I’m glad I didn’t stay up to hear the votes for the Eurovision as we re-gained our normal position; still, it was an excellent show from Liverpool, full of eccentric and idiosyncratic performers and it’s off to Sweden next year, perhaps we will do better there; who knows; who cares! Hey ho!

Events Cup.

Events Cup, 2^nd destination, proved to be an overcast start but conditions did brighten up in the afternoon; we hope all those who managed to get out took some (perhaps) winners!

AGM

Many thanks to all those members who managed to attend the AGM last Wednesday at the Arts Centre and we are very appreciative of all the comments/suggestions made by members.

The committee were re-elected as follows:

Joint chairmen – Mike and Lewis

Competition Secretary – Lewis

Treasurer – Robin

Secretary – Freda

Programme Secretary – Michael

Publicity – Maurice

Facebook – Rhona

Committee members – Sue and Sarah

Also, thanks Robin for your great talk on Northern Ireland that rounded off the AGM nicely.

Combined photo walk.

Again, many thanks to all who managed the Thursday evening combined walk. There were 17 there in all, 9 from Garstang and 8 from Morecambe. We split into small groups and ‘explored’ Garstang with cameras. Review of images on Wednesday 24^th May.

Notices

• From Maurice – Maurice suggests it’s terrific fun to attend the PRESTON CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL on Saturday and/or Sunday the 27th & 28th MAY 2023; it’s huge fun and absolutely full of colour and Dancing to the Rhythms! Just make sure you take that camera!

       For full details – just type Preston Caribbean Carnival into a search engine.

• Do you remember? Big thanks here to Michael:

Michael said – “I have been in touch with Trevor Devanport, experienced photographer from Southport Club. He has years of experience of capturing insects, flowers and fauna.

He would be available to take out an ‘un-official’ small group onto Ainsdale Dunes. It’s about an hour in the car.

It’s one of the largest sand-dune complex in England covering an area of approximately 2100 ha; that’s around 5,200 acres.

It is a fascinating and ever-changing habitat with many photographic opportunities throughout the seasons. Spring / summer is usually when the dunes are richly rewarding for both botanic and entomological subjects.

• Well, Michael has emailed Trevor and we are on for Wednesday June 7^th. Trevor says “the rainfall has been good, so I’m positive about what we may possibly find.”

In an email back in mid-February were the following details:

There are a couple of options for meeting but I suggest we do so about 10:30 or even earlier if you wish. Parking is on the beach and costs £10:00 per car. Alternatively, you can park on the nearby Sands Lake Pub for coin operated meter at about £4:00 per day.

Meeting on the beach we can go into the dunes and look for images: Orchids, Dune Pansy, Hounds Tongue etc plus insects and caterpillars and anything worth a picture. Gear should be a familiar camera with a macro or close-focusing lens plus a lens for landscape work if conditions are right. A telephoto for dragonflies/butterflies is also useful.  Bring a packed lunch. If conditions are right, it’s worth staying a few hours.

Numbers are not a problem if you park on the beach. We can go into the dunes but it will be “unofficial” so not covered by any insurance nor by Green Sefton. The dunes are open to the public so it’s not a problem. I will brief the group concerning any potential health concerns but it is quite a safe area. I don’t charge for my time but a small donation to Butterfly Conservation is always welcome though not compulsory.

So, if you are interested, PLEASE get in touch on the usual email so we can start to organise the trip.

Up and coming programme of events:

• Wednesday 17th – Presentation of Certificates and trophies. Our guest, to present the awards, is David Pearson accompanied by his wife Pamela. PLEASE don’t forget, we would like some raffle prizes!

      Proceedings will start at 7.30 with the meal so please, if possible, meet at 7.15 – cheers.

• Wednesday May 24th – Review of images from May 11th at the Arts Centre.
• Wednesday 31^st May – no meeting.
• Wednesday 7^th June – trip to Ainsdale Dunes.
• Sunday 11^th June – Events Cup 3^rd destination to Gresgarth Gardens.
• Wednesday 14^th June – review of trip to Ainsdale Dunes and review/presentation of images; use of Lightroom and/or Photoshop on the images.

Details of meetings throughout the ‘closed’ season (June, July and August) will be sent out soon.

If any member has any thoughts/suggests/ideas what they would like to see during the summer months please get in touch and we will do our best to arranged.

That’s all folks

Mike and Lewis

Not a sentence you often write; Hope you all enjoyed the pageantry, pomp, splendour and history of the Coronation! If you didn’t, don’t worry, probably won’t happen again for quite a few years!

Many thanks to Stan for last Wednesday’s presentation on ‘Local Sports;’ thanks Stan for your time, effort and trouble putting it together – full of information, humour and you kept us well entertained!

