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Notes
for Friday 21 May 2021
Ards Camera Club end of 2020/21 season – or is it?
Our annual end of
season Camera Club BBQ couldn’t happen last Friday due
to the current Covid-19 situation but we still “met”
on Zoom to look ahead to next season. At our AGM we decided
to continue from September on Zoom as the Covid-19 situation
is so changeable and our Club House sadly has poor ventilation.
Zoom has opened up the opportunity to look at speakers across
the UK and even farther afield. Getting world-class speakers
to travel to Newtownards to do a two-hour talk in our Club was
a rarity but now it is easily possible to view them through
Zoom!
One week
into the role and our new Programme Secretary Claire Russell
has already been researching and booking speakers. Members brought
inspiring ideas to cover all levels from beginners through to
advanced and many genres such as sports photography, travel,
street, editing techniques, wildlife, still life and even phone
camera photography. We also decided to keep meeting throughout
the summer on Wednesday evenings using Zoom or club outings.
This regular social contact was especially important to us all
over the summer of 2020 and we don’t want to give that
up.
Notes
for Friday 14 May 2021
Annual General Meeting
Out
with the old and in with the new. Yes it was that time again
when 28 members joined together on Zoom to take part in the
AGM. The Chair welcomed all and got down to business. The Honorary
Treasurer submitted her end of year accounts for scrutiny and
approval. The meeting was pleased to see that they were in a
strong and robust situation and approved them.
The Chair then reviewed the year that had passed. Covid 19 had
challenged us all, but we had been able to steer our way through
it thus far. Our meetings had been undertaken over Zoom and
this had allowed for a wider range of speakers and topics to
be incorporated into the programme. He looked back on the successes
that the club had achieved in the various competitions and congratulated
not only the winners but all who had taken part.
Before finishing, he thanked the current committee for all the
hard work that they had undertaken in steering the club through
the difficult times and the members for supporting the club
thorough the year. He asked for their continued support for
the club. He reminded them that the club is not the committee
and each member should consider what they can offer to help
in the running of the club.
The Chair then asked Brian Powell to oversee the election of
a new committee for the incoming year. The members present elected
Linda Hutchinson (Chair); Jenny McCrea (Vice Chair); Rusty Adair
(Hon Secretary) and Irvine Ferguson (Hon Treasurer). Other committee
members elected were:- Claire Russell (Programme); Marlene Hazlehurst
(Competition); Jonny Andrews and Richard Cowan (Webmasters);
Peter Knott (NIPA Rep) and Jacqui Agnew and Steven Ferguson.
Permission was sought that Peter Knott and Richard Holmes would
continue on in their roles as auditors. The members agreed.
The new committee having been duly elected, Brian then asked
Linda to take up her post as the new Chair.
There then followed a discussion how best to differentiate between
General and Advanced members to ensure that they were placed
in the correct category. Concern was also raised on how best
to encourage general members to become more proficient in their
photography.
The chair thanked all for their contribution and stated that
it would something the new committee would review and report
on.
That being all the business, Linda brought the official part
of the evening to a close. This enabled the night owls to remain
and put the photographic world to right....... the Ex chair
slipped quietly away!!
Chris
Ex Chair
Notes
for Wednesday 5 & Friday 7 May 2021
NIPA Top Print and PDI Competition and Ards Camera Club Exhibition
It
was a busy week for the Ards club. First of all on Wednesday
past it was the NIPA Interclub Top Print and PDI competition
when all the 180 images that had been starred over the past
5 rounds were brought together and judged by independent judge
Libby Smith from Scotland.
Ards had 20 images in the mix from 9 different authors. Libby
spoke on a selection of images that just missed out on getting
an award. She spoke on originality and technical aspects. In
the colour section she picked on two of Alan Hillen’s
images. Her critiquing and feedback of all images was very fair
and she suggested minor and subtle changes to the image that
could have brought it into contention for a place.
Sian Kerr obtained “commended” for her image of
a flamingo, (this same image was used in her successful LRPS
Panel, which she gained earlier in the day). Well done Sian!
It was Catchlight Camera Club that took top honours in this
section.
In the Mono section, Libby again commented on a selection of
images as well as all the images she placed. There were some
wonderful images with great tonal quality. It was Catchlight
Camera Club who obtained the top 3 places.
In the PDI section Rusty Adair’s composite image “Going
Underground” was awarded “commended”. The
accolade of top PDI went to Alan Hillen with his image “Standing
Tall” – a deer captured early one morning in Gosford
Forest Park.
This was a great evening, full of superb images and great judge
feedback. A special mention needs to go to all our “friends”
at Catchlight Camera Club; they picked up 7 of the 9 medals
and to Ross who got first in Mono and 1st in Colour –
a wonderful achievement. – Well done!!
On Friday past it was our own Exhibition when 30 members joined
in on Zoom to hear Lee Sutton from Preston pass judgement on
the images before him. In the general section there were 24
colour imsges, 18 mono images and 20 PDIs. While in the advanced
section there were 33 colour, 23 mono and 28 PDIs for Lee to
critique and comment on.
In both sections there was a wide genre of images on view, with
natural history and portraiture to the fore. Lee made positive
comments on every image.
In the general sections he suggesting subtle changes to background
details or a slight crop which he felt could improve the image.
The quality of the images entered was high and he could see
that there was a lot of thought that had gone into the capture
of the images.
In the advanced sections, the quality was really high and there
were many outstanding images on view. The use of light and colour
to emphasise the image and textures to accentuate or dull down
distractions were to the fore on many of the images.
He said that it was an enjoyable task he had to perform but
it was a difficult task as well. He viewed the top images in
each section several times before arriving at his
choices.
The results were as follows:-
General Section
Colour
Commended: Marlene Hazlehurst (Jackie the Troubadour)
and Sean Evans (Lone Leaf)
Highly Commended: Richard Cowan (Silent View)
3rd: Jenny McCrea (Cuckoo in the nest)
2nd: Sean Evans (Tollymore Forest)
1st: Rodney James (Lilac Dahlia)
Mono
Commended: Jacquie Agnew (Pure Beauty)
3rd: Sean Evans (Cascade)
2nd: Sean Evans (Murlough Tree)
1st: Marlene Hazlehurst (The Gent)
PDI
Commended: Marlene Hazlehurst (Sweet Innocence)
and Jacqui Agnew (Sitting on the Fence)
Highly Commended: Sean Evans (Alone at Last)
and Marlene Hazlehurst (Pier head jump)
3rd: Richard Cowan (at the Top)
2nd: Sean Evans (An open Book)
1st: Chris Davidson (Faroe Islands)
Advanced
Section
Colour
Commended: Sian Kerr (Gosford Deer) and Jonny
Andrews (Robin)
Highly Commended: Jonny Andrews (Incoming)
3rd: Linda Hutchinson (Car Lady)
2nd: Jonny Andrews (Little Egret)
1st: Alan Hillen (The Feather)
Mono
Commended: Marty Watson (into the Light) and
Alan Hillen (Causeways End)
Highly Commended: Jonny Andrews (instilling
Fear)
3rd: Rusty Adair (Sea Rocks)
2nd: Jonny Andrews (Standing Tall)
1st: Richard Holmes (Paris Architecture)
PDI
Commended: Alan Hillen (Collard Dove), Rusty
Adair (Smokey Joe) and Richard Holmes (Peatlands Frost)
Highly Commended: Sian Kerr (Little Egret),
Alan Hillen (Flying Chihuahua) and Ted McKee (Robber Fly on
Buoy)
3rd:
Rusty Adair (Lost Childhood
2nd: Alan Hillen (Standing Tall)
1st: Jonny Andrews (Enjoying Nature)
TOP OVERALL IMAGE: Alan Hillen “The feather”
Congratulation
to all who entered the exhibition and well done to all who got
placed. Our grateful thanks also go to Lee who had the unenviable
task of arriving at the winners!
Thanks everybody
Chris
Chair
2020-2021 Club Competition
Alongside
the NIPA Interclub competition we ran our own monthly competition
which was overseen by Marlene. Over the 5 rounds she kept the
scores and the results are as below.
General
Section
Colour
1st: Marlene Hazlehurst
2nd: Liz Tullett
3rd: Colette Andrews
4th: Jenny McCrea
Mono
1st: Marlene Hazlehurst
2nd: Liz Tullett
3rd: Sean Evans
4th: Jim Tweedie
PDI
1st: Marlene Hazlehurst
2nd: Liz Tullett
3rd: Marty Coney
4th: Colette Andrews
Advanced
Section
Colour
1st: Jonny Andrews
2nd: Alan Hillen
3rd: Linda Hutchinson
Mono
1st: Alan Hillen
2nd: Jonny Andrews
3rd: Rusty Adair
PDI
1st: Alan Hillen
2nd: Jonny Andrews
3rd: Linda Hutchinson
The thanks
of the club must go to Marlene for all the diligent work that
she undertook.
Thanks to all who played their part by submitting entries during
the year and to those who were successful – well done.
Here’s to next year!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 30 April 2021
Members Night - Sinclair 'Rusty' Adair
On
Friday night 19 members joined Zoom to hear one of our own,
Rusty Adair, what made him tick when it came to photography.
He loved his photography and always had a camera with him. He
wasn’t looking for winners, but if something came along
he would embrace it, but most of his shots ended in his scrapbook.
His rules before you go out – A good meal (as time files
when you are out), washed down with your local tipple –
then go out and enjoy your photography.
Rusty showed a wide variety of images that he had collected
over the years. Of course, being Rusty there was a story with
each image told in his own inimitable style. He showed his attempts
to get to a position at the Glenfinnan Viaduct to capture the
Jacobean Express, ending up having to wade across a river to
get to his spot, only to miss his picture. Of course he went
back at a later time, better prepared and this time got the
train.
