AGM, Tom Sage and practical session

Lots of things going on with Reflex at the moment, many of which were summed up in last weeks annual general meeting. It looks like the club committee and members have been hard at work behind the scenes with planning and organising the future of the club. If you didnt make it to the meeting (like me - slapped wrists) then please take the time to read our newsletter which outlines a few changes that we all have to look forward to. As a result of feedback from members there are all sorts of new ideas being implemented, offering us a great deal of variety over the year and even more opportunities to get stuck in and participate rather than just sitting in chairs.

This week we are back to our normal meeting day of Thursday and we are expecting a presentation by Tom Sage, a photographer who worked with the Press association on Fleet street for 15 years and then moved on to work with hot air balloons. It should be interesting to hear his experiences of press photography.

We have a little advance info regarding the meeting in two weeks time on May 24th, this will be our last practical session of the season, now at the moment its all top secret and all Ive been told is that we need to bring our cameras and an empty memory card. We will be venturing outside the walls of the school, so you softie southerners will likely need big furry boots, winter coats, hats, gloves scarves ( ha - waiting for the retaliative abuse ). Oh and apparently it would help if we could all be at the club for 7pm that evening, ready to brave the weather by 7:15.

Congratulations to Mark O Grady who has had a print accepted in the London Salon exhibition on his first ever entry, its great to see our members doing well.
Mark o Gradys flickr

Simon Caplan

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.

Guest Speaker, Debbie Young

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.

Deliberately mess it up.

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.

13 Weeks of Summer, Processing your Photographs

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!

Red Hot Fun

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?!!!!!

How would you have done it?

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!

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.

An evening stroll.

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.

London Salon travelling exhibition CD.

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

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.

Round 3 results

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

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.

Merry Christmas

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!

Thanks from Luis

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.

Luis Bustamante

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

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.

Practical Night

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

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.

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.