Just for fun

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

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

January at Reflex

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.

R.O.C. Round 1 Results

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?

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.

Vote for your favourite.

 

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.

John Hankin & Stan Scantlebury Shield’s

 

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.

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Lunch Break is Over! The winners.

 

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!

Highlights without the Hair Dye!

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!

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.

DPIC Results

Clevedon Pier © Richard Price

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.

Competitions, theme’s and the gnashing of teeth

 

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.

Trio Comp. Links to examples

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.

Sober yet?

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!

Ding Ding Round 2

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

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

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.

It's Guest speaker night

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.

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

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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!

Last nights meeting was full of stars.... You!

Last night we had an evening to showcase members pictures and everyone of you that took part were the stars of the evening. It was great to see what you had been doing and some of the amazing pictures that you had taken.

Yet again we welcomed some new faces and I hope you all enjoyed visiting us and seeing the kind of things we get up to. Although I have to apologize for the Combine Harvester joke. We've tried to get that member barred but apparently the landlord says he is single handedly responsible for keeping the pub in profit on a Thursday night!

Next week we have to make our selections for the Ace of Clubs Competition. So please bring in what you consider to be your best shots and we will all go through them and try to decide on the ones we are going to enter. I know some of you try to hold back the ones you are planning on putting into the clubs open competition but please remember this is for the club. You don't have to tell anyone its something your entering for the internal competition.

So bring it in. Your picture could be the difference between us winning or losing.

I know what you did last summer!

This week its bring your summer photo's in and show us just what you got upto during the break. (See what I did with the title clever wasn't it!) Don't be shy pick out the ones that show your holiday, day at the park, whatever you got up to. Well maybe not everything. Just the legal and non perverted stuff! It might seem scary to have your shots on show to everyone but it's great fun and you'll not only enjoy yourself. You'll probably get some constructive comments that could make you think about how you take pictures. I know I have!

Also don't forget to bring in your Print entries for the First Round of the Open Competition. The rules and some walk throughs on how to resize your pictures have been posted on the Website and Blog. I've also sent out an email with them in. If your going to enter Digital Files for the Projected Image section then please email them in NO LATER THAN midday on Friday See if you use email you can get an extra day to prepare them. Of course you can bring your digital files in on a memory stick and hand them in on the night but the preferred method of entry is by email. So please, if at all possible, email them in. Also try to remember that they should be named Similar to the following examples

01_My Title_Fred Bloggs.jpg
02_My Other Title_Fred Bloggs.jpg
03_My Last Title_Fred Bloggs.jpg