July 2011

7th June
Get in Close and Make It Big

At this meeting it was announced there had been a change to the Committee since last week’s AGM. Members were told the Dennis Noble would now be the Society’s Chairman and that Bob Zwolinsky would continue as Programme Secretary.

The only prior announcement for what this evening was to be about was the request that members bring their camera with just one lens and a blank memory card. Members arriving on the evening were given a brief to go out into the High Street and take some pictures. They should be close up’s of anything of interest and should not be the whole object. Take as many pictures as each member cared to do but return to the meeting by 21:00 hrs with only three images on their memory cards, all others should be deleted.

As luck would have it, it was a fine sunny if not a little cold evening and members took to the project with enthusiasm. Later one member related how he was lining up to take a study of some wool in a knitting shop window when he realised several women were inside having a knitting lesson. The member was not sure who was more surprised; he when the women jumped to the window to see what he was doing or the women when they saw this camera being pointed at them. Explanations and apologies soon soothed matters. Another member was approached outside The Swan Pub by a large burley man who wanted to know what he was up to. He turned out to be the Landlord of the pub and when matters were explained, this landlord asked whether the Society used to meet in his upstairs room, which many years ago the Society did. The landlord then asked if we would like to have our old room back again!

Pictures taken and the three selected, Martin got busy loading them on to the Society’s laptop while the rest of us enjoyed a cup of tea. That done, the 46 images collected were then projected and the takers and members were encouraged to talk about the images. What a variety was to be seen. It is true many were in a similar vein such as squashed drinks cans, car maker’s badges, a poster involving meerkats and a taxi covered in advertising material featured in several members’ collections. Others found more rare items such as a mock Victorian post box. Having talked about each picture the whole then was shown as a slide show to round off the evening. Special thanks to Martin Ridout for making the evening the success it was.


14th June
The Inaugural Audio Visual Competition

Meeting was opened by Andrew in the absence of our new Chairman and with Martin running the projector announced there was fourteen entries. Unfortunately, two of these ran longer than the five permitted minutes. After a show of hands from those present it was agreed to show these videos but not to count them as in the competition. A member then started a short discussion on what made a good AV and what members should be looking for. With no external judge, members were given a score sheet which at the end of the evening they would be invited to score each video out of ten. Members who had an entry were to score their own entry with five points.

The show then commenced with an AV entitled ‘All in Our Garden’ which was a series of photos taken through the seasons of plant and animal life in a garden. And so it went on. We had knights fighting in armour, Morris Dancers, a tour of Luzern, quite a few more of botanical and animal subjects. We had close up of car bits, a very exciting motocross race, more tours of Scotland, Iceland and Norway. All accompanied by music. Only one entrant had been bold enough to add a voice commentary. All seen and done, members then scored each AV and whilst the rest of us drank tea and chatted, Martin added up the scores. The winner was Bob Zwolinsky with ‘Norway and Iceland’ with 141 points. Martin Ridout came second with his ‘Motocross’ at 135 points and third was Bob again with ‘St Petersburg’ with 131 points.

For making the evening such a success, our special thanks go to Martin for collecting the AV’s, running the projection and totting the scores. Thank you Martin.


21st June
The Challenge

Another evening for one of Bob’s surprises. As requested those members who attended brought along their camera’s and so forth. We were sent out along the high street to photograph the surrounding area but this time with our cameras set on monochrome. For some this presented a problem since the owners could not remember how to set their cameras to shoot in black and white. As before, members had to return with just three images that would be loaded on the laptop for projection. The object of the exercise was to think in black and white. To see what made a good monochrome image.

So off we all trooped and after thirty minutes or so returned with our images. John Hill, our resident judge, was persuaded to comment on the images. It was interesting to see how some of the more experienced photographers looked for high contrast subjects using the setting sun. Others learned some useful lessons on how the camera converts the colours to greyscale. One shot was of the ‘Sainsbury’s’ sign outside the supermarket. The lettering is bright orange whereas the background was blue grey slates. In colour, the lettering stood out. In monochrome, there was very little difference between the grey tones of the lettering and the slates. Another good practical evening enjoyed by all who came.


28th June
“1/15”


The last of the three evenings of practical challenges devised by Bob for this month was introduced by Dennis who revealed that the mission tonight was to shoot at 1/15 second or slower, to use no image stabilisation in the camera or lens. Members were asked to go out into the High Street and surrounding roads for around 40 minutes and capture three creative images at a slow shutter speed.

Motion blur, either by means of the camera held as still as possible with the subject moving or by panning with a moving subject, was one avenue to explore. Alternatively, zooming during the exposure time could be used to produce creative effects.

Upon returning, Martin loaded the images onto the computer and a total of 38 images were projected. There were several attempts at using a passing bus to provide a streak of red in the image, in two images a zoom made during exposure had made two-dimensional lettering look three-dimensional. One member experimented with exposure times in excess of 3 seconds to show the trails of headlights and tail lights of passing vehicles which produced the most discussion. However, results were quite mixed. It was a difficult challenge, but it wasn't meant to be easy! Hopefully, these practical challenges will have made members think in different ways that they will develop in their own time.

Report by Martin Ridout.