A lot of Rusty’s landscapes included his signature “heavy,
moody skies”, with bleak or empty landscapes. He is not
a nature photographer per se; however he did show several images
of his foray into that genre. His two dogs also were included.
They had learnt to be good posers as they knew that treats would
be on offer.
He showed images of various public sculptures that had received
the Rusty “touch” for feeling and empathy. Boy,
does he like images of yellow fields and, more the better if
he can incorporate a lonely tree into the image. He showed several
where he had done just that.
Of course he was keen to point out that you took what was offered
at the time but could return at a later date when conditions
were “more favourable” to what he was looking for.
He referred a lot to “his back garden” – the
mountains and hills around him where he would go walking with
his dogs and camera and where he could enjoy the vistas. He
certainly lives in a beautiful part of the country!
Finally he showed some of street photography images along with
the stories of what hurdles he had to overcome to obtain his
shots.
It was a very pleasant evening and all the members thoroughly
enjoyed Rusty’s take on his photography – thank
you very much.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 23 April 2021
Members Night - 'Triptychs and AVs'
On
Friday last some 20 members came on Zoom for our annual Triptych
and AV competition. This is a fun competition that we hold among
members towards the end of the season.
A triptych is three images on the one panel that tell a story
or set a scene. There were 16 triptychs submitted from 8 different
members. We had images that showed still life, natural history,
portraiture, (animal and human) and landscape/seascapes. Peter
Knott graciously agreed to critique each image. He spoke on
each image describing what he saw and how each image complimented
the others. Some were in horizontal format and others in vertical
format. A lot of thought had gone into the images to ensure
that the story was clear. The processing of each of the images
also helped the process.
After a few viewings of the images we tried out the Poll option
on Zoom. After a few goes we did come up with the 1 2 3. Congratulations
go to Patricia Mackey with "Birds of Prey”
which was the most popular. Just to rub salt into the wound
she also got second with “Coffee Break”
and Alan Hillen came third with “Three Chi’s”
(a triptych of his Chihuahuas).
Thanks go to all who entered into the spirit of the competition.
In the AV part we had 8 AVs to view from five different members.
Again the AVs were an eclectic mix of different themes all complimented
by music to fit the mood. After viewing them all the jury decided
that Linda Hutchinson “A Year of Covid 2020” won
the Oscar for best AV. Second and third were two by Irvine Ferguson.
An enjoyable evening was had by all and our thanks go to those
who contributed and to those joined in.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Thursday 15 April 2021
NIPA Novice Competition
On
Thursday past, it was the highlight of the year for Novices
with the annual holding of the NIPA Novice Competition. Some
85 members from across all the affiliated clubs, (including
some 20 from Ards) joined together on Zoom to see the results.
In total there were 194 colour PDIs and 235 Mono PDIs for the
three judges to contemplate over – not an easy task by
any means!
Time constraints meant that not all images were viewed on the
night, (all images have since been uploaded to the NIPA website)
so the judges each picked 9 colour and 9 mono images to critique
on, as well as all the award winning images.
Needless to say all the genres were on view and there was a
great strength in a lot of the images. In the judges choice
they spoke on what they felt worked and what didn’t work,
but they did point out that these were their views and others
may see the image differently, but it was important for the
photographer to enjoy taking their photographs.
In the colour section some of the images, the subject was a
bit small or enlarged up too much and therefore was slightly
soft. A couple of the night shots would have benefited from
shooting in the “Blue hour” rather than when taken.
It was important to consider as and when to use a vignette and
how strong that should be. There also was a lot of positivity
in the remarks; good use of colours; in portraits good separation
from the background. It was also noted when the photographer
had taken control of their image and made their own choices.
This was most noticeable in those images that were award winners.
In the mono section, some of the images lacked contrast and
consequently lacked punch. A couple of images were full of clutter
and didn’t really suit mono setting. There were several
shots were the photographer had thought outside the box and
was rewarded with strong image. There were a couple of images
that had a hint of colour in them and had to be disqualified.
It was important to check your histogram. Image(s) was shown
as was entered and also whenever the colour tints had been removed
– there was a perceptible difference! A couple of the
images had been watermarked with the Authors name – again
a no-no.
And so to the results. There were 9 members from Ards who submitted
entries to both categories and our congratulations go to them
for their hard work. In the mono section there were 4 highly
commended images and 12 commended images Congratulations go
to Marty Coney (for Lee) and Sean Evans (Midnight Stranger)
who were both commended.
In the colour section there were 12 commended and 8 highly commended
images. Congratulations go to Colette Andrews (Forest Abstract)
who was commended and Richard Cowan (Silent View) who achieved
3rd place.
This was an excellent result for Ards given the number and quality
of entries submitted.
It was a really great evening and the judges’ comments
on the images were very positive. I’m sure that we all
learnt from them. The evening was recorded and is well worth
viewing to see the talent on show and the constructive and helpful
ways that we can improve ourselves.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 9 April 2021
Guest Speaker - Graham Dean 'The Camera Doesn’t Lie...
But Photographers Do'
On
Friday past 23 members joined our weekly Zoom meeting to hear
Graham Dean AFIAP CPAGB BPEC2* who is currently a member of
Morecambe Camera Club give his talk “The Camera doesn’t
lie..... But photographers do” or, is seeing believing?
Graham started his talk showing an image of a dress and asking
what colour we thought it was. 2/3 of us thought it was gold
and white while 1/3 thought it was brown and blue. The brain
can be tricked into perceiving something different; but the
camera on other hand sees light in period of time and doesn’t
lie.
Even in the beginning of photography early pioneers manipulated
photographs for their own reasons often making an image from
a combination of negatives. He then showed various photographs
that had been manipulated for political propaganda. He suggested
that it can corrupt historical records and create an impression
that is untrue. It wasn’t hard to find “before and
after “images. Members felt uneasy at some of the pictures,
that they gave a different perspective to the story lost in
the press.
Even Postcards weren’t averse in manipulating their products;
enhancing colours and staging scenes –all to increase
sales. All this was done pre Photoshop!
With the advent of Photoshop manipulation became much easier
and quicker, from cigarettes being removed (as no longer deemed
correct) to adjusting views to fit the size and orientation
of the magazine page.
After our customary break Graham then showed us some of his
own work and how he used Photoshop to enhance the image and
bring it to life, by using layers, filters and the odd piece
of cloning. It was very evident just how powerful it was.
He did show several of his composite images that had been made
up two or more different shots and how using layers to combine
the images created an entirely different image but still full
of realism. He finished off his talk with an image that he was
working on, to create 4 seasons in the one photograph. He had
photographed a local church scene and had revisited it throughout
the seasons taking more shots and had combined them into one
image. He wasn’t fully happy with his current attempt
and he said that it was his mission to return periodically to
get a better “seasons” shots that would,when combined
reflect better on what he was trying to achieve.
He left us with the quote “A photograph isn’t necessarily
a lie, but it isn’t the truth either. It is more of a
fleeting subjective impression”
All that remained was to thank Graham for this thought provoking
talk that was well constructed and full of images that made
you really stop and think.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Wednesday 24 & Friday 26 March 2021
NIPA Inter-club Adjudication Round 5 'Open' &
Club Speaker - Neal Ritchie 'My Journey through Photography'
It
was another busy week for Ards Camera Club. On Wednesday 20+
members joined the rest of the NIPA Clubs for the adjudication
of the 5th and final round of this year’s competition
via Zoom. In this “Open” round NIPA had invited
3 judges from outside our association.
In the mono section Sian Kerr, Jonny Andrews, Liz Tullet and
Marlene Hazlehurst supplied the Ards images. Each of them scored
a very respectable 11 points.
In the colour section Linda Hutchinson, Richard Cowan, Ted McKee
and Alan Hillen were the Ards representatives. Richard and Ted
both got starred images (13 points); but it was Alan Hillen
who received 15points (and joint top print), who took the biscuit!
In the PDI section the 4 Ards entries came from Patricia Mackey,
Sian Kerr, Marty Coney and Alan Hillen. Marty and Alan’s
images were both starred (13 and 14 points respectively).
It was a very strong showing by the all the Ards club members
on the evening but what did that mean for the final positions?
In the Novice section Ards retained 1st
Position with 166 points ahead of BPIC and Ballymoney Camera
Clubs. In the Main competition Ards were 4th
behind Christian Brothers, Central Photographic Association
and Catchlight Camera Club who retained 1st position. Our congratulations
go to Catchlight for their well deserved victory.
This was a great showing by Ards throughout the year and a well
deserved result. (We were 1st and 3rd last year) Our thanks
go to all who entered the monthly competitions, those who were
successful in getting their images through to NIPA for the 5
rounds and finally to Alan and Jonny who both achieved a Top
Colour and a Top PDI image during the this year’s competition.
Here’s to next year!!
On Friday night it was great for the members to come on Zoom
to hear one of our own Neal Ritchie speak of his journey through
photography – where he started and where he has arrived
at. He did what most of us did, bought the gear (after a lot
of research), used the new technology to get himself known through
social media and joined a camera club to increase his knowledge
and invariably compete in competitions. After a while he decided
what he really wanted to do was to tell stories through his
photographs. Every picture may not be of competition level but
can tell a story, so that’s what he concentrates on now.
