As a further followup on the excellent talk from David Williams a number of the photos he took that night are now available in a gallery.

These range from the group shot taken at the beginning of the night:

through to individual portraits:

Tonight’s workshop sees the very welcome return of David Williams.

David will be demonstrating how to get the most out a portrait shoot no matter where you are or what equipment you have at hand. This will be a great night to come along and get your portrait done by one of the other members under the tutelage of a master photographer.

You will need to bring a couple of things: your good self; your camera and some sort of prop that says something about you. It could be another hobby you have or an object you are particularly fond of. Use your imagination.

Because we want to maximise our exposure and make as much use of whatever light we have, THE EVENING WILL BEGIN AT 7PM SHARP.

Tonight at WCC we are having our first workshop for the year and it is to do with software.

Rather than have one person up the front and the rest all sat down looking at the screen we will try something different. It has been proven that the method used in the past doesn’t work for several reasons.

So what we will try is this:

I would like everyone who is able to bring their laptop (or PC’s if you prefer) with them tonight. We can then split up into much smaller groups and therefore (in theory) be able to cater for all levels of expertise. All the people who are familiar with Photoshop/Lightroom/Elements and so on will be able to demonstrate what they know and all those for whom digital editing is still a bit of a mystery will be able to ask questions specific to them.

This will only work if everyone participates.

We also have the monitor calibration tool which is available to anyone who wants to use it.

See you all tonight,
Pete

The workshop scheduled for the 15th of September will no longer be a Photoshop night. Instead we have the distinct pleasure of a presentation from profressional photographer David Williams.

David Williams M.Photog. FRPS ALPE is a very well respected wedding photographer who is going to present a talk entitled “Cycles and Echoes”. This presentation formed the keynote speech to about 400 international members of the Digital Wedding Forum at their annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona, USA in January 2009. It is about the importance of our family portrait collection – the visual history that we all possess. What are the gaps in it, and why do they exist?

Using a collection of images from various Art Collections, David picks out the essential communications and lesson to us as photographers. He then blends this into a short AV presentation of his own family’s photographic collection followed by a discussion of how we relate to images and their true value – the ‘minds eye view’. David will discuss, illustrate and demonstrate:

• The truth of front-lighting, and the minimalization of retouching
• The art and acquisition of story-telling detail miniatures
• Discovering and appreciating Style over Trends
• Broadening your horizons through Art, Design and Graphics
• The age of Superb pigment ink printing – a return to the true artisan.

Amongst working Wedding/Portrait professionals, David is one of the most respected and beloved lecturers of his time, and spends more than half of every year training already practicing professional photographers in the UK, USA, Canada and Asia. As such we are extremely lucky to have David come to WCC.

The meeting will be held in the craft room at Mt Waverley Community Centre on the 15th September 2009 which is where we held the 4 Club competition earlier in the year. The evening will commence at 7:30pm and I ask that you please bring a plate as we are expecting guests from the Royal Photographic Society.

Pete Davies, WCC President

The portrait session held on the Tuesday workshop night was again another huge success. 28 members and 5 guests signed the book but a few of us agreed that there were many more that attended, probably nearer 40.

The night started with Pete showing off the clubs latest equipment, a new aluminium stand and backdrops. This combined with the old stand and new backdrop set up in the front room and the crowds building up, it quickly became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to run this event in the one room and half of the gear was moved to the back room. With both of these and a darkened room set up for longer exposures, we were all keen to get started.

The President addressed the room and announced that the models for the night were all of us. This didn’t get the negative response that was expected and the night was started by Fred Bullock posing in the back room. It soon became apparent that we have some natural models amongst us and it wasn’t long before most of us had sat for the paparazzi like mobs that surrounded each model.

Anne poses whilst John snaps away

Jill posing whilst her husband Peter Takes shots.

The darkened room had some fantastic shadow patterns showing from the blinds in the windows, courtesy of the bright car park lamp shining in through the window.

