June 15th 2012 Blackburn & District Camera Club Feniscowles Methodist Church Hall Preston Old Road Blackburn BB2 5EP W 足 www.Blackburncameraclub.co.uk
E 足 Secretary@Blackburncameraclub.co.uk
Xtra now has its own address Xtra@pixelmag.co.uk
Contents Club Meetings The Club Survey Preston Photo Walks
This Weeks Cover Image
Nike Fashionable Footware By Lynda McIntyre
News Events and Activities
From Blackburn & District Camera Club
Terms and Conditions PixelXtra and Pixel are the weekly bulletin and monthley magazines of Blackburn & District Camera Club. No part of either document may be published, reproduced or stored electronically without permission. The submission of material, unsolicited or requested, is taken as permission to publish in Pixel or PixelXtra emagazine or print editions worldwide. No remuneration is offered for materials and any submissions requested or otherwise are provided with the notion of the promotion of the activities of Blackburn & District Camera Club. The editorial staff, committee of Blackburn & District Camera Club and contributors cannot accept liability for purchases based on information published in Pixel and/or damage to equipment resulting from articles or recommendations. Opinions expressed in submissions are those of the contributing author and may not be those shared by Blackburn & District Camera Club, its committee or its members. Readers of Pixel are reminded that locations described in the publication may be remote or difficult to get to and every precaution should be taken to ensure personal safety. Readers are also reminded that permission must be sought of landowners when visiting locations. Blackburn & District Camera Club, Editorial Staff and Contributors cannot accept liability for any personal injury obtained when visiting the locations described in articles. All work submitted by contributors containing models are assumed to have the models permission for publication. Blackburn & District Camera Club and Editorial Staff cannot accept liability for any image published without the permission of the model.
Editorial Staff Pixel Editor Lee Johnson Pixel Xtra Editor Bob Singleton Editorial Assistant Barry Noon Blackburn & District Camera Club
President Jim Cunningham Vice President Judith Marr President Elect/Treasurer John Murray Secretary Bob Singleton Competition Chair Roy Pickering Publicity & Communication Chair Lee Johnson Programme Chair Jim Cunningham
Contact Secretary@blackburncameraclub.co.uk Web www.blackburncameraclub.co.uk
Next Meeting We meet each Monday evening (except Bank Holidays) at 7:30pm at Feniscowles Methodist Church on Preston Old Road Blackburn BB2 5EP
June 18th AV Night,
Preparation and a presentation of an AV using your images This will be a discussion evening.
We will show some amateur work and some professionall AVs Talk about the differences demonstate some of the software used to make AVs and use some of your photographs to construct a presentation.
Coming Soon
This month the programme is all about your work. The next 2 weeks are all about presentation.
We open with a practical night on the theme AV where you will get to see some examples of this style of presentation and take part in preparing a presentation on the night.
The following week we will look at photobooks. We will see some examples both commercial and those made by members and there will be a discussion and workshop to help you make your own.
June 25th
Photobooks
We will look at commercial books and the selection and production process involved in making a book. We will look at some books made by members and talk about the various methods of making your own book including software and publishing options
Club Programme Details are currently subject to change but we plan to:足
Next Month We plan to get out and about and make the most of the light evenings and take some photos
2nd July A practical night either in the Town centre or down at Brockholes Further details next week 9th July Visit to Salford Quays.. Meet 7.30 hopefully for some sun and possibly go for a drink while waiting for lights to come on about 10.15. 16th July 足 Back at the church hall bring in your best Brockhall/Town/Salford images for critique.
Communications
Committee Meeting 11 July These are fast changing This is the mid足point of the year and your committee will be meeting soon to times. decide on the programme for next year and make plans for the further development of your club.
If you would like anything to be put on our agenda please write to me
A short while ago we relied on announcements at meetings to communicate with you our membership.
secretary@blackburncameraclub.co.uk and I will ensure that it is considered at Now we have our website which is now established in its new home www.blackburncameraclub.co.uk and our club forum which is used by some our meeting. but not all our members. Other clubs have different means of communication. They use Facebook, Flickr, Google+ etc.
Our forum is quite active but there are less than 1/2 a dozen regular users out of a membership of more than 50. Would you prefer it if we were to make more use of facebook? We do have a facebook page but very few members post to it.