Sometimes he sets himself a challenge and will go and photo
different genres and includes wide, medium and tight shots together
with a sequence of images to portray his story .He is always
on the lookout for the little incidental moments to add meaning
depth and realism to the story.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for all, with plenty of
audience interaction and banter and Neal gave us all food for
thought. Thank you Neal for a great evening and all the very
best for your forthcoming marriage to Luana.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 19 March 2021
Guest Speaker - Glyn Dewis 'Post Processing'
On
Friday night some 36 members of Ards and their friends from
City of Belfast joined on Zoom
to see a presentation from Glyn Dewis.
Glyn told us that he was primarily a portrait photographer.
In 2019 he commenced a 39-45
Portraits Project to honour and remember the World War 2 veterans
and to use it to educate
the current and future generations so that the sacrifices should
never happen again.
In March of last year the pandemic forced him to change tack
and re-evaluate his photographic
journey. He always liked to be involved with projects as he
felt that it helped him to further his
learning and develop his style and he has started to do a lot
more landscape work.
For his lecture Glyn was going to show retouching techniques
on different styles of photographs
in Photoshop and Lightroom in real time.
Needless to say I am not going into any technical details other
than to say his demonstration of
the use of gradient lighting to improve an image indicated how
powerful it could be. He also
demonstrated how to create night time lighting to give an image
a different feel. In portraiture he
shared how he built up a “recipe” to ensure that
all the backgrounds of his portraits project
remained consistent throughout all the images.
His used his knowledge of Photoshop and Lightroom techniques
to greatly improve and add
impact to all the images he worked on. He made it look very
easy (which it wasn’t) but did
promise to send links to allow us to practise at our own speed.
I know that the members thoroughly enjoyed the evening and,
like me, are looking forward to
the links.
All that all that remained was for Irvine on behalf of the club
to thank Glyn for a really good
“hands on evening” and for his tips and techniques.
Thanks for a great evening Glyn.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 12 March 2021
Print (PDI) Battle with CB Camera Club
On
Friday past 31 members from Ards and Christian Brothers Camera
Clubs joined on Zoom for their annual Print Battle. The independent
judge for the evening was Anita Kirkpatrick from Enniskillen
Camera Club.
As usual there were 20 PDI’s from each club for Anita
to critique and score. Ards used the same set of images that
they had used in their two previous print battles this year,
so we had high hopes! There was the usual wide range of genres
on show both in colour and black and white with natural history
being to the fore closely followed by portraiture and landscapes.
Anita commented on each image – what she liked about it
or made a suggestion that might help improve it. The standard
of images was high (as indicated by the markings) and there
were many superb images on show from both clubs. Ards had 8
images that scored maximum 20 points, while CB had 6.
When the scoring was announced it all rested on the last Ards
image. If it scored 19 or above Ards would win, if it scored
18 it would be a draw - it scored 17points making the final
scores Ards 375 points and Christian Brothers 376. What a tight
finish! and our congratulations go to CB for their victory.
It was a fun, yet enjoyable time and both clubs thanked Anita
for her part in making the evening so exciting.
To finish on a high point, our congratulations go to Rusty Adair
who had 5 acceptances in the Basingstoke Camera Club National
Open Photographic Exhibition and to Keith Malcolm who had 2
and Sian Kerr who had 1 acceptance.
Our
little club goes from strength to strength!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 5 March 2021
Print (PDI) Battle with Westcourt Camera Club
On
Friday past 31members from Ards and Westcourt Camera Clubs came
together on Zoom for their annual print (PDI) battle. Our judge
for the evening was Darren Brown from Bangor Camera Club. Each
club had submitted 20 PDIs for the competition. A wide variety
of genres were present, in both Black and White and Colour and
it made for an entertaining evening.
Darren commented that the quality of all the images was very
high that made the marking difficult. He had to look for small
issues to separate the images. He made comment on the muted
background colours of a lot of the natural history images, how
they complimented and helped make the subject matter pop out,
although there were some that he felt were a bit noisy.
The portraits were well lit, nicely posed and told a story.
Again, he highlighted little things that could have improved
some of the images- toning down bright features that caught
the eye, or a little vignette to hold the image in. He felt
that one or two of the colour images would perhaps have been
stronger in B &W, where contrast could have been increased
to improve the viewing experience.
The few landscapes on show had all been well composed, used
nice lead in lines and had warmth to them. There were a couple
of abstract shots which were cleverly executed and an architectural
shot that showed high contrast and great symmetry.
Well done to Rusty Adair, Robert Johnston, Colette Andrews,
Ted McKee, Jacqui Agnew, Alan Hillen, Marlene Hazlehurst, Richard
Holmes, Irvine Ferguson, Claire Russell, Jonny Andrews, Sian
Kerr, Marty Coney and Patricia Mackey whose images were shown
.Congratulations to Ted, Colette, Richard, Rusty, Jonny and
Alan for getting maximum points.
This was a club event well supported by all our photographers
– and thanks go to everyone for taking part.
On the night Ards just had the edge and won by 370 points to
349 points.
Our thanks also go to Westcourt for putting up such a good fight,
and to Darren for his critiquing of the images. I’m sure
that all the authors took something from his comments.
Westcourt we look forward to locking horns again next year!
If that wasn’t enough, both Sian and Keith had entries
accepted for the Southport Salon and there were further successes
in the Tom McLaughlin Landscape competition, where Rusty received
a commended, Ted a highly commended and Sarah a 3rd place.
Well done to everyone and it demonstrates the strength in depth
that there is in Ards Camera Club!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Thursday 25 & Friday 26 February 2021
Another busy week for the camera club...
It
was a busy week for the camera club. On Thursday night there
was the adjudication of NIPA Round 4 (Emotions). Ards had a
great evening!
In the Colour section, starred images (13 points and above)
were achieved by Rusty Adair and Alan Hillen. They were strongly
supported by Sian Kerr and Jenny McCrea.
In the Mono section all entries achieved a very commendable
12 points. Congratulations to Alan Hillen, Rusty Adair, Jonny
Andrews and Marlene Hazlehurst.
Finally in the PDI section, Jonny Andrews achieved top PDI (15
marks) and again well supported by Linda Hutchinson, Alan Hillen
and Marty Coney who all achieved 12 points.
All that means was that Ards moved into joint first place in
the Novice section on 129 points with Ballymoney and CPA. In
the main competition Ards remain in 4th place with 426 points,
only four points behind CB Camera Club who are in third.
Roll on 24th March for the fifth and final adjudication –
there is all still to play for!
Separate to all that, Ards members have had more success, this
time in the Clay Cross Salon. Congratulations go to Rusty Adair
(3 acceptances), Sian Kerr (3 acceptances) and Keith Malcolm
(1 acceptance.)
Then, on Friday night 27 members joined our Zoom meeting to
listen to two of our own members present. First up was Patricia
Mackey who gave a talk on her visit (exactly one year ago) to
Nepal – oh how times have changed! Her talk was interesting
and enlightening and she showed many images of the daily life
she encountered. There were images of busy street life, images
of wildlife and of the environment. Most of the images were
as shot – but she showed a few before and after shots
when she had done some editing to remove fussy backgrounds,
saturating colours and adding contrast. The differences were
very noticeable and had brought the images to life.
After our customary tea (?) break, Linda Hutchinson asked the
question “what do you do with the photos you take?”
The answer: - You make a photo-book, so you can have something
tangible to remind you of trip, family or a project. She then
went on show how a book could be made up to your own specific
design and requirements. There are many proprietary makes you
can use, all are easy to follow and if you choose your timing
right offer sizable discounts on their products.
It was a very enjoyable evening from two of our members - one
showing her travelling exploits and the other suggesting practical
ways to keep your memories for all to see.
Our thanks go both for entertaining and enlightening us.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 19 February 2021
Club / NIPA Inter-club competition round 5 Subject: 'Open'
Judge: Martin Spackman
On
Friday past it was competition time again. Some 29 members joined
in our Zoom meeting to hear Martin Spackman ARPS from Westcourt
Camera Club cast his eye over some 123 images that had been
submitted for Round 5 (open) of the NIPA competition.
In the General section there were 21 colour and 17 mono images
from all genres for Martin to view. His comments were considered
and constructive. He was impressed with the overall standard
and quality. The images had been well captured with good use
of complimentary colours, clean backgrounds and leading lines
to bring you in to the point of interest. There were some instances
when he felt that the subject was too tight in the frame and
a couple of times he highlighted where he felt that the image
was too bright in places and needed to be brought back.
In the Advanced section there were 26 colour and 18 mono images
submitted. Again all genres were present with natural history
being to the fore. The images were all very strong, well composed
and showed an excellent knowledge of camera craft. The use of
natural lighting to enhance the image and give depth was commented
on. There were a couple of images where the whites were a bit
bright and others where more contrast was needed to strengthen
the image.
After the break he turned his attention to the PDIs -18 in the
General section and 23 in the Advanced section. The quality
of the images was again of a high standard; good use of composition,
complimentary colours were to the fore and the action shots
were well caught. The use of ambient light gave strength and
depth to the images.
After critiquing all the images, he had the difficult task of
coming up with the strongest images (in his opinion) that would
best represent Ards at the adjudication round at the end of
March. As usual we will make the winners known then.
Thanks go to all the members who submitted images and congratulations
to those who will represent Ards in the next (final) round of
this year’s competition.
Finally, a word of thanks on behalf of Ards Camera Club goes
to Martin for his time, effort and comments. I know that the
members will have gained something positive from his critiquing.
There were a lot of strong images on show which made for an
entertaining and enjoyable evening.
Thank you Martin
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 12 February 2021
Guest Speaker - Roger Hance 'Garden Wildlife Photography'
On
Friday last it was good to see a few familiar faces back again
along with some of our friends from City of Belfast to hear
our speaker Roger Hance FRPS AFIAP DPAGB BPE5* from Ipswich
and District Photographic Society give his talk on “Garden
Wildlife Photography”.
