Morning All

I see that more rain greets us this morning and for the coming week, though the daffs are beginning to poke through, roll on spring.

Thanks, John, for booking Carmen for last Wednesday’s presentation; I realise many of us know the Lake District, but what fantastic images were shown and delivered in a professional manner – magic!

• En Plein Air competition; Many thanks to all those members who left prints from last summer’s En Plein Air competition; the artist’s exhibition will be displayed from Tues 10th January (until Thursday 9^th February) together with our images in the Arts Centre, so pop along if you have time. I believe this competition will be repeated this year – details will follow when we have them.
• BMX – Preston Pirates. If you recall Sarah (Keast) organised a photo shoot at their base in Preston which proved to be a great couple of hours and was really enjoyable. Well, we have been in touch again to organise an evening shoot. This will take place on a Thursday evening from 6pm – 8pm; all are welcome to try out their photographic skills, not their cycling skills! The actual date has yet to be decided because the club schedule is subject to change due to adverse weather conditions but we will keep you posted.
• Tom Peck – Questphoto.co.uk. We had an email from Tom advertising his current list of club talks – we get a few of these throughout the year. As well as telling us about his talks and various 2023 workshops he has also written about ‘The Safari of a Lifetime’ for Feb/March 2024 in 2 locations, each in private game sanctuaries. This Safari is not advertised on the website. If you are interested, we can forward you the details.

Reminders

• Wednesday January 11^th: A presentation by Antony Zacharias titled “Long Exposure Photography”. This will be available via zoom so if you wish to have a zoom invite, please send an email to Mike.
• Wednesday January 18^th: Judging of our 3^rd internal competition – Creatures of the World and arbitrated by Paul King CPAGB. We had the following entries: print Mono – 9; print Colour – 29; DPI Mono – 24; DPI Colour – 46. That gives a grand total number entered of 108! Should be a busy and hopefully an enlightening good evening!
• Wednesday January 25^th: Members evening; Stan giving a talk titled ‘Is it a photograph?’. Further details about the evening to follow.
• Thursday January 26^th: Morecambe ‘Battle’ – 7.30pm, Heysham Library, 396 Heysham Road, Heysham, LA3 2BJ; takes about 30 mins by car. Will be available via zoom, so if you wish to have an invite, please send an email to Mike. Judge for the evening is: Alfred Brown CPAGB. Hon L&CPU.
• Wednesday 1^st February: Workshop – Robin has very kindly offered to give a presentation on ‘Rajasthan and Kashmir’ in India. Other details for the evening will follow shortly.

2 Challenges! – Time to get that camera out, despite the weather!

• Following on from the talk by Antony Zacharias (this Wednesday coming, 11^th Jan), members are invited to submit up to 6 ‘Long Exposure’ images; these to be shown, along with, if poss, a commentary of where, why and how. We would like as many members to have a go to practice their skills even if things go a little/lot pear-shaped! All images to be sent to Mike, via Wetransfer or email, by Tuesday 31^st January. Mike will put together a PowerPoint presentation and he will present them (anonymously if required)!

          It’s an opportunity to show your images and possibly receive constructive criticism – all, of course, in the best possible taste!

• We have received a request from Muriel Burnham-Airy, Chair of the Executive Committee of Garstang & District Arts Society, to help with the creation of a calendar for 2024. This calendar will be sold, from possibly August onwards, to raise much needed funds for the Arts Centre. Lewis, Sue, Michael, Mike, Muriel and Anne-Marie had a meeting the other day to ascertain our (the camera club’s) responsibilities. We have agreed the following:

1. Michael, due to his skills in graphic design, will put together an example of a calendar. In fairness to Michael, he has already designed 4 samples which were presented to the meeting and one design was accepted. MANY thanks go to Michael for his time and efforts here already.
2. The camera club has been tasked to provide the images to be on the calendar.
3. Images of? Well, restricted to Garstang and the town boundary. We just need to use our common sense and judgment on the extent of the boundary!
4. Images to be in colour, sRGB, within or maximum of 1600 x 1200, ratio of 3:2, and landscape.
5. We are asking each member to submit a maximum of 4 images (DPI’s) for possible selection by Monday April 24^th. These images can be historical, of say The Children’s Festival or any other Garstang event or you can get out and about and take up to date pictures, it’s up to you!
6. Images to be sent to Mike, via Wetransfer or email.
7. Mike will then put all the images (say approx. 60ish) into a slide show; all images will be shown anonymously.
8. On Wednesday April 26^th (members evening) all images will be first shown as a slideshow then each image swill be shown separately.
9. Each member will be given a score sheet so that when the images are shown separately you will be asked to score each image up to a maximum 20 points. You will not need to put your name on this score sheet.
10. Mike will collect all the marked score sheets in and average out the scores.
11. At the end of this process, we will have the ‘top’ 36 images.
12. These images will then be given to the Executive Committee of Garstang & District Arts Society and they will choose the 12 selected for each month.
13. The image for the actual front of the calendar will be one all ready selected of the Arts Centre itself.
14. Each of the final selected images will have the name of the author on it.

Wow – I hope you all have grasped the above and will take part – PLEASE! We think that this is a great opportunity to show the club’s individual skills and great opportunity to advertise our club.

Coffee duty on this coming Wednesday is Stan and Mike – many thanks!

I’ve attached 3 images of a bird. Sorry about the quality, but taken through a window and in the rain. I think it could be a Thrush or female Blackbird. Any ideas? I’ve seen a few with white on before but not quite as strange as that one!

That’s all folks

Mike and Lewis