JUNE MONTHLY DIGITAL COMPETITION

We have a new husband/wife rivalry, currently we have Jeff/Sarah although they were originally fiancé/fiancée rivals, we have Dick and Sylvia if only Dick would let Sylvia borrow the lens he was using I'm sure it would be a fairer rivalry, also Mick & Gella who cannot agree over who took what image, thankfully they now have Lightroom. Our newest rivals are Stephen & Mandy, thanks to Mandy's promotion to the Advanced section. Stephen, I bet you are regretting buying Mandy that camera for her 21st birthday!?

We also have a new game, rather like some of the questions on Pointless, where you have to fill in the missing letters, to get the answer, we have to guess the title of the image, we could also have the title as an anagram, the author would get extra marks if the members can't guess it, this could make it easier if there is a tie on points as it could save the judges from having to separate the images into order.

Well done to the judges last night, they made all the right decisions (well I would say that wouldn't I?). Although I did notice that Gordon took a bit longer than the 6 seconds? that he advises the judges in international salons take, perhaps the old reactions are going or the glasses need changing.
John, you said at one point that you might be getting paranoid. Don't forget just because your paranoid doesn't  mean that their not out to get you.

It looks like I'm going to miss a good evening next week, as we are off on holiday to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It is a pity that Sylvia did not tell me forty years ago what she had planned for next week as I will have changed the date of the wedding.

Time to start voting, If this isn't sharp, you need new glasses.

    

PRACTICAL EVENING

Another interesting and useful evening with two of the demonstration following up lectures from the last few weeks.

 In one corner we had Andy, our print title and print winner announcer, macro and splash expert, a man of many parts, and he assures me some of them still work. His set up looked like a mad professor's laboratory, it needed a lot of twiddling of knobs and produced some interesting images but sadly no Frankenstein. 

We had T&B by the rear door, Andy B got Mike to distract the man with some technical questions while he secreted a lens about his person, I bumped into Andy as he was going out of the door, I asked if he was pleased to see me. He said "No I've got a telephoto lens in my pocket". 

I noticed Sylvia put some super glue on her hands so that she did not have to give back the Bridge Camera, until Dick handed over his hard earned cash.

Mick gave us a demonstration on the use of Light Room, one valuable use was so that he and Gella could tell who's images were who's. So no more domestics on that front. So no more claiming award pictures are yours Mick.

I don't know how many people Dave had in his corner, or where the piano came from, but I'm sure that the London Philharmonic Orchestra, some pop groups and Nat King Cole were there. I believe that he did show a blue film and one of those road movies. No wonder I could not get near the screen.

   

Ready to phase those photos Dave?

 

        

JUNE 2015 WINNING IMAGES

ADVANCED

1st The Salesman

by Dave Wilcox

2nd Surf Spray

by Annie Moring

3rd The Driver

by Kevin Sykes

H.C. Lily

by Kevin Sykes

H.C.  Down  Town Manhattan

by Dave Wilcox

H.C. The Ghosts of Rhyolite

by Dave Wilcox

INTERMEDIATE

1st Zulu

by Colin Smith

2nd Over The Surf

by Gella Ladner

3rd Looking Up At Dunwich Heath

by Gella Ladner

SUNDAY SAFARI 2015

Lets face it, the safari is not known for it's sartorial elegance, of our members, from the length of shorts, (cargo shorts are so last year) to the colour of trousers from red/maroon!? ( that must surely be a first) to blue jeans and the variety of T. shirts. As for foot wear I won't go there. Except to say Sling Backed Wellies are not my thing. Thankfully we have Eric who is elegance personified, with collar and tie, he always looks smart, even at the end of a long hot day taking pictures. If it was me, my shirt tail would be out, tie undone and askew. With talk of a club Polo Shirt perhaps we should have a club tie, so we can improve our image.

