It was good to see so many new and old(er) faces at last night’s Welcome meeting. Our first meeting at our new home and using new technology to enable hybrid meeting. The first part of the meeting introduced the Committee and what we as a club have been up to over the “quiet” Summer period.
Our website has been refreshed, which includes a Programme Calendar to which you can “subscribe” (scroll to the bottom of the Programme page). Subscribing will ensure your digital calendar is kept up to date with the Club’s programme of events.
We also have an Instagram Account. Initially set-up for the Worthing Festival, but a useful communication tool for the Club. You can follow the club on Instagram (@worthingcameraclub), and get updates of events via there. If anyone has additional ideas for use of this account, they will be gratefully received, using the usual address (contact@worthingcameraclub.org.uk).
One of the biggest events over the Summer was the Worthing Festival (10-17 June). As our contribution we hosted two Smartphone Challenge walks and opened the events to any entrant on our Facebook page. With the Closing date being 30 June. We received a significant number of entrants, so a big thank you to all of them and a special thank you to Nick Beardmore who helped a lot with the set up and running of these events. We enjoyed meeting everyone who took part. This image shows all of the winning images and proves the; a) Smartphones are cameras; and b) composition is the most important thing in an image.
We had outings to photograph the Bluebells in Angmering Great Park, invited to take part in East Preston Parish Council’s Calendar competition, visited Bosham to recreate the Camera Club’s 1910 outing, a walk along a windy Worthing Seafront and finally a Countryside walk around Amberley and Houghton Bridge.
We then reviewed the plans for this season. The programme is made up of four components: Outings, Workshops (ALL hybrid – Heene CC and Zoom), Talks (mix of hybrid and Zoom only) and Competitions (PDI – ALL Zoom, Print – ALL Hybrid).
Outings: First one this Sunday (17 Sept). An all day trip to London, to be guided around some of the City’s hidden gems. All of the outings can be found on the Programme, but note that the traditional Funghi hunt is a mid-week am outing. This is to try and visit when the site is relatively quiet.
Workshops: Always aimed to be practical and fun. Next week Khurrum will be presenting his thought process and practical challenges when creating his composite images. We also have fun challenges in “Make it your own” and “Christmas Cards”. This year we will also be introducing Club Critique evenings. In order to start us off we have Mike Warren (Steyning CC) visiting to guide us through the process. Note: There are a number of “tbc” Workshops. We have plenty of ideas about fun things we can do, however, if there are subjects you would like us to cover or specialities you’d like to show us then let us know (same email address as above).
One challenge given to the attendees was the appetite for Basic photography workshops. Covering subjects such as the Exposure triangle, Rules of Composition. Kevin is willing to do a few parallel workshops or we could include within the main programme.
We have 10 talks scheduled this season, and 3 will be from the Community Centre. The talks should provide us all with lots of inspiration, covering a wide variety of subjects.
The second half of the meeting was given over to Competitions. Kevin emphasised the benefit of competitions wasn’t an individual’s performance, but rather the feedback from the judges. More feedback is given to entrants in the Beginners Group, slightly less to the Intermediate Group and least to the Advanced Group. Also the Feedback given for every image gives everyone an insight as to how an independent viewer reads an image, which can also be useful development. Caveat: the feedback is subjective and should be taken as such.
There are 12 competitions this season; 2 external and 10 internal. The external ones will be hosted by Southwick Camera Club. The first (“Mix and Match”) is a fun, raucous event and will be held in mid-December. More details to be posted later, but definitely not one to miss.
There are 5 print competitions (3 Merit, 1 set subject and Panels/triptychs) and 5 PDI competitions (3 merit, 1 set subject and Image of the Year).
Howard then covered the new process and technology for entering competitions and submitting all digital images. For each of the 12 competitions we will need digital images submitting (including the Print competitions). We will also PhotoEntry for the submission of entries for the “Make it your Own” and “Christmas Card” competitions (note: these last two are for fun and judged by members).
Howard then highlighted that members will shortly receive their personal logon information for PhotoEntry and the Guidelines for submitting entries.
Kevin then highlighted many freely available Photo editing software solutions; so purchase of proprietary software isn’t a requirement. See slide here.
Kevin also reminded members of the constraints for digital images (“PDI”s) and that beginners didn’t have to submit print images mounted on 40cm x 50cm mounts.
Kathie then showed members how to prepare and mount prints for competitions, and reminded members that the club has a cutter available for loan. We will also make it available at the next workshop.
Finally it was flagged that if anyone having difficulty resizing their images for the first PDI Competition could send them to Kevin and he will resize and return them. Again for the first PDI competition, any member having difficulty submitting entries, then they can send them to the competition email address (“pdicomp.wcc@gmail.com“) and Howard will submit them on their behalf. Caveat: If you need help seek it sooner rather than later. Competition entries will close on midnight on the Thursday prior to the competition.