Club Outing to the Isle of May

 

 The outings to Kelburn and the Titan have been noted in this main stream of postings, but what was arguably the best outing of the summer, to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, seems to have been missed out. To rectify this, here's a picture I took on the island - "Puffin in Flight, with Capelin".
I know it isn't pin-sharp, but it was taken while panning with a telephoto lens, at f7 with a shutter speed of 1/800 of a second. The bird was passing at an estimated 40mph - they can fly at speeds up to 55mph, with wings beating at a rate of 300-400 per minute (5-7 beats per second!), so in-flight pictures are something of a challenge!

Club Outing to Clydebank Titan

This summer, ICC had several successful outings (thanks to Gaie, who organised them!), one of the most well-attended being the Friday evening trip to the Titan crane. We were lucky that the rainy weather cleared that evening and there was some late sunshine that made the trip all the more worthwhile.
A composite is shown of four images that I took that evening.

New Inverclyde Camera Club Syllabus 2010 to 2011

Thanks to Gaie we now have completed our syllabus for the coming season which is a follows

SEPTEMBER
17th    Opening Night

24th    Maui - "The Valley Isle" - Bill Clark


OCTOBER
1st     ‘Canon Fodder’ - Jim Caldwell (Paisley Colour Club)

8th      Photography workshops

15th    Close Season Assignment

21st    GDPU image battle, (Strathaven away)

22rd    5 x 25
           (handing in night for 1st monthly comp)

29th    ‘Earth’s beauty’- Dimitri Vasiliou (Ayrshire)


NOVEMBER
5th      (1st monthly competition) – Alistair Sinclair (Penilee Camera Club)

           (digital – a touch of red;     prints – silhouettes or shadows)

12th      GDPU portfolio

19th     ‘Photoshop for Photographers’ - Alastair Knox LRPS

26th      Then and Now      
            (handing in night for 2nd monthly comp)


DECEMBER
3rd      Jack Morrison ‘Underwater Photography’

10th     2nd monthly competition – Andy Alexander

           (digital – portraits, formal/ informal;     prints – photojournalism)

17th     Image knockout competition

24th    CLOSED


JANUARY
7th        AV night - Tony Clarke

14th      GDPU league battle (Gryffe)    
            (handing in night for 3rd monthly comp)

21st    ‘Landscape Photography’ - Bruce Percy

28th     (3rd monthly competition) – Lorna McDonald  (Alba Photographic Society)

           (digital – illustrate a book or film title;      prints – open)


FEBRUARY
4th       ‘Ronnie’s Ramblings continued’ - Ronnie Mcfadyen,

11th      SPF portfolio

18th      Miscellany          
            (handing in night for 4th monthly comp)

24th     (Thursday) Renfrewshire Interclub Competition

25th     Remember slides?


MARCH
4th       (4th monthly competition) – Duncan McDonald  (Paisley Colour Club)

            (digital – the natural world;     prints – sport or action)

11th      Stan Miller (Carluke Camera Club)   
             (handing night in for annual prints)

18th     ‘Argentina’: Dr Neil Murray     
            (handing in night for annual digital images)

25th      Annual print competition – Colin Wilkinson (Alba Photographic Society)


APRIL
1st       Annual projected image competition – Jim Dyas (Motherwell Camera Club)

8th      Annual General Meeting

14th    (Thursday) Closing social and prize-giving

Trip to Kelburn Country Park

Last Friday club members travelled to Kelburn Country Park to photograph the birds of prey.

I must say that Dougie Hendry (pictured) put on a very informative and educational display that made the visit very enjoyable.

Being a photographer himself he was able to give advice to our group to ensure good pictures.

Expect to be seeing a lot of pictures from this evening in upcoming competitions.

Competition Winners 2009 to 2010

 

Bill Barry, John Carey, Anne Marie Westwood, Karen McGuinness, John McCue and John Smith

Congratulations to our club winners for the season 2009 - 2010 with a high standard of entries this season.

The winners were as follows:-

Monthly Competitions

Print       Open Section                Matt Erskine

Digital     Open Section                Bill Barry

Print Intermediate Section            Karen McGuinness

Digital Intemediate Section           John Smith

Annual Prints

Portrait Section                            Matt Erskine

Monochrome Section                   Matt Erskine

Colour Section                             Matt Erskine

Best Print                                     Matt Erskine (Double Take)

Annual Digital

Landscape Section                       Anne Marie Westwood LRPS

Nature Section                             John Carey

Open Section                               Anne Marie Westwood LRPS

Best Overall Image                       John Carey (Mallard)

Best Creative Image                     John McCue (Redskins)

We would also like to give a special thanks to Karens mum for volunteering to present the trophies to the winners

Birds of Prey Kelburn Trip

Just to re-iterate: Kelburn next week, meet at clubhouse at 6.15 unless making your own way there - let  Gaie know if you are, so folks don't wait unnecessarily.

