Life is a bowl of cherries - the ballot results

It got a bit rushed near the end of our "bowl of cherries" evening so I'll repeat the results of the votes on here.

Before I do so, let me thank everyone who submitted photos, contributed to the discussion and of course did the voting. Here is a sample of the diverse range of images entered on night. Who would have known "tabletop" could mean so many things to different people.

First vote was based on "first impact" 3-sec run through. Total (71 votes cast)

3rd place (4 votes)
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Floating Gerbera
Showoffs
Iberis

2nd place (5 votes)
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Euphorbia
On the beach

1st place (7 votes)
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Vase
Cityscape




The second vote was taken after each person had a chance to present their photo and answer any questions. (Total 39 votes cast)

3rd place (3 votes)
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Showoffs
Cityscape

2nd place (5 votes)
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Vase

1st place (7votes)
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Euphorbia


Congratulations to Lynne W (Cityscape), Mark B (Vase), and David P (Euphorbia) for their first places.

Life is a bowl of cherries - change to description

A quick change to the programme description of next weeks meeting. 

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 29 April 2015 – Life is just a bowl of cherries Or anything else you can photograph on a tabletop. Have a go at still life or tabletop photography and send to photocraftwallington@gmail.com by 7pm on Tuesday.

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Rather than bringing the photos on the evening, can you send the photos in advance to photocraftwallington@gmail.com. 

A max of 6 photos per person (but 1 or 2 is fine also). Jpegs only. 

If you send them by 7pm on Tuesday I will compile them and randomise them for presentation and make a summary sheet so we can have a just-for-fun vote to get the most popular photos on the evening.

Remember this doesn't count as a competition so you can enter rough work and still modify your photos for a proper judged competition later. 

(sorry, I couldn't find any cherries this time of year, this is the best I could find)

On the night there will be 2 rounds:

Round 1

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There will be 2 quick run-throughs of all the photos (about 3 secs on each photo) 

Each person will get 3 voting slips to mark the number of their 3 favourite photos, (each vote gets equal weighting). I will make up a summary sheet to remind people of the photo numbers. Please, no voting for your own photos.

Drop the votes in the ballot box.

Round 2

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There will be slower discussion-type run through where each person gets a chance to talk about their photos and answer any questions.

At the end of the discussion, each person gets another 3 voting slips to vote again. The result might be different when people get more time to view the photo or get to learn more about the photos. 

The top 3 photos in each vote will get a ... 

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wait for it

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A special clap of appreciation from the room.

 

SCOLA Photographic Competition 2015

This is just to further promote the SCOLA competition Lynne has emailed details to you recently. And to let you know, in case you didn't, that it was won last year by a PhotoCraft member (David P). If he can win it, anyone can, and with a first prize of £100, it's worth a quick trawl through your archives.
The theme last year was something like 'Secret corners of Sutton' and the winning image was of The Hermitage, a folly in the grounds of Carshalton Water Tower.

The trophy you may win is an impressive block of acrylic with bits of old cameras embedded in it on a wooden plinth and weighing in at - well, the kitchen scales which can handle up to 3 Kg just went EEEEEEEE.

The eggcup is for scale, so make sure your mantelpiece is firmly fixed to the wall.
This year's theme is 'Faces of Sutton', so why not give it a try?

Print Competition No 3

Judge: Don Morley

In camera or in processing ?

The age old question, which was always there but it has really come to the fore in the last few years given the sophistication of the processing software now available. 

I felt a certain amount of sympathy with the judge this week. How could he choose between the two final photos. We had been through the comments on each photo, some were graded, some (quite a few) were "held back".  We then got the next round of grading and we were down to two photos. 

And they were like chalk and cheese, how could a judge make any rational reasoned decision.

One photo was heavenly scene, a solitary hilltop with a well placed clump of tress surrounded on all round sides by white wispy clouds. A Straight from a painters imagination, there was nothing out of place, and maybe more critically absolutely nothing the judge could deduct even a fraction of a point for. The work of an artist at the top of their game.

