The Reflex Blog

Thursday’s Meeting

2012-01-31T09:25:00.001Z

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!

2012-01-27T12:42:00.001Z

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

2012-01-22T07:45:00.000Z

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.

10x10

2012-01-16T07:35:00.000Z

Now if your a member of the club you probably looked at the title of next weeks meeting and wondered just what the hell it meant. I suppose that we really should explain it to you although it really is very simple. All we want is for some of you to volunteer to show around 10 images that you’ve taken and give a little talk about them. Ideally the talk and showing the images should last about 10 minutes. Hence the title 10x10. If you don’t feel like talking then maybe you could just show us the pictures. Please don’t be shy about this, after all you put your images up on Flickr for people to admire so why not put them up on the screen at the club, sit back and enjoy the “ooh’s”, “ahh’s” and “Wow’s” as each image is shown!

You can either bring the pictures in on a memory stick or, preferably, send them in via Dropbox. Go on give it a go you know you want to.

David Burnett

2012-01-10T19:04:00.001Z

This week see’s us enjoying a presentation by Photographer David Burnett entitled ‘Burnett’s Baroque’.

"In Burnett's Baroque, David will take us on a tour of the baroque cities and architecture of Europe, beginning in Dresden and ending in Pottsdam (Berlin), with Prague, Venice, Verona and Rome in between. David appreciates any comments and feedback during his talk."

If your into architecture or just want to see what the buildings are like in various European cities then come along and enjoy the show.

January at Reflex

2012-01-04T00:53:00.001Z

It’s all change for the New Year at Reflex. After around 15 years at the Langton Court Hotel we’ve had to move. Mainly because over the last two years our membership has grown from 15 to just under 60! That’s some achievement and shows that we must be doing something right for you all to keep coming back for more. If you don’t know where our new venue is then don’t worry it’s really easy to find and is only a few hundred yards down the road from our old meeting place. Here’s a map to show you. Car parking shouldn’t be an issue as we’ve been told we’ll be able to use the playground. You can see this previous Blog post for more details on the move.

Here’s what else is happening during January.

The 5th is a practical night and we’re just putting the finishing touches to what will be the first meeting at the School. Jan 12 we have David Burnett presenting a talk called “Burnett’s Baroque”. On the 19th we give you the chance to show some of your pictures and say a few words about them in our 10x10 evening. To take part just select 10 of your pictures and think of a few words to say about each of them. I’ll give you more details closer to the date. The last meeting in January (26th) is a just for fun themed, digital projected image, competition. The theme is Self Portrait’s. So you might want to take a trip to the Hairdresser’s, put on your best clothes and figure out just what you want to look like to the rest of the world. Again, more details nearer the time. The 26th is also the entry date for the Trio Round of the R.O.C..

There’s also the January instalment of our 12 months of Reflex. This month it’s being organised by Angi Nelson and it’s going to be fantastic. So keep your eye’s peeled for more information over the next few weeks.

We are moving!!

2011-12-23T12:29:00.000Z

At Reflex we've got a lot to look forward to in the New Year. Not only have we got some fantastic meetings lined up with some great speakers & Practical nights but there's the move as well.

From

January the 5th

we will be meeting at

St. Anne's School Hall

(map)

It's just a few minutes walk down the road from the Langton so there's no excuse that we've moved too far.

If you get that new camera for Christmas and want to improve your photography then come along and see if we're the club for you.

If your wondering why we're moving then there's a very simple reason. We outgrew the room! Over the last two years we have gone from 15 members to just under 60! It's been hard work but well worth it. Our members are some of the friendliest and helpful people you could hope to meet. They are Men & Women of all shapes, ages and from all walks of life. There are people that have only just picked up a camera to those that have been taking pictures for a very long time. Also we don't care what you use to take your pictures. It can be an old Kodak from the 70's or the most modern expensive digital camera on the market. We're not camera snobs.

After all it's not the Camera but the picture that counts.

ROC Round 2 Results

2011-12-13T12:14:00.001Z

Below are the winning images from Round 2 of our Open Competition. There are quite a few gaps in the print section as several people haven’t bothered to send me digital copies of their prints.

1st Place Digital Projected Image Native by Angi Nelson	1st Place Print’s Sparkman by Dan Thomas

2nd Place Digital Projected Image Simian Misery by Hanneke Ter Veen	2nd Place Print Section Snap judgement Sian Perry
	Still have not sent me a digital version of the image.
3rd Place Digital Projected Image 3 Pepper Splash by Barrie Tovey	3rd Place Print Section A Chat in the Sun by Arthur Belton

Highly Commended Digital Projected Image Valentines Bridge by Angi Nelson	Highly Commended Print Section Jay & Ben by Ian Coombs
	Hasn’t sent me a digital version or a link to the image
Highly Commended Digital Projected Image Early Morning Mist by Richard Johnson	Highly Commended Print Section Lasso Spin by Richard Price

Highly Commended Digital Projected Image I’ll Be Back by Geoff Morgan	Highly Commended Print Section Sunflower By Barrie Tovey
	Hasn’t sent me a digital version or a link to the image
	Commended Print Section Ultra Violet by Nathan Williams
	Hasn’t sent me a digital version or even a link to his image
	Commended Print Section Wild Wild Wet by Sian Perry
	Hasn’t sent me a digital version or even a link to her image.

Frogs, Snakes & Light Painting

2011-12-03T08:05:00.001Z

We had a bit of a gap in our programme as our scheduled speaker had to cancel. Luckily for us club members Angi Nelson & Myk Garton offered to fill it for us. So instead of having to sit quietly and listen & look at someone else’s images we had a practical night.

Now practical nights can be a bit of a hit or miss affair. Sometimes we don’t get many people attending. Other times we get nearly every club member turn up. This Thursday was definitely one of those times that nearly everyone turned up! Angi supplied us with various Frogs, Snakes & Reptiles plus a load of props & studio lights whilst Myk took charge of the Light Painting side of things.

After setting up the tables, props & animals Angi and her daughter with the aid of Richard Price gave those that wanted to stay inside and take images of the animals advice and help with the settings on their camera’s if they wanted or needed it.

Whilst all that was happening Myk Garton & Kevin Spiers took a group of members to the park across the road so they could create some Light Painting Images.

If your interested in seeing more images created on Thursday night then you can go to our Flickr Group where they are gradually being added by club members.

Frog Image copyright Michelle Lou. Light Painting Image copyright AJA Photography

Contrasting views

2011-11-11T12:23:00.001Z

If you were at last nights talk by Andy Beel you may of just noticed a smile appear on my face when just after he started talking he made a massive sweeping statement that nearly made me shout “YES”!.

“With digital it’s not just what you do in the camera.

What you do with the file afterwards is just as, if not more important!”

I should imagine that quite a few of you that used to shoot film probably turned off at that point and got all nostalgic about how digital isn’t really photography and there isn’t any skill to it anymore. I’m sorry I just don’t agree with you. Well kind of. Digital photography is a totally different skill set to film photography. But then again it all depends on how you take your pictures. If you shoot JPG and only do a little or no editing on the computer afterwards then you’ll find that it’s more like traditional film photography where you need to get as much, if not all of it right in the camera. Whereas if you shoot in raw then I believe you should be aiming to purposely shoot for a fairly flat image that retains as much detail across the whole of the picture from the darkest shadow to the whitest white. Because your going to edit it on your computer. You are going to choose where the brightest highlights and the deepest, darkest blacks are going to be. Everything in that image is yours to do with as you will. Which is obviously a totally different way of seeing photography. Which is better? I can’t answer that but I know which is best for me. If you haven’t figured out which you prefer yet then just give both ways a go. Experiment & see just how long it takes you to get bored sat in front of the computer. If it’s only a few minutes then maybe you need to re evaluate the way you take your images and go back to shooting JPG. There’s no shame in that. It’s only stuck up self righteous buffoons (there’s a good word I haven’t seen used in ages) that will tell you otherwise.

Oh yeah I was talking about Andy wasn’t I. Sorry I get distracted easi………

Andy talked quite a bit about curves and custom curves so I thought I would give you a couple of links. That way if you wanted to you could have a bit of a read about them. If you want to discover more about Custom Curves or just find out some background on Curves you can follow either of those links. Yes they both use Lightroom to demonstrate it but you can replicate it in virtually any piece of editing software that has curves.

Andy Beel

2011-11-09T21:15:00.001Z

This week see’s Andy Beel presenting a talk entitled “Marvellous Monochrome”

Marvellous Monochrome is a talk that has inspired black and white photographers around the country. This interactive print talk gives the audience the benefit of asking questions as the work is presented and understanding the working practice of a successful monochrome photographer. Andy Beel FRPS is a Fotospeed sponsored lecturer and Workshop Leader.

Everything was going really well, until the splash….

2011-11-06T15:31:00.001Z

We started the day at Woodchester Mansion which is an unfinished Gothic style mansion. A great place inside and some wonderful grounds to walk around and take pictures. The front of the mansion is mostly complete but unfortunately they seemed to think that the addition of a huge, white, 30 foot long marquee outside the entrance would be a good idea. That kind of ruined the chances of getting any good shots of the house as the back was covered in scaffolding and you could see the marquee from the side of the house as well. Cloning things out from between tree branches isn’t my idea of fun so I quickly dismissed even taking a shot.

I had a nice long walk around the Orange route with Rich as we were going to find the boathouse and see if we could get a decent shot or two of it. As we were walking down from the house we bumped into Christine and found that her day wasn’t going to well. She’d removed the SD card from her camera the night before for some reason and had forgotten to replace it. So no pictures for her and a totally wasted trip out. As we continued on the Orange route we kind of missed a turn when a couple of cows decided to object to our presence. Which led to us taking a two mile round trip around a couple of lakes instead of only having to walk about 500 yards from the house to the boathouse! Next time I’m definitely bringing a jar of mustard to threaten the cows with.

When we got back to the mansion to our dismay the tea room had already shut and we were forced to endure a dry wait for the minibus to take us back up to the car park. The less said about that journey the better if only for the fact I want to forget that at one point the van was leaning over at 45 degrees when the driver had to reverse and went up on the bank. When we got up to the car park we found Myk & Angi waiting for us. It seemed that everyone else had decided to call it a day and gone home. We were also treated to a great display from the local Glider club as the flight path in to land went directly above the car park.

We all headed, literally across the road to the car park at Coaley Peak, which is a popular hang gliding spot. After capturing a few shots of the sunset we moved up to a more secluded part of the picnic area to do a little bit of light painting. That went really well but it seems we won’t be buying our wire wool at B&Q again as it lasted all of about 10 seconds once it was lit. After a little bit of discussion we decided to head through Dursley, via a fantastic fish & chip shop, to Purton Hulks. Where the plan was to go and do some light painting down amongst the decaying hulls of the boats. We arrived and promptly set off down the towpath to find a suitable spot. Stopping at one of the Hulks we set up and had a bit of fun with lasers, sparklers and various kid’s toys! If you’ve had a go at light painting before you know what I mean. We moved on again to another hulk and created some images there. Then we had a great idea. Lets go back to the car park and spin some orbs & wool spin off the bridge over the canal! Great, what could possibly go wrong? So we start to set up and Angi decides to go down the tow path a little and try a different angle towards the bridge. She spots some steps going down to what, in the moonlight, looks like a solid piece of concrete. Unfortunately it was just algae covered water! Splash in she went, camera, tripod and mobile phone. Right up to her neck! Now on the bridge Rich was heard to say, bloody hell Angi you’ve scared the birds and spoilt the reflections! Myk jokingly said “It’s only Angie falling in”. Then we heard a HELP! And it was “Oh shit she has!”. Rich & Myk helped her out and I got my camera (I can’t see anything wrong with my priorities). As you can see from the picture she tried to take half the canal home in her shoe.

Practical Night

2011-11-04T17:45:00.001Z

The practical night last night seemed to be a success. After splitting into two groups (outdoor and indoor) we set about demonstrating some light painting techniques. Light painting has been done for many years even before the digital age but it is now being taken to the next level with some fantastic images being created.Last night was about showing what fun it can be and how it can add a whole new dimension to taking pictures. Not only did members get a privileged glimpse at some of the tools used to create shapes such as orbs, domes, double domes and other effects, but also participate in creating images.Whether you were outside spinning wire wool or indoors making a man-o-fire, everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The priceless thing for me was after spinning the first orb, the first time the image appears on the back of the camera and you hear a “Wow” from nearly everyone. Great.

This was written by Richard Price but he had a bit of trouble posting it.
I’d like to add a great big thank you to Richard Price, Kevin Spiers, Myk Garton and everyone else who helped set this fantastic evening up. I was gutted to miss it but I’m really glad it was such a success. If I missed you off the names that helped I’m sorry and if you really want me to add you to it just let me know.

R.O.C. Round 1 Results

2011-10-28T18:51:00.001+01:00

There were some fantastic images entered for Round 1 of our Open Competition. Thanks to everyone that entered and a special thank you to Matt Roach for his excellent judging and taking the time to go through all the entries & giving good constructive comments on each and every one. Especially as there were so many of them. If you want to see some of Matt’s photography then you can visit his Flickr ‘stream by going here.

All the winners are shown below. As usual clicking on the pictures should take you to that picture on the persons Flickr ‘stream. If they don’t have a Flickr account then it takes you to that picture on the clubs Flickr ‘stream. Clicking on their name will either take you to their Flickr ‘stream or their website, if they have one.

1st Place Print: Fairy Fireworks by Rich Price	1st Place DPI: A Couple of Couples by Mark Stone

2nd Place Print: Heading Home by Ruth Doyle	2nd Place DPI: Carnival Joy by Simon Xu

3rd Place Print: Brave heart by Ian Coombs	3rd Place DPI: Flowers by Adrian Cook

Highly Commended Print: Waterfall by Antony Beezer	Highly Commended DPI: Relaxing in the Sun by David Jones

Highly Commended Print: Sharing by Julie Coombs	Highly Commended DPI: Shelter from the Rain by David Jones

Highly Commended Print: I only have eyes for you by Theresa Driscoll	Highly Commended DPI: Smith & Son by Eddie House

Highly Commended Print: Going Alone by Nathan Williams	Highly Commended DPI: Occupation by Ian Coombs
Unfortunately I do not currently have a digital version of the image.
Highly Commended Print: Sit and Stay by Alison Davies

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone that took part.

