Club News

19 May 2022 - DPI Competition night

Thursday 19 May saw the first DPI competition of this photographic year for Chard CC, judged by Penny Piddock DPAGB EFIAP.

I am pleased to report entries were of a very high standard and the winning images in each category (Street, Still Life and Open) had some stiff competition; this could be acredited to the fact that recently we had some excellent presentations on these subjects.

Below are the winning images from each category. All placed images can be found on the relevant gallery page. Well done to all who entered.

Our next competition is for prints and will be at our meeting judged on the 16 June, which anyone is welcome to attend.

STREET STILL LIFE OPEN

Big Issue seller - Alan Williams A cup of sunshine - Coli Evans A splash of blue - Marjorie Marrett

10 May 2022 - Inter-club competition : Mid-Somerset Camera Club

Chard made a virtual visit to Mid-Somerset Camera Club tonight, for the annual inter-club competition. Penny Piddock was the judge for the evening and delivered her usual considered and constructive critique of the images on show. The end of the evening result showed Mid-Somerset as the eventual winners, in a competition where the difference in scoring was less than one point per image. Taking into account the reduced pool of images from which CCC's selection was taken, the set of images put forward by CCC was of a high standard, boding well for future competitions. Special mention goes to Angela Heed for her image entitled 'Hermoso' which was the only Chard image of the evening to score a maximum 20/20

17 March 2022 - Stars and Successes of 21/22

17th March saw the club gather, in person, to celebrate the past year's events and winners. Guest judge Malcolm McNaughton was tasked with choosing the best print and DPI from the year's placed images and the club was treated to an exceptional evening of critique and praise. Every image received extensive, considered input and every author was able to glean some pointers to act on for their next year's submissions. The work on show was of a high standard, making for an excellent record of the past twelve months' competitions. Debbie Hammond had an exceptional evening, taking first and second places in the Print of the Year section, together with first place in the DPI of the Year section. Angela heed had third place in the prints and DPI sections, whilst Sylvia Adams had a second place in the DPI section. Photographer of the year, the member who amassed the highest combined total of points across both print and DPI sections, was awarded to John Flanagan. John also received, for a year, a 35mm camera, which he has to use to shoot a roll of film and then show the images at the club. An most enjoyable evening was spent viewing the best of the year's images, with commentary from an exceptional judge. We start it all again on 07 May, with our first speaker of the year.

PRINTS OF THE YEAR DPIs of theYear

Majesty in the mist - Debbie Hammond Bird of Paradise - Debbie Hammond

Amethyst Deceivers - Debbie Hammond Stairway to heaven - Sylvia Adams

Waiting for the tide - Angela Heed Pheasants in a clearing - Angela Heed

3 February 2022 - Inter Club Competition

On the 3rd February Chard hosted its annual "Battle" against Wellington and District Camera Club and what an enjoyable evening it was. One of the biggest advantages of Zoom is that members who perhaps would not have undertaken the journey to Chard were able to join us this year. This swelled our numbers and made for plenty of chat before and after the main event.

The judge made plenty of criticism but only to demonstrate how he thought our images might be improved. We are of course free to disagree!

At the end there were six images held back and it was competitive to see that there were three from each club.

Their images gained 1st and 3rd place, with one highly commended, Chard gaining 2nd place (very well done Angela) and two highly commended.

Unfortunately we finished up as the bridesmaid, not the bride, but there is always next year to aim for!

20 January 2022 - Speaker - Damien Demolder

"A street masterclass in composition"

So said one member of our most recent presentation, where we were privileged to welcome Damien to the club, albeit virtually, to deliver the second of his talks on the subject of street photography. Exploring silhouettes, shadows, foreground, highlights and of course composition, Damien was his usual informative, entertaining and educational self, never afraid to discuss his techniques and thought processes. Members and guests spent the evening enjoying the images and anecdotes and couldn't help but be inspired by the work on show and the enthusiasm shown by Damien. If you get the chance, experience it for yourself.

06 January 2022

Competition Evening : Judge - Derrick Holliday

Thursday 6th January 2022 saw the last of our in-house competitions for this club year and we welcomed Derrick Holliday from Exmouth, as our judge for the evening.

Derrick was tasked with judging not only an Open and a Monochrome Print category but also a DPI category on the theme of "By Moonlight". This theme had members searching for their thinking caps, in order to not just produce a simple night image and some creative results were produced.

Delivering his critique entirely through Zoom, thanks especially go to Derrick for taking the time to judge not only the physical prints but also for discussing the merits, or otherwise, of the differences between the prints and their Zoom digital counterparts. Thanks go to Derrick for an evening of considered judging and also to those members who entered their images.

02 December 2021 - Speaker - Tommy Hatwell

We welcomed back Tommy Hatwell to our hybrid meeting last night to give us the 2nd in his (so far) series of three talks.

