54 members, including 3 new ones, welcomed 2 guests to our final meeting of the 2014 calendar year.

• President Vince Gagnier informed The Club that our Nicole Maynard has had one of her photos used for the cover of Trucking Today magazine. Congratulations Nicole.

• Our CAPA representative, Herman Giethoorn, gave us the results of the most recent “Digital Fine Art” competition, where Jean DeBruyn and Reagan Smolders each scored 24 and Carson Plant was given an Honourable Mention for his 28 point shot. As a group, The CCC placed 8th out of 27 competing clubs. Great job everyone!

“Jenny” by Carson Plant

• Dave Noordhoff’s Tech Talk was aimed at those who are challenged by resizing and renaming images for Club competitions. Step by step instructions were giving for
Photoshop,
Lightroom,
FastStone,
Elements
Canon’s DPP.

• Patricia Kral led a group discussion of our recent “Barns and Silos” entries where she suggested several ways some of the images might have been improved. Thanks to all who participated.

• Keith Blackwell reviewed his Technical Challenge #1 – Design Guides, by showing four excellent examples that were submitted to him. For more on this fascinating subject, check out Digital Photography’s page on Divine Composition.

• Les McCracken and Dave Noorhoff reviewed some of the prints that our members brought in for display. As always there were several beautiful shots that received high praise. If you would like to show The Club one or two of your favourite photos, your next opportunity to do so will be at our January 13^th meeting. We encourage all of our members to bring in a print and show the rest of us what you’ve been shooting.

• We’d like to remind everybody that entries for the next CAPA competitions, “Altered Reality” and “Light”, are to be sent to Paul Schmoldt at viking@mnsi.net no later than Friday, January 2^nd at 8 PM. 1 entry per category per member. All entries should be sized 1400 pixels Horizontal, 1050 pixels Vertical Maximum for ultimate projection impact – jpg format.

People insist on assigning limits to cameras and lenses, but the limits reflect more about the people who want to limit the devices than about the equipment’s capabilities.

Lens caps will transfer dust and debris to the lenses you mount them on. Cleaning your lens caps every time you clean your lenses is a very small chore, but it will help keep your expensive gear functioning at its best.

Our featured photographer this month is Keith Blackwell.

Coming to us from Strathroy, Keith is one of the most innovative and artistically gifted photographers in The Club. For the past two years he has helped put together our Technical Challenges that have covered a variety of topics that have given us all a chance to become more skilled and knowledgeable in the art of photography. Keith’s top quality images have set a standard that we can all aim to achieve. When not behind a camera he also enjoys sailing and ballroom dancing. Have a look at some of Keith’s excellent photos on our Photo In Focus page.

80 current members welcomed 1 new member and 2 guests to our November Main Meeting.

• The Club’s Bruce Warwick is now the Chairman of the local Time Capsule Committee, who are planning a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years. The Committee is looking for prints of local schools, churches and historic buildings. Submissions may be dropped off at the Chatham News, attention Editor, Dean Muharrem.

• Executive Assistant Shannon L’Ecuyier was featured in our What I Shoot segment where she showed pictures of her family at play, at the beach and at leisure. Also included were landscapes, old buildings, flowers, food, birds, bugs, butterflies, abstracts and panoramas. Our thanks goes out to Shannon for a job well done.

• Paul Schmoldt and Herman Giethoorn reviewed our CAPA “Nature” entries from last October. Although we submitted several excellent shots, The Club finished tied for 21st place out of 28.

• Martha Gillier critiqued a series of recently submitted photos and offered suggestions on how some of them could have been improved. Cropping out dead space, more attention to proper exposure and more accurate focusing were the main recommendations.

• Dave Noordhoff’s Tech Talk centered on Macro and Focusing
Dave reviewed some of his experiments which showed that in macro work, when you stop down to f-16, the depth of field increases, but sharpness falls off after f-11. This phenomenon is called Diffraction Limited Aperture. Thanks Dave for a clear and concise lesson that we can all put to use.

• The final CCC photo competitions of the calendar year had the Novice group offering “Barns and / or Silos” and the Intermediate / Advanced / Salon members showing the unusual topic of “Nuts”. As always, there were several original and clever creations submitted that stretched the bounds of our imaginations. The top scoring shots from the Novices were by Jacqueline Gruszka, Steven Taylor, Glen Spooner, Larry Taylor and Diana Donkers. The Intermediate / Senior / Salon group was led by Richard Armstrong, Keith Blackwell, Dave Noordhoff, Carson Plant and Chad Barry.

• Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 9^th.

Pack your gear wisely before every photo shoot. Remember, opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.

The world’s first digital camera was invented by Kodak in 1975. The 8 pound camera recorded 0.01 megapixel black and white photos to a cassette tape. The first photograph took 23 seconds to create. To play back images, data was read from the tape and then displayed on a television set.

Our November 11^th meeting was attended by 76 members and guests, including 5 new members.

President Vince Gagnier announced that The Club’s Bruce Warwick has become the Chairman of the local Time Capsule Committee, who are planning a time capsule which will be opened in 100 years. Bruce is looking for photos of Chatham – Kent to be included. Submissions may be dropped off at the Chatham News, attention Editor, Dean Muharrem.

• Our usual Christmas Breakfast will be replaced by a get-together at the end of the year, when more people are available.