Nervous yet?

2011-10-23T10:43:00.000+01:00

If you’ve not been with the club for long then this coming Thursday will probably be a new experience for you. We had sixty nine digital images entered for Round 1 of the competition. That’s the most we’ve ever had. Plus we also had about twenty five prints submitted. Twenty three of you decided to enter the digital part of the competition. I believe I’m right in saying that’s more than the clubs total membership was 3 - 4 years ago!

Photo by Louise Iddon.
entered in
Round 1 last year.

If this is your first time entering the R.O.C. (Reflex Open Competition) then let me give you a bit of advice for when your sat there listening to the judge on Thursday.

Don’t take anything he says personally.

He’s not saying your a bad person or that you suck at photography. He’s giving his opinion on the photograph in front of him. Most of them give good advice and suggestions. Listen to what they say. Not just about your images. But for all the photographs. If their a good judge you’ll get consistent and helpful advice. You might not agree with what they say, well actually it’s guaranteed that you won’t agree with everything they say, but try to listen impartially to the comments. It can be really hard to take criticism, even if it is constructive, but it can give you some amazing insights into how you perceive your own, and other peoples, photograph's.

If you’ve not entered then my advice to you is to sit where you can see the faces of those that have. You’ll probably get to see everything from happy smiling faces to looks of incredulous amazement that anyone would think their image is anything less than perfect.

No matter if you’ve entered or not you should turn up, sit down and enjoy the images. You can choose to ignore everything the judge says or hang on their every word. It’s up to you. Just don’t let anything that’s said put you off entering in the future. After all it’s your photograph and as long as you like it, nothing else matters.

Open your eyes

2011-10-21T09:42:00.001+01:00

Last nights meeting was superb. Not only did we get to see some fantastic photography by Simon Caplan but there was literally “no room at the inn!”.

Simon got the evening off to a great start by explaining just what he hopes to achieve when he takes a photograph but instead of trying to make it sound all arty and full of technobabble he did it in an easy to follow and uncomplicated way. The words were punctuated by some wonderful images which when they appeared on the screen made you stop, look and then think “hang on a minute. I’ve seen that a million times! Why didn’t I take that photograph?”. His images are full of the little details, symmetry and colours that hundreds of people will walk past every single day and not even notice. It really does make you wonder how you could be so blind, How you’ve never really looked at your surroundings.

I’ve actually had emails from a few club members saying how much they enjoyed the evening. That’s never happened before, so I can say if you get the chance, take a look at his work and listen to what he has to say.

Just a quick note about the room. We are aware of the problems we are having at the moment and are exploring our options.

Simon Caplan

2011-10-17T10:03:00.001+01:00

Out of the Blue © Simon Caplan

This weeks guest speaker is Simon Caplan with a presentation called “The Extraordinary Ordinary” how photography can discover hidden beauty in the urban envirionment. Simons recently had an exhibition at the YHA in Bristol’s Harbourside area and I’ve been on a few walks around the Harbourside with him and other Bristol Flickr Group members. It’ll be an evening of great photography and I can promise you’ll have walked past where he’s taken several of his photographs and you won’t have even seen what he’s taken a picture of.

Dunkirk and Fortress Europe

2011-10-01T12:55:00.011+01:00

Back from our tour of Belgium and France, 4 intrepid Reflex members with their 4 compardres find themselves exhausted from a full itinerary but keen for more. Moved from some of the locations and stories that accompany them yet awe struck by the scale of the formidable enemy, we find ourselves with mixed emotions. There are so many ways that the war could have panned out but to see how close Germany were to the total annihilation of England with its V weapon projects is very humbling. Along with this the "miracle" of Dunkirk and its evacuation is now understood and it's clear it was certainly a "miracle" in more ways than the evacuation alone.

Ian, Barrie, Keith and myself all thoroughly enjoyed the trip along with the non members that joined us. With days full of touring various locations the evening were packed full of food, drink and a good laugh. We conducted ourselves with the utmost "promptitude" and "clarity" and we even learned a bit about "wenching". Ian scored 8/10 for his colouring at a contemporary restaurant even though the waitress had no idea what we were on about.

I'm afraid there may be things written here that are meaningless unless you were there and you may have no idea what I am on about, but all will be revealed on 9th February when we have our Dunkirk evening.

Guest Speaker: John Hoskins

2011-09-26T12:46:00.001+01:00

This Thursday we have a talk from John Hoskins covering the last twenty or so years of Club Photography. Starting in the Darkroom and following his transition to digital. His early failures, those that have survived and those he’s recently had some success with. It should be a great talk and John would love a bit of audience participation, so he’s open to questions & comments during the talk. Although that doesn’t mean you can have a full blown conversation with the person sitting next to you. If you’d like to see some of John’s work before Thursday then just follow this link to his Flickr ‘stream.

Mpix Results

2011-09-11T17:31:00.001+01:00

I’m pleased to say Barrie Tovey & Ian Coombs both had acceptances into the Mpix Competition this year. Barrie had two pictures accepted, Red Kite Stoop and Torso. Whilst Ian had one acceptance called “Well I Like It”. But it meant he’s managed a life long ambition of having a rat picture actually get into an exhibition.

Red Kite Stoop, Barrie Tovey	Well I Like It, Ian Coombs

Torso, Barrie Tovey

Debbie Young

2011-09-09T09:08:00.001+01:00

Last night we had a great talk by Debbie Young. Despite some technical problems (the laptop is currently in the middle of the road on fire after being doused in petrol!) it went well. It was great to see some of the equipment she used in her underwater photography and I know quite a few of you enjoyed looking at her photographs especially the street photography.

I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank Debbie for coming along and giving us a great presentation.

Guest Speaker, Debbie Young

2011-09-05T12:28:00.001+01:00

I have an apology to make to Debbie Young and whoever did take the photograph that was up here. it seems somehow a couple of emails have been mixed up and the wrong information was being shown here. I'm really sorry for the mix up and am trying to find Debbie's email with her image that she gave permission for us to use on the Blog.
At this weeks meeting we have a guest speaker, Debbie Young. If you want to see some more of her work before Thursday then you can visit her Flickr site.

Welcome to Reflex

2011-08-28T19:46:00.001+01:00

The new season is just about to start. This Thursday the 1st September is the start of the new club season for us. Normally we would of had a break during the summer. But this year we gave all of our members the chance to take part in our 13 Weeks of Summer photography course. Now that course is over and we’re gearing up for a fantastic season of Guest Speakers, practical nights, competitions and photography. So if you’ve been thinking of joining a photography club or just want to find somewhere that can give you help & advice from friendly people who aren’t out to sale you anything come along to one of our Thursday night meetings. You’ll be made to feel welcome and we don’t care what camera you use or your photographic abilities. The only thing we insist is that you enjoy taking photographs.

If you want to find out more then visit our website. Where you can find out more information.

12 Months with Reflex

2011-08-20T13:37:00.001+01:00

If you were there at last weeks meeting not only did you get a surprise when you walked through the door into the room you would of heard Kevin talk about something we would love to get you involved in. That something is what we’re going to call 12 Months with Reflex.

The plan is to arrange a day out taking photographs once a month with club members. Why are we making a bit of a fuss about it? Because we want you to get involved. Not just by coming along to take pictures but by helping to organise the trips. We would like 12 of you to take one step forward and volunteer to organise one of the trips each month. It’s not difficult really. All you have to do is say where you want to go and take photographs. Easy isn’t it! Pick a month and a date, pick a location then just tell everyone that’s where and when we’re going. The we’re not looking for highly organised coach trips or anything like that. Just somewhere that you can wander around and take pictures.

If you need inspiration you can take a look at the Bristol Flickr Walk Group to see some of the photographs that have been taken when a group of photographers from the Bristol Area, who are all on Flickr, have got together and wandered around taking pictures. Or you can look at this thread in our Flickr Group that lists lots of places you could use as your location.

If you feel up to the challenge then let Mark or Kevin know on a Thursday night or you can email Mark at the usual club address.

Dropbox

2011-08-15T13:49:00.000+01:00

If you keep seeing me mention Dropbox and are wondering just what it is then now's your chance to find out. Dropbox is quite simply one of the most useful bits of free software that the club uses. It makes the job of collecting pictures & files from all of you really easy. Here's a step by step guide on how to get it set up.

use this link to visit the Dropbox website, download their software and register on the website. If it's been a while since you installed their software then go and download & install it again, they've released a few new versions lately that fix a few bugs.
Install their software. Go on it doesn't hurt. Once installed you should see a Dropbox folder on your desktop
Email me to let me know you've installed it. Please make sure you let me know the email address you used to sign up to their website.
You'll get an email asking you to join a "Shared Folder". The folder will be called something like "Reflex Entries Your Name". Please accept the invite.
Once you've accepted the invite you should see the shared folder INSIDE of your Dropbox folder (the Dropbox folder is on your desktop if you didn't change it's location when you installed the software)
That's the hard part done. See I told you it was pretty painless!
From now on whenever you want to send pictures or files into the club all you need to do is put them inside the SHARED FOLDER.
When you want to send in pictures just put them inside the shared folder. You can also create more folders inside the shared folder if you need to.
If your sending in pictures just leave your PC switched on for a few minutes so that it has a chance to upload the files. (If the pictures are sized for our competitions then it will only take a few seconds for them to upload. Larger files will, obviously, take longer to upload)
That's it. You don't have to worry about Dropbox anymore it should all run smoothly and without you needing to do anything else.
Another useful thing is that by having Dropbox installed if the club needs to send you a picture or file it will also work that way as well.

Deliberately mess it up.

2011-07-29T13:27:00.001+01:00

If you came along to last nights meeting you would of been sat there bored, listening to me tell you how to edit your photographs, but wait a minute. I didn’t tell you how to do it. I showed you how I would edit three of my pictures and hopefully started you thinking what you could do to your own work to make it stand out a little. I didn’t want any of you going away from last nights meeting thinking you had to do exactly what I said. I desperately wanted you NOT to do that and I really hope I succeeded.

I honestly think that everyone should take the pictures they want and edit them (or not) however they want to. They are after all your pictures. But I also think that if you do want to process your pictures you should try and make them the best they could be. If no one else likes what you’ve done to a picture, who cares! As long as your happy with it that’s what counts. But you have to admit it’s nice when someone tells you they like what you’ve created.

You may take something, look at it on the back of the camera and think “well that’s crap”, but I hope that the last two weeks have shown you that no matter how bad it looks on the camera screen it can be turned into a good picture with just a little bit of work. Now that’s not to say that you shouldn’t try and take the best photograph possible and get as much as possible right in camera, but if something goes wrong or you forget to change a setting because your in a hurry then its not the end of the world.

If I can create the picture on the right from the total mess on the left there’s no reason you can’t either! I guess what I’m trying to get you to understand is don’t be afraid to try doing something different when your editing your pictures. See what you can get out of the ones you think are beyond hope. You never know what you’ll get.

David Waters

2011-07-25T09:47:00.000+01:00

It’s with great sadness that I have to announce the death of David Waters.

David passed away on Wednesday morning after a short illness. He had a great sense of humour and was always willing to help others and give good, honest critique of anyone's photographs. Which, unfortunately, is a rare trait these days.

David's funeral will be held on
Thursday 28th, 1600 Hrs @ Westerleigh Crematorium (map)

Our thoughts and deepest sympathy go out to Theresa and the rest of his friends & family.

Oh I do like to be beside the sea side

2011-07-18T09:22:00.002+01:00

On Saturday an intrepid bunch of adventurers, well six of us, went to Weston Super Mare for a stroll along the sea front and to take pictures. It was a camera club outing but it seemed that most of the club decided it wasn’t for them. Which was a shame because the sun was out and the only bad thing was the wind. Although that created a few good photo opportunities and I’m still annoyed that when the wave broke over the sea wall none of us had our camera’s pointed at the cyclist that got soaked.
We all met at the Pier for six o’clock (at least those of us that could tell the time did, mentioning no names, Kevin.) and decided to go along it and see what we could find. After dodging a van and a train, whilst walking along the pier, we got to the far end and wondered if we were going to get blown off it was so windy. We went inside for a bit and then went for some fish & chips. Barrie ordered his food, got a coffee and walked straight past the till only for the girl to come running after him as he hadn’t paid for any of it!
After the meal we strolled along the seafront. Nearly making it to the old Knightstone pier. If you want to know why we didn’t go all the way to the old pier keep an eye on the pictures in the Flickr group pool and you’ll see that we would have had to time it just right to get past a particularly wet section of the footpath. The waves were constantly breaking over the sea wall at one of the narrowest points of the pathway and we all chickened out. Because of the wind we decided to abandon our plans for a bit of Beach light painting and head home.

13 Weeks of Summer, Processing your Photographs

2011-07-15T10:06:00.001+01:00

We’ve just finished the first half of our 13 Weeks of Summer course. That’s all the camera and picture taking done. Now we’re about to embark on the mysterious and secretive art of Processing and Editing your pictures. This is where quite a lot of people get stuck. They put their photographs on the computer and just sit there staring at the screen wondering what to do next. To get us started we asked you all what software you used to edit your pictures and I’m glad to say not a single person said Microsoft Paint! So armed with our list of software we are going to attempt the impossible and try to give you all a taste of how you can edit a picture in most if not all of the editing suites.

For next week all you need to bring along is yourself, a notepad & pen and make sure your brains are plugged in as, unfortunately, it’s going to be more talking than doing for the first week. We’ll be starting at the basics with how to take your pictures off of your camera and put them onto your computer. Also the age old argument of RAW vs. JPG will get an airing. There’s lots of other subjects being covered on Thursday including, workflow, suggestions on file structure, colour space, metadata and keywords.

Don’t worry if you think it’s all going to be technical and far too complicated to understand. It will be explained in easy to understand English and not Technobabble!

Our Newsletter

2011-07-02T18:07:00.001+01:00

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing out a new style newsletter. A few of our subscribers volunteered to receive the new version and give me feedback on it. It’s now very close to coming out of testing and taking the place of the old text based version. In preparation for this there is now a new page on this Blog that you can use to subscribe to it if you aren’t already. If you look to the left you can see the link to that page called “Sign up to our Newsletter”.