Roger explained that he had a normal size garden, but with a
little effort, some sticks and a few nails you could make natural
looking structures to encourage lots of birds to feed in any
garden. If you went that little extra and created a small shallow
pond, insects and other invertebrates would visit and use it
to.
He explained in detail the equipment he used, the set ups he
went for and how he got close to the subjects via the use of
a portable hide. He also photographed from his shed, and through
his open patio doors. To conceal himself from his subjects he
would use camouflage netting strung across the open doors.
He showed a wide range of beautiful photographs that he had
taken using the equipment and props he had spoken of earlier.
In the summer months he used a moth trap with a UV light to
capture (but not harm) the night flying insects. In the morning
he would reposition them (using a small paintbrush to gather
them up) on to a piece of bark, branch etc. and then photograph
them.
He had changed his equipment as he found lugging around a full
frame camera with large lenses was becoming more and more tiresome
and difficult. He had changed to an Olympus Micro 4/3 camera
and a range of pro lenses. This allowed him to achieve the same
focal lengths of the full frame, but with less. It stilled maintained
the quality and sharpness that he had been used to, as clearly
demonstrated by the images shown.
Roger’s talk was very interesting and informative and
very inventive regarding the construction of “garden furniture”
to encourage wildlife. The members were very grateful for his
openness and the tips he freely gave. Hopefully it will encourage
more members to give it a go.
Thank you Roger for a great evening!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 5 February 2021
Members Night - Sinclair's Evening
We
celebrated the birthday of “Father of the Club”
Sinclair Adair who will be 97 years young on the 8th of February.
Some 25 members joined the Zoom meeting for a programme of two
distinct halves.
The members had been asked to produce PDIs in the style for
which Sinclair was famous. We had 37 images to enjoy and revel
in, and thanks go to all who contributed. Leslie Armour had
been prevailed upon to comment on, and choose the 3 best from
each section (General and Advanced) and then to choose an overall
winner – not an easy task! He was looking for different
ideas, weird and wonderful combinations and garish colours –something
that would get the Sinclair tick of approval. It was a difficult
task but in the end in the General section 1st went to Sean
Evans with “Weird World”, 2nd and 3rd were two entries
by Jim Tweedie. In the Advanced section the winner was Richard
Holmes with “Bonfire of the NIPA Judges”, rather
apt given Sinclair’s run ins with the judges in the past.
2nd place was Linda Hutchinson and 3rd place Rusty Adair. The
accolade of the PDI that most reflected Sinclair’s work
went to Richard, who won a bottle of wine for his trouble.
After tea we had a short AV by Irvine Ferguson about Sinclair.
“Mrs Martin’s revenge” – This was a
humorous, tongue in cheek homage that captured Sinclair’s
way of doing things. It was pleasing to note that the soundtrack
did not include any of the C and W stars that Sinclair so freely
used in his own presentations!
We couldn’t have Sinclair present, but we had the next
best thing – his son Rusty. He showed three AVs of his
own; - Ireland, Scotland and Iceland. There were some stunning
shots and he spoke about how some of images had come to pass.
He demonstrated that he was a very capable all round photographer,
and we thoroughly enjoyed his presentations.
The evening was a great success and we were able to celebrate
Sinclair’s birthday in some style. Thanks to all who contributed
in any way.
Happy birthday Sinclair from all your friends at Ards Camera
Club.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Wednesday 27 & Friday 29 January 2021
(Print) PDI Battle with City of Belfast PS &
Guest Speaker - Eileen McCausland 'Black and White Photography'
It
was a busy week for the club members. On Wednesday night we
had our first print battle of the year against our “old
adversary” City of Belfast Photographic Society. Due to
the situation it was competed on over Zoom and involved PDIs
only. Our thanks go to Peter Knott with his C of B hat on for
making the evening so enjoyable and to the judge Ray Magill
of Bangor Camera Club for judging the competition and for his
critiquing of each of the images. Our thanks go to Marlene for
getting the images in from the members, and then to Ted, Patricia
and Richard for choosing the 20 images to represent the club.
Well done to Rusty Adair, Robert Johnston, Colette Andrews,
Ted McKee, Jacqui Agnew, Alan Hillen, Marlene Hazlehurst, Richard
Holmes, Irvine Ferguson, Claire Russell, Jonny Andrews, Sian
Kerr, Marty Coney and Patricia Mackey whose images were pitted
against City of Belfast. Special mention goes to Sian Kerr whose
image of a Flamingo scored the maximum 20 points and to Jonny
Andrews with his Robin who also scored 20 points. All the other
images scored very highly as well. For the record Ards won by
344 points to 316 points. All bodes well for our two other print
battles in March.
Then, on Friday night past, some 28 members and friends from
City of Belfast again logged into Zoom to hear our guest speaker
Eileen McCausland LRPS, LIPF, AIPF from Dungannon and Cookstown
Camera Club talk about her Black and White Photography. She
defined what portraiture was – it shows a likeness of
the personality and it engages the subject with the viewer.
There were many different types within the genre: - traditional,
environmental, candid street photography, glamour and boudoir,
fine art and the list goes on.
She started of using natural light to get mood and atmosphere.
The light from a window could help soften the image. She showed
many of her images and she was very honest whenever she critiqued
them – what was wrong with them and how she could have
improved them. All her images had a story to tell and she was
only too delighted to recount them to her audience.
She then went on to learn about studio portraiture, with the
use of many lights and different backgrounds. It was hard to
create an image you could call your own if you were in a workshop.
Others would photograph the same model with slight variations
to pose, mood etc. You really need to be on your own and then
your creativity will be your own.
A portrait should be 50% of the person and 50% of you. You should
use editing programmes like an artist and make your image stand
out as your own. She liked to work in B and W as she felt you
could really bring out the character. She said that she had
a penchant for men with beards and she showed many fine examples
where she had been able to add depth and life to the image.
She had started to judge competitions but before she did, she
felt she needed to be able go out and attempt natural history,
sports images etc. to encounter the difficulties and pitfalls
in obtaining such images. She then felt that she was able to
judge and critique with some knowledge and awareness.
We had a great evening listening to, and viewing a wide variety
of Eileen’s images. She demonstrated who that person was
beyond the image by commanding a presence, touching your heart
and thus leaving the viewer an enlightened person. It was a
breath of fresh air – just what we needed on a dank Friday
evening.
Thank you Eileen!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Sunday 17, Thursday 21 & Friday 22 January 2021
A busy week for competitions...
It
was a busy week for competitions. On Sunday last it was the
North/South Interregional Wildlife Competition. There was a
good entry from Ards with Rusty Adair, Jacqui Agnew, Jonny Andrews,
Marty Coney Patricia Mackey Ted McKee, Keith Malcolm and Liz
Tullett all submitting entries, but it was Alan Hillen who,
with his highly commended award for his B & W portrait of
a lion, getting the only Ards honours. The overall competition
was won by our southern friends – congratulations to them.
Then, on Thursday there was the adjudication of the NIPA Round
3 competition. The theme was “Open” when 100 members
from across N Ireland joined the Zoom meeting to hear the judges’
critique and score the images in the various categories. In
the B & W section, congratulations go to Jonny Andrews,
Alan Hillen, Rusty Adair and Marlene Hazlehurst. Unfortunately
the three judges didn’t award any of the entries a Star
rating (13 points and above)
Better news in the colour section where Jonny Andrews Little
Egret and Robin both
were awarded 13 points and a Star rating. Ards other entries
were by Rusty Adair and Marlene Hazlehurst.
In the PDI Section (Projected Digital Image) further success
was gained by Alan Hillen with Flying Chihuahua
and Rusty Adair with Going Underground
both scoring 13 and a Star rating. The two other Ards entries
were by Ted McKee and Liz Tullett.
When the scores were totalled up, in the Novice section Ards
are in 6th place with 94 points. It remains close with 7 points
separating 1st and 6th. In the main competition Ards have 312
points in 4th place. Catchlight extended their lead with 337
points. However between 3rd and 4th there is only 4 points of
a difference, so there is still all to play for in both sections!
On Friday night our speaker had doubled booked herself so Marlene
arranged for 3 of our Advanced Members to review all the images
that the club had put forward to the NIPA competition so far,
as there had been some discussion around the comments and marking
on the Thursday night.
So, our thanks go to Alan, Linda and Rusty for putting their
heads above the parapet! They discussed each image at length,
gave of their opinion where the strengths and weaknesses where
and where they felt improvements could be made to improve the
image. Alan also demonstrated some of the edits he suggested.
Those who were at the meeting very much appreciated the feedback
that they gave and felt that it would help all who were going
to submit images to the competition if they first showed the
images for critiquing by some of the advanced members. They
could then consider the points made and act on them (or not).
In this way it was felt that the image would be as strong as
it could be before our guest judge would have to make their
choice.
Thank you to our “Guest Judges” for being open and
honest. I know those authors whose images were under the spotlight
really appreciated the feedback. Thank you to Marlene for arranging
the evening at short notice. That ended the official evening,
however the die-hards remained on line to the wee small hours
and I’m sure that they put the photographic world to right.
Good for them!
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 15 January 2021
Club / NIPA Inter-club round 4 'Emotion'
Judge: Anita Kirkpatrick
On
Friday past some 25 members welcomed (via Zoom) Anita Kirkpatrick
from Enniskillen Camera Club to the meeting. It was 4th round
of the NIPA competition and the subject was “Emotion”
not an easy subject to portray, nor an easy subject to judge
on!
Nevertheless there were 86 images, 36 in the general and 50
in the advance sections for Anita to consider. She viewed them
in the sections of Colour, Black and White and PDI (Projected
Digital Image), although they were all shown in PDI format.