All in all a great night was had by all and I for one can’t wait for the next portrait session.

The workshop scheduled for the 15th of September will no longer be a Photoshop night. Instead we have the distinct pleasure of a presentation from profressional photographer David Williams.

David Williams M.Photog. FRPS ALPE is a very well respected wedding photographer who is going to present a talk entitled “Cycles and Echoes”. This presentation formed the keynote speech to about 400 international members of the Digital Wedding Forum at their annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona, USA in January 2009.

It is about the importance of our family portrait collection – the visual history that we all possess.

What are the gaps in it, and why do they exist?

Using a collection of images from various Art Collections, David picks out the essential communications and lesson to us as photographers.

He then blends this into a short AV presentation of his own family’s photographic collection followed by a discussion of how we relate to images and their true value – the ‘minds eye view’.

David will discuss, illustrate and demonstrate:

• The truth of front-lighting, and the minimalization of retouching
• The art and acquisition of story-telling detail miniatures
• Discovering and appreciating Style over Trends
• Broadening your horizons through Art, Design and Graphics
• The age of Superb pigment ink printing – a return to the true artisan.

Amongst working Wedding/Portrait professionals, David is one of the most respected and beloved lecturers of his time, and spends more than half of every year training already practicing professional photographers in the UK, USA, Canada and Asia. As such we are extremely lucky to have David come to WCC.

The meeting will be held in the craft room at Mt Waverley Community Centre on the 15th September 2009 which is where we held the 4 Club competition earlier in the year. The evening will commence at 7:30pm and I ask that you please bring a plate as we are expecting guests from the Royal Photographic Society.

Pete Davies, WCC President

Here’s a quick write up regarding last nights (Tue 21st July 2009) workshop, which was another huge success.

Workshop Night – Another Great Night

Originally, this night’s theme’s were to be The Geotagging of Photo’s & The 4-Club Selection Night. Therefore when the President’s email arrived adorned with capital letters and RED text, I wondered in my own mind how successful the suggested alternative of table top photography was going to be. I knew exactly why the red text was there but being at work and leaving late meant that I wasn’t able to bring anything along for a table top display as I had to go straight to the club.

I was really concerned when I arrived, I wondered if we had enough to fill the evening but how wrong can someone be. I don’t mind admitting that I was totally wrong and when people started arriving with armfuls of backcloths and display items the room almost turned into a craft market. We had antique drawing sets, wooden snakes, flowers, russian dolls and even an old SU carburettor from an engine.

In all we ended up with four or five displays, John kindly brought his stands and backdrop paper and there were lights everywhere. I saw several members going around offering advice to beginners and there was equipment being shared everywhere. I loaned my 16-35 L Series lens and tripod to Rodelle who I hope got some great pictures for her collection. Peter had loaned a lens to Dijana who was also getting instruction on the techniques of table top photography from Peter.

There were three guests turned up and they got stuck into taking pictures and hopefully they enjoyed their evening and we’ll see them again in the near future.

2 hours had passed and it was time to pack up and get into the geo-tagging lecture which had been kidly arranged by Craig and Peter. I’ve often seen Pete’s GPS hanging from his jacket and wondered how he managed to get the information into Light Room to geotag his images. Craig instructed us on the his equipment, giving us the necessary technical information required to answer any questions we may have had before moving on to how the software matches up the GPS track to the pictures. I must add that the Google Earth tracks that Craig showed us were pretty impressive and gave a lot of us a bit of a thirst to have a go at geotagging.

Overall the night was a huge success again and on behalf of the committee and members, I would like to thank everyone who put time and effort into making this a successful night.

Unfortunately due to the amount of questions asked about geotagging, we weren’t able to carry out the resizing and saving images demo as planned. We have therefore supplied several written pages on this which can be found on the Tech Help Blog. There is a link in the ‘Links’ section in the right hand column of this BLOG.