From now on you don’t need to be a member of Reflex Camera Club to receive it. Anyone can subscribe, although there may be editions that you won’t receive if your not a club member. You’ll also find that by changing to this new style we will now be complying with Anti-spam laws from various countries around the world.

What’s different? I’ll be able to include lots more pictures, video’s and information. So instead of just reading about it and having to click on a link to see a poster or picture that’s relevant to the writing, you’ll be able to see them right inside the newsletter. When you get the first issue you may find that the pictures aren’t showing and you just have a bit of text instead of a picture, if that happens you need to add the address the newsletter is sent from to your allowed list. In a lot of email programmes, including web based email, you will see something that asks if you want to allow pictures to be shown from our email address. Please click allow, yes or always allow. Whichever of those options it gives you.

About time…

2011-06-29T09:13:00.001+01:00

I’ve been a bit lax in updating the Blog the past few weeks and I’m sorry about that although it’s mainly been due to all the behind the scene’s stuff that’s going on with the club at the moment. We’ve got the 13 weeks of Summer course that we’re running. I’m trying out a new way of doing the newsletter which does involve more effort in putting it together, but the end result is so much easier to read and pleasing to the eye. Plus there are one or two other things that I won’t bore you with.

Anyway we’re up to week 5 of our 13 Weeks of Summer course. This week you get to find out all about the mysterious but amazingly simple Histogram. Simple? Yes once it’s explained and you realise that it really is that easy to understand you’ll never be confused by it again. We also get stuck into the various Metering modes and talk about exposure. No put your dirty minds back away it’s not that kind of exposure. If your lucky you’ll get to see us turn a picture of a glass of milk into a picture of orange juice right before your very eyes, with just the click of one button! Yes you guessed it. White Balance rears it’s ugly head and we’ll show you how to tame it once and for all.

You will need to bring your camera’s this week as the practical session returns after its week of rest and recuperation.

2011-06-26T18:23:00.001+01:00

I’m in the process of revamping the newsletter. If your already on the mailing list you should of received a form asking you if your willing to receive and give feedback on the new format. If you haven’t agreed to that or aren’t sure I’d love you to fill it in and give permission. It won’t get you spammed by loads and loads of email rubbish. It’ll just mean you get the odd extra copy of the newsletter in a full HTML format. What do I mean by HTML. It just means that instead of getting the usual newsletter that is just text with links and headings in it. This new version will allow us to feature members photographs, posters for events that we’ve been asked to let you know about and have a good looking layout. It’s just like visiting a website but you get it sent to you via email. So please do give your permission so I can add you to the tester list. The more people that receive it and give their opinion the more likely it will be to have the content and look that will suit the majority of the club.

If you’ve deleted the email or your not actually a member of Reflex but would like to receive these test emails and continue to receive them once the new version goes live then you can sign up below.

Back in the Day

2011-06-22T10:25:00.001+01:00

This was the club in 2008. Three years later we now have over 45 men & women that regularly come along to meetings. From 10 year old children to 60+ grandparents. They range in ability from some that have only just started to those that have been taking photographs for most of their lives.

I’ve been going through the club’s laptop to see what pictures are on it in case there is anything that I can use to blackmail club members. Unfortunately, for me, there isn’t but I have discovered some photographs from the 2008 prize giving and for the lottery funding which we successfully applied for in that year and if you’d like to see them just go here.

From Right to Left; Joe Scudamore; David Walters; Roy Williams; Kevin Spiers; Alec Williams; Steve Hallam; Pete Tomlinson; Rosie Tomlinson; Theresa Driscoll; Ian Coombs; Larry Whetton; Arthur Belton; and unfortunately I don’t know the names of the last two people.

From hot houses to wetlands

2011-06-19T09:43:00.003+01:00

Well, Skomer failed for a second time thanks to the weather but that didn't deter 5 of us from getting out and about. Barrie, Rich, Kev, Simon and Me all set off to a Butterfly hot house in Swindon. After sweating it in the heat we went out the back to see the Otters and Mearcats. Cafe for lunch then where? Well the weather was supposed to get better so we decided to travel to Ham Wall in Somerset, only 70 miles up the road! High hopes to see lots of wild fowl........

I don't think they had been told the weather was going to improve as they were all hiding in the reeds. So after a stroll from one hide to the next we decided to call it a day. On the way back to the car we did catch glimpse of the illusive Bittern.

Quick refuel at the pub and off home. Enroute via Wells another spur of the moment stop to catch a bit of good sky and idea that will I'm sure raise a smile. Finally back home for a well earnt rest.

13 Weeks of Summer, Week 3

2011-06-14T10:46:00.001+01:00

Well weeks 1 & 2 have gone and were up to week 3 of our 13 Weeks of Summer. This Thursday you can look forward to an evening of choices. Which Lens to choose, which focusing point to choose, which drink should you buy from the bar! ah well no not that one. It may seem like it’s only for those with dSLR’s but it’s not. If you use a point and shoot you need to make informed decisions. Do you walk closer to your subject or just zoom in. It does make a difference to your photograph, how? Well come along on Thursday and discover the ancient art of Zen and Lens Compression as told by Chairman Indiana Spiers.

The only other thing to say is WHERE IS YOUR HOMEWORK????? Forgot it again did you? Well if your not careful it’ll be detention for you. Please don’t forget to take a picture. We don’t care what it’s of. What size it is. Or any of the other usual things we ask you to do with it before you send it in. We’ll OK there is just one thing we want you to do and that’s put your name in the filename. Then just either Dropbox it, email it, or bring it in. We will need this picture for one of the coming weeks. So please take it and let us have it.

Red Hot Fun

2011-06-08T21:02:00.001+01:00

Hanneke and I went a bit insane last night and went out with some of the Bristol Flickr Group to try out Light Painting and Wire wool spinning.

Wondering just how close my camera was to get this shot? Well if you visit this picture you can see my camera by the pillar on the left and the one on the right is Hanneke’s. Luckily for us they didn’t melt. Yes that was red hot metal flying around. I found out the hard way just how hot it was during this shot when a piece bounced off the pillar, straight through the gap and hit me on the top of my head. Good job I didn’t have enough hair for it to stick to!

So what do you think? Reckon we could do this in the Langton’s Car Park?!!!!!

13 Weeks of Summer

2011-06-06T16:30:00.000+01:00

We started our "13 Weeks of Summer" tuition course last week and I'm glad to say it went amazingly well. Everyone I spoke to thought it was well explained and easy to follow. Which is good because this week we're going to be carrying on with the Exposure Triangle and delving deeper into Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. Don't worry though it's not going to get too heavy. The plan is to give a little talk on them with a few examples of how to combine all three to get the effect you want in your picture.Then for most of the evening we'll split into groups and you'll all be doing plenty of hands on practice.

So you can get the most out of this weeks session we'd love you to bring along your camera, it's instruction manual (if possible) and if you have one a Tripod. Even if you only have a small Gorillapod that's fine. I know not all of you will be able to bring tripods but we should be able to get by if we share the ones we do have.

Skomer 2011

2011-05-29T17:32:00.004+01:00

The day started at Burger King in Bristol at 5 am. Kev, Rich, Ian, Simon and me all bleary eyed but eager. A three hour car journey in front of us to get to Martins Haven for the ferry to Skomer. First stop Haverfordwest at 07:30 for a McDonalds breakfast, egg and bacon Mcmuffin for me, TWO for Kevin FB. 30 minutes and a couple of wrong turns later and we arrived at Martins Haven. At this point we were all a bit scepticle as to whether the ferry would cross due to the high winds. The cloud was breaking and it looked like it was going to brighten up but the winds remained. The parking attendant assured us the ferry was still crossing so we grabbed our gear and set off to the ticket kiosk next to the cove. From here we could see the sea, and my god it was quite a swell. The pilot of the boat made his way to the beach past the queue and said he would go out and see what it was like first before he took anyone. Once enough tickets were sold for the first boat full (40) they stopped until we heard from the pilot. Whilst waiting in the howling wind we watched while the sea came rolloing in. Then it clouded over once more and the rain started. What on earth were we thinking of? We continues to watch as the boat pulled out of the sheltered cove, up over the rollers and the bow smacking down in the following trough. We were all looking at each other not saying a word, we didn't have to. The boat disappeared around the headland and we waited. 10 minutes later over the crackle of the radio we the the words we had at first been dreading but were probably quite relieved to to hear, "No go, getting battered by a force 6 here".

That was that. Back up to car and on to plan B. What was plan B. Oh we didn't have one, bugger.

Ok back to Haverfordwest Information centre pick up some leaflets and back to Mcdonalds to discuss. With more caffiene inside us we decided to head for llanelli to the Wild fowl and wetlands trust there. We arrived there at about midday and walked the entire site. Plenty of bird shots were taken with Damselflies and lizards to boot. Ian may well have been converted, as self confessed Damdelfly hater, he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of getting a good Damselfly shot. After doing the wild bird section where we shot Damselflies and lizards because the birds were just too easy we went on to the captive section. Here the birds are much more challenging so we concentrated on this (honest). By the time we finished here it was about 5PM and general concensus was that it wasn't bad but not as good as Slimbridge.

From here we felt perhaps a visit to Ogmore-on-sea was in order to maybe get some beach and sky shots. Arrived here about 6PM and the tide was in, so not much beach there. Not our day. Never the less we still got down onto the little bit of beach and hpefully got some useable shots.

After this it was around 7PM and we were all knackered so felt it was time to head home. Back to Burger King for about 8 ish.

Even though we were up at 5am, had a 3 hour journey, got soaked waiting a a queue, to then drive back to a wetlands centre that wasn't as good as one we could have gone to 30 minutes from home and then go to get some beach shots when the tide was in. We still enjoyed ourselves. It was a day when things were just against us, but we made the best of it and visited places we normally wouldn't have. In the process we enjoyed ourselves had a laugh and Simon was able to catch up on his sleep in the car.

Reflex Awards

2011-05-27T12:06:00.001+01:00

All year you’ve been entering our Open Competition. You’ve taken pictures, edited & printed until your fingers bled and now you get to find out who the winners are!

Congratulations to everyone that won and thanks to all of you that took part. This years competition was pretty close and the standard of entries was superb. So start snapping away to get your pictures ready for next season. It’s sure to be hotly contended again.

As usual names that are underlined in yellow are links that take you to that person’s Flickr pages.

	Photographer of the Year or, “who can look the most like a rabbit in the headlights” goes to Ian Coombs Congratulations and next year were banning Lumix camera’s & JPG’s!

Novice of the Year Goes to Simon Xu ^(pictured) and Louise Iddon Congratulations to both of you.

	Stan Scantlebury Shield (Best DPI of the Year) goes to Alison Davies For her picture Unbroken Gaze

John Hankin Shield (Best Print of the Year) goes to Arthur Belton for his print Lily

	Print Photographer of the Year goes to Ian Coombs

Digital Projected Image Photographer of the Year goes to Mark Stone

If you didn’t enter then please consider having a go next time. You’ve seen what everyone else can do and it’s a sure bet that your pictures are just as good. So come on If you don’t try you’ll never know if you could win or not.

And the Winners are……

2011-05-25T10:26:00.001+01:00

This Thursday is our Annual Social & Prize Giving evening. We get to have a few drinks, embarrass ourselves at Skittles and mingle with all the friends we’ve made at the club. It’s a great night and you should definitely come along. If it’s not really your thing, still come along. You’ll be made to feel more than welcome and I’m sure you’ll have a great time. As well as the Social side of it we’ll also be announcing the winners of our Annual Open Competition.

You get to find out who has won Photographer of the Year, Best Digital Photographer and Best Print Photographer. Not forgetting for the first time in Several years we have brought back our Best Novice Photographer award. Don’t forget we also have to give Arthur & Alison their Trophies for winning the Stan Scantlebury & John Hankin Shield Competitions.

So if you’ve been desperate to know whose won or think you need to clear a bit of space on a shelf for one or two of the trophies, make sure to come along on Thursday and enjoy our very own award’s show.

How would you have done it?

2011-05-20T10:13:00.001+01:00

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised last night. That has to be one of the most well attended AGM’s we’ve ever had! Now come on admit it. You lot didn’t realise it was the AGM and that’s why you turned up! But it was great to see so many of you and even better that you actually made suggestions, asked questions and put across your views on the running of the club. So on behalf of the Committee I’d like to thank all of you for being there and making this last season one of the best ones we’ve had in ages.

OK so now I have a question for you. Feel free to email me your thoughts on it or drag me to one side at a meeting. It’s a very simple question, nothing too taxing for a Friday. All I want to know is…..

Would you have changed anything we’ve done over the last season?

It’s not a trick question. We’re not going to come around to your house with baseball bats if you didn’t like something. We honestly want to know if you would have done anything differently to how it happened. I’m not just talking about at meetings, if you think this Blog needs to be written differently, the email needs to change or Hanneke needs to stop obsessing about chocolate. Anything at all, no matter how big or how small, tell us. You don’t have to come up with a solution to it, although that would be great, just let us know what it was that you would have changed. So if you didn’t like something but aren’t sure what would be better that’s fine. It might take us a while longer to figure out a new way to do it but we’ll have a go.

Thanks Arthur

Last night Arthur Belton performed his last official duties as Programme Secretary. He’s been doing that job for at least the last 10 years! Every season he’s faithfully negotiated dates with speakers and wrestled with the need to keep the programme varied and interesting to everyone. I’m coming up to the end of my second season at the club and during that time I can honestly say there has only been 3 speakers that I didn’t like any of their work or subject matter (yes 2 of them did involve trains).
So I hope you’ll all join me in thanking Arthur for his superb work in keeping us fickle folk entertained over the years and we hope you’ll enjoy all that extra free time your going to have now.

Arthurs retirement from the committee means that we now have a new Programme Secretary, Hanneke Ter Veen. She’s spent the last year learning the ropes from Arthur and we’re expecting a great season of fantastic speakers and wonderfully planned events. Not that we’d ever put her under any pressure of course, but we’re working on forfeits if a speaker fails to live up to expectations!

