camera begins to wear off
in exchange for the thrill of creating great images.

The Annual Chatham Camera Club Christmas Breakfast was held at The Links Of Kent Golf Club on December 7th, 2013. We snapped a few pictures of the event that you can see on our Club Photos page.