Hi Folks,
Last night was an open evening for members to talk about events the club has held this season and have a say in any forth coming events.
We had a reasonable turn out of members considering it was school holidays
There was an agenda for the evening to give some guidance.
Kathy started the meeting to explained that two events ‘Match an Image’ and the ‘Software/Image editing advice’ had to be postponed until later in the season. Unfortunately, we are running out of weeks to hold both so had to decide on which one we preferred.
After a debate there was a vote and four people preferred the ‘Match an Image’ and three the ‘Software’ evening and about fifteen abstained. So I think it will be the ‘Match an Image’ night.
A new competition programme for 2018 / 2019 has come out and in the Club’s Challenge cup one of the ‘open’ rounds attached to the theme of ‘Love’ has turned into prints only section. Kathy said, the club wanted to encourage people to enter prints rather than lose this important part of the club’s skills.
However, firstly Kathy wanted to establish the reasons from members themselves why prints are not being entered rather than just guess the reasons.
This opened up a debate and from my point of view, it was the expense of three prints and mounts to then have the judge give me 15s / 16s for the mounted photographs I did not really want afterwards.
Others said, it was a time and effort problem in a busy life and images are so much easier to do.
Steve did raise an important point that club members would still want to have a good photograph displayed in various galleries and competitions like Queen’s Park.
It was also pointed out that for new members it can be quite daunting to produce prints and then mount them to the high standard required in competition.
Alan questioned the rules of the club that insist that the mounts have to be a standard 40 cm x 50 cm size and part of the fun use to be creating ones own designed mounts and he stopped entering after that. This suggestion of course, may need more of a person’s time but I did hear of a cycling image being mounted in a bicycle wheel but would the current judges like it. Kathy did say, the ‘old school ‘ of judges in jumpers are dying out but Peter and I sitting next to each other still had them on lol.
After a long debate Kathy said, the club would look at that rule. Chenxi also said, he did offer to print and mount images but so far nobody had taken up the offer.
As a group Kathy offered to send images to a printing company that do fairly good prints at a reasonable price. Some members do not have printers and it was suggested that perhaps the club could buy one and we could print them off ourselves on club nights. Also the club could order a bulk set of mounts but that would have to be of one size. This would involve cutting each mount ourselves and perhaps an evening could be arranged to show how all this is done.
I did like the idea of a printer in the club and being able to process prints during a club evening but not sure what the cost of inks would be.
Sherron raised the point that, some new members are reluctant to enter competitions because of being nervous of getting a low mark from a judge. It was said, this is the way to really learn and not to expect high marks. One should learn from any mistakes and try and improve on ones previous mark rather than expect it to be in the top half of any marking.
Kathy suggested adding a critique only part to the competitions where the judge will just talk about the image in that category but not give it a mark. This was tried out earlier this year and could be done again.
A way of getting through more images on critique night would be for one evening to show all the images on the projector and for our own judges to discuss images that could show some potential competition material. Followed by another evening with laptops for guidance on the changes suggested.
Kathy did say that this was a format intended for the coming ‘black and white’ night competition. The club’s judges will narrow it down to a small group of images with the final selection being judged by club members. Sounds like a ‘Strictly Come Images’ format but not having to get passed Craig Revel Horwood to get to the final lol
Another suggestion from Kathy was that the ‘winner on the night’ competitions could just be awarded the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places without any other mark but the challenge cup must have marks for it to function.
The club’s gallery on the website was mentioned and that it had been recently updated to include member’s competition pictures and not all had realised that. The club’s Facebook site could be a platform for posting images and then getting member’s comments as to what may improve a photograph but not all members are on Facebook. Also Kathy said, she and other members would be quite happy to look at them through email and return comments.
Coffee time
During the interval we were asked to put in suggestions for the coming summer programmes and one or two ideas were given.
Also discussed was what kind of speakers we as a club wanted and what kind of practical sessions we liked and what we did not enjoy.
So quite a social debate and evening
Next week is
My Favourite Image
Tuesday April 17, 2018 from 20:15 to 22:15
We would like members to share an image or two taken in the past year. These could be favourites for any reason – personal or practical – an interesting, amusing or embarrassing incident or a skill mastered; maybe the progress you have made in a personal project. It’s always encouraging to hear how someone has struggled and ‘won’ or is on the road to success.