I’m getting there… eventually

2011-05-15T10:01:00.001+01:00

I’m a bit late this week as this post should of been made on Friday but as the title says “I’m getting there..eventually”

Ann Cook FRPS, came along last Thursday and talked about the Art of Make Believe. It really was a fantastic evening of great Portraiture photography. Even better was Ann’s obvious enjoyment as she talked about her pictures. The talk was informative, entertaining and fun. How many times have you been sat at a club meeting wishing the speaker would just get on with it and talk about the pictures rather than the fact they were taken on their 25th trip to Africa and then get a 15 minute lecture on where Africa is in the world! Well you certainly don’t get that at one of Ann’s talks. I’ve never heard so much laughter or seen such obvious enjoyment on the faces of everyone attending. It was great to get a speaker that captivated their audience. It’s also the first time I’ve known that I have been looking at pictures taken with continuous lighting and I was impressed by the results. It also helped that Ann was obviously a master at using her equipment.

I’d like to thank Ann for such a wonderful evening and tell the rest of the world if you want an enjoyable, entertaining and fun evening full of anecdotes and wonderful photography , go along to one of her presentations. You won’t regret it.

John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield Results

2011-05-07T12:39:00.001+01:00

A.K.A. That’s a bloody good picture!

Last Thursday we had the pleasure of meeting David Southwell for the second time when he judged our Best Print and Best Projected Images of the year competition. His style of judging was superb instead of just describing what was in the picture (we can all see what it is so why do judges do that?) he actually went into great detail about what he saw when he looked at each photograph. Not just “that’s a nice picture” but why he thought it was good. He talked about how his eye travelled around the composition and if it seemed to get caught on any of the detail within the frame. It was probably one of the best explained and detailed bits of judging we’ve had for quite some time. So on behalf of all of us at Reflex I’d like to thank David for doing a superb job.

The winner of the Stand Scantlebury Shield wasn’t present, so she got sent a text message. Her reply was

“Oh my God! You poor proper photographers and to think I don’t know an F stop from a bus stop”

To get our own back we’re going to make her organise every social event for the next 20 years!

Now onto the reason you’re here. The photographs that have won our John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield’s. As you, hopefully, know these are for the Best Print and Best Digital Projected Image taken by a club member this season. Only pictures that had been entered into a previous round of this season’s open competition (including the Trio) were eligible and I’m glad to say we saw some superb Images.

Congratulations to the winners and a huge thank you to everyone that’s entered picture’s into this year’s Open Competition. You should all be proud of the images you’ve created.

John Hankin Shield
(Best Print of the Year)

Stan Scantlebury Shield
(Best DPI of the Year)

Winner

Lily by Arthur Belton(Previously entered: Round 2, Print)

Winner

Unbroken Gaze by Alison Davies (Previously entered: Round 4, DPI)

2nd: Leopard by Barrie Tovey (Previously entered: Round 3, Print)

2nd: Kilve by Adrian Cook (Previously entered: Round 2, DPI)

3rd: Hats & Tails by Ian Coombs
(Previously entered: Trio, Print)

3rd: Liverpool Waterfront by Adrian Cook (Previously entered: Round 3, DPI)

HC: The Mating Game by Joe Scudamore
(Previously entered: Trio, Print)

HC: Patterns in Glass by Roy Williams
(Previously entered: Trio, DPI)

HC: Charlotte by Ian Coombs (Previously entered: Trio, Print)

HC: Horned Frog by Mark Stone (Previously entered: Round 3, DPI)

HC: Waiting by Ian Coombs
(Previously entered: Round 2, DPI)

HC: The Eye by Mark Stone
(Previously entered: Trio, DPI)

In deepest darkest Wales

2011-05-03T10:14:00.002+01:00

It’s guest post time again and we have an account of the Club’s day trip to the Élan Valley and Gigrin from our Chairman Kev Spiers.

Well with the Royal Wedding happening of Friday 29th of April and the leaders of the land giving us an extra day off, plans were hatched for a trip to deepest darkest mid Wales. I should mention we are not against Kate and Williams big day quite the contrary. We wish them the very best in their new life, every happiness for the future and peace from the paparazzi, heaven knows they will need it! Oh and many thanks for the free day off :)
So the plans took shape in the form of an early start for the Élan Dams then off the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm and back to the Dams for a sunset shot (very brave for April in Wales as its not the driest place in the UK) With the weather not looking that good we all meet at Sandy Park Burger King at 7 o'clock. This is where the wolf made its first appearance and scared the life out of Simon, Rich and Geoff who had not meet the beast before! What else did Ian have up his sleeve or in that bag of his? You never know till he wants you too. So, the group was there and briefed with how to run in convoy we set off passports and £5.70 bridge toll in hand. We dispatched the M32, M4 and Tolls almost incident free, Rich's car had a small mechanical gremlin getting on to the M4 but with a quick twist of the key and threatening it with a large hammer and screw driver it behaved it’s self for the rest of the day. We made it to the Élan Visitor Centre for 09.15 gagging for a coffee, no such luck! Doors open at 10. We had a little wander around the car park then grabbed our gear and headed for the dam, I don't think anybody counted the steps to the top but it was to many! We all made it legs burning and hearts thumping, who said taking pictures was easy? This is where Ian decided to let us meet his second pet for the day, a rat (an Ikea soft toy). The water was 6 feet from the top of the dam, very graphic evidence of the dry winter and spring we have had. We took a few pictures with the hope that a bit of post production may make the grey sky look better and headed back down those steps for refreshment. This came in the shape of coffee's, tea's, pasties, crisps and sausage sandwiches. As we ate we looked at the Red Kit images hanging on the wall, the general consensus was they weren't sharp. Ian decided to pull out his Lumix and snap one as a banker just incase!
Dam two looked much more photogenic (I think it was Pen-y-Gareg Dam) This one I estimate the water was 10 to 15 feet below the high tide line, even the fly fishermen could wade from side to side. This lead to thoughts of returning with better light as the graded shore lines would look fantastic. We climbed over the fence and slithered down the bank to the rock shore for a few more pictures. Ian disappeared only to return once we were all back at the cars. He was very happy with pictures of some ducklings, patterns in the water and a dead buzzard!
Off to Dam number 3, Craig Goch. This one you can drive across, we made the crossing to the far side and split up to take photos. The sky was still grey with the occasional shaft of sunlight peeping through. Rich Price waited with the patience of a saint for a shaft of light on some trees on the far bank. Barrie busied himself with some candid shots of a couple who arrived on a Harley to admire the view and some shots of the local feathered wildlife. Kev scurried off up a steep bank to get a lofty shot of the dam, Rich headed off looking for a different angle on the dam only to return to take shots of Chaffinch's with the lens cap on!!? (did we not teach him anything?) Simon wandered to the far side snapping as he walked.
Time was getting on as we needed to be at Gigrin for 2 o'clock so we decided to make a rushed visit Dam number 4 Claerwen. This one is pretty spectacular, its huge! Well not Hoover Dam huge but for Wales trust me its impressive. After a very quick look at the base we drove to the top scared Ian with a look over the edge and headed off to Gigrin.
Once paid and parked we all made off to our hides. Barrie and Rich P in the £15 seats with Rich, Simon, Geoff and Kev in the £4 seats. We sat and waited the 45 minutes to feeding time spotting the odd Red Kite and hoping we would see the fabled White Kite. Ian got a little bored at this point as his bum went to sleep and started snoring!! Then we heard the tractor and so did the Kites it was the equivalent of banging the food gong! they appeared from everywhere, circling above us. The tractor entered the field stopped right in front of us and dumped some its 40 kilos of fresh meat. I was like the rest camera glued to my eye trying to make a shot. Honestly it was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds I have no idea how many Kites were there but am quite confident it was 100+ Suddenly there was a quiet shout through the hide its the White Kite! Every camera in the hides snapped in the general direction and pressed their shutter, it was tagged number 51 not the best for a photo opportunity but a record of a White Kite nonetheless. Then drama struck massive problems, memory full card!! Rich, Kev, Barrie :- Kev and Rich set about deleting images Barrie called it a day, well it was 5 o'clock! 5 O'clock where did those 2 hours go? Just ask the bursting memory cards 700+ for Kev 500+ for Rich P
Next a little confusion home, food, sunset? home was called then changed to pub to discuss further. A small detour via a luck encounter with a very large bracket fungus and the pub was entered beers ordered and a comfy sofa for us. It was decided to go our separate way’s. Barrie and Co. had another beer, Rich's crew headed off for a possible sunset at Dam number 3. It turned out OK, Kev and Rich P messed with off camera flash to highlight foreground while Rich finally got to grips with that flipping Chaffinch and Simon used the centre of the Dam as foreground for the sunset. That done we headed off home dodging frogs and Welsh drivers, feel free to ask!
Still enough rambling, just to say thank you to Barrie and Rich for driving and to all who made this another great Reflex Camera Clubs day out.

Song or Book Title Competition Winners

2011-04-30T17:39:00.002+01:00

You can see all the entries for the Competition in this Gallery on Flickr.

The winner of our Flickr only song or book title competition was …
Mark Stone

In Second place was Geoff Morgan

And Mark Stone took Third place as well with,

Thursday

2011-04-26T13:10:00.001+01:00

This week we have a visit from not one but two speakers. Joanne Searle ARPS, CPAGB and Linda Harvey LRPS. It should be a great evening with Slides, Prints and AV’s [Audio Visuals, short films] being shown. Clicking on Joanne’s name will take you to her website and Linda’s takes you to her images on the Kingswood Photographic Societies website.

Something new.

2011-04-24T18:53:00.001+01:00

The more eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a very slight change in the way the Blog looks. But for those of you that haven’t, look over on the left. Yep that’s it. Above the Facebook box there now resides a list of the pages that are available to you on the blog. Pages? They aren’t anything special but they allow us to put information or articles on them that will just sit there permanently for you to look at whenever you want to. And as today’s Easter I thought I would give you all a nice present and unveil a new page just for you.

It’s the third one down.

Yep that’s the one it’s called “Photography on the Web”. Simple title for what is a page of links to various photography resources on the web. I hope you all find it useful and if you think of anymore that you would like to see added to the list then just let me know.

Vote for your favourite.

2011-04-23T14:43:00.001+01:00

The political voting system may be undergoing a referendum next month but here at Reflex we already use the Alternative Vote to choose the winners for our Flickr Competition’s.

So if you want to influence the outcome go and take a look at the entries for “Book or Song Title” and vote for your top three.

If you didn’t manage to enter this time don’t worry you can still vote.

The winner gets to choose the theme for the next competition. So come on wipe the dust off your camera and join in. It’s a great way to get yourself into the habit of planning what your going to take pictures of and it’s fun to join in with club members who enjoy sharing their pictures on Flickr.

Did I forget to tell you that membership to Flickr is FREE! That’s right it costs you nothing to join and it’s really easy to use. Once you’ve signed up you can join the clubs Flickr Group and share your photo’s with other club members or the whole world.

Practical Night

2011-04-22T09:21:00.001+01:00

Some interesting talks last night on Lightroom, personal workflow and F stops. We even learnt a new highly technical phrase to use when talking about the built in Light meter on our camera’s; The pointy slidey thing. I for one will be using it as often as possible.

Thanks to Rich Price, Dan Thomas and Kev Spiers for giving the talks. Also thank you to Arthur Belton and Ian Coombs for giving the picture mounting demo’s.

If you have something interesting to say on any aspect of photography or want to demonstrate a technique you like then get in touch. We’re always looking out for people to do this kind of thing on practical night’s. Or if you have something you would like to see explained or want to practice a technique. Let us know.

George Reekie

2011-04-13T05:10:00.000+01:00

Thursday night, the 14th, we have the pleasure of George Reekie giving us a presentation of his work entitled “Japan to Norton Fitzwarren Via Goodwood”. Now if that hasn’t piqued your interest I don’t know what will. If you want to see some of George’s work before the meeting you can take a look at his gallery on Taunton Camera Clubs website. It looks to be a night of excellent photography and well worth coming along to see.

Triptych Results

2011-04-10T18:28:00.002+01:00

On Thursday we had the pleasure of meeting John Hoskins (hopefully that is his Flickr account!) as he came along to judge our Trio Competition. He was everything we’ve come to not expect from a judge, entertaining, didn’t talk down to us and actually seemed to enjoy talking about other people’s pictures. So thanks John we thoroughly enjoyed meeting you.
On to the winning entries. As usual clicking on a name takes you to that persons Flickr ‘stream, if they have one, and Clicking on a picture, takes you to that picture on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone that entered and congratulations to the winners.

1st Place in the Digital Projected went to Richard Price with Hidden Emotions	1st Place in the Print Section went to Ian Coombs with Charlotte
2nd Place in the Digital Projected went to Mark Stone with Mead’s Reach at Night	2nd Place in the Print Section went to Ian Coombs with Hats & Tails
3rd Place in the Digital Projected went to Ian Coombs with Zombies	3rd Place in the Print Section went to Joe Scudamore with The Mating Game
Highly Commended in the Digital Projected went to Steve Hallam with Six Bell’s Colliery Memorial	Highly Commended in Digital Projected was Ian Coombs with Puffins
Highly Commended in Digital Projected Steve Hallam with Transported

John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield’s

2011-04-08T09:50:00.001+01:00

Near the end of each season we hold the John Hankin and Stan Scantlebury Shield competitions. These are not part of the Open Competition that we hold each year but they are linked to it.

Let me try and explain. All through the year you’ve spent quite some time trying to pick out your best photographs and entering new ones into each round of the Open Competition. The John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield competitions are slightly different. You don’t get to enter new photographs. You can only enter the ones you have already submitted to any of the previous rounds of the Open Competition. You can even use a single picture from your Triptych panels. All the other rules are exactly the same as a normal Reflex competition. It doesn’t matter if a judge has praised it and declared it the best photograph he’s ever seen or heaped scorn upon it and said it’s only fit for the dustbin. As long as it’s been into a round of the Open Competition THIS SEASON it is eligible for the John Hankin or Stan Scantlebury Shields.

By now your probably thinking so why the different rules for these two shields. It’s easy enough to explain. The John Hankin Shield is for the Best Print of the year. The Stan Scantlebury shield is for the best Digital Projected Image of the year. So if you win you can say you took the best picture in the club this season! That’s quite some achievement.