If you have any suggestions about how we should improve club communications please write. Secretary@blackburncameraclub.co.uk
The results of the club survey The survey asked a number of multiple choice questions and also had some questions requiring a text reply. The results of the multiple choce questions were as follows:足
I would like to thank everyone who gave a little of their time to complete the survey sent out to paid足up members last week.
We had quite a lot of replies and I attach the results. We can be quite pleased that most members are satisfied with most things. However there is no room to be complacent. 12 1/2% of the members expressed slight dissatisfaction with the standard of our meetings and almost 20% were slightly dissatisfied with the programme content.
50% of our members found the content of workshops and talks to be moderately useful or better but that left 50% of the respondents less satisfied and the largest individual score on that question was for finding the talks only slightly useful. Similarly over 30% of respondents considered that presenters are not very knowledgeable.
A significant number of members around 20% are less than comfortable about asking questions at meetings. No足one thought that meetings contained too much information while 20% considered that talks and presentations were inadequate in their coverage. The consensus must therefore be could do better.
As well as the tick box questions there were also a number of questions which asked for a written response. Most people took the time to provide that and again the full text of the answers is in the appendix. A number of themes very quickly become apparent from a reading of the results and I have summarised that as follows:足
1. There is a substantial demand for information and hands足on activities. 2. Members would like instructions, workshops and activities on photographic technique, camera handling and how to override automatic settings 3. There is a significant demand for tuition on portraiture, studio lighting etc. 4. There is a demand for an opportunity to take photographs 5. And finally there is a request for computer skills with instructions on Photoshop Lightroom and similar programs. The question we now need to consider is how can these requests be accommodated and fulfilled.
A side issue which is raised in the response is the question of multipart meetings chitchat and respect for speakers.
To some extent this must arise because around 20% of respondents are unhappy during meetings and consider that the content is deficient.
On Monday night 11 June I was able to briefly outline the results of the survey to members at the meeting. We had a short discussion and I gained the impression that those members who attended had different views to the members who responded to the survey. Some members present asked for help with technical photography issues and computer skills, after the presentation of the folio and a discussion of masking etc there did seem to be a demand for some technical information.
There was a strongly held view that the club is a get足together for enthusiasts and not a teaching institution.
lectures or to offer organised trips and outings.
On the other hand I have received responses to the survey and separate approaches in person and by e足mail which show that a number of members feel very strongly that it is a function of a camera club to improve the photography of the membership and offer precisely that technical guidance and opportunity for hands足on assistance.
2. Objectives of the Club.
2.1. To educate and encourage all members to advance their photographic knowledge and extend their creative talents by lectures, tuition, discussion and debates, competitions and in any other way deemed suitable by the Committee.
But our constitution makes education the club's 1st priority.
The question of taking photographs was raised. There was general support amongst the members present for some tuition concerning the studio lighting system and members will be pleased to know that a meeting for that is already in this year's syllabus. This enthusiasm did not however extend to other photographic opportunities and whilst there was some interest in a trip to Salford Quays there was little interest in other photographic outings. So the question is how should your committee proceed?
The club membership is divided. It was obvious from the discussion at a meeting that the majority of members do not want the club to present technical
Speaking personally I am disappointed that our club does not produce better quality work and be more successful in competitions. It is clear from viewing the entries to competitions that we do have a number of potentially good photographers amongst our membership and that they could with assistance produce very good work.
But our membership is quite diverse with a range of skills and interests and it is therefore impossible to keep everyone happy at the same time. In my opinion, like them or not multipart meetings look like they may be part of the solution.
The suggestion made by President that on some evenings the second part of the meeting after the break is given over to talking about images and other technical issues might be something to consider.
Some subjects such as camera skills are either be far too advanced or far too basic for much of the audience and as we have found when we have attempted to teach Photoshop the audience starting point varies so widely that it is virtually impossible to teach anything useful in a full club meeting.
Perhaps we can consider small workshops for a limited number of people.
Another way to address the demand for technical instruction is to use our club magazine pixel which carrys technical articles each month. It is also possible that members are not fully aware of the extent of the club library and the range of photography books available to borrow.
We also have the club forum via the internet where anyone can ask a technical question and will almost certainly receive advice and assistance from several members.
FEEDBACK The next committee meeting is scheduled for 11 July and the content of meetings will be discussed then.
