Thornbury Camera Club
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Archived Items


​14th December 2020

Aleks Gjika (DPAGB, AFIAP) is an old friend of Thornbury Camera Club. Originally from Albania, Aleks has lived in the Gloucester area for the last twenty years.
Aleks started his presentation with images of his home country. Albania is mountainous in the North with beaches and the Mediterranean sun in the South. His images were of the countryside and of portraits of local people: particularly country farmers and their goats. He emphasised from the start that a picture had to be well composed but that it also had to tell a story and that all parts of the story should be represented in the composition, and should be shown completely.
Having started in Albania, Aleks moved his story to Gloucestershire where he lives today. He has become fascinated by woodlands and, particularly by bluebell woods. The message here was to keep it simple. Many of his wooded scenes were taken in the mists of early morning. His autumn scenes always had colour other than the seasonal browns and reds to provide contrast: sometimes surviving green leaves; at other times the blue of the sky. Often wind caused the red and gold leaves to fly.
The third section of Alecks’ talk was devoted to what he called “pictorial”. Here he was manipulating the images more. He emphasised that a picture is made in the eye and the brain; not in the camera. He visits a lot of re-enactment events and combines the photographs to produce his final image.
If this was not all, Aleks is a skilled photographer of birds in flight. I particularly remember an owl: wings at the bottom of their sweep; its eyes seemingly fixed on the camera.
He finished by showing photographs of lighthouses engulfed in storm waves - sometimes many times the height of the lighthouse. One of these photographs gave Aleks first place in the “Your View” category of the “Landscape Photographer of the Year” competition in 2020.​


​7th December 2020

​It is amazing how much variation you can get from a simple theme. On this occasion members of Thornbury Camera Club were asked to provide six photographs of doors. Fifteen members rose to the challenge. Twenty-nine gathered on Zoom to see the result.
Buildings were a favourite with houses, theatres, churches, castles, windmills, lifeboat stations and even the Houses of Parliament providing inspiration. So far, so straightforward! Then there were the modes of transport: buses, canal barges, bomber aircraft and even a spacecraft. If you are going into orbit you have to get into your craft so there has to be a door.
Then, of course, you need not photograph the whole door. We saw letter boxes and ancient locks: painted scenes and graffiti. Inside houses (no need to go out during lockdown) there were kitchen doors, wardrobe doors, front doors and backdoors.
To complete the set we had a Teddy Bear escaping though a cat flap!


​Comp 2  results - (Flowers) can be found
​under the Competitions ta
b
​

​30th November  2020

​You may have noticed from these reports that by using Zoom, we can call upon speakers from far and wide. This was the furthest yet. Steve Gettle and Nicole Sudduth joined us from Michigan. Steve and Nicole are professional photographers who take, particularly, landscape photographs. In their talk they described how to do it!
Illustrated by stunning photographs Steve and Nicole showed how patterns and broad landscapes often share compositional features. Placing the subject on the thirds, leading lines, “S” shapes and symmetry all came into play. They showed how these compositional ideas can be simplified into lines which reveal the structure of the image. One thing which was also apparent was the idea of waiting: waiting for the weather; waiting for the light. A picture may be taken in a five-hundredth of a second but it may take all day for the light to be right.
When photographing water, look for reflections. Look for the same “S” shapes and leading lines in the water but, perhaps, repeated in the shapes of clouds.
One tip which Steve repeated several times was that while a tripod is essential, they are clumsy. When looking for the picture, take the camera off the tripod and move it about: search for the correct place to take the image. Move right and left, up and down. Try different focal lengths. Only when you are ready should you move that essential but clumsy tripod into position.

​
23rd November  2020

We have already reached the second of the five rounds of Thornbury Camera Club's annual competition. This was a set subject competition on the subject of “Flowers”. Everyone photographs flowers. They sit there without moving, look attractive and don’t complain. Even so, from the 89 images presented (37 prints and 52 projected images) the variety of treatments was remarkable. While some were taken in the “wild”, many had received a studio treatment with the flower set against a plain, usually white, background.
The judge on this occasion was Michael Curtis (ARPS, IFIAP) who has visited us before in 2018.
In the print competition, Robert England was awarded first place with “Wild Desert Cactus”. Steve Wells came second with “Blue Nigella”, while in third place was “Edward Kilmartin with “Three”. Highly commended and commended images came from Dean Packer and Robert England.
In the projected section, “Cardoon and Woodlice” gave first place to Simon Meeds, with Graham Peers taking second place with “Colichicums”. Eirwyn Thomas was third with “Pretty in Pink”. Highly commended and commended images came from Dean Packer, Lorna Minshall, Robert England, and Christine Crabb.
The next competition is an open competition. Entries are due to be handed in by December 14th for Judging on January 18th.
​