This covered his photography in a village in Uganda where has been visiting now for nearly 10 years. He explained that at the end of his previous visit he came away with the seed of an idea for an even more ambitious image. Returning he showed us how he took several shots of a borehole near the village and how he then stitched these together in Photoshop. He then took many shots of individual children, with David, his local assistant lighting each individual. He then added these to the panorama using Layers and Masks in PS. He had this developed into a hardy print over 2 meters long and attached it to the bushes near the borehole. The children were delighted and fascinated to see themselves in this way and each received a small print of the whole image.

This led to other similar projects using that same technique.

Tommy is very involved in a charity project now to supply mattresses to the people of this village so that they get a good nights sleep, something we all need for our mental and physical well being.

Sadly reception was less than ideal for our zoom participants, but it was the first time that we had a speaker in the hall using our new hybrid system, so please look up his website if you want more information.

Tommy came all the way from Plymouth and, quietly at the end, he dropped into the conversation that his fee was already spent in that he was funding David to get his official driving licence.

It was great to see all these happy inquisitive children, and adults as well, lets just hope that, when we see the 3rd in his series, that they have coped well and are still thriving, despite Covid.

07 September 2021 - Speaker - Alison Mackay

Some 20 Members attended this evening's presentation by Alison Mackay, who started by making comparisons with very old famous paintings and and showing how they told a story. She then constructed her own 'still life' image with everyday items, an array of props - mainly found at charity shops - and arranged them accordingly. Then came the lighting before taking numerous images to get things just as she wanted before adding some creativity in photoshop/Lightroom and Efex software. Alison guided us through several images, sharing all the camera settings she used, guidelines for a variety of compositions and lighting. This was very inspirational and showed how we can all get creative without expensive lighting and props and that a "Nifty-Fifty" lens is a great lens for this genre of photography. Even though Alison classes herself as a "JUST FOR FUN" photographer, after tonight's presentation she has shown she is is quite a bit more than that. Please check out her website for more of her inspirational work. https://www.alisonmckayphotography.com/gallery

17 June 2021

Open DPI Competition : Judge - Gordon Aspland

Last night we held our final meeting/competition, via zoom, before our summer break. This was an open DPI and the judge was Gordon Aspland.

Gordon's critique was really interesting as he explained how he looked not only at the image but also at the 'file data' on each one. As he scored each image he he shared that information, relating to the shutter speed / ISO / aperture and by doing this, he explained different aspects of the images and how the end result was achieved. This was something not often shared by judges and was very thought provoking.

There were 57 images from 19 members and twelve of them gained a mark of 17. two HC with 18 marks - Angela's 'Old Timer' and Don's 'Orange Tip'. Third place with 19 was Debbie's ' Bird of Paradise' and second, also with 19 was Colin Evans 'Barn Owl'. We had a joint first with 20 marks - Angela with ' Pheasants in a Clearing ' and Colin with ' YEEHAA '.

Well done to everyone who took part and joined the zoom meeting. Have a great summer break and see you all in September.

03 June 2021

Glyn Dewis : The Power of Personal Projects

Last night our guest speaker was Glyn Dewis. This was our final speaker for this season and he did not let us down. He demonstrated how he started a project that has snowballed into something bigger than he ever thought. All the work that he has done for his project " 3945 World War 2 Veterans Charity " has been not for financial gain but to leave a legacy in respect for those people. Totally admirable and patriotic. Glyn's talk was totally unscripted & it showed how passionate he is about what he does, sharing so much with us in a very subtle way. The techniques he showed us in processing his portrait work through photoshop/lightroom are all on links that he has sent to us & require no financial outlay to watch and learn. A real pleasure to have joined this zoom meeting.

06 May 2021

Annual inter-club competition : Mid-Somerset Camera Club

Tonight saw Chard welcome Mid-Somerset Camera Club, via Zoom, for our annual competition. With 44 people attending, split roughly equally between the clubs, this was the most people we have entertained 'virtually' and it made for a great evening.

The judge, Wendy Allard, really did make the evening special. She shared her knowledge, photographic background and briefly noted what her accreditations were. She spent the same amount of time on every image giving positive feedback, being very helpful and positive. It was a refreshing change with no negativity on any image.

Members from Mid Somerset were very friendly during the break and it was good to see so many of them. The final scores came and Wendy agreed that there were no losers as she enjoyed every image.

Mid-Somerset came out as the eventual winners, thanks partly to some great scores on their nature shots where they scored 19s and 20s on images of birds and butterflies.

Overall, Chard's average scores per image were only just over 0.5 lower than Mid-Somerset, so over the 60 images shown in total it was very close indeed.

Angela, Don and Debbie all scored 19, whilst Angela, Debbie, Jeff, Don and Sylvia also scored 18s.....congrats go to ALL who entered images, on both sides of the competition.