So now’s the time to start going through the pictures you’ve submitted this season and pick the best three prints and digital images that you’ve already entered. Give them a polish, wipe off the coffee stains and submit them in the usual ways for next Thursday night, the 14th of April. If your wondering what the usual ways are, “Where have you been hiding all season?”. Prints should be brought in on Thursday night, Digital Image files can be sent in via Dropbox (sign up by going here and then email the club to let me know you’ve done it.), by email, or if you’d like to receive Steve’s best disapproving stare, you can bring them in on a memory stick on Thursday night.

Lunch Break is Over! The winners.

2011-04-05T10:21:00.001+01:00

We held our first ever Flickr only competition throughout March with the theme “Lunch Break is Over”. If you want to see all the entrants then you can go visit the Gallery section of the clubs Flickr account.

The winner was Geoff Morgan, cue fanfare & applause.

In second place was Ian Coombs;

and we had a tie for 3rd place between Hanneke Ter Veen and Ian Coombs

The next theme has already been chosen by Geoff and its “Song or Book Title’s” so get your thinking caps on and start taking pictures!

The Club Flickr Account and your photographs.

2011-03-29T12:56:00.005+01:00

As you know when a picture is needed online and you don't have it in your Flickr 'stream, you can't be bothered to upload it or you don't have a Flickr account then I use the clubs Flickr account to upload your photograph. Some of you sometimes get worried about your pictures being used by other people or want to make sure you get your name mentioned if your picture is used or mentioned anywhere. Well to help you understand what I do when I upload a photo using the clubs account I thought I'd write this and let you know how I try to make sure it's you that get’s the credit and not the club. It's also to let you know in case you suddenly turn around and decide that you’ve suffered amnesia and didn’t know what was going on. So below are the things that I do and why I do them.
When I upload one of your pictures you will see that I always try to give them a title that includes your name and in the description I try and give the reason why I uploaded it. An example can be seen by visiting this picture.
What you don’t see, unless you actually look for it, is the exif (some people call it meta just to be awkward) data that is uploaded along with the photograph. I’m not going to go really in depth here about what it is but I am going to try and explain why I have used certain words and phrases in the exif data. There are several different reasons why image files were designed to also carry this extra information. The one that really concerns us is to prove who the picture belongs to and provide contact details to anyone who would like to use that photograph.
I’ve just updated the exif data that I use when uploading to the clubs Flickr Account and if anyone finds what I have done to it unacceptable then please let me know and I will either change it (if several of you don’t like the updated version) or you can upload your own pictures in future, that way you make sure you use exif data that is specific to you and not the club.
I’m going to list the section titles then inside “” show the wording I’ve decided to use and, if necessary, then explain the reason for using the wording I have chosen;

There’s a section for the address of the photographer. I have, for convenience, put the clubs mailing address and contact phone number as the image creators address. I have also put the club as the creator of the Image and for the creators website I have put the clubs site.

Copyright - “© 2011 Original photographer / Reflex Camera Club”. The first bit should be self explanatory. The reason I’ve added Reflex Camera Club is not so that the club gets any credit nor is the club trying to grab your copyright. It’s easier to do it this way then people treat us as your agents and so attempt to get in touch with us so that we can let you know and then pass on your details to whoever is interested in your photograph. We’re not going to start charging you, asking for a percentage or attempt to claim any rights over your photograph.

Copyright Status - “Copyrighted”. It’s not up to me or the club to decide if you want your work to be copyrighted or not BUT I will also not decide that you do not want to copyright it so by having this as the selection anyone wanting to use your picture has to seek permission from you first. It’s the safest way for the club to operate if we are going to continue showing your pictures online using the Clubs Flickr Account.

Rights Usage Terms - “All Rights Reserved”. Means you reserve the right to refuse any or all use of your pictures for any use whatsoever.

Copyright Info URL - “http://www.flickr.com/people/reflex_camera_club”. Tells people that if they want more info on the copyright of the photograph they should go to that website. If you follow the link you will see that on the PROFILE page of the clubs Flickr Account I explain that they can contact the pictures owner by emailing the club.

Creator Job Title - “Member of Reflex Camera Club”. Well you are and it was the best & easiest thing I could think of
.
Instructions - “Do not reproduce in any form without prior written permission. All images remain the property and © copyright of the original photographer. If you wish to use an image then please get in touch and we will pass on your contact details to the original photographer.” Pretty long but I hope it gets across that the images are not the clubs but belong to whoever took the original photograph. Also it should be obvious to anyone reading it that they need to get in touch with the club so that we can put them in touch with you.

Creditline - “Reflex Camera Club – www. reflexcc.org.uk” If you’ve ever been asked if a magazine or somewhere could use your picture you’ve probably heard the words “we can’t pay you but we can give you a credit”. Apart from replying “credits don’t buy me food fool!” you should also give them your name and website so that they can publish that next to your picture, after they’ve paid you of course. This is what would be printed next to your picture if the club gave permission for it to be used. Of course we won’t ever give permission. That’s for you to do and so you can tell them what you want printed next to your picture.

Source - “Reflex Camera Club”. Where the picture has come from. If it was you uploading it then it would be your name. But remember your only reading this because you didn’t upload the picture yourself!

Keywords - “Reflex Camera Club, Photography Group, Photography Society, Photography, Taken by member of Reflex Camera Club, All Rights Reserved, ©, Do not reproduce without written consent, Copyright remains with the original photographer.” These are automatically added to every picture that gets uploaded by the clubs Flickr account. If you look at a picture on Flickr you will see a section called “TAGS” that’s what Flickr calls keywords. They are the words that people search for to find your, or any, picture.

If you don’t agree to me using these phrases and words when I upload YOUR pictures to the clubs Flickr account you need to let me know as I will be using this format from now on. If you decide you don’t like it and we cannot come up with replacement wording that is acceptable to everyone then you will have to upload your own pictures. Just remember if you don’t want me to use this and you don’t upload your own pictures you will never see your work displayed on the Blog, website or Flickr group.

If you’d like to find out more about exif (meta) data that’s contained in virtually every digital photograph then go take a look at the Photo Meta Data website.
Feel free to leave comments here or at the Flickr Group

A Miscellany of Subjects

2011-03-25T18:33:00.001Z

Last meeting we were treated to an excellent slide show from Leo Rich. Not only did he show some fantastic photography, I really enjoyed the portraits, he provided a funny and entertaining commentary to go with it. I can heartily recommend going along to one of his talks if you have the chance.

If you haven't yet voted for your favourite pictures in our Flickr competition then please go take a look at the entries and vote for your favourite one.

The perils of Texting.

2011-03-20T16:42:00.001Z

So a group of us all decide to meet at Chew Valley Reservoir to try and get some pictures of the full moon. As it was going to be at it’s closest point to earth for 19 years. We’re all having a laugh and joking around when I get a text message from Kev saying it was cloudy where he was (he’d gone of to Hayling Island for the weekend). We replied back and then just carried on with what we were doing.

Then I got another text!

I’m hoping he accidentally left out a word. If not he and his wife have some serious explaining to do when we see them next.

Highlights without the Hair Dye!

2011-03-18T13:45:00.003Z

Last night we had our lovely little friendly competition on the theme of Highlights. A great night but something just didn’t seem right, could it have been the strangely calming music that was being played. I know I heard a few snore’s from the back of the room. The lack of heckling was strange. Normally one corner of the room turns into the balcony in the Muppet theatre (do I have to hide now?).
The Overall Winner was Kev Spiers with his picture of a Foggy Cadbury’s. Shame he didn’t stay to collect his prize. Nope we’re not going to tell him what it was. We’re just going to keep reminding him he didn’t get to have it.

Second place was Eddie House with his photograph Brandon Hill Sunset	Antony Bezer came third with his Lighthouse photograph

Well done all of you and thanks to everyone who entered.
_{All pictures remain the © of the original artists and are posted with permission.}

Come get yer 'air dun!

2011-03-15T19:17:00.000Z

Don't forget this Thursday is our Digital Projected Competition with the theme Highlights. No points or prizes it's just for fun. The only rule (well 2 rules) are you're picture must be on the theme of Highlights and sized correctly (1400 pixels on the longest edge if Landscape orientated or 1050 pixels if Portrait orientated). We'd also love it if you name the file in the same way as you do for club competitions, but that's not essential for this. If your going to Dropbox or email your entries please do so by Thursday lunchtime as I need to have them to bring to the meeting. You can of course also bring them in on a memory stick if you really have to.

Also it's your last chance to submit your Trio entries. If your submitting digital images then you need to have them named correctly. It's not hard to do and here's three examples;

01_my picture title_my name.jpg
02_my other picture title_my name.jpg
03_my last picture title_my name.jpg

You might notice a pattern there. Please note it's an UNDERSCORE and NOT a hyphen or minus sign. On most keyboards you can find the underscore right next to the 0 (zero) and to use it just hold the shift key down whilst pressing that key. Why am I going on and on about it? Well when the pictures are collated to be sent of to the judge we use a bit of software that automates the printing of the score sheet and removes & renumbers the files so the judge doesn't get to see who created the photographs. This software works on a pattern recognition system. Which means it knows that after the first underscore is the title of the picture and after the 2nd underscore is the photographers name. If it doesn't find an underscore it doesn't work and we have to rename the files manually. Which can get annoying when you consider for the last competition we had over 40 digital images. So please do take the time to name your files correctly. If you use Lightroom there is a walk through on our website which creates a preset so you can simply click one option and it resizes and renames your files for you. If you still need a reminder of what the Trio involves then just follow this link.

Round 4 Winners

2011-03-12T13:58:00.001Z

Yet again some fantastic photographs were entered. Thanks to Paul Kessler LRPS for proving to be an excellent and entertaining judge.

The pictures either link to the version on the photographers website or Flickr account, where possible, else they link to the clubs Flickr account. If the photographer has a website or Flickr account then their name sends you to that.

If you have put your winning picture online somewhere or would rather have the link point elsewhere, please let me know.

Thanks to everyone who took part and congratulations to the winners.

_______________________________________

Winning Print

The Fighter, Rich Price

___________________________________________

Winning Digital Image

Tidal Curves, Roy Williams

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2nd Place Print

Shadows & Reflections, Theresa Driscoll

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2nd Place Digital Image

Great Tree Nymph (Idea Leuconoe), Mark Stone

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3rd Place Print

Hands of the Vampire, Ian Coombs

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3rd Place Digital Image

King of the Jungle, Dan Thomas

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Commended Print

Holler, Alison Davies

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Highly Commended Digital Image

Unbroken Gaze, Alison Davies

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Commended Print

My Gentle Friend, Alison Davies

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Commended Digital Image

Shadows, Adrian Cook

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Commended Digital Image

Riddles in the Dark, Ian Coombs

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Commended Digital Image

Heading Home, Ruth Doyle

Reproduced here with permission. All © remains with the original photographer.

Showing what we do.

2011-03-05T11:26:00.001Z

On Thursday we had several members bring along photographs and talk about the reasons why and how they took them. We also had two people who decided to give talks about a couple of techniques used to create or process their photo's. Danny gave us an insight into why and how he take all his pictures in Raw whilst Rich took us through a technique called focus stacking. Both very interesting and useful techniques. Thanks to everyone that took part and to those of you that were inspired, it's your turn next year!

An evening stroll.

2011-02-28T14:22:00.004Z

Above: Everyone gathering for the evening walk.

I went on a pleasant stroll behind Temple Meads station with some other members of the Bristol Flickr Group on Sunday evening. Apart from a run in with a Security Guard a great time was had by all. If your interested then some of the pictures are starting to appear in this Flickr group and I’m sure more will be posted over the next few days. You can see many pictures with a Bristol theme and some of the ones from the evening walk in the Bristol Flickr Group as well.

Thanks to Myk for organising it yet again.

I took a picture of my foot! Has it won?

2011-02-26T11:56:00.002Z

So after seeing the London Salon exhibition CD at the last meeting I hope you’ve had your horizons broadened or even shattered! It just goes to show that you should never discount any of the pictures that you take as there is always someone who thinks it’s a good shot. Although they may be on LSD or have just taken some other hallucinogenic drug when they said it.

To try and prove that I present to you a proper foTOE. As you can see it even lets you know it's genuine. It has the stamp (get it? stamp!)of approval to give it proper FoToe credentials. What do you think? Is it a winner or not?

Why you don't need raw!

2011-02-22T08:00:00.011Z

We have another guest Blogger for you. This time it's our very own Steve Hallam. When he's not breaking the clubs laptop (sorry couldn't resist) he keeps an eye on our purse strings in his role as the clubs Treasurer;

OK, at least the title made you look. Here are my views on using raw (not RAW, it's not an acronym).A raw image is the output from a digital camera sensor, more or less unprocessed by the camera electronics and software.

A raw image in itself is completely useless. You cannot send it to a printer or project it. It has to be processed into something useful, normally a JPG file. This can be done in the camera, or externally. There are a number of software packages that will do this - often Photoshop or Lightroom, but there are many others.

All cameras can produce JPGs directly - so why not use them?

Here are some arguments commonly put forward for using raw:

A raw file, if correctly processed, will sometimes give better results than an out of the camera JPG.
It's easier to rescue badly exposed images if they are in raw rather than JPG.
It's easier to correct bad colour casts in raw images rather than JPG.
If you are trying to create HDR (high dynamic range) images, you really need to start with raw.

Let's consider these points:

Most cameras will produce decent JPGs. Some camera makers manage to produce very good ones.
In most cases the visual differences between processed raw files and out-of-camera JPGs will be imperceptible.
There is no excuse for producing badly exposed digital images.
Learn to use the histogram display on the camera, and bracket if in doubt. it costs you nothing.

Learn how to use the white balance control on your camera. Don't rely on auto white balance unless you know it works well. Getting it right at the taking stage is much better than trying to correct later. Minor corrections are no problem in JPG.

If you want to work in HDR, most packages seem to work better with raw files.

Arguments against raw:

Raw takes up more storage space than JPG (this used to be a problem but isn't really now as storage is so cheap).
All digital images are inherently soft. If you process from raw, you MUST sharpen your images adequately. Your club projectionist is fed up with being accused of not focussing the projector properly. It's your images that are not sharp.
Raw processing can be very time consuming if you have a lot of images to process.
You are totally dependent on the quality of the raw processing software: the best results often come from the camera makers' own packages.

