National Competitions

PhotoRadar has listed photography competitions over the next year.
Click the link to see if you can meet the standard of as last years winner "Partners" by Braqi J Ingibergsson for the competition for Digital Camera Photographer of the Year.

www.photoradar.com/news/story/enter-the-best-photography-competitions-in-2010

PhotoRadar's site has been added to our links on the right hand side of you want to see their videos and tips.

Penalty Claim

Sometmes the best aspect of sports photography is the action that takes place off the park such as this crowds reaction when their player was pushed in the penalty area and they were demanding that the referee did something about it.

I took this picture at Overton Estate on the same day as the swan below. This is a good place to visit especially in the Autumn if you time it right for the leaves on the trees.
The best time to take a photo here would be in the  morning as I was little too late at 3pm to make the most of the reflections.

Tesco Shop Fronts

Incredible as it sounds. There is acually a page on Flickr dedicated to Tesco Shop Fronts and I was recently asked to put this snapshot of Port Glasgow Tesco on it. You can have  look at other entries at  www.flickr.com/groups/tescos

Photography Documentary

The television highlight this week has to be the new documentary

The Man Who Shot the 60s
(BBC 4. Wednesday 13th, 9pm and 12.45am. Repeated Thursday 14th, 11pm).

Brian Duffy was one of the greatest photographers of his generation.
Along with David Bailey and Terence Donovan he defined the image of the 1960s and was as famous as the stars he photographed. Then suddenly in the 1970s he disappeared from view and burned all his negatives. With the first ever exhibition of his work due, Duffy has agreed to be filmed to talk about his life, his work and why he made it all go up in flames.

See examples of his work at  www.duffyphotographer.com/duffy_website.html

Would all members please make a change to their syllabus to reflect the following:




Because of circumstances beyond our control, the events scheduled for 8 Jan 2010 & 12 Mar 2010 have had to be swapped.

The SPF Portfolio wiill now be shown on 8th January and the "5x25" on 12th March.



Wishing you all a very happy festive season.

Hope to see you all on the 8th.

The Second Monthly Competition

Competition time tomorrow night with prints of people at work or play and digital projected images of nature. The Judge will be David Boyce so be there for 7.30pm prompt.
Here is a photo I recenlty took in Overton Estate which is a good place to visit, especially in autumn.

Moto-X (Twin-shock) Riders

Here are a couple of images shown at the Club earlier in the season. I have modified these in line with (valid) comments made by other members.

One now has a punchier deeper shadow, the other has the rider positioned more to the left of the frame.

Flickr Thumbnails

As you can see above there are thumbnails to our Flickr site. The most recent additions are on the left side. These are inserted automatically when you upload to Flickr using the instructions given in the right hand column. Click the Flickr upload guide.

Club Competition

Friday night sees our first club competition with Portraits and The River Clyde being the subjects judged by Sandy Wallace. Come along early for a 7.30pm start.

Hawaiian Surfer

This is an image taken on a recent holiday to Maui, Hawaii. Though I think he was a beginner and the wave is small, I thought the image was dynamic - as he starts to push himself up off the surfboard.

Non Destructive Burning

There was a lot of debate about burning and dodging on Friday night. A better to do this is to use layers in photoshop which makes the result less harsh. This ideal for photos where there is a lot of contrast such as here where the burning reduced areas which were too bright.

First Crop and do levels in your photo
Go to LAYER > DUPLICATE LAYER > Click OK
Go to EDIT > FILL....... > Contents  50 % Gray > Click OK
Go to Layers Pallet (bottom right corner of screen)
Click NORMAL drop down button and select OVERLAY instead from the list
Now burn or dodge  midtones with a setting between 3 to 12
Go to LAYER > FLATTEN

Big Man Walking Event in Inverclyde November 6th and 7th

The Big Man Walking event this November may provide a perfect photo opportunity when he visits Inverclyde as part of his tour of Scotland.

He parades in Port Glasgow on the 6th and then Gourock (am) Greenock (pm) on the 7th concluding with a fireworks display at the Battery Park.

For more details click on the link to the Inverclyde "What's on" Group below

http://members.bigmanwalking.com/group/inverclyde

Dennis Alyshev

So far we have had a high standard of guest speakers at the club. Last week this was demonstrated when we had Dennis Alyshev with his 3D images which can be seen at

http://www.alyshev.co.uk/

The quality of the images were enhanced with th use of the glasses he supplied on the night.