Next year, with the hopeful lifting of all restrictions, it is hoped to expand the competition to both DPI and print images.

15 April 2021

Bill Ward - In search of......

Chard Camera Club started the new club year with an entertaining Zoom talk by Bill Ward, photographer and actor . Bill's talk took us from his early forays into photography, through his developing styles, right up to his recent offerings from the world of ICM ( Intentional Camera Movement ), including recent successes in prestigious land- and sea-scape competitions. Members were treated to a comprehensive catalogue of images and styles and were enthused to try the techniques showcased in Bill's work. Some members have already been out to try ICM, with some great results. As a talk which inspired and entertained, members were not disappointed.

04 March 2021

David Keep : Underwater Photography 1

Wow ! An evening spent watching David's presentation is quite simply two hours of the most amazing underwater photography, of ALL sorts, you will see anywhere. If you missed this talk you missed something special.

From Hairy Frog Fish, through large turtles and right up to Tiger Sharks, we were taken on a tour de force of the inhabitants of some of our oceans. Stunning photography, great narrative and above all enthusiasm for the topic AND the sharing of info and how-to all combined to give members an enthralling evening's viewing.

Added into the mix were David's other personal projects which included shooting open water swimmers, underwater story-telling and ethereal floating dress scenarios, all of which resulted in an evening full of inspiration and enthusiasm and every member present was richly rewarded.

18 February 2021

Digital Triptych Competition with Debbie and Duncan Armour

Tonight's final in-house competition of the year was a digital triptych challenge. Members were asked to submit one 'digital slide', made up of three separate images which are to be on a theme of the members' own choosing but presented in a way as to tell a stroy of the subject matter. Duncan and Debbie Armour spent time with the images and Duncan delivered their thoughts, critique and guidance on the submitted works. Members were treated, as ever, to detailed, considered and always fair critiques, with everyone able to take something away for use on future presentations. See Competitions Gallery for images.

Results :

Highly Commended : Dick Moon - Hatched, matched and despatched

3rd : Drew Anderson - Cerdic - Chard by night

2nd : Sylvia Adams - Frosty reed bed

1st : Debbie Hammond - Broken autumn

04 February 2021

Critique Evening

The Club welcomed Penny Piddock, on an evening where members were asked to submit images for critique. Quite a few images were shown and discussed during the evening, with members asked to put forward their own thoughts, in a non-judgemental manner, on such topics as subject matter, editing and overall 'feel' of the images. Penny guided the image authors and the membership through the images, with good-natured suggestions from all sides being put into the melting pot for all to consider. The evening ended with Penny submitting her own edits of the submitted images, backing-up what had been suggested during the evening and giving members the chance to see first-hand the results and how/if the images were improved. A worthy exercise, with food for thought and techniques to consider, all helped by Penny's guiding and balanced hand.

History lesson !

Club member Terry Marrett submits this Club Program from ........ 1984

Simpler times .......

7th January 2021

Andrew Marker

Landscape and travel AV

Andrew treated us to his Landscape and Travel talk, set as an Audio Visual display. He has considerable experience in this field on behalf of the Bristol International Salon, and this professionalism really showed to advantage.

He took us to a handful of different locations, mostly in two different seasons, which demonstrated how varied a location can look. We went to Yellowstone, Namibia, Tuscany, Venice, Greece and the Hebrides, most more than once.

Andrew spoke about each, historically and/or geographically which gave insight and added to our appreciation of the stunning and varied photography. All this set to such appropriate, yet understated and never encroaching, music.

Many members have since commented on their enjoyment and a wish to see more from Andrew.

29 October 2020

Jo Bradford

Smart 'phone, smart photography

Chard welcomed Jo Bradford, who is based on Dartmoor, to deliver the Club's second guest-talk, based solely around using our ever-present camera, the smartphone. Jo talked us through her career from early snapshots right through to present day, showing images and discussing how she captured, edited them in-phone and printed them, revealing just how much is capable with those little boxes of tricks we always have in our pockets or bags. Members were left inspired to catch images even when without their 'main' piece of gear. The next speaker, Brian Northmore, joins us on Thursday 05 November.

15 September 2020

Richard Sercombe

Urban Night Photography

The Club welcomed guests from South Petherton Photographic Society and enjoyed a presentation from Richard Sercombe, in the first of the Club's Zoom guest speaker Talks. Richard's subject was 'Urban Night Photography' and viewers were treated to photographs from all over the world and all taken at night. As Richard said, once the daylight has virtually gone and the night's lights start to appear, cities and landscapes take on a whole new dimension and the images were certainly met with 'new eyes'. Great photos, mixed with anecdotes and even some tutoring on how to sometimes use Photoshop etc to get the best from our images, made for a very entertaining and stimulating evening. Some members are already planning their after-dark excursions .... ! Our next speaker is Jo Bradford, on Thursday 29 October.

26 September 2020

Chard Camera Club