It certainly did contain nuts!

Last Thursday the lunatics took over the Asylum and we had Ian Coombs & Rich Price give us a presentation detailing the coach trip they and a few other coach members took to Dunkirk and around Fortress Europe.

It was a trip they will remember for quite some time and the rest of us will probably remember the presentation for a long time as well. They were introduced by Kevin Spiers who was in his best RAF uniform (although he was put on a charge for wearing the wrong tie). After that Rich took centre stage and talked us through the history of the retreat from Dunkirk and some of the harrowing stories from the places they had visited. All accompanied by pictures that he had taken plus some footage that had been taken way back when it actually happened.

After Rich’s bit we had a break and were treated to Bread and Ian’s Home made Plum Jam (so far I haven’t heard of anyone dying from food poisoning but you never know).

The second half of the evening saw Ian giving his talk very much in the style we had expected, some serious bits mixed in with a lot of his usual banter & joke’s. We learnt that his Grandfather had aided in the evacuation from Dunkirk and didn’t get home again for 4 years! The Flags that you see in the background of some of the pictures were from the ship his Grandfather served on.

It was a brilliant night with several club members that weren’t actually taking part in the presentation dressing up in 40’s clothes. If you want to view some of the pictures from the evening then you can take a look at Ian’s & Rich’s Flickr ‘streams by following the links earlier in this post and also at these sets taken by Andro Andrejevic and Mark Stone.

Warning: May contain Nuts!

 

I was sent a serious picture to put into the newsletter as an advert for this Thursday's meeting. Nah I don't think I want to use that. So you get one taken on by Andy Milne (he went on the trip as well).

Last year several club members went on a trip to Dunkirk. Despite our best efforts they made it back. This Thursday Rich Price & Ian Coombs of the Escape Committee present their tales of daring night time raids and how they escaped capture. Please arrive with Promptitude and be ready for, what is quite possibly, the strangest club night we will ever have.

It's also a themed night so if you want to use it as an excuse to dress up in clothes from the 1940's please do so. Just remember it's all being done as entertainment. So don't take anything seriously.

Thursday’s Meeting

Instead of the advertised speaker we have Martin Edwards who will be presenting a talk called “Film Photography in the Digital Age' and is about the resurgence in interest in analogue techniques now that digital photography is mainstream. He will also be bringing some of the camera’s he uses to take his images. If you’d like to visit his website and see some of his work then you can go here.

 

 

.

I had nightmares!

Last nights self portrait competition was a great success and I was really pleased that so many of you took part. What made it even better was that you all used a variety of techniques and styles to take your pictures.

I did worry that I was going to have nightmares thanks not just to Ruth’s picture but the mental image that was conjured up when it was put together with Myk’s bubble bath picture. Very disturbing and I’m going to need psychiatric help to recover.

Anyway my thanks to every single one of you that not only took part but turned up to vote and here are the winning pictures.

First Place: Ian Coombs

Second Place: Maurice Thompson

Third Place: Steve Hallam

Just for fun

Thursday is our just for fun Themed Digital Projected Image Competition. This time around the theme is Self Portrait’s. So come on don’t be shy. Set the camera to self timer, stand in front of a mirror, matter of fact who cares how you take it just take some self portraits and enter them for this competition. It’s judged on the night by everyone whose there. We hand out pens & paper for you to vote for your top 3 images. It’s not taken seriously and as long as the pictures you submit are on the theme, anything goes. You can submit up to 3 and either bring them in on a memory stick/card or, as I always say, our send them in via Dropbox which is our preferred method of submission. Size them as if for the R.O.C. (1400 pixels wide by 1050 pixels tall) and name them in the usual way ( 01_Picture Title_Your Name.jpg, 02_Picture Title_Your Name.jpg, 03_Picture Title_Your Name.jpg).

Thursday is also the last entry date for your Trio Entries. There has been a slight but very important change to the rules. Instead of 3 Digital or Print entries each person is now only allowed 2 entries. So that’s 2 Digital & 2 Print’s per person. This has been decided on because of the amount of entries we’ve had recently and the length of time it’s taken for the judge to get through them all. This applies not only to the Trio Round but to EVERY round of the R.O.C. from now on.