The WCC portfolio program will commence on Thursday 26th February 2026 with our welcome/review meeting. I would like to invite all portfolio participants from 2025 to bring along their work, and each will have 3-4 minutes to talk about their portfolio:

• What was the portfolio theme?
• Where did the inspiration come from?
• How did you put your portfolio together?
• What worked, and what didn’t?

All members are welcome to come along, hear about the portfolios and be inspired to join in for 2026. At the conclusion of the presentations I will talk about this year’s program and answer any questions.

In the Creative SIG this month club member Leanne Poole will talk about her creative journey.

Tuesday 9th September 2025, 7:30pm via Zoom.

Our next Macro and Closeup SIG outing is on Friday September 12th 2025, and will be to Ceres in Brunswick East, cnr of Roberts and Stewart Streets. We will meet at the cafe (not the Grocery) at 9am for a coffee, enjoy some photography, and then meet back at the cafe for lunch/another coffee at 11:30. Please note the earlier start time!! We were there today at 9:45 and the car park was practically full so we are opting for an earlier start time to make parking easier. If you can’t make this time feel free to arrive when you can, have a wander, and then meet us in the cafe at 11:30.

Note that while the website lists opening hours as 9am to 12:30pm, this only applies to the visitor center, the park and cafe are open outside of those hours, so we don’t need to rush away.

I have spoken to them about our visit and they have just asked that we don’t photograph people. Given that we are there for macro, this shouldn’t be a problem.

If you wish to carpool, the whats app group would be a great way to facilitate that.

Thanks, and hope to see you there,
Leanne and Kirsten

The first Creative Group meeting for this year is Tuesday 8th April 2025 at 7.30 pm via zoom. All members are welcome and no prior experience is necessary. Please send me any creative images you would like to share with the group or seek feedback on.

In the first meeting we will explore what Creative Photography is (hint: there are no limits) and seek inspiration from our own club members’ images.

In addition we will also explore many fantastic examples of creative images from internationally renowned local artists featured in our last promotion. Naturally we will cover the main tools and techniques used by creative photographers in and out of the camera.

This year the set subject of our annual creative competition with Geelong Camera Club is Animals, please start thinking about ideas for your own image and any suggestions you have to share with othergroup members.

Special Announcement: At the first meeting I will announce details of the new Creative Photography Image of the Year Award.

If you have any queries about the group, suggestions and ideas please send me an email.

It’s time to get the Portfolio group back and running. I hope you are all both energised and inspired by the work created by our members last year, and that some of you will join in this year.

Just to set the scene:

• A portfolio is a personal body of work that you collect and create into a way to share this work with others.
• You can be a beginner or an advanced photographer, and we only ask that you do your best, based on the level of skill you have.
• There are some basic rules that I will share when we next meet.

Our first meeting will be on Tuesday 18th March, from 7.30 in the main room at Mount Waverley Community Centre (where we have all of our usual meetings).

For those of you that created a portfolio in 2024, please bring this along to share and discuss. Think about what you learnt, what worked, what was difficult, and what you might have done differently. We will also spend a little time discussing ideas you might have for 2025.

Everyone is welcome to join in.

We have drafted the following outings for the Birding SIG in 2025:

Date	Location
Friday 7 March 2025	Healesville Sanctuary
Saturday 5 April 2025	Stringybark Creek Nature Walk
Friday 27 June 27 2025	Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary
Friday 22 to Sunday 24 August 2025	Bendigo weekend away
Saturday 13 September 2025	Western Treatment Plant
Friday 10 October 2025	Wicks Reserve
Friday 14 November 2025	Cranbourne Botanic Gardens

• Most of the outings are within half an hour to one hour drive of Melbourne.
• September outing to Western Treatment Plant needs members who have the key.
• Weekend away will be a trial as Bendigo has a lot of hot birding spots, car-pool is encouraged.
• A couple of Zoom meeting will be needed to make sure the smooth running of these outings.
• This is only a draft, just for planning purposes. It can be changed with advanced notice and it also depends on the weather.
• Please make sure to check your email and the weekly Watson for the updated information, including changes.
• Everyone is welcome to come along, but reply email or text messages are much appreciated for each outing.

Our first outing is to Healesville Sancturary in less than 2 weeks, details will be sent out next weekend.

The creative sessions for 2024 will be taking a slightly different direction this year, the first session will be hosted by Geoff Shaw on Tuesday 13th February 2024 and will cover:

1. What is Creative photography – Helen Warnod
2. In Camera BLUR – Jen Fawkes
3. Focus on Shirley Steel’s work – Jenny Adams
4. Appreciation/ review of uploaded images for February – Tim Keane
5. Discussion of sessions for the rest of 2024 – Paul Spence