This time “Photo In Focus” features Jim Pollock. As a superb photographer, he enjoys bird photography as well as landscapes and taking portraits of his grandchildren and his lovely wife Jill. Winning 1st. place in the Club’s year long competition in the Advanced Division last season is among many of his accomplishments. Jim is also a CAPA trained judge (Canadian Association for Photographic Art) and as such, is quite often asked to evaluate entries in our competitions.

Jim is currently our Web Co-ordinator and has been Vice President of the Chatham Camera Club in the past. He enjoys going out shooting with “The Viewfinders” (as “Red” or “Captain Click”) and being an avid proponent of “Get Out Of The Green Box”, we can always count on Jim to advise other Camera Club members, be it on photo equipment or camera settings.

Jim is a very generous person and since retiring from a local utility company 3 years ago, he volunteers at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. He is also one of the most humble, modest persons I know, and time spent in Jim’s company is always a delight and never boring as he has also the gift of coming up with hilariously funny one-liners.

Please have a look at some of Jim’s images by clicking on this blue link “Photo In Focus” or the tab on the menu bar.

paul schmoldt, competition manager, CCC

Our final meeting of the calendar year featured Mike Blazek’s segment on High Key Portraiture, a lighting technique in which the background is two stops lighter than the subject. With the help of our lovely model, Chanel, Mike used a white paper background, a softbox as a key light and two shoot-through umbrellas to make several beautiful images. The Club offers its thanks to Mike and Chanel for a very informative evening.

View Mike’s Powerpoint presentation on High Key Portraiture

For more information about High Key Lighting, watch this YouTube video.

For something simpler you can do at home, check this out.

Our CAPA Co-ordinator, Herman Giethoorn, reported the scores from our latest submissions in the Nature and Open categories. Several good marks helped The Chatham Camera Club rank in the middle of the pack, which is quite respectable for an organization our size.

Thanks to Andy Stockdill for the pictures from our recent Christmas Breakfast. Great job Andy!

The Prince of Prints, Les McCracken, reviewed our displayed photos, pointing out several strong images. We would encourage all of our members to bring Black And White Portraits to our next meeting, Tuesday, January 8th, 2013.

Time did not permit Dave Noordhoff to show his tutorial on Removing All But A Little Colour, but you can view it now by clicking Leaving Just A Little Bit In.

Great gear is all very nice, but it’s the six inches behind the camera that makes a photograph.

Our evening began with reviewing and judging this month’s CCC photo competitions. Our Novice members contributed their Things With Wings shots, while Intermediate and Advanced members competed in a challenging category called One, which focused on a single item, standing alone. As always, many excellent and imaginative pictures were displayed, with Top Scores going to Mike Moynihan, Angel Rublik and Paul Schmoldt. See our Club Photos page to view all of the entries that scored 23 or more.

The highlight of the evening was our guest speaker, Dave Chidley, a professional photographer based out of London, who graciously found time in his busy schedule to show The Club some of his most interesting photographs. Dave’s presentation was filled with insightful pictures of people, travel, news and sporting events. Among the most moving were his shots of life in Africa, which showed the amusing, the emotional and the heartbreaking side of their everyday life. Some of Dave’s work there can be seen at the web site of Art For Aids International, an organization dedicated to educate people about HIV and AIDS and encourage them to play an active and creative role in the global AIDS response through art.

Dave also shared some of his photography knowledge with these pearls of wisdom:

• I’m no better photographer than you. I just try harder
• You only get good pictures by seeing opportunity
• Colour shows the clothes. Black and white shows the soul
• Look for F.B.I. – Foreground, Background, Interest
• Photography is the capture of light. Nothing more

The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Dave for his thought provoking presentation and we look forward to seeing him again in the near future.

Our next gathering will be the annual Christmas Breakfast on December 8th at 9 AM at the Chatham Breakfast House. Be there or be square.

The Chatham Camera Club was saddened to learn of the passing of Keith McLean on November 20^th at the age of 90. “Old Buzzard”, as he called himself, hosted several of our summer picnics at his 300 acre property on Country Rd. 15, just outside of Rondeau Park. His 2 acres of lotus ponds made a fascinating place to take photos and Keith was always pleased to have us and any other visitors stop by. He was earlier quoted as saying “There’s no admission. It’s free. No donations are accepted.” You can see some pictures of his wonderful gardens in our Club Photos section.