Photography Exhibition at Trongate 103 with a free guided tour

The Photograhic Exhibition of John "Hoppy" Hopkins

DATE 11 Sep 2009 - 7 Nov 2009 TIME 11:00 - 17:00

Please note this exhibition will be closed on Mondays and open at 12 noon on Sundays

Venue: Street Level Photoworks, ground floor

Taking Liberties is a photographic record and retrospective of the work of John ‘Hoppy' Hopkins from the period 1960 - 1966. It captures a culture on the cusp of radical change through the emerging counterculture which manifested itself in pop, protest and art. Included are iconic images of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Dusty Springfield and Marianne Faithful.

A unique series of images capture the historic poetry convention at the Albert Halls in 1965, another of CND marches and anti racist demonstrations illustrating the power of popular protest. Alongside these are images of bikers at the legendary Ace cafe in London and a glimpse of the seediness of everyday life in Notting Hill.

As part of Trongate 103's First Thursday programme, Street Level will offer a free guided tour of the exhibition at 6pm, Thursday 5 November.

For more information, please call 0141 552 2151

Have a look at his sites photography at http://www.hoppy.be/indexpics.htm

Queen Mary arrives tomorrow

Dont forget the great photo opportunity tomorow as the Queen Mary arrives early in Greenock.

For more details got to Inverclyde Now website at the follwing.

http://www.inverclydenow.com/news-detail2.asp?ID=3502

2009/10 Syllabus

On the 9th of October Bruce Percy visited the club to give an entertaining talk on Light and the Land which involved terrific shots of landscapes and portraits from around the world.

This was all the more impressive as Bruce continues to prefer use of film instead of digital cameras

Visit his fantastic website at:-http://www.thelightandtheland.com/

Send in Your Pictures

Here's a picture I took last month at the Barrowlands of Pete Doherty. It was taken with my Canon 350D at ISO 800, on a 55-250mm Image Stabilizer lens which probably helped in the low light situation. You can see more of these at http://www.flickr.com/photos/37950612@N04/

I would ask all club members to send me their own pics at (just click)

inverclydecameraclub@live.com

to put on the site with some information about their pictures too.

Close Season Assignment

As the opening of the season is fast approaching, the handing in for the Close Season Assignment is nearing too. The subjects this year are:

1. Trees 2. Inverclyde

3. Flowers & Fruit 4. Sport

5. Reflections 6. Lines or Curves

Members may enter up to 3 sets of 4 images, either as prints or digital, but not mixed. Each set must only consist of either prints OR digital images and each of the 4 images must be taken from a different theme.

Good luck and remember the season begins on the 18th of September.

Seasons Greetings

Just to let members and potential members know the Inverclyde Camera Club season will begin on Friday 18th of September, 7:30pm at the Cardwell Bay Sailing Club.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible!

Trips, Outings and Excursions Galore

It has been a rather busy few weeks for Inverclyde Camera Club. There seems to have been more Outings in the past few weeks than in the last 3 years! Many apologies to any members who have come down to the club on a Friday evening to find the clubhouse locked up with no trace of information. If you wish to be kept informed of any developments, send an email to the the club's address at inverclydecameraclub@live.com and we shall add you to the Mailing List.

Competition Subjects

Inverclyde Camera Club Competitions

Here’s the competition subjects for next season:

Competition Subjects 2009/10

Prints

1. Portraits (Formal or Informal)
2. People at work or play
3. Music (anything to do with music including song titles)
4. Ravages of time

Digital

1. The river clyde
2. Nature
3. Contrasts
4. Colour Impact

Reminder - Digital images must be resized to 1024x768 pixels and prints must not be mounted on boards any larger than 20x16 inches.

Remember Folk!

Just a reminder to all the members to return their questionnaires along with any ideas for the syllabus and monthly competition themes!

And just remember summer isn't too far away

DSLR User Galleries

We now have our own gallery space on the DSLR User Camera Club website. They will be holding monthly competitions with many glittering prizes on offer to the photographers and their clubs - So get your images up there to help grab us some prizes! After all - If your not in it then you can't win it.

Currently there is set galleries for the "Usual Suspects" (You know who you are) and a general gallery. We can create more if you would like your own gallery, so if you wish to be involved then send us an email at - inverclydecameraclub@live.com for a password and login details.

