Morning All
Well, I have to say that I thought Duncan’s talk on Black & White photography last Wednesday was absolutely brilliant! Some fantastic images, interesting commentary and, in particular, those monochrome Lions and Elephants. Who knew wildlife could look so stylish without its natural colours? Obviously, even the animal kingdom appreciates a bit of monochrome!
Duncan also posted the following message on our Facebook page:
“Wanted to thank everyone for your patience on Wednesday, special shout to Ian for making sure my images appeared. I really enjoyed speaking with you all and I look forward to having a look at some of your monochrome images.”
Well, you heard the man! So, a little reminder that Wednesday 27th January 2027 is our SAT on Black & White images, and Duncan will be joining us to cast his expert eye over our efforts.
I’m sure he’ll be kind, encouraging and wonderfully constructive in his comments. So, please don’t be shy or start hiding your images under the bed! Remember, it’s only photography – nobody’s going to be asking you to sit an exam!
Get those monochrome masterpieces ready. And if you haven’t quite mastered black and white yet, don’t worry – Duncan might just help you see things in a different light… or perhaps a different shade of grey!
I’ve attached an info sheet, from Duncan, showing resources.
Notices:
Email from Maddy – The Art Centre Curator:
Hello all,
I hope everyone’s well and is enjoying this winter sun.
Our Craft Fair is now open and bursting with incredible handmade goodies. Please do have a look for any Christmas presents or beautiful pieces for yourselves. If you’re purchasing anything from the Craft Fair during your groups, please follow the instructions left on the honesty box to make sure we can track which item has been sold. Happy Shopping!
A few dates for your dairies:
Our closure date is the 17th December at 12pm, opening back up on Tuesday 5th (hanging for the Open Exhibition on the 2nd)
Speaking of the Open Art Competition and Exhibition, the forms will soon be available in the Arts Centre and online.
Our Christmas Hamper is now accepting donations! Get your box of biscuits in and your tickets bought for a chance to win the hamper. The winner will be chosen on the 8th December at Victorian Evening.
For Victorian Evening, we’re open on both dates with Garstang Musical Productions performing on Monday 7th and Garstang Ukulele on Tuesday 8th. The Craft Fair will also be open for both of these nights, with the final night for Craft Fair being the Tuesday. If anyone is available to lend a helping hand over either of the nights that would be greatly appreciated. We’ll be serving mince pies and mulled wine again so any pie donations closer to the time again would be fantastic thank you!
Finally, for anyone who has not had the pleasure of meeting our new Assistant Curator, Becky has well and truly joined the team here at the Arts Centre.
Any questions and queries please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Maddy
Camera Club Christmas menu:
A slight change from last week’s email:
The Stir-fry Chicken with vegetable rice should have read:
Chicken stir-fry with rice and peas.
The vegetarian/vegan option is, from Gemma, (Wyrebank):
We also have a lovely mushroom pie available as our vegetarian option, which is suitable for vegans too.
Now, if you have any questions PLEASE get in touch, it’s no problem – either email me or speak to me or Freda next Wednesday. We want to get it right and not disappoint anyone!
If you haven’t booked, time is getting a little short! See FREDA!
Entertainment has been organised, though I’m keeping quiet until the night!
Our 3rd internal competition: A gentle reminder! – Creatures and Plants of the World Cup
Description of images:
Any real creature or plant that was alive or was once alive. No toys, sculptures, nothing artificial and no people.
Prints:
If you are having your print(s) mounted at Sharon’s Fine Art shop in Garstang please get them to her by 25.11.26
Last date for the competition entry – 16.12.26
Date of competition – 20.01.27
Coffee duty:
Coffee/tea duty for Wednesday 11th November is Dom and Gary – thank you gentlemen, in advance!
Up and coming programme of events:
Wednesday 11th November – Members evening: 10 in 10 in 10: that is, 10 members, already nominated, showing 10 images and each member has 10 minutes; this is the first time we have done this – what could possibly go wrong!
Thursday 12th November – Fylde 4-Way Battle. Just to remind all members this Battle is between Garstang, Poulton, North Fylde and Lytham and Nick Hilton is the judge.
The 4-way Battle is to be held at Poulton this year, starting at 7.30 in the Methodist Church Hall, Queensway, Poulton-le-Fylde, FY6 7ST.
Car sharing:
If you want to car share, I suggest we meet up at Kirkland & Catterall Memorial Hall, PR3 OHS at 6.30pm to leave there at 6.40pm; it’s about 20 mins to Poulton.
Of course, you can go under your owe ‘steam’ so to speak, and meet other members there.
Every member is very welcome to attend, it is free (though they may persuade you to buy a raffle ticket), and it can be quite illuminating!
It can also get quite busy so aim to get there by 7.15pm at the latest. Parking? We use Booths Car Park, opposite the Methodist Church – handy if it’s raining! FY6 7DF
Booths website says: Customers shopping at Booths are entitled to three hours of free parking. ANPR cameras are in operation.
The car park is free from restriction to park overnight from 8pm until 6am.
So, my interpretation is, if we park say at 7pm we should be ok!
Wednesday 18th November – Our speaker this evening is Ashley Barnard and his talk is tilted ‘Stags and other Wildlife.’
Ash writes: The talk is primarily about how to photograph English wildlife using camouflage and the approach as well as best practices, I will be talking about various species of wildlife from owls, kingfishers, mountain hares, red deer, etc was as well as providing video and camera settings throughout the talk.
I will also bring a few prints along with me the type print here in my studio.
Wednesday 25th November – Environment Cup Competition judging:
The judge this evening is Nicki Greenwood.
Wednesday 2nd December – The first half this evening will be a talk by our own member, Paul, describing his trip to Iceland.
Following the tea and coffee break it will be the 3rd SAT on Landscapes.
Please don’t forget we have introduced a limit of 10 images per member for these SAT sessions. It’s not that we don’t enjoy seeing everyone’s work (quite the opposite!), but we do need to get home before breakfast! It’s difficult to predict how many entries we’ll receive, and I certainly don’t want to leave anyone’s images out simply because we’re running short of time.
One other small request: if possible, could members send me their SAT images in advance? I can then put everything together in a PowerPoint presentation, which should save us the usual exercise of swapping USB sticks between showings. It might even give us a few extra minutes for the all-important discussion!
However, if you want to bring them in on an USB stick PLEASE do.
I listed, in last week’s newsletter, a few thoughts on the branches of Landscape Photography which hopefully will encourage you! If you have lost it just email me and I’ll send you it again!
That’s all folks, see you Wednesday.
Mike