Photographs courtesy of George Skarbek

The workshop tonight (Tue) will no longer have 4 club selection as scheduled. We now have all the entries as digital files and we will be putting together a selection panel who will simply go through the images online and make the selections from there.
The geo tagging will still take place and we will be going through naming and resizing of digital files as well.

To fill in the rest of the time I thought we should do some more still life photography. Not the sound triggered flash stuff we did upstairs but the cameras that were posed in the back room downstairs. Those of you who were there at the last still life workshop will know what sort of things to bring.

BRING YOUR CAMERA AND TRIPOD.
BRING SOMETHING TO SHOOT – BE IT A BUNCH OF FLOWERS OR A PAIR OF SOCKS,
WHATEVER TAKES YOUR FANCY.
BRING SOME LIGHTS IN THE FORM OF DESK LAMPS, TORCHES ETC…
IF YOU CAN BRING SOMETHING TO USE AS A BACKDROP.

Last time we did this only two people turned up with any of the above items (apart from cameras).

If the same two people are the only ones to do so again we will have to take it as a sign that you are not interested in this sort of activity and will not be programming these kinds of shoots again.
See you there,
Pete

Last night’s (Tue 16th Jun) workshop night was a huge success with approx 39 members and guests attending. Many people commented on how they enjoyed George’s sound triggered flash setup. There was also a still life table which attracted several photographers, beginners and experienced alike. I think that all who participated would join with me in thanking George Skarbek for his efforts and help with what was a great club workshop evening.

Sound Triggered Flash Workshop

By far the main event was the sound triggered flash help upstairs in Wadham House. Thanks to George who brought in his equipment, members were able to photograph balloons full of flour bursting, light globes being smashed and party poppers being fired.

The basic idea was that around 8 photographers would setup their cameras, hand held or on a tripod, at F/5.6, ISO200 and 4″ exposure. Everyone then obtains a good focus whether manually or auto (Nikons were a pain due to there auto focus assist lamps), the light is then extinguished and the shutters are pressed. After 1 second, george would carry out his action whether it be dropping a dart on a balloon or hitting a light globe with a small hammer. The sound of the balloon popping or hammer hitting glass would then trigger the flash and the exposure was taken. The light monitor person would then count to 3 in their head and put the light back on and in the meantime the shutters set at 4 seconds would have closed and we all would admire the images that we had taken.

Adjusting the time when the flash fires was done by simply moving the sensor back and forward and George advised that 10cm of movement would change the time by 1,000th of a second. Many people commented to me on how they really enjoyed the night and a good number took away plans provided by George to attempt to build their own systems.

A group setting up with George getting ready to smash a light globe

George releasing a party popper.

Balloon ripping apart after being punctured by a dart.

The same as above but with flour in the balloon.

Images by David Burton

Still Life Workshop

Downstairs saw a still life workshop and this definately played second best to the sound triggered flash running upstairs. However, because of the limited space upstairs, the still life gave an alternative whilst we waited for our turn. It nearly didn’t get off the ground because although people were asked to bring in things to use as still life subjects, only Pete Davies and I remembered and fortunately we had several items to use.

Anne and Fred at the still life table

(Fred is about to give the wall a sun tan with his flash setup)

Pete Myers instructing a new member, Diana on the aspects of table top photography

Thankfully, the Pete had also brought in a couple of lamps and a black back cloth so the still life session managed to go ahead. Several people had a go at this and many found that the particular setup was suited to B&W and I saw some great attempts including this one taken by Rosie Armitage. Rosie is new to the club and is in the beginners class, she took the shot with her pocket camera and it came out very well.

Well done to Rosie for getting in there and having a go whilst the others were just stood around talking about it.

Still Life taken by Rosie Armitage using her pocket Fuji digital camera

Thanks to all who attended the night and made it a huge success especially to George for bringing and operating his equipment. Thanks also to all who helped organise the night.

Photographs by Rosie Armitage and Teddy Tan