Dougie says it will be on unless a downpour - a little drizzle won't stop him, though you may of may not fancy getting those expensive cameras ruined in the rain!

Guidance for Members on the Competition Subjects for 2010-11

Bill Clark has kindly provided some guidance for this years competition subjects.
Hopefully this should be of benefit for the clubs newer members or people interested in joining our club.
Competition #1
PRINTS - "Silhouettes or Shadows" - Either or both may appear in the picture, but should comprise a significant / important element.
DIGITAL - "A Touch of Red" - Images in which a small patch of red (not purple, pink or orange!) is critical to the success of the picture.
Not a 'blob' or 'blotch' - just a touch!
Competition #2
PRINTS - "Photojournalism" - The definition of this always causes problems - it does NOT mean a picture that might appear in the press.
What’s required are pictures in which the story-telling element is paramount.
DIGITAL - "Portraits" [Formal or Informal] - The tag (formal / informal) means that only pictures of people are eligible.
Competition #3
PRINTS - Open - No restrictions here then - this should let you give rein to your creativity!
DIGITAL - "Illustrate a Book or Film Title" - Now, here’s a challenge – let’s see you do something interesting with this one!
Probably best to stick to better-known titles, but otherwise the only limit here is your own imagination!
Competition #4
PRINTS - “Sport or Action”  - No guidance necessary here, surely! Just go and capture something happening!
DIGITAL - "The Natural World" - Anything representative of the biological or the earth sciences – “animal, vegetable or mineral”, you may say.
However, human-bred domestic animals are NOT eligible

Good luck to everyone.

Anne-Marie Westwoods Website

Ann-Marie has had her own website added to our site showing good examples of her wedding, equestrian and travel photography.

Take a look at it at  http://www.rosephotography.co.uk/

Competition Titles 2010-2011

Since the season is over for another year here is the proposed competition subjects for next season
DIGITAL                                            
1. A touch of red                                   
2. Portraits (formal or informal)
3. Illustrate a book or film title
4. The natural world
PRINTS
1. Silhouettes or shadows
2. Photojournalism
3. Open (any topic you want)
4. Sport or action

THE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT
This usually involves photos taken this summer and is presented early in next seasons syllabus
Up to 3 sets of 4 images (digital or prints - but not mixed) and choosing 4 different topics from below for each set.
1. A day out
2. Animals
3. Close ups
4. Humour
5. Monochrome
6. Patterns

The Herald and VII The Magazine

The Herald which has always supported good photograpy has now teamed up with VII The Magazine to show us photos from around the world from international photographers.

Go to the following link for international, readers, and old archive pictures
http://www.heraldscotland.com/photo-gallery

Retro Look Cameras

There seems to be a revival of 1960s style cameras such as this Olympus

Most come with a modern twist of varying quality appear to be trying to appeal to our old memories.

Check out some of the cameras at the following site to see if nostalgia really is as good as it used to be

http://www.modculture.co.uk/style/style.php?id=54

Club Members Own Sites

Our site now has a section for club members websites and online photosites. This give us the chance to see what club members have online.

If you have a site you want included copy and paste it in a e mail to inverclydecameraclub@live.com and I will put it on.

Check out the excellent photos on Karens Flickr site by clicking her link on the right hand column

Digital Section handing in night this week

Don't forget to bring your photos along related to the list below

Annual Competitions

Remember March 12th is the handing in night for the prints section. You are allowed 8 entries split into the following sections:-
Monochrome
Portrait
Colour

The following week is the digital section with 8 entries allowed accross the following sections:-
Open
Nature
Landscape

Good luck to everyone with their entries

Inverclyde on Facebook

It's been interesting to see Inverclyde photos from the past and present on Facebook set up by Brendan Anderson (set up your own account and type in Inverclyde in its search box).

Some photos have also been good for looking at the area  from a new perspective and some are of very high quality such as this one by Nicolas Valentin
Its also interesting to see or ask for comments about old photos






Click the link below if you are already on Facebook
www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3436720&id=560613233#!/group.php?gid=266980213349&ref=ts

Stormy Weather

Inverkip is usually a good place to record the changes in the weather as this oncoming storm shows. The beach at the war memorial car park just past the town is also worth a look at what ever the weather

National Geographic

National Gegraphic have always had an excellent standard of reporting and photographs and probably stimulated my own interest in photography.

Their photography section on the link below show some fantastic photos and walpapers available for your computer.
It's in the history of photography section that the first colour photograph was of a piece of tartan by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

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