Anita began by giving a general definition of emotion and this
was what she based her judging on. She said that she viewed
all the images without knowing their titles to see if she could
feel an emotion depicted from the image, and then she viewed
them again with the titles to see if the author’s capture
displayed the emotion indicated.
She then gave feedback on each image. Most of the images were
portraits with some animal images as well. There were a few
images were the author had “thought outside the box”
to capture something different. All images were generally well
captured, well framed and used a good of depth of field, when
appropriate.
She did point out whenever the subject was not quite sharp,
or perhaps a different crop would make a stronger image, or
some detail could be cloned out or a stronger vignette to help
focus the eye better on the subject. Of course this being a
themed round, the title was important. She felt that in some
of the images the emotion was not coming through strong enough.
She then picked the images in each of the sections that she
felt were the strongest and best fitted the theme. From those
images she chose the 12 images that she felt would best represent
Ards in the NIPA round.
Thanks go to all who submitted images for the competition, congratulations
to the winners and well done to those who images were selected
to go forward for the Adjudication at the end of February when
we will make the names known.
All that remained was for Claire to give a vote of thanks on
behalf of the club to thank Anita for giving of her time judging
for us – it is indeed more difficult to judge a themed
round and for the positive comments that she gave and finally
for choosing those images that we should submit.
Thank you very much Anita.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 8 January 2021
Guest Speaker - Steve Myall '100 Strangers'
On
Friday past 25 members of Ards Camera club together with a few
friends from City of Belfast joined together on Zoom to hear
our first guest lecturer of 2021, Steve Myall EFIAP BPE4*from
Keyworth Camera Club (Just outside Nottingham) talk about his
“100 Strangers Project.”
In this project he took portraits of 100 strangers. When he
first started he was nervous about approaching people for this
project. He quickly found out that if you went to carnivals,
Steampunk rallies, Comic-con conventions, music events, charity
events etc. where people did dress up (and expected to be asked
to have their photograph taken), then you could up your success
rate. This allowed him to be more confident in approaching complete
strangers in town. He would explain what his project was all
about and when permission was granted he would he take their
photograph there and then.
He said that in choosing which people to approach he looked
for something that caught his attention; whether it was colourful
clothes that they were wearing or people with coloured hair.
Likewise you soon learnt who not to approach– people in
a hurry, people with children (usually) and people who would
not make eye contact. Being polite and courteous at all times
was a must.
Sometimes he might see a background that caught his eye, and
then he would look for someone who would best fit that situation
perhaps wearing contrasting coloured clothes.
Know how your camera works! He usually worked with a fast 50mm
lens to allow him to blur the background if it was necessary.
With the ISO and F Stop usually pre set this allowed him to
commence shooting when permission had been given. Most of his
shots were usually head and shoulders and in colour. Although
he would change to mono if he felt the situation required. .
He often showed the shots he had taken and asked which one appealed
best to his subject.
He did some post processing but it was really minimal (e.g.
cloning out objects that were obtrusive).
The shots were uploaded to Flickr (following their strict guidelines),
were they could be viewed Steve has completed two lots of “100
Hundred Strangers Projects” and has started his third.
Unfortunately the Covid pandemic has put paid to this for the
moment. He is actively considering other genres that could make
an interesting “strangers” project.
He suggested that the Camera club should consider something
along those lines as a little project to help keep the motivation
going (whenever times allow it).
All that remained was for Irvine to thank Steve on behalf of
the club for a very interesting and entertaining talk. His photographs
of the strangers he showed indicated that the people were indeed
happy to go along with the idea and that Steve was able to bring
out the best of his subject.
Thank you Steve.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Wednesday 16 December 2020
Quiz Night
Last
night (Wednesday) we had our Quiz night overseen by our good
friend Darren Brown. Darren has been very generous with his
time for us over summer and judging the little competitions
that we had. So, we hope that “The Curly Girls”
will enjoy some Christmas treats from Pets are Us, courtesy
of their friends at Ards Camera Club.
Congratulations go to Sarah for steering her way through the
seas of “General Ignorance” and leaving the rest
of us floundering in her wake, and crossing the finishing line
first!
I see that a print of Ansel Adams was sold for over one million
pounds. Our friend Alan Hillen has had further success in getting
his work published in more national papers (and even further
afield.) So Alan, someday.........................................
maybe.
Happy
Christmas
Chris
Notes
for Friday 11 December 2020
Guest Speaker - Kylie-Ann Martin 'My Journey in Photography
- so far'
On
Friday past some twenty members of Ards Camera Club welcomed
Kylie-Ann Martin to our Zoom meeting. Kylie hails from Birmingham
and is currently a member of Great Barr Photographic Society.
She gave a presentation entitled “My Journey in Photography
– so far”. She spoke of early interest in photography,
and using the “365 Project” - taking 1 photograph
per day and uploading it to the site. This helped encourage
her to improve her eye for a good photograph. She was in a couple
of clubs prior to her current club and quickly got the bug for
club competition work. As time went on she expanded her horizons
and entered images into the British Photographic Exhibitions
(BPE) - where she has been very successful achieving BPE1 and
BPE2. She also has entered images into the Federation Internationale
de L’Art Photographique (FIAP) and has achieved her EFIAP.
All of the images that she has taken have been taken in and
around Birmingham. With each of the images shown here was an
accompanying story – how, why or where. She showed some
re-enactment photographs and how by sharing the images with
the actors led to other openings. She invested in an infra-red
camera and showed some shots that she had taken. She found the
difference in the tones made you look at the picture with a
different mind. She also showed some of her studio shots and
discussed with us images that she had processed in colour and
black and white and which was the stronger image. Several of
her images were post processed artistically using fractalius
and photospiralysis software. The resultant images were certainly
different had punch and have gone down very well for her in
the salons I’m sure that some of us will give it a go!
She showed a wide variety of images in most of the genres and
was quite happy to tell her audience where she felt her image
could be improved.
The craic and banter was good and Kylie’s easy manner
made her journey enlightening. I think that we all were inspired
and hopefully it will help develop (or rekindle) our photographic
journey.
Leslie Armour thanked Kylie on behalf of the club for her informative
talk and sharing her images with us. Thank you Kylie for a very
enjoyable evening.
This was our last meeting for 2020 and the Committee wish to
thank the members for their support during these difficult times
and hope that all will have a happy and peaceful festive season.
Please take care and we will see you in 2021.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 4 December 2020
Roy Finlay Memorial Natural History Competition
On
Friday night past we held the annual Roy Finlay Wildlife competition.
All the clubs affiliated to NIPA came together on Zoom. This
was the 37th year that the competition has been held. It is
run in memory of Roy Finlay, a past president of NIPA and a
very active member of our club. He was an avid natural history
photographer with a passion for puffins. It was on a photo shoot
to the Saltee Islands in 1983 that Roy tragically fell and subsequently
died of his injuries. In his memory his late wife Rosemary instigated
this competition as a NIPA competition to be run by Ards Camera
Club. She provided a perpetual silver tray to be presented to
the overall winner. Neil Finlay, Roy’s son continues to
support the competition and provided a piece of Langham Glass,
this year in the form of an otter for the winner to keep.
The competition has grown in stature over the years and this
year there was an entry of almost 500 Projected Digital Images
(PDIs). It is a testament to the popularity and importance that
the photographic fraternity hold it in. The Finlay family and
Ards Camera Club are very grateful for the support shown.
Due to the number of entries involved the Judge Ian Whiston
DAPG EFIAP/b ABPE could only talk on 125 of the entries plus
all the winning entries. Being a Wildlife competition there
were plenty of birds and animals on show. There were a few invertebrates
and some botanical images as well for the judge to consider.
With the standard being so high he had to “nit pick”
to finally be able to arrive at a winner.
The following Ards members all submitted images for the competition:-
Jonny Andrews, Alan Hillen, Marty Coney, Colette Andrews, Elizabeth
Tulett, Patricia Mackey, Jacqui Agnew, Ted McKee , Michael Loan
and Keith Malcolm.
Those who images were Commended were: - Michael Loane (2), Elizabeth
Tulett, Jonny Andrews and Ted Mckee. The following photographers
obtained Highly Commended with their images;-Michael Loane,
Ted McKee and Patricia Mackey.
Congratulations to all who entered and to those whose images
were Commended or Highly Commended – you all did Ards
proud. We must congratulate Catchlight Camera Club who were
placed 5th ,4th,2nd and 1st and to Hugh Wilkinson for his image”
rook feeding juvenile” which was placed first. His name
will be engraved on the tray and will be delivered to him in
due course along with the crystal otter.
Thanks to the judge for his unenviable task of choosing a winner
and to those in NIPA ran the night – a very enjoyable
evening all round.
All the images have been uploaded to the NIPA Website: www.niphoto.co.uk/roy-finlay-2020
and it is well worth a visit.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 27 November 2020
Club / NIPA Inter-club round 3 Subject: 'Open'
Judge: Hugh Rooney ARPS
On
Friday past 25 members joined the Zoom meeting to see our entries
for NIPA Round 3 competition being judged. The subject was OPEN
and our judge for the evening was Hugh Rooney ARPS, the current
President of NIPA and a member of Bangor Camera Club. There
were the three formats, Colour print, Mono print and Projected
Digital Image (PDI) but as the round was being judged via Zoom
they were all in PDI format and as usual there were the two
sections, General and Advanced.
There were 116 images in total to be judged during the evening.
Hugh spoke on all the images. Being an open competition all
the genres were on show, nature, landscape and portraiture being
to the fore.
