Afternoon All
 
Very early newsletter as I’m off to London for the weekend visiting family but also going to Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, so not back ‘til Sunday evening.
 
Notices:
 
Events Cup – Chester Zoo; Our 4th destination for this summer. Either Wednesday 10th July OR Saturday 13th July. Please don’t forget you can only pick one of the days. 
Distance is approximately 69 miles – 1 hour 25 mins. 
Open 10am – 5pm; Cost, on-line: without a donation, £29.99; with donation £33. 
Car sharing: I’m going on Wednesday 10th so I will park at Kirkland Memorial Hall at 8.20am, sort out which cars are going with whom and then leave at 8.30 ish. Return to Garstang about 4.00 ish. 
If you need any help or clarity, just email in or ring me on 07340 314 408.
 
Wednesday 10th July. As you can see below there is no meeting next week because of the Events Cup at Chester Zoo. However, if any member wants to organise something, for the evening, I’m quite willing to hand over the keys so that the Arts Centre is available – just get in touch.

The Amateur Photographer is a British photography magazine, published weekly and they promote various competitions one of which involves Camera Clubs in the UK. 
The competition has 10 rounds, each with a different theme. The themes for the 2024 competition are: Black & White, Animal Kingdom, City Life, Action, Landscapes, People, Macro, Dusk to Dawn, Travel and Open (Anything goes!) 
The red themes above have already been judged and the blue theme, City Life, is now closed. This is why I’m thinking of next year, 2025. 
How does it work? Put simply over the ten rounds we can accumulate points for our camera club. 
Each of our members’ best-placed images in each round of the main Amateur Photographer of the year (APOY) contest will count towards our club’s score. 
With no limit on how many of our members can enter – they’ll all count. 
After all of the ten rounds are complete, the club with the most points will win this year’s title, and the accompanying prizes. 
Cost? The cost is based on the number of images we want to enter; the more images we enter the individual cost of each image decreases. 
I thought the above might be a good idea, well in theory, for next year, 2025! Unfortunately, I haven’t the time to ‘run’ it but I’m quite willing to help, where I can, if any member would like to ‘pick up the mantle’ so to speak and control and manage this competition. 
If you are initially interested but want to have a chat, without committing yourself, please get in touch with me and we can go from there. There is no pressure, if you decide against, that’s no problem.
 
Up and coming programme of events:
 
Wednesday July 10th: no meeting; Possible ‘Events Cup’ 4th destination at Chester Zoo.
 
Saturday 13th July: Possible ‘Events Cup’ 4th destination at Chester Zoo.
 
Wednesday July 17th: Get Off Auto – Presentation on composition, by Stan, and then a practical session outside the Arts Centre and/or down by the river and/or sports field and/or in Garstang.
 
Wednesday July 24th: Get Off Auto – Presentation and practical demonstration on software editing using images form the previous week.
 
Wednesday July 31st: Presentation by Sarah – My Morocco Adventure. Plus, a ‘show and tell’ any images, taken this year, you wish to share.
 
That’s all for now folks
 
Cheers
 
Mike