Notices

From Michael:

It’s getting towards the deadline, but I only became aware of it a few days back.

It’s a photo competition with some nice touches, great prizes.

Members can upload up to 100 images, I think.

You have to register etc… but that is the only thing.  

Contact: https://contest.cewe.co.uk/cewephotoaward-2023/en_gb/

We have had a look and, as Michael says, great prizes!

From Barry:

A friend has sent me the following and I wondered if you could send it to Camera Club members to see if anyone could help.

“I have 4 small old black and white (2.5″ x 3.5″) photos from around 1949 – 1953 and they are particularly grubby.

Is there any gentle way of taking off 70 years of grime before scanning to digital”.

If you have any thoughts/suggestions please contact Barry on:  w.barry.till@btinternet.com

Combined Photo walk with Morecambe Camera Club

This is taking place on Thursday 11^th May.                       

We thought to meet up in Booth’s car park at 7.15/30, then split into small ‘combined’ groups and set off around Garstang until roughly 9pm. We would then review the images taken on May 24^th in the Arts Centre.

If you haven’t already spoken to Mike or Lewis, please get in touch via the email address ‘cos we need to know a rough number of members willing to take part – cheers.

Events Cup – 2^nd destination

The next Events Cup destination is on Tuesday May 9th – Cleveleys seafront, Cleveleys town centre and the Fleetwood Shipwrecks area, including The Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve.

High tide (as measured at Fleetwood) is at 2.34pm (8.61m); Sun rise at 5.20am and sunset at 9.10pm.

For The Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve and ship wrecks the post code is: FY7 8TW – about 30 mins form Garstang. We suggest you may want to take your wellies! Plenty of car parking available; we think it is free – Map attached.

For Marys Shell (FY5 1DW) and Cleveleys; parking next to Marys Shell – but fairly limited spaces (19) costs – Up to 1 hour – £1.00 and up to 2 hours – £2.00 – map attached.

Car sharing or want a lift?

Need a lift: PLEASE email in to Mike or Lewis (info@garstangcameraclub.co.uk) and we will do our best to sort out any transport.

Car share: Members can meet up at Kirkland and Catterall Memorial Hall (PR3 0HS) at 10.45am and car share from there. We will leave at 11am.

Weather – BBC ‘says’ – ‘Sunny intervals and a moderate breeze’ – could, of course, change though!

AGM

Just to remind you; this gives you, the members, an opportunity to put forward any ideas or thoughts you may have with regard to the running of your club. If you have any suggestions please email in and we can put it on the agenda.

Attached is the agenda, (still ‘open’), and the minutes of the last AGM, Wednesday 11th May 2022, for you to read.

Up and coming programme of events:

• Tuesday May 9th – Events Cup, 2nd destination; see above.
• Wednesday 10th – AGM – see above; PLUS – Robin has offered to give a talk, on Northern Ireland, for about 35 minutes after the formalities; so more of an incentive to attend!
• Thursday May 11th – Combined photo walks with Morecambe Camera Club here in Garstang. See above.
• Wednesday 17th – Presentation of Certificates and trophies. Our guest, to present the awards, is David Pearson accompanied by his wife Pamela; David’s competition number is 001 so you will realise how long he has been a member of the club! PLEASE don’t forget, we would like some raffle prizes!
• Wednesday May 24th – Review of images from May 11th at the Arts Centre.

That’s all folks

Mike and Lewis

Morning All

Events Cup

Well done to those who made it to Kendal yesterday; the weather held-up and some interesting images taken – though, not necessarily winners!

Quiz

As I’m sure you all remember (!) we entered 2 teams, (both called imaginatively – camera club 1 and camera club 2) into last night’s quiz at the Arts Centre. Guess what – no, we didn’t lose! Camera club 2 (team comprising of Lewis, Lewis’s wife Anne, Robin and Freda) won and were presented with a cup – well done! The slightly downside is that we will be running it next year! But, hey-ho, I’m sure we will rise to the occasion!

Notices

New Bowgreave Residential Home.

Those of you who were present on last Wednesday will already know that the club has been approached by a representative, Sheron Hall, of Lancashire County Council to ask if we would be interested in providing photographs for display in the home, which is nearing completion. There was a good level of enthusiasm for the project from members on Wednesday.

The general idea at the moment is for us to supply prints, mounted or unmounted, which they will frame for display. They appear to have quite large areas of wall available. Some of the residents may have dementia and the idea is to make the home welcoming for residents and visitors. Suggested topics are landscapes, sunsets, old and new Garstang, plants, wildlife etc. The only stipulation is they must be reasonably local, no exotic holiday snaps.