The other photo was a more definitely more down to earth, a black and white portrayal of Conwy waterfall surrounded by woods and mossy rocks. Everything sat together well in the composition, the exposure and printing was absolutely perfect in every part of the photo, from the pure white and the pure black and every shade in between. A true reflection of the photographers art.

At this stage both had ten points but which one deserved the ten plus ????

I swear I could see the judge changing his mind three of four times as he lingered in front of the easel containing both prints. 

After an age, the judge went for the hilltop, an ex professional photographer who doesn't have any of his photos hanging in his house, he said he would consider putting this photo on his wall. 

It didn't seem important, in the end, who won and I think congratulations are due to both photographers, Dave S and Dave P for bringing us their photos.

I'm sorry for not mentioning the other photos shown this evening, and there were quite few. Special mention should go to John O and Mark B who took the spoils in the Level 1 competition which as it turns out was another colour vs black and white decision the judge had to make. This time though, the black and white won. 

Perplexed about Pixels?

Had a word with David P about his talk on 25th February. He said, OK, at the end of the day, all we are interested in is the big picture and how it looks. But understanding how pixels actually work to build your picture, and what happens when you apply editing tools, can give you a level of understanding that will open doors in digital photography you never realised existed.

The talk assumes you know nothing, so if you do know stuff, please bear with...

He  will describe what a pixel is, what editing does to it, how big they are or can be, and how to change their size to suit your purpose. Includes when to and when not to Resample, and what Interpolation and Pixelation mean. Also the difference between image resolution and image sharpness, and that between ppi and dpi.

Finally, how to sharpen your pictures.

You know you want to know all this. Questions and polite interruptions welcome. No handouts, but if anyone would like a copy of the presentation (PowerPoint) to revisit later, just bring a memory stick along with you.

Your ideas please ......

This week everyone has a chance to air their views and ideas of how we want the club to develop.

We can use one half of the evening to see how everyone produced their competition photos in the last 2 comps but the other half is set aside for a discussion on the future of the club. 

In advance of the AGM this year, we can discuss ideas on how to improve the club for its current members and also attract new members. We also need to think about fundraising for next year. 

Typically, by the time we get to the AGM in May, attention turns to summer holidays and often it is too late to act upon the ideas raised, so things tend to carry on as they were before. 

So this time,  let's come up with some new ideas. We have the time to try out a few things before the end of the season ...

So that's gone quick!

It's February already, we've had 2 rounds of completion, a "bring and share" evening of portrait photography and a cracking talk by Darren Pullman giving a gentle introduction to the various ways to "process" a photo in Photoshop, we even got a handout at the end. 

The first meeting of the year was a "bring and share" event where everyone brought in some portrait photos to compare and discuss. There haven't been many portrait photos shown in our competitions recently so this was a good environment to air some of those photos we may have been uneasy about putting in front of a judge. Hopefully, we'll see some entered in competitions soon. 

The first competition of the year was a print competition judged by David Lloyd LRPS. It was encouraging to see entries in the Level 1 class again. Sometimes the printed photo can be a bit more daunting for the uninitiated but it's the original and versatile way to show off your photos and really not that difficult, once you've done it once or twice. Congrats to Graham A for taking the 10 points. 

The Level 2 competition turned out to be a close run thing with Dave P's graphic composition of the roof of Wisley Gardens glasshouse narrowly beating Dave S's study on art gallery arches. In the end it was museum's security guard sitting with a bent back that gave the 10+ to the Wisley roof. Such small details can make the difference!

The following week, Darren Pullman treated us to a very polished presentation introducing photo editing techniques from cropping and straightening to clone stamps and blend modes. The presentation showed various before and after shots to demonstrate the techniques and how effective they were in improving your photo. Darren also encouraged the viewer to search the Internet for the keywords of each subject (with the title of their software) to avail of the many free tutorials posted there. 

Now, I'll get to the report on last week's PDI competition later in the week but first a few words about the special meeting this week.

See the next post .....