In the General section Hugh felt that the quality of the images
was good and there was good use of colour and colour balance.
Some of the images could have been stronger if they had have
been cropped differently, and a vignette used to darken the
corners to help focus the eye to the subject.
In the Advanced section there were many strong images on show.
The photographers had thought about the composition and what
they were trying to put across. The effective use of lighting
and textures were employed to good effect. There were a couple
of images that Hugh commented on as being “unusual”
and he felt that they asked questions of the viewer.
After the break it was the turn of the PDI section to receive
Hugh’s scrutiny. Again they were generally well composed.
Some were very simple in the use of tones and colour and really
captured the moment.
When it came to choosing the images for NIPA Hugh had a difficult
task as he felt that there were a number of Advanced images
that really deserved to go through, however he had to make his
choices.
As usual no names or titles are given here. All will be revealed
at the adjudication evening in January. However it is good to
see that there were ten different authors who were placed and
among those were three who are new to the club. Well done to
everyone who submitted an image for consideration.
All that remained was to thank Hugh for the time and effort
that he put in and it was good to hear that he had difficulty
in choosing our images – perhaps it bodes well for the
future! Thank you.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 20 November 2020
NIPA Inter-club Adjudication Round 2 'Abstract'
On
Friday past it was the NIPA Round 3 adjudication, the subject
being “Abstract”. There was a maximum of 100 people
from all across the clubs in N Ireland who managed to log into
Zoom, Ards of course were well represented.
As always there were 3 sections – Colour Prints, Mono
Prints and Projected Digital Images (PDIs) but due to the competition
being judged over the Internet they were all shown in PDI format.
There were 95 images in each section and each judge could score
a maximum of 5 points. The round had been pre-judged and each
of the three judges spoke on different images.
As you could expect there were lots of different interpretations
on show. All were very inventive; most had strong visual impact
with harmonious colours and showed imagination. It wasn’t
always clear what the image was – but that didn’t
matter. Some of the images were well seen, picking out something
from a scene that we noticed every day.
The judge’s comments were constructive. They highlighted
what they liked about the image; suggested changes to the crop
or perspective that might improve the overall composition. A
lot of the images were simple with nothing to distract the viewer.
Bubbles were a plenty – in coloured water or oil and it
was interesting to see how the size, number, position, colours
and tones could make such a difference to the image.
There were images that showed Intentional Camera Movement (ICM)
and again the use of complimentary colours or harmonious colours
could make a great difference to the image.
Congratulations to those members who represented Ards in this
round. The judges picked on some of the images and gave complimentary
comments for their inventiveness and imagination.
In the Colour print section we were represented by Irvine Ferguson,
Rusty Adair, Colette Andrews and Linda Hutchinson. In the mono
prints it was Irvine Ferguson, Jonny Andrews, Liz Tullett and
Alan Hillen. In the PDIs it was Jacqui Agnew, Keith Malcolm
and 2 X Richard Holmes.
Our highest scores were from Linda Hutchinson, Alan Hillen and
Richard Holmes who each scored 12 points – well done to
them!
In the Novice section of the competition Ards are 5th with 66
points. Only 3 ½ separate 1st to 5th. All still to play
for!
In the main competition Ards are 5th with 210 points. Catchlight
are out in front with 231 points, with only 8 points separating
2nd to 5th.
We didn’t manage any “starred images” (13
points and above this time), but we look forward to the 3rd
round “Open” to be judged in January next year.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 13 November 2020
Guest Speaker - Dave Mason 'Street Photography'
On
Friday past the members joined the Zoom session to listen to
our speaker for the evening, Dave Mason talk on Street Photography.
He lived and worked in South London for many years, but has
retired and now lives in the Canterbury area. He keeps himself
busy and lectures widely. (constrained to zoom during the pandemic)
He displayed his work under several headings. He was always
on the lookout for backgrounds or strong colours to add relevance
to the photograph. Signage helped the image and when combined
with other elements could give a strong narrative to the shot.
He tried not to get too much eye contact – as too much
leans towards portraiture. There was plenty of humour about,
you just needed to be in the right place at the right time which
sometimes required a little patience.
He suggested going to “weird and different” events,
where the participants were only too glad to have their photographs
taken and he showed several where he was able to combine the
eccentricity of people with background elements to tell a story,
raise a smile or ask a question.
He travelled light, using a small “unprofessional looking
“camera with a micro 4/3 lens, that way he got away with
a lot. He blended in and was able to let people come to him.
He kept the settings on the camera as simple as possible so
he could react quickly when the moment arose. Another trick
of the trade was to walk slowly and amble around. When he needed
to wait for something to happen he would sit down to have a
rest; it helps you look more natural.
He showed images from all around the world. They all demonstrated
his eye for composition, style and colour sense. They captured
freshness; he saw the small things and brought them to our notice
and brought a smile to our face.
Dave uses his camera as a means to an end – it is just
a tool to tell a story. His parting words of advice were to
take the picture for yourself: then you will enjoy your photography
much more!
Thanks Dave for the evening. Your take on Street Photography
was both entertaining and thought provoking and hopefully the
knowledge you imparted we will be able to put to good use.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 6 November 2020
Guest Speaker - Barbie Lindsay 'Creative Photography'
On Friday past 30 members from Ards and our City of Belfast
friends met to hear Barbie Lindsay EFIAP’s MPAGB, FBPE
give a talk entitled “Creative Photography”. Barbie
hails from Ipswich in Suffolk but her photography has taken
her all over the country and far beyond.
The main trust of her lecture was creativity in what she captured.
She certainly demonstrated that she has great imagination. Her
first few images she showed how she adjusted the composition
of the image by moving the props and not having to rely on digital
manipulation.
It didn’t matter whatever the genre, the images that Barbie
showed her talent for looking into the image and making subtle
adjustments to create a mood or emphasise a point. She took
great care in titling her pictures, as the title helps the observer
better identify the message she is trying to portray.
She certainly wasn’t backward about coming forward in
asking passersby to pose for her and she was even able to get
them to react in the way she envisaged in her mind. One way
of exploiting your creativity was to set yourself little projects
– to help focus your mind. She showed a series of images
of nursery rhymes, which she had cleverly composed in Photoshop,
using other images taken from her extensive library. All the
components had been taken by her, there was no clipart used.
There was a series of images of moths, bugs and larvae. She
showed us a “nature box “that had been constructed
to capture the specimens and assured everyone that no animals
had been hurt or harmed in the process.
Her last section of the evening was on images captured on mobile
phones and tablets. She showed images captured using the pano
setting- it is just amazing the quality that can be obtained
on these devices.
Barbie’s lecture challenged us all to think more out of
the box when it comes to our photographic experiences. As one
who has difficulty in “thinking in the box” this
could be a significant challenge to me!!
The one thing that Covid-19 has brought to us is that it has
forced us to do our meetings differently. We have been able
(via Zoom) to travel further afield to seek out speakers. The
quality and variety to date, has been exceptional and Barbie
certainly maintained that standard.
Thank you for joining in our evening with us, entertaining and
challenging us at the same time.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 30 October 2020
Guest Speaker - Jane Lazenby 'Working with Textures'
On
Friday past we had 31 people (including some of our friends
from City of Belfast) who logged in to hear Jane Lazenby give
her lecture ”Working with Textures”. She has been
25 years as a professional equine and fine art photographer,
based in Barnsley , South Yorkshire.
She is a very accomplished photographer who has achieved great
success in salons and in the various photographic bodies.
She challenged those present to look for textures in and around
the house. You will be amazed what you will find. She showed
some of her recent finds that she made during lockdown from
tiles in the bathroom, concrete floors, wallpapers to wooden
panels. There are endless places to get textures – you
just need to keep your eyes open!
Textures can greatly improve an ordinary photograph, help fill
the frame, tone down distracting backgrounds, improve burnt
out areas and add emotional content to the photograph.
She showed a series of photographs that she had added different
textures to change the mood and improve the impact of the image.
Gone were the distracting backgrounds, replaced with textures
whose colours complimented the subject.
After our customary break, Jane then did a walkthrough using
various different photographs, blending and masking (were appropriate)
different textures from her library. She used the paintbrush
to paint and mask out the subjects. She said that she found
it easier than using one of the Photoshop tools. In portraits
she masked out the parts of the sitter that didn’t require
the texture. She was a great advocate of “try and see”-
change the opacity, vary the colour, use multiple textures.
Experiment with the various types of blend modes to see which
one “lifts” the photograph.
In her final picture, that of a horse with very fine edges to
the mane and tail she continued to mask out those awkward bits.
When the textured background was sorted she then with the use
of a mane brush or tail brush added back in fine hairs where
appropriate! There are wealth of brushes that can be obtained
from the web. There are videos on You Tube of walkthroughs that
you can watch at your own pace.
She answered any questions that were thrown her way in a simple
and understanding way.
All that was left was for Jacqui Agnew to say thanks on behalf
of the club. Everyone had found it very interesting and she
was sure that the members would be on the lookout for objects
with which to create their own Texture library and she wondered
how many of the images in the next round of the NIPA competition
would display textured backgrounds.
It had been a great evening and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Thank you
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 23 October 2020
Club
/ NIPA Inter-club round 2 Subject: 'Abstract Photography'
Judge: Chelle McGaughey LRPS
On
Friday past, the club welcomed Chelle McGaughey LRPS from CPA
as our judge for Round 2 “Abstract” of the NIPA
Competition.
