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.

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.

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.

Trio Competition

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.

Behind the Green Door ©Mark Stone