So to sum up, what would be a sensible strategy?

Learn how to use your camera properly - in particular how to use histograms!
Your default camera settings for JPGs are probably rubbish - almost all cameras over-sharpen and over-saturate colours. Some experimentation and asking fellow owners is required - a little Googling will often find what you need to know.
Make sure that JPGs are saved at the highest possible quality (again, the camera default is often NOT to do this)
If you are taking pictures in reasonable lighting conditions and your camera is properly set up, raw is probably a waste of time (literally!)
If in very doubtful conditions, I use raw+JPG which stores both on the memory card.
Very intensive processing of images may require raw files to produce the best results.

Too many people regard raw as some sort of magic bullet that will guarantee good results and manage to produce output inferior to JPGs! If you use raw, you will have to learn to do it properly.

A couple of points to ponder:

Our current "Club Photographer of the Year" always works with JPGs.
The last judge we had (at the club battle) does not own a digital SLR and always works with JPGs. Despite these handicaps, he has gained ARPS, DPAGB and APAGB qualifications!

London Salon travelling exhibition CD.

2011-02-20T19:14:00.000Z

If your not sure that your coming along to the next meeting then let me try to persuade you that it will open your eyes to a side of photography that will either see you arguing that it's not photography and asking everyone what the hell is that supposed to be. Or you will absolutely love it and think it's amazing.

The London salon seems to either bring out the greatest admiration for photographers trying to extend the boundaries of what is acceptable or make you think that the judges and people who took the pictures were on very strong hallucinogenic drugs!

On the front page of their website is the following statement;

'The aim of the London Salon is to exhibit only that class of photographic work in which there is distinct evidence of artistic feeling and execution'

It's not often that you can say it, but it's an organisation that certainly keeps to it's mission statement!

Club Battle: Reflex vs A1

2011-02-18T18:30:00.002Z

As you all, should, know we had A1 Camera Club from Weston Super Mare visit us for a club battle.
I'm glad to say no one tried to smuggle baseball bats or any other weapons into this weeks meeting. So the only person who could cause any kind of trauma, all be it only mental anguish, was the judge Tony Byram. I have to say he did a fantastic job. Not only did he give each picture a fair score. For every negative comment on a photograph he also made two positive ones. The judging of the print section went smoothly with some fantastic pictures being shown from both clubs.

We went to the half time break with the scores at 227 for A1 and 238 for Reflex. So as you can see it was really close with either of us still able to win.

With the break over we all sat down to listen to Tony's thoughts on the Digital Projected Images. Unfortunately the club's laptop seemed to have other ideas and we had to ask Eddie House to run home and grab his laptop. So a great big thank you for that and apologies to his daughter for suddenly finding herself without a computer for a couple of hours. So with the laptop problems sorted we settled down and listened to what Tony had to say about the rest of the images.

I'm very pleased to say that the final score was 474 points for A1 and we were the victors with 494 points.

It was an enjoyable evening and all of us at Reflex want to thank A1 for taking part and hope you enjoyed visiting us. We're looking forward to the rematch next year.

DPIC Results

2011-02-15T08:00:00.011Z

The DPIC results are out. We managed to get equal 43rd out of the 51 clubs that entered. 1,020 photographs were submitted and the average score was 10.60 with the highest being 15. So if you received higher than 10 you did well. Our scores ranged from a 12 down to 8.

Congratulations to Rich Price for getting that 12 point score with his picture of Clevedon Pier, shown to the left. That put his picture in the top 18% of submissions. If you look at the score sheet you will notice a cross symbol next to Rich's name. Which means at least one judge awarded him a top mark. The points shown are the average of the three judges score's.

Club Battle

2011-02-14T09:05:00.000Z

This week we have A1 Camera Club from Weston Super Mare paying us a visit for a Club Battle. But please don't bring baseball bats or any other weapons along it's not that kind of battle. Over the last month or so we've scoured the photographs you submitted and chosen the ones that will represent us on Thursday night. Lets see if we can improve on the result we got last year. We won every category but unfortunately didn't win over all because we didn't get enough points in total. I've got a good feeling about this year and I'm sure well do really well.

Also don't forget, this Thursday is your last chance to enter prints or digital images for the 4th round of our Open Competition. Bring your prints on the night and you can submit your Digital images via Dropbox (preferred), email or bring them in on a memory stick.

The Other Ones

2011-02-08T11:25:00.001Z

Sorry for the delay in updating the Blog and if some of the writing seems to make less sense than normal you'll have to forgive me.

Last Thursday we had a practical night and it was great to see so many people coming along and enjoying themselves. There were some great pictures taken of the band and Rich's macro demo went down a storm as well.

Don't forget if you took pictures please send them in via email, Dropbox or bring in on a memory stick or CD.

The band gave up their free time and we asked them to come along. So its only fair that they get something out of it.

The next meeting is a guest speaker David Southwell who will be giving us a presentation on using HDR and other techniques. Unfortunately the website I have for him no longer exists.

Practical Evening

2011-01-31T05:00:00.004Z

The next meeting brings us another practical evening and as usual your encouraged to bring along your camera and take part. As well as a macro demonstration we’ll have someone available to talk to you about using and getting more out of Flickr. You can also ask any photography related questions and we’ll try our best to give you an answer. But lets get on to the main event of Thursday which will be a studio shoot with a band. We supply the lights, backdrop, musicians and even a smoke machine. You just turn up with your camera and get the most out of the evening.
Ask questions, mingle and talk with everyone. As well as it being a chance to learn some new techniques or ask questions, treat it as a social event. If you’ve not been coming to the club for long or just haven’t managed to be at many of the meetings it’s a great opportunity to get to know everyone. Although I can guarantee by the end of the evening I still won’t remember everyone’s name.

There are only two things we would like you to do if you turn up on Thursday.
The first is, if you take pictures of the band then please email, Dropbox or bring them in on a memory stick so that we can let them have copies. They are giving their time up, for free, for us. They didn’t ask us if we wanted to take pictures of them, we asked them to come along. So play fair and lets pay them back for their time by giving them the photo’s.

The second thing? That’s easy, come along and have fun, enjoy yourself and take some great pictures!

Round 3 results

2011-01-24T22:11:00.007Z

The results of Round 3 of our Open Competition are in. Thanks to Nick Ball for taking the time to judge the competition for us.
Congratulations to Arthur Belton on winning the Print section and Alison Davies for her first ever win in the Digital Projected.
Thanks to everyone that took part and congratulations if you managed to get in the scoring. Scroll down to see the winning pictures.
I’ve done a few things differently this time. If you have a Flickr account then I’ve made it so that if you click your name you get taken to your Flickr ‘stream (if you have one and even if you haven’t posted anything to it for ages). If you have your winning picture on your Flickr stream then clicking that picture will take you to it on your Flickr ‘stream. If it’s not on your Flickr then you will get taken to the Clubs Flickr ‘stream.
I’m also trying out a new, and hopefully better, way of laying out the pictures. So If something doesn’t seem to be right with the layout then please let me know.

Winner Digital Projected: Naughty Girls Night Out Alison Davies	Winner Print: Bag, Towel & Shoes Arthur Belton
2nd Digital Projected: Ceratophrys ornata Mark Stone	2nd Print: Dee Barrie Tovey
3rd Digital Projected: Ice Tree Richard Price	3rd Print: Contemplation Richard Price
Highly Commended Digital Projected: Art Gallery Barrie Tovey	Highly Commended Print: Leopard Barrie Tovey
Highly Commended Digital Projected: Sky Dance Julie Coombs	Commended Print: Stand & Deliver Alison Davies
Commended Digital Projected: Flasher Richard Price

Take these pictures for us...

2011-01-18T13:17:00.000Z

It's inevitable at some point when someone you know or a friend of a friend finds out you enjoy photography and are pretty good at it or have a decent camera they will try to get you to take pictures for them.
What happens when it's obviously being done just to save themselves money but they promise that eventually they just might, pay you the next time you take pictures for them? After all if they are good enough to use on your companies website then surely they deserve to get paid for taking them, right?Follow THIS link to read about an advert posted on craigslist that one photographer took exception to.

Competitions, theme’s and the gnashing of teeth

2011-01-17T13:46:00.001Z

This weeks meeting we get to hear the results of Round 3 of the Open Competition. Which should be good, despite what might be said its still fairly open and a few people are vying for the title this year.

Now as you know we have a Flickr Group and those of you who receive the club email will know I’m always nagging you to join up. We’ll yep you’ve guessed it this is another one of those times. Although now you have even more incentive to join us. We’re starting a Flickr only themed competition. Each one will last for around 2 months, including the voting, and the winner gets to pick the subject for the next competition. If you want to see a list of the themes that have already been suggested or want to suggest some of your own then go take a look here. If you want to see the rules then they can be found hiding in the corner here. The first subject will be chosen randomly on Thursday. If your feel you need a kick to get you taking pictures then this could be the thing to get you out and snapping away.

Digital Manipulation - can you go too far?

2011-01-14T13:57:00.001Z

Last nights meeting certainly made it clear that even before Photoshop and the age of digital manipulation people altered, manipulated and generally messed about with their photographs. Brian and Keith showed lots of their pictures and slides which had been manipulated in various ways, of course they also showed a lot that they hadn't altered. It sparked a lot of debate and showed a clear divide between those that thought extreme manipulation was good and those that thought even the slightest alteration was wrong. It's a topic that always seems to cause a lot of heated debate and by an amazing coincidence we have just been given our first guest blog post. Which touches on that very subject.

So here it is our first guest blog post by iBeastie.

Digital Manipulation - can you go too far?

The debate regarding the use of Digital Manipulation in photography has raged since the digital age first invaded the inner sanctum of the photographic world. The protagonists at each end of the spectrum we shall call The Purists and The Processors. As well as defining the combatants, we need to ponder on the history of photography, the validity of the reality of a two dimensional image and revisit the “Photography or Art?” discussion, perhaps by looking at some examples from the world of Art and Photography. This brief journey will hopefully make clear our conclusions.

In order to tackle the question “Can you go too far with Digital Manipulation?” we should define the protagonists. At one extreme are those who inherently distrust digital photography altogether, preferring the “Purity of Film” These are The Purists who dislike any kind of alteration to a photograph after it is taken, possibly tolerating some kind of processing to achieve a true reproduction of what was seen at the time of capture. At the other extreme are The Processors. These are the lovers of digital manipulation who will often spend more time post processing their image with effects such as HDR, cloning and the creation of composite images, than taking the photo in the field. Most photographers will fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.

The Purist viewpoint has evolved from the historical perception that the use of the camera, which works in real time with real objects, came to be associated with communication and news reporting and as such was seen to be objective and a means to convey reality. But this is only one side of photography and even reality can be distorted by what the photographer sees, or wishes to be seen. If reality is what they seek, then black and white imagery should have been rejected out of hand as soon as colour images were possible, after all the world is not black and white. Yet its legitimacy survives because of history, not reality. The camera is merely a tool to express an idea; it is not obliged to express truth. From the day that man put pen to paper he used it to record both fact and fiction and this truth holds for photography as well.

A key element to this debate is the validity of the reality of a two dimensional image. By this we mean that the world is 3-dimensional and by the simple fact of being 2 dimensional a photograph, can only at best ever interpret reality, not be reality. The Purists standpoint has to be based on a false assumption due to this one simple fact. Our 3-dimensional world cannot be represented in 2-dimensional “facts”. An example of this is that The Purist might use a zoom lens, which clearly distorts the 3-dimensional reality as it converts the image to 2-D. A blurred background belongs to the 2-D world, as it cannot be seen unless we could stop time. Equally a fish-eye lens will give us a view that no photographer would ever see.

So is photography a form of art or a scientific discipline of its own? Photography has to be a form of art – if not what else can it be? If not Art then it is merely a tool of the journalist or historian to record a point in time but its truth is there to be abused as much as the truth of the written word. Its credibility as a recorder of truth was blown away as soon as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies after seeing Elise Wright and Frances Griffiths’ photograph of fairies in their garden in 1917! There might be a science applied to acquiring an image but as demonstrated already the image cannot ever be reality or fact, only an interpretation thereof. A photograph can convey many emotions, bring back memories and create dreams. To the photographer it is even more meaningful as he will recall the effort it took to produce. It is an expression of what someone sees in the same way that a painting is. An artist like Gainsborough who painted portraits for the gentry, produced an object that would be purchased as a thing of beauty. His client did not want a “warts and all” job of his loving wife to hang over the fireplace, he wanted her to look her best, if not better. So it was up to the artist to make sure she did. How is that different to a little airbrushing? Canaletto was known to have altered the perspective of Venice to suit his canvas and composition. This is what artists do, so why should a photographer tolerate a telegraph pole or road sign spoiling his work? Simply put a Purist will chop the pole down before he presses the shutter and the Processor will clone it out of his image afterwards. Photography then is clearly a discipline of art, just as The Impressionists and The Cubists are.

In conclusion then we have to accept that photography is an art form. Within the art form we must accept that there are many movements or schools of thought. The Purists and the Processors would be just two of these schools of thought. Neither one is the correct one. Quite simply there is no correct one. Each photographer should decide for himself where they sit in the spectrum of photography. Importantly though, once ensconced in their corner of the photographic world they must be open to all disciplines. Practice what suits them but never assume that their way is the right way or the only way. Photography is a living art form and as such is fluid and alive, it reacts to and creates fashion and style. HDR can be the vogue one month, sepia all the rage the next. If you do not embrace it, do not disparage it either and if you can do something better than someone else don’t tell them not to do it because “manipulating a bad image only produces a bad manipulated image”. Budding photographers should be encouraged to try because without trying you do not learn. Similarly, if you don’t like borders then don’t use borders but that’s your choice it does not mean that all photos should not have borders. Put simply you cannot go too far with digital manipulation just as you cannot put constraints on art. Know what you like but never assume that your taste is the only taste. Remember in the words of Jerry Lodriguss, “Writers massage the language of words; photographers massage the language of light”.

If this post has made you want to discuss this subject then just click on "post a comment". Which is just down the page a little bit from here.

Trio Comp. Links to examples

2011-01-13T11:15:00.000Z

O.K. so when I posted the examples for the Trio Competition I forgot to make them actually link to the bigger size shots on my Flickr account. As I've already been asked where you can see the better quality versions I'm posting the links. Go HERE for the Match example and HERE for the House one.