Despite the subject matter there were plenty of images for Chelle
to get her teeth into. There were 26 General Colour, 26 Advanced
Colour, 22 General Mono, 24 Advanced Mono, 26 General PDI and
30 Advanced PDI to help pass the evening!
She read out a definition of what was deemed to be an abstract
image and she said that she used this as her benchmark when
viewing the images. She was also looking for “in camera”
work rather than a lot of manipulation in Photoshop. She commented
on all the images. Some, she felt, didn’t really hit the
mark regarding the subject, others were very clever and still
others were simple but very effective. There were images of
smoke from different authors and “in camera movement”
of trees and other shrubs. It was interesting to see the different
results achieved. Some were stronger and more pleasing to the
eye than others.
There were a couple of images that she chose to go forward that
she felt may be a bit controversial. She suggested a different
approach to them; but she was content to leave the final say
to the club.
So, congratulations to the members whose images were chosen
to go forward, and thanks to everyone else who racked their
brains and produced images that didn’t quite make it.
It only remained for Linda Hutchinson to give a vote of thanks
on behalf of the club. She thanked Chelle for judging for us
- it is indeed more difficult to judge a themed round. She felt
that her comments about the mystery of the abstract, creativity,
movement, saturation and textures were all positive things that
we all could take away from the evening.
Thank you Chelle very much time and your positive comments.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Tuesday 20 October 2020
NIPA
Inter-club Adjudication Round 1 'Open'
Well,
I was so busy looking at the results on the NIPA website that
I didn’t notice the time and when I tried to login –
well, refused – maximum 100 people had been reached. I’m
gutted!! However I’m sure that ARDS were well represented
and made their presence known.
We have started off very strongly and congratulations to who
had images submitted. As you are aware there are still the 3
sections but all have been shown in PDI format. If you get a
starred image in the Mono or Colour section then you will need
to prepare a print for the end of the year exhibition, so remember
that.
Colour section
'Incoming' - Jonny Andrews 13*
'Flamingo' - Sian Kerr 14*
'Fungi and Fly' - Marlene Hazlehurst 10
'Alley steps' - Jim Tweedie 8
Mono
Section
'Impala' - Alan Hillen 14*
'Mischief maker' - Marlene Hazlehurst 14*
'Here’s one we made earlier' - Jonny Andrews 11
'Night night sleep tight' - Jim Tweedie 10
PDI
Section
'Puffin in flight' - Alan Hillen 13*
'Lily' - Patricia Mackey 13*
'Keyhole Ballintoy' - Eddy Graden 12
'Butterfly feeding' - Liz Tullett 10
* 'Starred image'
Congratulations to all and it’s nice to see some new faces
on the score card.
So
after Round1 the scores are,
Novice Competition
Ards equal 7th with 32 (CB 1st with 37, Belfast Photo Imaging
2nd with 35 and there are 4 clubs tied on 3rd place with 33)
Main
Competition
Ards 4th with 114 (Catchlight 1st with 129, CB 2nd with 116
and CPA 3rd with 115.5)
A strong start by the club and I’m sure there is plenty
more to come!!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 16 October 2020
Quadrangle
Competition - Review
On
Friday night past, while we were still in party mood from Wednesday,
we reviewed all the images that had been shown on the night.
But before we did Marlene thanked everyone who submitted images
for consideration for the Quadrangle Competition. We then had
a slide show of all these images. There were 61 in total viewed.
These images will be kept for consideration whenever we have
our print (Now PDI) battles with other clubs later on in the
year. The authors are of course free to use the images as they
see fit in other competitions if they so wish.
Marlene then displayed the 60 images shown on Wednesday night;
one at a time and members offered their score and 2 points that
they noticed about the image (good or bad). It was interesting
to hear the members take on each image. We did focus (naturally)
on our own images and some members were very open about their
images. Some of the scores that the judge gave were a bit low
and some of his comments difficult to reason with, we felt.
It was interesting to hear some of our more accomplished photographers
take on some of the images, the small flaws that they saw and
improvements they suggested. We were all able to add this to
our judging learning curve.
Like all judges, you agree with some scores and comments and
others you just wonder what they saw in the image that warranted
the marking - who would want be a judge?
It was another good evening, with plenty of food for thought
for the members present.
Next up is Tuesday night - Round 1 adjudication. We have been
advised that we obtained starred images! The Zoom link will
be made available presently. See you all there!
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Wednesday 14 October 2020
Quadrangle Competition
On
Wednesday past some 20+members went on Zoom to support the club
in the annual Quadrangle competition with our friends from Hamilton,
Wrexham and Corby Camera clubs. Corby hosted the meeting and
a total of 78 attendees listened to the judge Roy Lambeth DPAGB
EFIAP BE2* of New Forest Camera Club comment and score each
of the 60 images.
The Ards images had been selected by our own panel and our thanks
go to Linda, Ted and Richard for undertaking this task. Our
thanks also go to all who submitted images for consideration.
The 15 images from Ards were made up by Robert Johnston (2),
Sian Kerr (3), Ted McKee (2), Jonny Andrews (3), Marlene Hazlehurst
(2), Claire Russell (1), Linda Hutchinson (1) and Rusty Adair
(1).
The judge spoke on each of the images saying what he liked and
also made reference to things that brought the marking down.
His critiquing was fair and helpful.
After all 60 images had been viewed and scored (and there were
several “crackers” among them) the results were
announced by Corby.
Hamilton 241 Corby 243 Wrexham
249 Ards 260
Ards scored consistently highly and our congratulations go to
all the authors. I want to especially mention Ted and Sian who
each scored 20 marks for one of their images. (The female Sparrow
hawk and the flamingo)
That was the 6th running of the competition and it went very
well with a result being given on the night instead of having
to wait until each club had run their own round and getting
the scores collated and a winner announced a week or so later.
Those attending felt that the Zoom way of doing things certainly
had its advantages and kept the tension going.
So Ards managed to hold on to accolade of being the “Best
in Britain” which, they have been since its inception
– well done Ards!!
If you join with us on Friday you will have the opportunity
to see all 60 images and will be able to reflect on the scores.
Look forward to seeing you then.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 9 October 2020
Guest Speaker - Lee Sutton 'Critique Night'
On
Friday past 24 members tuned into our Zoom meeting. It was nice
to see a couple of new faces and hear Sinclair Adair again.
We look forward to seeing him in person whenever he gets his
video sorted out.
This was our first meeting inviting speakers from PAGB Circuit-
and we hit Gold with Lee Sutton from Chorley
Photographic Society. A quick look at his web page showed
just what a very competent photographer he is in many different
genres and he had an arm full of letters to boot to go after
his name.
He introduced himself to the club, and showed a few of his images
just to set the tone. He also spoke of his journey in photography
and his need to strive for improvement working towards the various
awards in photography.
His task for the evening was to critique the images that we
had submitted for Round 1 of our NIPA competition.
Lee made a comment on all the images. Some of them he did some
work on and showed how a little tweak here and there improved
the image. Some images were a little “messy” and
it was difficult for the eye to find a point to focus on. With
a little crop he simplified the image and made it much stronger.
He made a comment that we seemed to like “bright pictures”
and he demonstrated that with a few deft brush strokes darkening
down parts of the image you could make a stronger photograph.
With some of the portraits he made a tighter crop, which he
felt enhanced the image. Some of the male portraits, he felt
could be made more” gritty” by selectively darkening
down some of the wrinkles on the face and he showed his changes
to the image. It did indeed make the image more punchy and interesting,
but unfortunately added ten years to Campbell!
All the changes that Lee made were subtle and thought provoking
but we all agreed that the image was improved. He did say that
any changes made were subjective, some would like and others
may not be so sure. He did emphasise that the best way to improve
your photography was let others critique your images before
they were entered into competition. After working on an image
for a length of time you become “blind”, yet when
others view it they can see imperfections very quickly or make
suggestions for improvement.
After he finished, he showed the RAW image of a girl and the
steps he went through to arrive at the final image. He did the
same for a fine art photograph, combining a model with a background
shot at Harry Potter World. He made it look very easy!
We really enjoyed our evening with Lee and he had good rapport
with us and we thank him very much for the time and effort he
gave to us.
Chris
Chair
Notes for Friday 2 October 2020
Members Night - Sian Kerr and Linda Hutchinson
On
Friday night past, 22 members logged into Zoom for our 2nd Members
night. Tonight was Ladies Night. First up was Sian Kerr giving
us her take on Salons, what benefits she got out of them and
she also talked a little bit about textures. After the obligatory
break Linda Hutchinson spoke about her journey towards her IPF
Licentiate Panel.
Sian told us that all information relating to The British Photographic
Exhibitions could be found on their website. All the details
were online: how to enter: how to pay and the results announced.
It also gave a list of exhibitions (spaced thorough the year)
with closing dates.
Most exhibitions were mainly PDIs and there were different sections
that you could enter. Three judges viewed the images, each scoring
out of a maximum of 5. For acceptance into the salon you had
generally to reach 12 points. A hard copy catalogue of all accepted
images was produced and every entrant (whether successful or
not) received one.
The benefits that Sian received from entering work into Salons
was she was able to work outside the NIPA calendar, she could
view all the high quality accepted images, and it was nice to
see your own work in print, when you were successful. It was
also an opportunity to enter your images into different salons,
and be marked by different judges. She showed the 4 images that
currently she has been successful with along with the marks
given. From that she was able to average out her marks and see
how they fell within the marking system.
She encouraged everyone to give it a go – you can remain
anonymous and tell no one until you have had success!
As a little extra she showed some textures that she had created
by using water colour paints. She also said that she had quite
a collection of pictures of floors, walls and mats and rugs
that she could call upon. She showed an image of a flower that
she had entered in the last competition. It was taken in her
kitchen against a non-descript background. This allowed her
to “cut” the flower out in Photoshop. She then blended
in several of her textures until she achieved something that
complimented the colour of the flower.