Andy Gillingham has written some notes on  how to show your images at their best  when presenting digital images.
​This can be found in the Tips and Tricks page for future reference




​​The Pentaptych pictures for the
end of term project can be found
beneath the Members' Galleries
​ tab  ​HERE






​There is a link to Digital Camera World
cards to download/print on the
'Tips and Tricks' page
These are 72 tips on different aspects
​of photography.





​Thanks to Simon Meeds for an interesting and informative talk via zoom on Creative Problem
Solving . The slides and notes for the talk
and also another section that Simon didn't
have time to cover are in Tips and Tricks HERE


​


The results and winning images
for Comp 5 (Open) and the final
results for the year are under
the Competitions tab



​


​The results for the 3 way Battle  held on 16th September were as follows:

Thornbury  464 points
Crossbow 446 points
Sodbury and Yate  also 446 points

Several of our members gained a maximum score of 20 points so special congratulations to them.

Janet has sent a flyer to the membership containing our entry,
​the photographers and the individual scores.




​

​Following on from discussions at a recent club meeting there is a link HERE to an article in Amateur Photographer regarding the Law and Street Photography



​Mark Hayward has shared with us  a post processing site that he uses which is now free to download.
 It can be found at 
http://www.dl-c.com/  -  link HERE  -  (Digital Light and Colour)




​

​Oz Parfitt  showed us how he used his images to fill text. His notes on this can be
​ found on the Tips and Tricks page
HERE



Following on from Simon Riches'  talk on 'What catches the eye in DPIC,
Rob England has found 3 links on what judges look for in competitions. They can be found
in the ​Tips and Tricks page
HERE




​
3 Way Battle Results for 2018

The results of the 3 Way Battle were:

Thornbury  396 Points
Sodbury and Yate  384  Points
Crossbow  377 Points

​A link to our entry is
HERE





​
Updates for this season regarding competitions

There will be no beginners pdi competition (Just one competition for all)

and
The 3 year restriction has been lifted for competition entries

Also, please note the new sizes for pdi competition images for the coming year
- 1600px wide x 1200px high (max)
If you need help with resizing, there is a link to Steve Wells' powerpoint
​presentation HERE




​George Collett has obtained his CPAGB. The pictures and details can be seen in the
May newsletter update.  Congratulations to George.




​

3 Way Battle Results for 2017

The results of the 3 Way Battle were:
Thornbury  400 Points
Crossbow  386 Points
Sodbury and Yate  379 Points

Congratulations to George Collett, Janet Oxenham, Andy Gillingham and Simon Riches
 who each scored 18 points for one of their pictures
.





Ian Cook's notes on his talk on Photoshop Elements 13 can be found  HERE
​




Simon Riches gave us a talk on how to mount prints.  A link to his talk can be found HERE




The results for the 3 Way Battle in September 2016 were:
Sodbury and Yate 449
Thornbury 441
Crossbow 428
Congratulations to Sodbury and Yate!

Below are the 3 pictures from TCC members that received the maximum of 20 points each. You can enlarge on the pictures by clicking on them



Sunlight Through the Window by Janet Oxenham
Historic Laycock by George Collett
Lily by Barbara Gibbons



Members' pictures of the Thornbury Carnival 2016 are HERE




Barrian Cup 2016

The Barrian Cup was held on Saturday  11th June in Barry.  Congratulations to George Collett and Peter Howarth who both scored  19 out of 20 (pictures below). Out of a total of 26 clubs, Gwynfa Camera Club were the winners with 96 points.  Thornbury scored 86 points placing us around the middle of the competition.


Old Boats by Peter Howarth.
Hunting Buzzard  by George Collett
Click on pictures to enlarge


DPIC Results 2016


To see results and the winning pictures click HERE

  • Home
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