Trio Competition

2011-01-12T20:38:00.004Z


Burning Through ©Mark Stone

Coming up on April 7th is the Club Trio Competition. Why am I telling you this so far in advance? Because we’ve had to change it slightly this year and entries have to be submitted by the 17th of March. In the past we’ve always been able to find someone willing to judge the competition on the night without already having seen the pictures. Unfortunately this year none of the judges we approached were willing to do it like that.

If your submitting prints then its really simple. You can either have three separate prints, on the correct size mounts (50x40 cm) or you can mount all of the prints into one mount. No problem there.

If, however, your going to submit an entry for the digital projected competition then you have to combine all three photographs within the same size area as you would normally only have one picture. Confused? It’s easy really. As shown in the example above you can simply put all three pictures side by side and then size the whole thing to a maximum of 1050 pixels high and 1400 pixels wide. Or you can arrange your images any way you want as long as the whole thing does not exceed that size.

Looking at the example below you can see all three images fit into an area that is 1050 pixels high and 1400 pixels wide. So instead of the whole area being taken up by just one picture you have three squeezed in.

Just use your imagination and give it your best shot.

Don’t forget if you need a bit of help with resizing images then there are some tutorials posted on the clubs website. Just follow that link and they are listed in the Reflex Members download section. If after looking at that you still need help then just ask someone at the next meeting.

This week you get two guest speakers for the price of one!

2011-01-11T08:00:00.004Z

This week we have not one but two guest speakers! They are going to dazzle you with their "Conventional and Digital Dabblings"!
We need to start either dead on time or a little early for Keith Cooper and Brian Swinyard to get through the wealth of photographs they want to show. But not only will you get to see lots of great prints they are also going to be giving a slide show not digital projected images. Which will be great as long as Roy can dig the projector out from the back of his cupboard!
If you would like to get some idea of the work that will be displayed you can visit Brian Swinyard's website. So come along and have a great time viewing some fantastic images.
Please try to turn up a little bit earlier than normal as we would like to start promptly at 1930 as there as so many images to get through.

Vivian Maier Street Photographer

2011-01-10T09:50:00.003Z

You’ve probably never heard of her, and maybe you never would of if you hadn’t read this blog. Who was she? Well her working life was spent as a Nanny to various families in the USA. In her spare time however she was a prolific street photographer. The reason hardly anyone, until recently, has never heard of her is because she didn’t show anyone her photo’s! A few years ago a storage locker was repossessed and inside it they found boxes and boxes of negatives. These were put up for auction and one guy bought one of the boxes for $400. Inside he found 30,000 negatives. He scanned a load of them and then decided to try and contact other people who had bought boxes of negatives and buy them from those people as well He now has around 100,000 negatives and a lot of those are still on the rolls undeveloped! The video I’ve posted above is an interview with the person who bought the box. If you want to see more of the pictures or see more videos (including videos of the pictures in the form of a slideshow) then just follow this link which is a YouTube search for her name. It’s worth sitting and looking through the ones of her pictures as she took some amazing shots. It’s sad that in 2008 she slipped on some ice, hit her head and died a few months later. She was in her 80’s.

Happy Birthday Barrie

2011-01-08T07:00:00.003Z

It’s Barrie’s Birthday today.
I’m sure he won’t mind me showing you all that he has a soft and gentle side. This was taken at a lavender farm and he thought the flower would look lovely if he put it in his hair. Unfortunately he’d forgotten he doesn’t have enough of it left!

Have a great day mate!

Shooting the Hollywood Stars

2011-01-04T08:00:00.005Z

I don’t tend to watch TV very much but this Saturday there’s a show I might actually sit down and watch, hell I may even record it. Below is the description lifted straight from the BBC webpage. Here’s the link to the shows BBC2 site. It’s being repeated on BBC HD Sun 9 Jan @ 01:20
BBC2 20:00 Saturday 8th Jan.

Shooting the Hollywood Stars

Rankin, the UK's leading fashion photographer, reveals the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created. From Hollywood's golden age, epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin, Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars.
To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important - including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas's biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell.

Sober yet?

2011-01-02T18:30:00.001Z

Christmas has been and gone. The new year has started and hopefully by now most of you will be over the worst of your hangovers and ready for any challenges 2011 throws at you.

This Thursday you’re going to have to come out of your warm houses and take a trip to the Langton for the first meeting of the new year. The last four months seem to have flown by since we started back in September and we’re now almost halfway through the season! This weeks meeting is the travelling exhibition for the Ace of Clubs Competition. So you’ll get to see some great photographs.

Don’t forget this Thursday is also the last date you can bring in, email or Dropbox entries for the 3rd round of the Open Competition.

We also need you to submit your best pictures for the Battle of the Clubs against A1 Camera Club from Weston Super mare, which we are Hosting on February the 3rd. We need those submissions as soon as possible as they have to be sent off to be judged very soon!

Remember if you want to write an article, have something mentioned on the Blog or in the regular email then get in touch. Because there’s only one way we’ll know what you want featured, written about or if you hate something we’re doing.

You have to tell us!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T11:23:00.000Z

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Don’t forget your Round 3 Competition entries on the 6th Jan and submissions for the Battle of the Clubs which we are hosting in February.

See you all in 2011!

LensHero

2010-12-20T11:46:00.000Z

Every now and then I find a website and think "that would be a good place for club members to visit". We'll I've discovered a site that may come in handy for those of you wanting to splash the cash on a new lens for your dSLR but aren't quite sure which lens is best for the pictures you want to take. Sorry those of you that don't use dSLR's I'll find something great for you soon.

If your wondering what lens you should buy next or feel that your current lens just doesn't work for the type of photography you like to do then go take a look at the LensHero website. They've come up with a great idea and it's so simple I wonder why no one else has thought of it before. We'll OK someone might have but I haven't seen it.

When you first get to the site your asked to enter your make & model of camera. So for me it would be "Canon 400D". Then you simply move the slider to correspond with the amount you wish to spend on the lens.
It looks as though the site uses B&H photo (it's a USA based store) for their prices and converts those prices into the viewers local currency (if I'm wrong then let me know). You just need to understand that the prices will probably not be correct for us in the UK. Unless they figure out a way to show prices from a good reputable UK distributor the site will probably be best used as a guide to help you decide on a lens that suits your style of photography and you should then shop around for the best UK deals for that lens.

The next step is just as easy. You can either use the yellow boxes with the arrows in them to select a specific type of photography (e.g. Macro, Portraiture, Wide Angle) or you can click the zoom tab and choose the minimum and maximum range of the lens you want. There's one other box which is labelled "Suggest" and you can enter a lens that you already own and it will suggest others that compliment it. My only complaint about the selection process, and it really is a minor one, is when you choose the zoom tab and increase the maximum range of the zoom. The picture zooms in but becomes blurry and out of focus. In my view that's a little off putting. I know the picture has nothing to do with the lens you are trying to decide on but it kind of gives the impression that whatever lens it suggests will do the same.

Once you've entered or selected all the options on this screen you just hit "Go" and your presented with a selection of lenses and their specifications for you to peruse and choose from at your leisure.

The information for each lens is presented clearly and is easy to follow. If your not sure what something means there is a small 'i' next to each bit of information just click that and it and your given an explanation that is relevant to that section.

For those of you that need help choosing a lens this is probably one of the best and, more importantly, easy to use sites. You don't need to have spent ages researching the various lenses. Good suggestions are given to you in just a few mouse clicks.

Yo Ho Ho

2010-12-17T11:45:00.001Z

Thursday night was the last meeting of the year and as it’s Christmas we had our usual fiercely fought Christmas competitions.

Starting off the night we had our lovingly titled “Bucket Competition”. It earned its name in the mists of time when Slides were used. To ensure fairness and to spread out the slides between each team they used to be placed into a bucket and each team would take it in turns to pick one until they were all gone. Nowadays of course we don’t have many people that still shoot slide film so we use prints. Each team member was supposed to bring along six prints to use. I’d love to say the rules were strictly adhered to but only one team stuck to the six prints per member rule! Amazingly at the end of the competition, when all of a teams prints are supposed to be used up, one team still had about 20 left on their table! Never mind though, we’ll get our own back next year.

Next up was the part some of us were dreading. The Yo Ho Ho competition. It’s just strange, funny and weird pictures you’ve taken recently. Now I knew Ian had something planned, as usual. It was just a case of wondering who was going to be the target this year. Unfortunately it was me again! I really am going to have to stop wearing that pigeon costume in public.

Thanks to everyone who brought along some food and to all our members that turned up to make it a great evening full of Christmas fun.

I’d like to finish this post by saying Farewell to Dominique. She’s leaving us to go back to Holland. It’s been great having you in the club and I hope it’s not a permanent move and that we’ll see you again soon. Keep in touch.

Thanks from Luis

2010-12-14T13:19:00.000Z

Luis Bustamante, our guest speaker last week, has sent us an email in which he thanks each and everyone of you who came along to the talk. He wanted to let you all know that he was very impressed by the way in which you not only listened to what he had to say but also the questions that were asked. Actually I think I'll quote him as he put it so much better than I could;

I was really impressed with the way you organised my contribution. The hall was just right and just a bit bracing. The show was perfectly managed despite a non-cooperating remote. The audience were encouraging and alert, with an inquisitive edge.

I think the "just a bit bracing" comment was his way of saying it was bloody freezing. Despite the radiators being on full for an hour before the meeting started!

One of his pictures was chosen as a favourite of the decade by the Guardian newspaper and was published last weekend you can take a look at it HERE.

Last meeting of the Year

2010-12-10T10:31:00.008Z

First off I want to thank Luis Bustamante for a fantastic talk last night which was very insightful and interesting. I know some people went away mulling over what they had heard and thinking about the way in which they approach their photography. Also you should look out for some of his work being published in the Guardian this weekend or go take a look at, and maybe buy, his book "Brief Encounter".

This Thursday.

It's time to show your funny and strange pictures to add a bit of cheer to the proceedings. If you've taken a picture that makes you laugh, smile or is just of something weird, strange or stupid, bring it in. Share the humour with us. It doesn't have to be sized, mounted, framed or anything special, just bring it in. If it's a digital file you can also send it in via email or our preferred method, Dropbox.
If you keep hearing Dropbox being mentioned and want to use it then just follow THIS link to sign up, it's free. Once you've installed the software, as long as you use the link supplied here, I will get an email telling me when you've signed up and installed it. Which means I can send you an invite to share a folder with the club and that's all you really have to do. Ask me if you want to know more.

We're also going to have a fun little competition so bring along some prints, any prints. Don't worry about the subject's, just make sure they don't really have anything in common. So do NOT bring all portraits, or all Landscapes. Mix them up. we just need you to bring up to 6 prints and all will be explained on the night.

Also, as it's the last meeting before Christmas, if you feel like bringing along some nibbles or snacks so we can make it a bit more of a social event than a normal meeting that would be great.

Don' forget Thursday 16th is also the last day for entries to be submitted for Round 3 of the Open Competition. Prints need to be brought in on the night and Digital Files can either be emailed or sent via Dropbox to me by 10am on Friday 17th.

Luis Bustamante

2010-12-07T18:31:00.004Z

This week is the Chair’s evening and he’s decided to invite Luis Bustamante around to
give us a talk on his photography.
If your into street photography then this could be your favourite night of the season.
If you’ve always wanted to give this style of photography a go or wondered what sort
of reaction you would get if you started walking around the streets and taking pictures
of strangers then come along and listen to what he has to say. It’s also a chance to ask
him any questions you have about his style or pictures. You can also see a preview of his
book "Brief Encounter" by visiting THIS link

Photographs copyright Luis Bustamante and reproduced here with permission.

Day Release

2010-12-06T11:44:00.005Z

This Sunday several of Reflex Camera Club managed to get a day release pass and took a trip to Stonehenge.
Braving freezing fog, blizzards and worst of all Ian’s jokes we all arrived safely only to find hardly any snow on
the ground but a fairly thick fog making visibility pretty poor. Luckily though the sun soon broke through and we
ended up with glorious blue skies. Loads of pictures were taken and a good time was had by all. Check our Flickr
group over the next few days for more photo's.
Afterwards several of us decided to carry on and take a trip to Avebury. Of course the first stop was the pub for
a spot of lunch. We even managed to order some food which was pretty good although Alison couldn’t resist
trying to make everyone wish they had chosen the fish despite the T.V. in the background mentioning shark
attacks.

On day release were (left to right) Kev, Geoff, Roger, Eddie, Rich, Barrie, Ian, Mark and trying to hide behind her camera was Alison.

Worrying Phone Call!

2010-12-01T09:45:00.001Z

So I'm just about to walk into the school playground to pick my daughter up when my phone rings. I answer and the guy asks for me by name. Then he tells me that he's from the Avon & Somerset Police Federation and I immediately think OK what's going on, have I committed a murder in my sleep or something! So then he tells me that the latest Police Handbook is about to go to print and an advertising opportunity has arisen. Would the club like to take out an advert. I politely declined. Not that great a story but I just thought I would share it with you all. They must have been desperate for the revenue considering the attitude most police forces in the UK have towards photography lately.

Barry Mead

2010-11-30T22:59:00.000Z

This week we have Barry Mead visiting us and to steal the heading from his website

The main categories of work are Wildlife of Namibia, Zambia and the Falkland Islands. The images from Namibia are the result of a number of trips in recent years and the Zambia images from a trip to the South Luangwa National Park in 2003. The Falkland Islands were visited at the end of 2006. Landscape images come from a number of trips to the USA as well as images from Namibia and the UK. The Creatve work has a strong Sci-fi and Fantasy influence. Recent images include Kenya,Florida,Yellowstone and Greylag Geese as well as new work taken at Slimbridge.

It should be a good night and if you want to take a look at some of his work before Thursday you can visit his website by following THIS link.

Practical Night

2010-11-26T12:12:00.002Z

Last night was our second practical night of the year. We had demonstrations on editing
using various different pieces of software, Macro Photography, mount board cutting and how
the different apertures affect the depth of field and we also tackled a lot of question's. Although how to add
zombies to a graveyard photo was probably the most original one of the night. It was a great evening
and everyone who attended said they had learned something new. Which was exactly what we
hoped would happen.