We are waiting for more detail about how many, what sizes, how local is local and what the timescale is.

It would be great if we could help the wider community in this way and produce a really good selection for them to use as they wish. So, please can you be thinking about suitable shots in your collections of photos which may be suitable for printing, or mounted prints gathering dust that you would be willing to donate.

We will update you when we have more details from Sheron.

Calendar images

Following on from last Wednesday’s judging and vote, the top 37 images were selected and have been forwarded to the Arts Centre’s committee where we await their decision on the final 12 picked for each month of 2024. We will show these top 37 on Wednesday evening, after Stan’s talk. Everyone who submitted images got at least 1 image chosen; several members had quite a few chosen.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who took part and entered into this project and hopefully this will promote the club in the Garstang and District area and may encourage new members – we shall see.

AGM

Just to remind you; this gives you, the members, an opportunity to put forward any ideas or thoughts you may have with regard to the running of your club. If you have any suggestions please email in and we can put it on the agenda.

Robin has offered to give a talk for about 40 minutes after the formalities; so more of an incentive to attend!

2023 – 2024 programme

Attached is the final programme for you all, with all the up-dates and is now on the website.

Presentation evening

Many thanks to all who are able to attend the Presentation of Certificates and trophies on Wednesday 17^th May. We will, of course, be running a raffle that evening; so…… we are asking for raffle prises PLEASE! Thanks.

Combined photo walks with Morecambe Camera Club

Just to remind everyone: Combined photo trips. In essence this means that Morecambe members come to Garstang on Thursday May 11th 2023 and, with us, photograph Garstang and the immediate area.

Images are then submitted and a review of said images will be shown on Wednesday May 24th at 7.30 in the Arts Centre. The whole purpose of this is to mix with other members of Morecambe, help, if necessary, with location and technical ‘stuff’ and to socialise. It is not a competition!

Any member willing to support this new idea to make it a success PLEASE contact us in the usual way – if we don’t hear from anyone, we will have to cancel this venture.

Up and coming programme of events:

• Wednesday May 3rd – Presentation by Stan titled “Local Sports”. Calendar submission results; the 37 chosen.
• Tuesday May 9th – Events Cup, 2nd destination – Cleveleys seafront, Cleveleys town centre and the Fleetwood Shipwrecks. Details to follow shortly.
• Wednesday 10th – AGM plus presentation by Robin.
• Thursday May 11th – Combined photo walks with Morecambe Camera Club here in Garstang.
• Wednesday 17th – Presentation of Certificates and trophies.
• Wednesday May 24th – Review of images from May 11th at the Arts Centre.

On coffee/tea duty this coming Wednesday is Maurice + one!  – many thanks

That’s all folks Mike and Lewis

Morning All

Big welcome to our 2 newest members, Brenda and Terry; we’re sure they will contribute to the club in the fullness of time – no pressure!

We hope you are all enjoying this all too brief spell of sunshine – weather very variable next week – c’est la vie!

Notices

Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU)

The L&CPU individual competition will be held again this year on May13th and 14th. Club members choose and enter their own images, but if anyone has a problem with entering PDIs on line Lewis thinks he will be able to enter them for you.

There are 2 sections.

      PDI with 2 categories-open (including both colour and mono) and nature.

      Prints with 3 categories-monochrome open, colour open and nature.

Entries close on Saturday April 22nd.

Calendar images

Reminder and important!

Images of Garstang for the calendar: maximum of 4 images by Monday April 24th. These images can be historical. We really do need, if possible, all members to submit their images so that the Arts Centre committee have a great choice to choose from for the final 12.

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!

Images to be in colour, sRGB, within or maximum of 1600 x 1200, ratio of 3:2, and landscape.

If you need any help/information PLEASE just ask – it’s no problem!

Please send them in to info@garstangcameraclub.co.uk

Date and days during the closed ‘season’

Below are some thoughts about the time between May and the beginning of September:

• Combined photo walks with MCC; Thursday May 11th – review on Wednesday May 24th
• Events Cup destinations
• Keeping it all informal
• Main object will to take photos and (possibly) use Lightroom/Photoshop
• Suggest local meets to get us out e.g., canal walks, Kirkby Lonsdale, sunset at Cocker sands, Bluebells at Calder Vale, Brock Bottoms. Several members have said they want practical help with camera, settings etc. and this would be the ideal time to do it.
• No competitive element, just social and helping each other with ideas and techniques. HDR, focus stacking, filters.
• There is a Macro talk – Peter from Preston Photographic Society in the planning stage; possible dates are – July 5th, 19th or 26^th – when the date is chosen, we will inform members.