Photo In Focus shines its light on Chris Jorgensen.
As an Executive Assistant, Chris is always willing to tackle any assignment in order to help The Club, including organizing our annual elections. Voted as The CCC’s Most Improved Photographer in 2011, he has shown that he is capable of producing much more than just excellent rodeo shots, as you can see in our Photo In Focus page.

Our busy workshop meeting started with Bob Allen reminding us of the annual Christmas Breakfast at the Chatham Breakfast House, 525 Grand Ave E. on December 8^th at 9 AM. All of our members are encouraged to come out and join us for this event.

Bob and Val West will be featured at ARTspace, 165½ King St. West in Chatham on Thursday, November 15^th at 7PM. Be sure to stop by and have a look.

Tom Townsend showed The Club a free panorama stitching program from Microsoft called I.C.E. (Image Composite Editor), that will produce high quality panoramic shots. This easy to use program can be downloaded from Microsoft by clicking HERE. You can see how to use the program on the YouTube video below.

Dave Redfern demonstrated a more sophisticated and powerful photo stitching program called Kolor Autopano Giga, available for free trial from Kolor.com. Many of our members expressed great interest in both of these programs and The Club wishes to thank Tom and Dave for bringing them to our attention. Great job gentlemen!

Dave Redfern also suggested these alternate photo stitching programs:

• PTGui
• Hugin (free)
• Serif Panorama Plus (free)
• Autostitch
• PanoEdit
• Panorama Factory
• Panavue

Print Manager Les McCracken reviewed and critiqued a collection of member’s prints that showed “Strong Graphic Design”. Thanks go out to Les for once again challenging us to expand our photographic horizons.

Our featured presenter for What I Shoot was Melanie Denis, who showed The Club a small sample of some of her favourite images. Melanie’s collection not only showed her great imagination, but her strong eye for composition, which gave us all something to aspire to. Great shots Mel. Thanks for sharing these!

We remind everyone of our next meeting on November 27^th. Details can be found on our Meeting Schedule page.

Any camera will record what you see… but YOU have to see!

For our October 23rd meeting, Vice-President Vince Gagnier welcomed five new members to The Club.

The featured speaker for the evening was Ted Kloske of Henry’s Photo in Windsor, who presented Flash 101. Ted explained different techniques for flash photography which addressed When, Where and How. He also demonstrated several flash modifiers such as Flash Benders, Light Puffers, Gary Fong Lightsphere, Softboxes, and Umbrellas. Methods and products to use Off-Camera Flash were also shown.

The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Ted for his excellent presentation and we look forward to seeing him again.

Club competition in the “Open” category was held for Novice members and Intermediate and Senior members competed in “Things With Wings”, with several excellent photographs being displayed. Club members were especially thrilled by an entry by Frank Vadovic, which received top marks of the night. You can see all of shots that scored 23 points or higher on our Club Photos page.

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 13th.

Vice President Laird VanderEnde welcomed four new members to The Club and encouraged them to take part in both the photo competitions and print displays. Recounting his own experience, Laird pointed out the advantages of getting together with fellow members to learn new techniques and share knowledge.

Doug Woodman was featured in our What I Shoot segment, where he showed us his fine collection of nature, scenic and outdoor portrait photography. Great job Doug!

Patricia Kral and Larry Kearns took a turn as Photo Fixers by showing how they could improve a photo in post processing by lightening, brightening, straightening and using different crops. Both of them were able to get excellent results from their efforts.

Les McCracken reviewed and critiqued our displayed prints. Thanks to all those who participated.

Paul Schmoldt gave a brief demonstration of how to resize a picture for Club competitions using Photoshop Elements and a free program called Faststone Image Viewer, available for download at: www.FastStone.org

Our next meeting is on October 23rd and will feature Ted Kloske from Henry’s in Windsor, who will present his onboard flash tutorial, “Flash 101”. The competition themes are “Open” for Novices and “Things With Wings” for Intermediate and Advanced members.