The feedback we had was great and we’re already planning the next practical night in February.

Cutting mount board

What's new

2010-11-25T12:04:00.000Z

Unless someone just poked your eyes out you will notice that over on the left of your screen is a new addition to the Blog. We now have a Facebook page. If you scroll down a little bit more you will also notice that there is a section called "You might like....". What someone has dug your eyes out with a spoon! At least that explains why no one has commented on it yet. Anyway, inside that section you will find links to a whole page dedicated to the various Exhibitions & Salon's around the country, listed in month order. Our very own Dominique compiled it for you all so a big thank you goes out to her for doing such a fantastic job. Also there's a link for "Where to go and What to do!" that page is still being worked on but all the information that is being used was collated by Hanneke. I've been a bit slow to put up the information but I am doing it slowly.

Anyway tonight's the practical night so bring along your camera's, questions, laptops and anything else you want to use or learn about. We're going to try our best to impart as much knowledge as possible to you all. So please do make sure you come along. If you think tonight would be a waste of time for you then come along, help out and share some wisdom with those of us less fortunate one's.

Round 2 Results

2010-11-21T09:45:00.002Z

The results of the 2nd Round of our Annual Open Competition have been announced! It's great to see so many of you taking part and submitting such wonderful photographs. I've managed to get all but one of the winners to show here. Hopefully next time I'll be able to get them all.
Our thanks also go to Eddie Lane for taking the time to go through and judge them all.

I've tried a slightly different way of laying out the shots on this blog. Please let me know if it works for you or if it still looks as though I've randomly thrown the images across the screen. They really need to sort out a decent system for laying out multiple pictures on these blogs.

The winner for the Digital Projected Image Category was Adrian Cook with his picture entitled Kilve

In 2nd place, Digital Projected Image was Richard Price with Flaming Rose

Adrian Cook also managed to get 3rd place in the Digital Projected Image's with Tokyo Station

Barrie Tovey claimed one of the Highly Commended spots with his Digital Projected Image, Puffin in Flight

Highly Commended Digital Projected Image, Roy Williams with Bluetit

Last Drop by Julie Coombs, Highly Commended Digital Projected Image

Rosie Tomlinson Highly Commended Digital Projected Image titled Do It later

Simon Xu with the Digital Projected Image Mask at St. Mark's Square Highly Commended

Highly Commended Digital Projected Image Ian Coombs with The Mystic

The winner of the Print category for Round 2 was Richard Price with Brown Lipped Snail

2nd place Print was Barrie Tovey with Monkey

3rd Place print was Ian Coombs with The Lord is My Shepherd

Highly Commended Print. Amber Glare by Alison Davies

Ian Coombs Highly Commended Print with Surf Rider

Also Highly Commended in the Print section was Joe Scudamore with Whose Looking at Me.
Unfortunately I'm unable to display his entry here as I have no access to a digital version.

Congratulations to everyone who placed and a big thank you to all that entered.

Ding Ding Round 2

2010-11-15T16:07:00.001Z

It's that time we all dread, hate and loathe but just cant resist turning up for. It's results night for round 2 of the open competition. After last time when Ian wiped the floor with us it's time for revenge. It seems he decided to photo-shop moustaches onto every entry this time! Very strange way to try to win but apparently someone told him the judge likes moustaches. Yet again we had lots of entries and which means the judge has loads of pictures to get through. So please do your best to be punctual.

Shadow's

2010-11-08T10:52:00.000Z

Congratulations to Dominique on winning our Shadow themed print competition. The pictures below are the only ones entered into the competition that I have either been sent or have been posted on Flickr. The top one is the winning entry from Dominique. The second picture is also from Dominique and grabbed a runners up slot. The third shot is from Teagan who was also a runner up. Congratulations to you two and also to the other runners up. Sorry this is only a short post but Blogger is being a pain in the ass as usual when I have to post more than 1 picture in an article.

Printing Shadows

2010-11-01T13:28:00.003Z

Next meeting we have our annual Print only competition. This year the Subject is "Shadows". Later in the year we have the companion to it with the Digital only competition and the subject for that is "Highlights". If your really paying attention to the programme then you'll notice that there is also a "Trio" competition and the John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shields. Why am I mentioning this now? Because when I first joined and saw these were coming up I wondered just what they involved and got a bit confused by the answers I was given. So I'm going to try and explain them to you over the course of this and the next few Blog posts.

Now I very rarely enter prints into any of the competitions, not because I don't like to see my pictures in all their glory, but because my middle name is Scrooge. So if I get anything to do with the print side of things wrong I hope someone who knows better will let me know and I'll correct it.

The Print Competition
In theory you can enter absolutely any size print you want as long as it fits onto a piece of mount board that is 50 by 40cm. The reason we have that as the maximum size is it's the recognized standard size for National and International Photographic Competitions. The size of print that we have found fits best in that size mount is 16 by 12inches, 40 by 30cm. Those are the size of the pictures you most often see when we have a guest speaker who shows their mounted prints. The best place to get your photo's printed? Well a lot of the club tend to use Keynsham Photographic, mention Reflex Camera Club and you might just get it at a better price. There are lots of places that you can use, even the local supermarket if you want. The choice is yours.

Sorting out the Mounting of the pictures is something that I haven't quite got my head around but lots of club members are very good at it and if you ask then someone will be able to help you with it. I'm supposed to be writing a tutorial on that but I've only ever done it once and watched it done twice. So if anyone wants to write it up then go ahead and we'll gladly let everyone else know that you've done a fantastic job.

You don't have to have the print as large as possible within the mount. You can mount a 5x7 print into a full size piece of board. You also don't have to have the board at the maximum size. Any variation is allowed as long as the mount board is no larger than the maximum size allowed. Smaller mounts or small pictures in full size mounts are fine. If the picture is strong enough to suit a different size of mount then go for it.

Of course if you can't for some reason get it printed at the preferred size or mounted then there is nothing to stop you from bringing in a normal print and using that for the "Shadows" competition. Although for the open and external competitions your pictures HAVE to be mounted. So make sure you bring along a shadowy picture to enter on Thursday. Any size, mounted or not. Just take part and have some fun.

Natalie & Charlotte

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Natalie & Charlotte, originally uploaded by Mark-Stone.

I wasn't at the meeting this week so I can't comment on it. Instead I thought I would let you know about a model shoot several of us took part in a few weekends ago. I should of written about it earlier but it totally slipped my mind.

Barrie was kind enough to lend us his front room for a model shoot with Natalie and Charlotte. For some of us it was the first time we had ever had the chance to use studio lights and to direct model's. There were so many of us that wanted to take part Barrie had to split the day up and have time slots for everyone. I was in the morning slot along with Alison, Phil and Rich. It all started out a bit nervous as Natalie & Charlotte had never taken part in a shoot either. But as the day wore on everyone relaxed a little and started to enjoy themselves. It was a brilliant morning and I know that Nat & Charlotte are really pleased with the pictures they have so far.

If you still haven't handed over your shots from the day then can you please make sure that you get them to Alison.

Too see more pictures from the day then visit our Flickr Group and look through the Group Pool.

It's Guest speaker night

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This week Bob Bishop is our guest speaker. He's going to give us a talk entitled "There's a first time for everything". If you would like to see some of Bob's work before you meet him on Thursday then just follow THIS link.

One of our new members, Richard Johnson, has some of his artwork on display in an exhibition at Broadwalk Shopping Centre from the 18th to the 23rd of October. It's just inside the main entrance in one of the shop spaces on the left side and is open between 10:00 to 16:00. So go and show your support for our local artists.

Please don't forget we need your Architecture photographs. Thanks to those of you who have already used dropbox and sent some in. But come on there are more of you and I bet you have a picture of an office block, block of flats, house, church or anything else that matches the subject. Email them to me or use Dropbox (if you still haven't signed up for it and want to. Drop me an email and I'll explain it and send you the link).

On the 4th of November we have our Print only competition. This year the subject is Shadows. So make sure you have a print ready by then if you want to take part. If your not sure how it works then please do talk to someone at the club about it over the next few weeks. It's easier to explain it face to face than try to type it out here.

The results of Round 1 Annual Open Competition.

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The results from the first round of our Annual Open Competition are in! Loads of amazing photographs were entered and unfortunately there could only be one winner in each category. The Judge, Roger Mallison, gave superb constructive comments on every picture, which everyone appreciated. There was no getting away from it though in the end he had to make the difficult decision and choose the winners.

Ian very nearly had a clean sweep across the board with five pictures amongst the winners! So he gets to wear the bullet proof vest to meetings for the next few weeks. Apparently he was heard to say "the beers on me" but were not sure if he just meant he was washing in it or offering to buy us all a drink. Lots of our new members entered and just to prove it can be done Louise came top of the Digital Projected Image Section. Superb picture and an amazing win for her.

Louise Iddon first in the digital projected section with "Legs 11". Which was fantastic for her as it's the first time she's ever entered a photographic competition and she's only been in the club since the September! Everyone had better watch out, she may just be the one to beat from now on.

First in the Prints section was Ian Coombs with "The Appeal". Which is a great shot and he owes me a pint for the wings! haha!

Congratulation's to the winners and a HUGE thank you to everyone that took part.


The Appeal by Ian Coombs 1st in Prints

Legs 11 by Louise Iddon 1st Place Digital Projected Image

2nd in Prints, "Clevedon Rocks" by Richard Price


2nd in Digital Projected, Ian Coombs with "Waiting"


Lazy Daisy by Mark Stone. 3rd in Digital Projected Images


3rd in Print's Section, Ian Coombs with "Billy Whizz"


Carnival Focus by Simon Xu. Highly Commended Digital Projected Image

Highly Commended Print Alison Davies "Concarneau Brittany"


"Manx Sunset" Ian Coombs, Highly Commended Digital Projected Image

Richard Price Highly Commended in the Print Section with "Common Blue"

Hanneke Ter Veen, Commended Digital Projected Image "Cloud Cowboy"


Commended Print, "Slow Pour" Ian Coombs

If anyone is still reading this far down. I have a question. If you know of an easy way to get Blogger to allow you to design a page with multiple photographs then please let me know. Hopefully I'll have figured out a better way to do it by the time the results for the next round are due. Because I can virtually guarantee the way you see this page on your screen is not how I had it laid out when I designed it!

Whose it going to be?

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There's going to be plenty of nail biting, gnashing of teeth and worried looks this week as we hear the results of the first round in our Annual Open Competition. Whose won? Well you don't have long to wait. Soon we'll all be sitting in that darkened room listening to the judge and either inwardly seething or annoying everyone with a big smile.

There is something really important that you need to remember though. No matter what the outcome. Don't take it personally. The judge may love your picture, which is great and vindicates all the hours you spent agonizing over it. Or they may absolutely hate it. Just remember it's only one person's opinion. Sure for that night they have the power to make you feel wonderful or just as easily they can make you feel deflated and never want to take another picture ever again. Normally they make good constructive comments. Rarely their wire's short out and they seem to go a bit power crazed. Sometimes you wonder if they have even looked at the pictures. But one thing, the most important thing, is don't let anything they say worry you or get you upset. More importantly

Don't let it stop you taking pictures.

Light's, Camera, Oh hang on a minute.....

2010-10-04T10:28:00.005+01:00

I know I'm a bit late putting up the post for last Thursday's meet but here it is.

If you were there then what can I say apart from "Wow what a great night". If you weren't there. Then where the hell were you? When I arrived it looked a little bit like we would be a bit thin on the ground. I was soon proved wrong. Loads of you turned up and had a fantastic time. After the introductions Steve started off with a little bit of theory concerning strobes and their relation to your camera settings. After that we really got stuck into the practical side of things and pretty much everyone had a go. It was a good job Steve had brought so much equipment with him as everyone was keen to try the technique out. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Steve for such a great night.

Picture by Barrie Tovey

We were also lucky enough to have Ben, Jack and Joe model for us. They gave up their entire evening, when I'm sure they would of been much happier lazing around like most teenagers. In return for them modelling we promised them some great pictures from the night. So if you took some send them in to the club via the normal email address or use Dropbox. Please just send them as the boys would really love to have them.

The Reflex Blog

Thursday’s Meeting

I had nightmares!

Just for fun

10x10

David Burnett

January at Reflex

We are moving!!

ROC Round 2 Results

Frogs, Snakes & Light Painting

Contrasting views

Andy Beel

Everything was going really well, until the splash….

Practical Night

The priceless thing for me was after spinning the first orb, the first time the image appears on the back of the camera and you hear a “Wow” from nearly everyone. Great.

R.O.C. Round 1 Results

Nervous yet?

Open your eyes

Simon Caplan

Dunkirk and Fortress Europe

Guest Speaker: John Hoskins

Mpix Results

Debbie Young

Guest Speaker, Debbie Young

Welcome to Reflex

12 Months with Reflex

Dropbox

Deliberately mess it up.

David Waters

Oh I do like to be beside the sea side

13 Weeks of Summer, Processing your Photographs

Our Newsletter

About time…

Newsletter

Back in the Day

From hot houses to wetlands

13 Weeks of Summer, Week 3

Red Hot Fun

13 Weeks of Summer

Skomer 2011

Reflex Awards

As usual names that are underlined in yellow are links that take you to that person’s Flickr pages.

Photographer of the Year

Ian Coombs

Novice of the Year

Simon Xu (pictured)

Louise Iddon

Stan Scantlebury Shield

Alison Davies

John Hankin Shield

Arthur Belton

Print Photographer of the Year

Ian Coombs

Digital Projected Image Photographer of the Year

Mark Stone

And the Winners are……

How would you have done it?

Would you have changed anything we’ve done over the last season?

Thanks Arthur

I’m getting there… eventually

John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield Results

A.K.A. That’s a bloody good picture!

Winner

Winner

In deepest darkest Wales

Song or Book Title Competition Winners

Thursday

Something new.

Vote for your favourite.

Practical Night

George Reekie

Triptych Results

John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield’s

Lunch Break is Over! The winners.

The Club Flickr Account and your photographs.

A Miscellany of Subjects

The perils of Texting.

Highlights without the Hair Dye!

Come get yer 'air dun!

Round 4 Winners

Simon Xu ^(pictured)