Up and coming programme events

• Wednesday April 12th – presentation live at the Arts Centre by Alf Myers titled ‘Back from the Streets.’
• Wednesday April 19th – final internal competition, Anything Goes Competition, judged by Nick Hilton EFIAP DPAGB BPE5*
• Wednesday April 26th – presentation by Tim titled “West Africa – Slavery, Voodoo & Gold”; voting on the calendar images
• Wednesday May 3rd – Presentation by Stan titled “Local Sports”.
• Wednesday 10th – AGM.
• Wednesday 17th – Presentation of Certificates and trophies.

On coffee duty for this coming Wednesday are Michael and Samantha

That’s all folks

Mike and Lewis

Morning All

There are 5 attachments in all today. Please read and inwardly digest!

In no particular order, but all important! They are:

• A PDF about the Milky Way from Bob
• L&CPU – the rules for the Annual Individuals Competition 2023
• The Events Cup schedule for 2023
• The competitions table for the 2023/24 ‘season’.
• The ‘Seasonal’ Programme for 2023 – 2024

HUGE thanks to all on the committee for their time, efforts and trouble in putting the camera club documents together and in particular to Michael for the programme – which, incidentally, looks full, comprehensive and, importantly, fun and very interesting!

Bob

Update on astrophotography; obviously the attached PDF but Bob says – “Looking at what the moon is doing, the stars should be visible between 8-24 April if the weather conditions are also good. I’ll make a note in my diary to check nearer the time and let you know.”

So, don’t forget, if you are interested, please email in on info@garstangcameraclub.co.uk and we can plan accordingly.

Morecambe Camera Club

Rhona and in particular Stan emailed Lewis and I about furthering our connection to Morecambe Camera Club following our successful setting up of the recent ‘Battle’ between the clubs; although of course we lost by 1 point!

So, from a few emails and meetings we have decided on the following:

• Another ‘Battle’ with Morecambe but also including J36 Camera Club; this three-way competition between the clubs has been scheduled for Wednesday 10^th January and, as we are hosting, it will be held in the Arts Centre. This is on the attached programme for 2023/24.
• Combined photo trips. In essence this means that Morecambe members come to Garstang on Thursday May 11th 2023 and, with us, photograph Garstang and the immediate area. Images are then submitted and a review of said images will be shown on Wednesday May 24^th 2023 at 7.30 in the Arts Centre. The whole purpose of this is to mix with other members of Morecambe, help, if necessary, with location and technical ‘stuff’ and to socialise. It is not a competition!
• A ‘return’ trip is being organised by Morecambe on Thursday 31^st August, photographing the Heysham area and reviewing the images on Thursday 28^th September. Again, this is not a competition, it is a get-together with likeminded people in a different location with the same purposes as before.
• There is another idea in the offering but this has yet to be finalised.

We really hope that as many members will support this new idea to make it a success and

we can build on this cooperation in the future.

Notices

Minimalistic Challenge

6 (ish) minimalist images by Tuesday April 4th the images could be ‘one-offs’ or in a series – your choice. Please send them in by email to: info@garstangcameraclub.co.uk thanks.

Print exhibition – very last call

We have extended the deadline to Wednesday 5th April. Please ensure each print is mounted, has a title and your name on the reverse. Many thanks.

Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU)

See attached item on The Annual Individuals Competitions for 2023

The L&CPU individual competition will be held again this year on May13th and 14th. Club members choose and enter their own images, but if anyone has a problem with entering PDIs on line Lewis thinks he will be able to enter them for you.

There are 2 sections.

      PDI with 2 categories-open (including both colour and mono) and nature.

      Prints with 3 categories-monochrome open, colour open and nature.

Entries close on Saturday April 22nd.

Calendar images

Reminder!

Images of Garstang for the calendar: maximum of 4 images by Monday April 24th. These images can be historical. We really do need, if possible, all members to submit their images so that the Arts Centre committee have a great choice to choose from for the final 12.

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!

Images to be in colour, sRGB, within or maximum of 1600 x 1200, ratio of 3:2, and landscape.

If you need any help/information PLEASE just ask – it’s no problem!

Please send them in to info@garstangcameraclub.co.uk

Up and coming programme events

Wednesday April 5th – members evening – Minimalistic images from all members to be shown plus updates from the Lancaster Night Walk, Bird Photographer of the year and some other wildlife and landscape images.

Wednesday April 12th – presentation live at the Arts Centre by Alf Myers titled ‘Back from the Streets.’

Wednesday April 19th – final internal competition, Anything Goes Competition, judged by Nick Hilton EFIAP DPAGB BPE5*

Wednesday April 26th – presentation by Tim; voting on the calendar images

Coffee duty for this coming Wednesday are Freda and Robin; thanks in advanced.

That’s all folks Mike and Lewis