Onto the day itself, first stop was the aptly named Belhus Woods, where the main attraction is the lake. We had the British Maritime History in miniature, Geese with their Goslings and performing dogs, one owner tried to do a Britain's Got Talent and used two dogs to fetch a ball, the problem was though they were both Labradors one was brown and the other was black. The mini armada was popular with our members, especially when one of the boats sank and the owner tried to wade out to recover it. Our members were anxiously and worriedly watching in case the owner slipped and went under. Unfortunately he did not, so another photo opportunity was lost. So it was back to our vehicles for a quick cup of coffee and cake, then on to our next destination. The Ice Cream Stop or Battlesbridge.

Some of our older members refused to go to the antiques centre, as they said that they were probably older than some of the items. Dennis said that the last time he was there his son tried to part exchange him for a dresser. I was also expected to see some members in the curiosity shop, but was surprised that some of them were for sale.

Next stop lunch and Cressing Temple Barns. It was a good time to test the worth of our Sat Nav. as suspected it was worthless, it must have been manufactured during the Roman occupation as it kept sending us up and down the A12 and various cart tracks, I swear that we followed Boadicea for a couple of miles. The barns are a photographers dream, old rusty bits of metal and machinery, rotting wood naked models, sorry got carried away. It also has an excellent cafe with great cream teas.

Next up Langford Museum of Power. Peter was really excited, he told me he could remember when this was all new technology when he was a lad and that nice Mr Stephenson allowed him to ride on his train. There was time for another cup of tea and cake, then off to Heybridge Basin.

An opportunity to take some African wildlife, in someone's rear garden although the Hippo must have been too hot as a wet towel had been thrown over it. Still there was plenty for us Land Lubbers to take pictures of without getting our feet wet and the boats were much bigger than at Belhus, with more details to photograph. It was time for a quick pint then home.

Thanks to Dick and Sylvia for a great day of photography and tea and cake.

U.C.C. member wondering why his relatives have told him to sit there while they get him an ice cream

HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY & WATER SPLASHES

If I thought last week Rosie Pines was my kind of woman. I found the perfect woman on Tuesday evening. As someone who obviously enjoyed creating stuff in the kitchen, and liked her wine it was a match made in heaven. She is also a Rugby fanatic and I'm sure she could get us some world cup tickets.

I admit I was a bit concerned that her first attempt at water splashes involved wine, I thought what a waste, however, she quickly realised that it was not going to work substitute wine was used, the same with the Brandy. One thing that wasn't answered was when she showed us the shots from each session, and told us her favourite, she did not say if it was one of the first images taken or the influence of the alcohol that improved the pictures. 

Food packaging would be a good excuse to eat, Pringle tubes, I'm sure good use can be made of Chinese Takeaway tin foil containers, the list must be endless, of course it is best to order and eat the takeaway ,then think of what could be done with them. Developing dishes for end prints?

She even did the washing up, brilliant.

Thanks to Sylvia, the last couple of weeks we have had a couple of inspirational speakers, who if you did not want to get into audio visual or water splashes, certainly should have inspired us to improve our photography.

Note to Lin, next time Dave says he would like to go to an exotic location to take stunning images just remind him of what he said on Tuesday about not having to go to exotic places but only as far as the kitchen to take stunning images.  

Something exotic? Have a tube of Pringles Jalapeno instead

ARTISTIC IMAGES

ROSIE PINES

First of all I would like to apologise for the spelling mistakes in last weeks blog. Thanks to Sylvie for pointing it out. You spell Tomato I spell Tomatoe, lets call the whole thing off. However, I did check and there are two L's in b-ll---s.

Thanks to Rosie for an informative evening, I don't what she pines for, although I don't think it is for living in Essex. However, she is my kind of woman, in forty years of marriage I have never been told to stop washing up. Although she did not say whether he had to carry on after she had taken her pictures and if he was allowed to use clean hot water. After all these things are important.

There was a variety of sequences all of which were very well put together, the thing that I got out of it was that this was an environmentally friendly way to show your pictures. By re-cycling the images you would not normally show, a bit of music and some phasing in and out. Easy isn't? Well o/k you need imagination and some skill to put it altogether.

Got the music, could be a long sequence 

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