As always members are at liberty to submit subjects for discussion and if you have any strong feelings about the conduct of meetings please put them in writing and I will ensure that they form part of the brief impact given to the committee ahead of that meeting. Your views will then be properly considered. It is also possible that I might issue a further survey prior to that meeting once I have drawn up an appropriate set of questions. Address as ussual secretary@blackburncameraclub.co.uk
The textual answers given to the other questions follow ....
1. I think the meeting are a bit disjointed 2. Still photography
3. Portrait, studio setup, basic work flow for Lightroom, PS or any other photo enhancement program. How to move from AP, SP to manual mode on every day or night shoots. Just how to use a variety of things that are useful to most photographers. 4. It would be nice to get some more practical advice on Photoshop 5. Portraits,& lighting workshops. Talks from pro photographers.
6. I have enjoyed every topic since joined in January. Would be interested in what photo equipment people use to achieve their results? 7. how to get the best out of a Dslr camera or compact camera 8. New and different techniques in photography 9. Layers
10. Anything, except holiday snaps.
11. Back to basics camera topics. How to do specific types of photography eg high speed 12. Camera techniques: a. Making a reference list on 'best settings' for specific camera situations. b. How to take 'very fast' action shots. c. Creating 'atmospheric' night time images. d. Using 'Lightroom'. e. How to get the best out of a 'lens'. f. More 'members participation' events. g. Create a 'location
map' that members can use to find good photo opportunities.
13. How to use my camera how to set it upwhich setting to use for all applications 14. Photo editing
15. Use both rooms for 121s at meetings more. And not too many analizing other clubs photo's and if the weather is good to get out more on club night's so people do not have to "sneak out" and be made to feel like outcasts. 16. It would be nice to get some more practical sessions going. 17. More practical sessions.
18. Sometimes don't just catch everything speakers say maybe its because I'm just getting old and deaf! 19. Consideration for speakers and less secondary meetings within the audience.
20. Single meetings, no offshoot meetings which are noisy, disturbing and rude to our official speakers. Except on designate multimeeting nights. Go back to old Summer off schedule with evening and a day outing. 21. Less content for each evening.
22. I've just noticed you have a Facebook page and yes, I would be very happy if you were to make more use of it as I would probably keep in touch better with what's going on.
23. Re your request in Pixel Xtra for suggestions for instruction nights, I would like to see comprehensive modules for all genres with everything spelt out so we can either make notes for the future or maybe accompany the talks with info sheets. For instance, I have had a few rather unsuccessful tries at sports photography. Maybe you could give sample shots of say football, cycling, motor racing and talk about the best camera settings/equipment for these. For beginners, it's very helpful to have a starting point and adjust from there. When I was on the Photography course at Preston College, whatever the practical we were doing we were told to set our cameras to particular settings, try it and then alter x,y or z until we got the best result. I know that this will be tedious to experienced photographers, but then they won't be interested in these sessions anyway. A reference sheet would be very useful because the more advanced stuff goes over your head until the basics have been grasped, but could be used in the future. 24. There are lots of basic rules like F11 for overall clarity, F8 for portraits that can improve skills no end, but sometimes these little gems pass us by unnoticed or it assumed everyone knows. I think that most of us probably have a favourite genre which we know well, but stepping out of our comfort zone sometimes leads to frustration and hundreds of bad photos! If I had shortcuts into other kinds of photography, I would experiment more.
Photo Opportunity As part of the Guild Celebrations Preston City Councl are running some free events. The walks will be lead by a very good local photographer
The website is at http://www.prestonphotowalks.blogspot.co.uk/ For times and dates please register at prestonphotowalk@gmail.com
Starting from the summer of 2012, we are looking to help photographers get social around the city of Preston in Lancashire, UK. These photowalks will be fun, for everyone, and free. If you have a compact, DSLR or large format camera, come along. We don't care what you shoot with as long as you are friendly, considerate and not going to bore everyone with your latest ( very expensive ) lens! These photowalks will be an opportunity for like minded photography enthusiasts, ( professional, amateur or novice ), to meet up and wander around safely in numbers. Please keep an eye on here for info 足 we're aiming to have the first one in the evening of the 3rd July 2012 probably around the Docks for ease of access 足 and please register interest either by email prestonphotowalk@gmail.com There is also a flickr group where images can be shared after each walk for us all to look at and post constructive comments.
These walks are not designed to compete or step on the toes of local camera clubs and all the good work that they do, this is an addition to those groups in a city which we are sure can cater for more!