• Our guest speaker, Ted Kloske from Henry’s Photo in Windsor, showed The Club some of the images he has captured of Urban Decay in and around the Detroit area in a slide show titled Deserted Beauty. The collection included shots from the Packard factory, the Fisher Body plant and Bob-Lo, as well as abandoned houses, churches, theatres and hospitals. The graffiti covered walls, broken windows, antiquated office equipment and archaic manufacturing tools made for a fascinating glimpse into the past.

These photo-ops are not without some risks however, including sketchy people, unsafe structures, potential trespassing fines and equipment loss. Ted offered these safety tips:
– Don’t carry a lot of expensive equipment. Use an old camera and an inexpensive lens, along with a tripod, a spare battery, extra memory card and a wireless remote trigger.
– Beware of black mould or asbestos, often found in abandoned places.
– Wear steel-toe boots and long pants. Carry a cell phone, bring food and water and make sure you have out-of-province medical coverage.

As always, Ted’s work left us with new inspiration to try to seek out scenes we may have overlooked in the past. The Chatham Camera Club wishes to thank Ted for making the trip to Chatham and we look forward to seeing him again soon.

The YouTube video below shows scenes similar to Ted’s slideshow.

• Keith Blackwell and Dave Noordhoff presented their Technical Challenge #1: Photographic Design.

The challenge is to find your photos or take new ones that include the photo design principles of The Rule Of Thirds, Diagonal Lines, Triangles, The Golden Ratio and The Golden Spiral.

An excellent review that explains Keith’s challenge can be found at Digital Photography School’s article on Devine Composition

When you have found examples of four of these design principles, overlay your shot with the correct lines, size them to the regular competition size of 1400 x 1050 and e-mail them to Keith at keithblackwell@xplornet.ca by December 5th so that he may review them during our January workshop meeting.

Remember, if you came to The Club to learn, this is your chance. Don’t just blow this off. Take a few minutes and get into this little project. You’ll become a better photographer for it, and isn’t that why we’re all here?

• Les McCracken commented on some of the prints that were brought in for display, with several gaining high praise, including shots by Dave Summerfield, Clarke Warner, Paul Schmoldt, Dave Paddick, Chad Berry, Angel Rublik and Carson Plant. If you would like to show The Club a favourite print or two, your next opportunity to do so will be on December 9th. Any size and subject matter is more than welcome.

Not everything in every light and at all moments will translate into a great image.

Always carry an extra camera battery. It’s not that you will often run out of battery, it’s that you will always worry about running out of battery.

Our featured photographer for November is Jean McCracken.

Jean is an Honourary Lifetime Member of the Chatham Camera Club. Although not as active a shooter as she once was, Jean remains a skilled photographer who enjoys giving her husband, Les, advice on image composition and subject matter. Always warm and friendly, she is looked up to by many as a mainstay of our organization. To see a handful of pictures from her extensive back catalog, see our Photo In Focus page.

57 Chatham Camera Club members welcomed four guests and one new member to our October 28^th Main Meeting.

• Club President Vince Gagnier informed us that our own Dave Paddick has had one of his photos selected for the cover of Canadian Geographic’s Wicked Weather calendar. The issue is available wherever calendars are sold. Congratulations Dave!

• Mike Moynihan was the featured photographer in this month’s segment of What I Shoot. Mike’s collection included several species of ducks as well as a Blue Jay, a Cedar Waxwing, a Hawk, an Eagle, a Red Breasted Grosbeak, a Robin and an Owl. Following his presentation, Mike explained that he obtains his difficult to capture birds-in-flight shots by using a Canon 7D with a Canon 400 prime lens, hand-held, and selects manual mode at a shutter speed of 1/2500 and an ISO between 800 and 1600. When possible, he meters off of grass, then checks the histogram and makes any necessary adjustments. We extend our thanks to Mike for his thoroughly entertaining show.

• Treasurer Carson Plant gave us a report on The Club’s finances, which was audited by Kathy Davidson, in accordance with our constitution.

• Dave Noordhoff requested that anyone who has pictures from our North Buxton Museum walk-about to kindly bring them to our next meeting so that they may be included in the DVD which we will present to museum officials.

• There are forms available at The Club’s registration desk where members can suggest what topics you are interested in learning about during future workshops.

• Dave continued his Tech Talk segment on Metering Modes with an explanation of Exposure Compensation. Below is a similar lesson on how and when to use Exposure Compensation.

• Paul Schmoldt reviewed our recent CAPA submission. Entries by Andy Stockdill, Carson Plant, Gavin Stuart, Jean DeBruyn, Keith Blackwell and Reagan Smolders were selected for the Digital Fine Art competition. Our entries in the Nature category were submitted by Dave Stewart, Keith Blackwell, Mike Moynihan, Paul Schmoldt, Reagan Smolders and Jim Pollock. After a review, Paul offered a critique on how some of these shots could have been improved with a more attractive crop.

• Judging for the CCC competitions in the Open category for the Novice group and Barns And / Or Silos for Intermediate, Advanced and Salon members was held, with several excellent images receiving high marks.

• Our next meeting is on Tuesday, November 11^th when our guest speaker will be Ted Kloske from Henry’s Photo, who will discuss Urban Decay And More. Members are reminded of the opportunity to bring in one of your favourite prints for display.

Once you become fully aware of the quality of light around you, you will become more curious with your camera.

The term “Shutter Speed” is mis-leading. The shutter curtains never actually change speeds, the only thing that changes is the time between when the first one opens and the second one closes.

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.