Photography Vs Art

Photography Vs Art
Recently I had a debate with a painter friend of mine about what is constituted as art and where photography stands in the art world. “Photography isn’t art” he stated. “Everyone can do it and it is not difficult to do, you pick up a camera and shoot. Especially with digital photography, there is just plain nothing to it.” I came back with it depends on how the photograph is prepared, the intention of the photographer, and how the work is displayed.He then asked if I thought images from a newspaper or if I believed that wedding portraits are something that should be put up against a painting, a sculpture, or even a drawing. Again I stated that it all depends on the photographer and what the intentions are. Is the photographer is planning to show the work to the public, how much emotion is invoked into the intended audience, or what stories can be told from the particular image.I agreed that consumer photography should not be considered an art form because most people take the picture and store them away forever. Even commercial photography should not be considered because it separates the photographer from the image; meaning that someone tells the photographer what they want, giving the photographer very little freedom or control. I then told him, the same goes with a painting….if an art director says to a painter I want this and I want you to change this and get rid of that; now, the element of self is taken out of the painting and you now have a mechanical element rather than an artistic element.To me, art is the expression of ones self and how it is portrayed by the artist. When you bring in any other input to your work…..it is no longer yours, and thus is no longer art and when somebody tells you what to shoot, the only element the photographer brings to the table is the element of composition and the ability to be able to control the camera.

Digital - Any Questions?

Due to the rapidly approaching deadline of the Digital Q & A session in December, we really need lots of questions to answer! The questions can be on anything related to digital manipulation; From the process of converting RAW files - to printing the final image. So either pick up one of the questions forms at the club or for the computer literate among you, send them to us directly via the club's e-mail address at inverclydecameraclub@live.com

Keep the questions flowing, and remember - NO QUESTION IS TOO SILLY!

New Beginnings?

Well, the new season has finally started and, boy has it been interesting! With slideshows and audio visuals, tutorials and demonstrations, it been quite a start. Many thanks to Ann-Marie, who presented her first evening, with a travelogue from Skye and a "How To'' on getting an LRPS.

Bill Clark and Gaie Brown also presented some fantastic images produced from their first 'digital experiences' Bill showing some work from his recent trip to Australia and Gaie showing her ongoing project photographing Glasgow's West End and experimenting with digital photography.

We also had an unexpected guests in the form of Colin Wilkinson and his models, giving a great demonstration on using studio lights. Hopefully it will inspire more members to get out and use our own set!

Competition Guidelines 08/09

Here's an update of the competition entry guidelines for 2008/09. They provide guidelines for Digital Submissions, Competition sections and the awarding of points to reflect the rule changes made at the AGM.

2008/2009 Competitions Update

Digital Competitions

Images are to be resized to 1024 along their longest edge. Make sure the "constrain proportions" box is ticked so the shorter side is resized correctly and the imaged is saved at 72dpi.

Please rename your images using numbers 01-06 followed by your initials. If you have a middle name, use this in your initials. Then add your title at the end.

For Example

01_AMW_Title

01_AMW_AnotherTitle

03_AMW_FurtherTitle

and so on.

Please save your images on either memory stick, CD or DVD (preferably memory stick)

If you are having trouble resizing your images either ask for help or leave them at their full size and they will be resized for you.

Competition Sections

This season we are introducing two sections for each competition (apart from the close season assignment which will not be spilt into sections)

On your entry form please state which section you are entering.

The intermediate section is for members who have not been placed in a competition. Prints should be board mounted in the usual manner and be between 40sq inches and A4 in size. No prints large than A4 will be accepted for judging.

The open section is for members who have been previously placed in a competition. Prints should be at least 40sq inches and mounted on board no larger than 20x16 inches.

Decide on which section you wish to enter when you enter your first monthly competition as you CANNOT change once you have entered, so please use a little common sense when choosing which section to enter.

Dates for your Diary...

Boats at Sunset
Originally uploaded by Inverclyde Camera

So its almost that time of year again, the beginning of the new season! And this years syllabus looks fantastic. Many thanks to Gaie for stepping into the role as Club Secretary and giving the club a great many evenings to look forward to. The Opening Night takes place on the 19th of September, details of which will be posted at a later date.

Over the next few weeks, several new pages will be added to the website - dedicated members galleries and a syllabus page among others. Finally just a quick reminder to continue posting the brilliant shots to our flickr page!