Textures are something that we all can look out for whenever
we are out and about and Sian certainly showed how they could
be a good edition to your workflow.
Linda started of her presentation by putting up a slide of Maslow’s
Hierarchy (!!!- look it up). However, she used it to demonstrate
her motivation to achieve higher needs in looking for recognition
through her photography. Like all things Linda did her homework
and checked out the main contenders between the British and
Irish Federations. She decided that the Irish Photographic Federation
was the way she would go.
For the Licentiate Panel she had to present 10 prints that would
sit balanced as a cohesive set of images, and that in the opinion
of a group of assessors appointed by the IPF demonstrates competency
in a variety of photographic skills. Easy? – no!
The images could be of any genre, most entrants went for a mixture.
The panel should indicate a good knowledge of camera work, imagination
and creativity, good composition and editing, good image quality,
visual impact, use of light and cohesion between the images
on the panel.
She showed some successful panels via the hanging diagram. Some
were stronger than others and members were asked their opinions
on how the images gelled one with another. It was agreed that
it was a difficult task as individuals saw things from their
own perspective. We all agreed that the quality of the images
were good but not all images would do well in the NIPA competition.
Linda then showed her first attempt, and while she said that
she felt that it was competent and there were some strong images
it just didn’t tick the boxes that the assessors were
looking for. Although she failed she got good written feedback
on what images were strong and where other images fell down.
From this panel she decided to keep 2 images and have another
attempt. So she paid her money, went on holiday and generally
faffed around.
With time running down she then knuckled down to the task in
hand, picking out a lot of images that she liked and passed
them round her friends that were knowledgeable in what would
make a good panel. After a lot of toing and froing and a lot
of manipulating and editing she felt that she had 10 images
that she could submit in a cohesive order that she could take
to Leslie for printing.
Of course she was now right up against the wire and she was
surprised to see how much time it took to get the image printed
so that it would really have visual impact. She told her audience
that she spent hours at Leslie’s house, while he got the
prints just right. She just made the deadline but she was happy
with her final panel. There were strong images; there was symmetry
to the panel and cohesion between the photographs.
She passed.
This was an excellent evening all round and it is great to know
that the club can call upon its members to provide an evening
of entertainment and at the same time impart knowledge to the
audience. Thank you both.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 25 September 2020
Club / NIPA Inter-club round 1 Subject: 'Open'
Judge: Vitttorio Silvestri
On
Friday night 30 members logged into Zoom for the 1st round of
the NIPA interclub competition. This round was an Open category.
It was nice to see a few new faces joining us. Our guest judge
was our good friend Vittorio Silvestri of CPA camera club. He
had the unenviable task of judging 135 images. There were the
2 sections – General and Advanced and the 3 categories
– Colour, B&W and PDI. All were viewed in PDI format
as due to the covid restrictions prints were not available.
Members were reminded that if their entries received a star
at the adjudication round, then a print would be required at
the end of the season for the NIPA Top Print Award.
So, down to business, In the General Colour section there was
20 images for Vittorio to comment on. All the genres were on
view. In his critique he commented on each image pointing out
where he felt improvements could be made to better the image,
whether it was a different crop or removal of some detail or
darkening or lightning part of the image.
The Advanced Colour section comprised of 25 images, again of
all the genres. These images were of a high standard, but Vittorio
still made positive comment on all the images.
There were 17 entries in the General Mono section, half of which
were portraits. Again Vittorio reprocessed a couple of images
to show how he felt they could be improved, as well as commenting
on each specific image.
The Advanced Mono section comprised of 22 images, again portraiture
being to the foremost. Vittorio commented on how the different
crops helped make the image.
The 25 General PDI images were predominately from the nature
genre. Again the critiquing was very positive and he demonstrated
again with a few subtle changes during processing how some of
the images could be improved upon.
The Advanced PDI section comprised of the most entries (26)
and covered most of the popular genres. Vittorio took time and
made comments on all the images.
His next task was to come up with winners in each of the categories.
Not an easy task he said as there were some “cracker images”.
General Colour: 1st Jim Tweedie, 2nd
Marlene Hazlehurst, 3rd Eddie Graden, 4th Sean Evans.
Advanced Colour: 1st Jonny Andrews, 2nd
Sian Kerr, 3rd Alan Hillen.
General Mono: 1st Marlene Hazlehurst,
2nd Jim Tweedie, 3rd Sean Evans, 4th Colette Andrews.
Advanced Mono: 1st Alan Hillen, 2nd Jonny
Andrews, 3rd Robert Johnston.
General PDI: 1st Liz Tullagh, 2nd Eddie
Graden, 3rd Jacqui Agnew, 4th Marlene Hazlehurst.
Advanced PDI: 1st Alan Hillen, 2nd Patricia
Mackey, 3rd Keith Malcolm.
Congratulations to the successful photographers; nice to see
some new names among them. Thanks to all who entered images
and made the night so successful.
For our entry into NIPA, Vittorio suggested 1st and 2nd in each
section should go forward. We are not posting any images at
this time; we will wait until after the 1st round adjudication.
All that remains for me to do is to thank Vittorio for his time
and helpful comments regarding the images that he saw and making
the evening so enjoyable.
Thank you.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 18 September 2020
Members Night - Alan Hillen and Claire Russell
Week
3 of our new season and we turned to the talents from our own
club. There were 27 members all eagerly waiting to be entertained!
They were not disappointed.
First up was Alan Hillen, a very competent photographer, both
behind the lens and in the workings of Photoshop. He demonstrated
in real time how to go about muting down a background, whilst
keeping the foreground containing the main subject sharp and
distinct. He used a photograph of 2 wolves that he had taken
at Wild Ireland. After a few tweaks in Camera Raw he opened
the file in Photoshop and created 3 layers. He selected out
the wolves and then on another of the layers he used it to blur
the background. He combined the two and compared it with the
original. Hey presto –a much more pleasing image. He still
wasn’t finished. Another layer was created and he opened
up the Nik Collection and went into Silver FX Pro where he did
a few more tweaks, darkening the edge and adjusting the brilliance
and warmth. The image was flattened once again and we were left
with an image that really jumped out at you. Just to finish
off he added a white border and his signature. Easy peasy!!
I’m very glad that we videoed the presentation, so when
we get the link I will be able to go over what he did again
(and again....)
After our customary break next up was Claire Russell with her
presentation “Cack handed Photography” In it she
clearly demonstrated how easy it was for things to go wrong.
Ideas that didn’t quite turn out as she had expected,
equipment she didn’t know how to use. Even when she thought
about composition, Backgrounds and the weather, she still managed
to come up with images that seemed to ignore all her considerations.
What I noticed from many of the images on display, that a lot
of them were very similar to ones that I have on my computer,
and I suspect that other can say the same. Her light hearted
presentation certainly struck a chord with me.
It was an evening of two halves, but both were equally enjoyable
for different reasons. Our thanks and gratitude goes to our
two contributors and we keenly look forward to our next Members
Evening.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 11 September 2020
Tribute to Paul Hanley by Ross McKelvey
If
you were unable to log in to our Zoom meeting on Friday night
past, you missed a great evening.
It was our tribute to Paul Hanley by our good friend Ross McKelvey
of Catchlight CC. There was a good turnout and many of Paul’s
friends and colleagues from other camera clubs also tuned in.
Ross had broken his tribute into different themes.
All the images from the various genres displayed careful composition,
simplicity, symmetry and captured at just the right moment.
His careful use of contrasting colours made many of his images
come alive. We were treated to over 100 of Paul’s images
from portraiture, through shapes and patterns to symmetry and
reflection. His images of spirals (staircases) clearly demonstrated
his eye for a good picture, whilst at the same time capturing
it in an innovative and different way.
The way that used symmetry in many of his architectural shots
demonstrated his clever use of squares, rectangles and lines.
The lone figure, just in the right spot was a recurring theme
and we were told that he would wait and wait until a person
was in the right place before pressing the shutter.
Ross’s presentation was indeed a fitting testament to
a great photographer who had a keen eye and was prepared to
work to achieve the picture that he held in his mind.
Paul’s untimely death has robbed us of a friend and colleague,
but he has left behind a legacy of work which will be available
for us all for years to come.
Chris
Chair
Notes
for Friday 4 September 2020
Opening Night of New Season
Friday night was the first night of our new session –
in fact it is our 60th Anniversary this year. From a first meeting
in the Table Tennis Rooms of Robert Street in Newtownards via
premises in Movilla Street and in Frederick Street to our current
(and wholly owned) premises off Circular Road, we have gone
from strength to strength and had many successes along the way.
Of course Covid19 meant that we cannot meet in our premises
so we have prepared an exciting and interesting programme that
will be delivered over the Internet via Zoom. At our first meeting
the committee shared in what we hope to do in this coming year.
We had the Treasurer explaining the various ways to renew your
membership (or, become a new member). The Programme Secretary
explained how we were able to create a diverse programme by
utilising speakers from the PAGB, giving their lectures over
Zoom. She also highlighted a couple of what she felt were to
be highly recommended speakers.
Then it was the turn of our Competition Secretary to explain
how the competitions would run this year. The NIPA Club Competition
would be run as a PDI only with the two sections (General and
Advanced) and the three categories, colour, Mono and PDIs. If
your colour or Mono PDI achieved a Star at the adjudication
then NIPA would be asking for a print of the image to be used
in the NIPA exhibition at the end of the season.
We were then treated to a viewing of a wide selection of images
that the club produced last year, with a commentary by Leslie
Armour.
There was a good turnout for our first meeting and we look forward
to more old members and new members joining us in the coming
weeks.
Chris
Chair
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