Due to the bad weather, and with no immediate prospect of improvement, we think it sensible to cancel this evening’s Camera Club meeting.
We look forward to seeing you all next week when we have Lionel Bryan judging our entries for the Set Subject competition.
In the meantime, take care in the snow and ice,
Best wishes,
Mike
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How about getting more perspective in your photos?
If so, this short video might help. It was created by British psychological professorRichard Wiseman, and demonstrates the power of perspective. It’s titled, “Assumptions.”
But it might simply be the result of a very merry time over the holidays?
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As you try to shake off that Christmas leftover feeling and turn your thoughts towards the photographic challenges of 2013, what better than to refresh your thinking about photo composition.
This article (at PetaPixel) gives a fresh take on the effects of aspect ratio, either in camera or through cropping, on the compositional strength of your images.
Its a longish piece but worth a quick read to set you thinking about composing those stunning images that you’re going to capture in the coming year.
And speaking of that – Best Wishes for your photography, and everything else, in 2013.
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What gap’s that? The gap between camera club photography and, what at times, seems like most other published photography today.
Each year, an international jury awards the Leica Oskar Barnack Award to a (professional) photographer whose panel of 10-12 images best documents the interaction between man and the environment, with contemporary visual style – creative, groundbreaking and unintrusive.
Entries for the 2013 Award have just been opened and this led me here to glance at the 2012 winners.
Whether you like them or not, what struck me forcibly is that these entries are a million miles away from typical camera club fare.
For example – how would this image by the 2012 (Newcomer) Winner, Piotr Zbierski, be viewed at club level?
Sharp? Good composition following the Rule of Thirds? No burnt-out highlights and good detail in the shadows? Not a bit of it.
But a prestigious panel of international judges think it one of the best in a competition open only to professional photographers, and sponsored by what might be regarded as a “conservative” camera manufacturer.
The thing about photography is that it’s broad enough to accommodate all tastes and interests. So you might think.
Yet some would feel that camera clubs seem determined to remain stuck in a time warp of well focused, beautifully exposed, traditionally composed, technical pictures.
But maybe pictures that too often fail to express any real emotion or message?
Or is that what many of us feel more comfortable with, and the arty pretentious stuff is too clever for it’s own good?
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The number of photos we take is increasingly exponentially.
It’s estimated that 3.8 Trillion photos have been taken – EVER.
About 10% of the photos ever taken have been taken in the last 12 months.
It makes you think doesn’t it.
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The camera film industry may be struggling, but there are certain segments that are still profitable. One such niche is the one-time-use disposable film camera market, and Ilford Photo, which makes widely used films, papers, and chemicals, announced two new black & white disposable cameras today.
Both cameras feature a built-in flash and can shoot up to 27 exposures on ISO 400 Ilford film.
The XP2 variant uses B&W film that can be developed using the standard C41 chromogenic color print film developing process, which allows you to have the film developed at any local camera shop (or drug store) that can develop ordinary color film.
These new high quality disposable cameras complete with Flash. UK Retail Price is expected to be in the region of £8.99 including VAT, excluding processing costs.
There is an additional option for a Process Paid version of the HP5 Plus camera. This comes packaged with a pre-paid envelope from ILFORD LAB DIRECT. Cameras returned in this envelope will have the film processed at the ILFORD Lab in the Cheshire factory, and will receive back a boxed set of 6×4 inch black and white prints. This option is expected to Retail at around £14.99.
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Don McCullin is one of Britain’s greatest photographers. He has travelled the world, capturing raw, powerful images of war, famine and disaster.
Having used film exclusively throughout his photographic life, this summer McCullin agreed to make a film with Canon documenting his journey into digital photography using the new Canon 5DMk3 camera.
This 30 min film is fascinating to watch. Set in the South of France, it shows McCullin learning about and adjusting to the new technology for the first time.
Although at times a little like a love letter to Canon, it nevertheless offers a real insight into how one of Britain’s greatest photographers thinks about making his images.
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A couple of days ago we walked along the near deserted beach between Seaton Sluice and Blyth, bathed in crisp winter sunshine.
I had the Sony NEX in my pocket and returned home with 29 (nondescript?) images, mostly of beach huts and gentle waves breaking the shoreline.
I processed the RAW files and selected some 14 for further work using layers in Photoshop.
Following my now standard routine for saving and back-up, I was shocked to see that the folder containg these few images was 1.8Gb in size.
The 29 original RAW images made up 0.5Gb (about 17Mb each) and the 14 Photoshop files (PSD) comprised the remaining 1.2Gb.This averages some 85Mb for each processed image comprising 2 layers, from the original single layer PSD file of 40Mb.
My computer “upbringing” harks back to the days, not that long ago, when the hard drive in a shiny new PC was 100Gb. So I’ve struggled to come to terms with the fact that my current internal 1Tb drive was nearly full, and that my backup routine has required the purchase of two (thankfully cheap) 2Tb external drives.
Am I doing something wrong? How are you coping with image file storage?
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Dave Richardson APAGB was the judge at this year’s Competition evening at Wallsend on Wednesday 28th November. The final scores were as follows:
1. Tynemouth 210 points
2. Whitley Bay 197 points
3. Gosforth 194 points
4. Cramlington 189 points
5. Ponteland 188 points
6. Wallsend 175 points
First to show and highest scoring of our 8 prints [with 26 points] was Bill’s “Smoke in the Trees” (below). The judge praised the lovely atmosphere and the beautiful light, with varying densities of smoke and shades of green. His only criticism was the solidity of the tree towards the RHS.
Second was Veronica’s “Road Works” which scored 24 points. It showed hardship and social comment. He was ambivalent about the bottle [?!].
Next up was Jess’s “Highland Cattle”. He observed it was a soft image but wonderful atmosphere, with a Ready Brek glow. 23 points.
Fourth to show was Mike’s “Forest Mist” – 22 marks. He liked the dissipated colours and the delicate green shades, but wanted some focal point.
…at this stage we were second equal with Gosforth.
Then came Kath’s “Dry Art”, atmospheric and “a British thing” queuing in the rain and triumph over adversity. He liked the idea and the effect produced. 24 points.
Sixth to show was Veronica’s “Glen Nevis” landscape. Dave loved the colours [tho’ his wife was not so sure!]. Suspected a blurred layer effect had been applied (Ed.so what!) to make it glow. He liked it, 25 marks.
Seventh was Frank’s “King’s Cross” and that got 23 marks. He liked the beautiful artistry of the roof and the sweep of the lines, tho’ not the mauve lighting.
Last to be shown was Jess’s “Bubble and Sleek” image of her dog with bubbles. It scored 21; the judge said he liked the fur tones and the nice light on the eye. He said he was a dog lover but couldn’t relate the dog to the bubbles!!
The highest scoring print was by Geoff Edmonds of Whitley Bay. It was an artistic, pastel effect rendering of a view in the Western Isles of Scotland. Mike
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PPS Journal 
