Ashford Camera Club AGM 2012

The ACC AGM took place on 2nd October. Along with the usual AGM business the themed competition was held. The theme, set at last year's AGM, was Red. Everyone can submit up to four pictures and members vote for their favourites using tokens.

I submitted four pictures this year.
The first was a Guelder Rose berry taken at the London WWT centre at Barnes.

Guelder Rose

 The next two were taken on Brownsea Island. The first is one of the mad chickens (they run right up to you and then slowly strut along in front whilst making low, slightly menacing, chicken calls.

Chicken Stare

The third pictures is of a Red squirrel feeding at the National Trust feeder on Brownsea Island.

Red Squirrel

and finally, some Chinese Lanterns from Chinese New Year in London.

Chinese Lanterns

There were a lot of photos submitted (all as prints) and the votes were well spread. I received a vote for Chicken Stare and Guelder Rose berry. The winning print was of the Field of Rememberance focussing on just the crosses and dominant red poppies.

Next year's theme is Humour.

ACC Q3 DPI Competition 2012

Following the summer break the Ashford Camera Club is back in session. The digital projected image competition for quarter 3 is on 25th September. (I haven't been entering any prints so far this year).

The two images I have submitted are shown below. The judges comments will follow, unless they are really poor in which case I might remove this post!

General category:  Prospect Cottage

This is Derek Jarman's cottage in Dungeness, Kent. The model is Gill.

Score 9.5/10. The judge liked the composition including the low angle which brought in the strong colours of the flowers. The exposure of the black cottage was good and the interest in the sky helped add to the picture. The young lady, who appeared to be looking at something out of frame, was placed well.

Nature Category: Eagle Eye

This was taken at the English School of Falconry. The bird is a juvenile Bald Eagle and so is yet to gain the characteristic white plumage of a mature adult Bald Eagle.

Score 9.5/10. Good composition with the bird looking into the frame. The blurred background helped concentrate on the bird which showed sharp detail in the eye and feathers. The half point was lost on the overexposed beak. Annoyingly, I noticed this when reviewing my pictures for the competition but it was too late to resubmit! 

ACC Q1 Print competition

The first quarterly print competition took place on Tuesday, 1st February. The normal categories are General, Nature and Portrait. I put in two prints, both printed to A4 size at home (must do a blog entry on equipment used) and mounted on cream card.

The general picture was taken in Camden with the JLP photography club and is of a large soap bubble with pedestrians behind.  The judge scored this at 8.5

The second picture was a nature picture and was my shot of a Mayfly taken at Wraysbury in 2009. This was well received and scored 9. The points against were just that the body was a little dark compared to the rest of the image.

Ashford Camera Club website - http://www.ashfordcameraclub.org.uk/

Ashford Camera Club – Annual Print Competition

Tuesday, 16th November saw me make my first entries in a print competition at the ACC annual print competition. Having only just joined the club I have missed the quarterly competitions but the format is much the same. Prints can be entered in the following categories:

• Nature
• Portrait – monochrome
• Portrait – colour
• General – monochrome
• General – colour

I put forward my picture of cottages at Cuckmere Haven from Saturday’s annual show and a print of a pigeon in shallow water taken in Nottingham a few years ago.
The independent judge took a quick preview of the pictures then went through each one, displayed in a lightbox, and gave her comments and a score for each. The maximum score was 10 and a few pictures did achieve this.
My picture of cottages only scored 7.5 owing to a lack of recession into the distance over the cliffs and too much foreground in front of the cottages.

The pigeon however did grab the judges attention owning to the reflections and unusual setting. This was awarded 9.5 and so will go forward in the club’s entries for a Surrey Photographic clubs  Association  competition in the new year.

Technorati Tags: ACC,prints, photography, ashford, competition,

Ashford Camera Club – Annual Exhibition 2010

The annual exhibition of the camera club took place in the St. Matthew’s Hall in Ashford. I arrived just after 9 A.M. to find a good number of members already in the hall putting up their photos. There was a wide range of subjects from portraits to landscapes and lots in between. There were some prints for sale and I noticed a few of these had scores from previous competitions so it was useful to see some that had scored highly and to try and work out why. I had named five pictures to go up so the name labels were ready and waiting.  These were either pinned or attached using Velcro tabs to the display boards.
The pictures were:

• Jackdaw
• Swans in Black & White
• Sheepdog
• Cottages at Cuckmere Haven
• Birdman

The show opened at 10:30 but there were few visitors in the first couple of hours but around midday a few groups of twos and threes arrived. The hall is off the beaten track so despite the plentiful banners and boards in the high street it is not somewhere passersby will stumble across.
I had to leave at 12:30 to get to Croydon so will find out on Tuesday (next club night) how the exhibition went in the afternoon. It was due to close at 4 P.M.
The morning was a good opportunity to meet and chat to other members of the club and see their work. It is always beneficial to do this to learn and get ideas to try different things with photographs.
The next club night is for the annual print competition so I’ll need to sort out a print or two for that and prepare a digital image (one to display on a projector) for the following week.

Technorati Tags: ACC,Exhibition,prints,Ashford,Photography