Camera Club - My First Outing.

stevegreen

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Steve Green
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Last night I attended my first Camera Club meeting at Wrekin Arts Photographic Club and I really enjoyed it.

The night was centered around a competition between men and women club members and the crowd (maybe 30 strong) were treated to a display of a total of 60 images, each of which were judged by two judges and scored out of 20. As it happens, I knew both of the judges very well as I have been friends with their son since I was about 13, so when I arrived I didn't feel too out of it and was introduced to some of the more prominent members and the Chairman.

First off was the print competition where there were 20 prints displayed and scored by the judges. One thing that immediately struck me about the entries was that there didn't seem to be any particular size format used. Although the print had to be mounted in card to a maximum size of 20”x16” the actual images themselves were all very different sizes and shapes and a lot of them were quite 'arty' in appearance i.e. printed on mottled paper or very soft focused shots, there also seemed to be a lot of 'door' shots.

The slides which were judged next were pretty much the same, just a different format and more uniform in image size. These were projected onto a makeshift roll down screen. Again though, there seemed to be a lot of shots that used soft focus, some of the shots that I thought were excellent were scored low for small composition issues and the main judge in particular seemed quite keen to look at different crops available.

After a cup of tea (30p) we moved onto the digital section and they used a laptop with a digital projector to display the shots. Again, there were 20 entries and these ranged from heavily photoshopped images to entirely unedited images.

Overall, the men won by a narrow margin after quite a lighthearted evening.

I shall definitely be going next week and will be taking along four prints to enter into the next competition. They seemed like a quite friendly bunch and I had quite a long chat with the Chairman after the event relating to competitions and the like.

Overall, i'm really glad that I went last night and will probably spend tomorrow choosing 4 shots to get printed so I can enter into the next competition. They will probably get ripped to bits, but the learning experience is what it's all about.
 
Sounds like a good club and its great thet you enjoyed it, afterall thats what matters :thumbs:
 
Sounds you had quite a positive experience last night Steve :thumbs:
 
good to hear positive comments about a camera club...Barry and I love attending ours in Ely, Cambridgeshire...which reminds me, we have to get two prints ready for a comp to be handed in next wed and judged the wed after.
 
Looks like you've found a decent enough club Steve ... you hear so many stories about cliques and elitist snobbery in clubs it is refreshing to know there are some goodies out there ... :D

That'll be a big :thumbs: for WAPC then ... :clap:





:p
 
How much was the coffee?

;)

Interesting read :) Can't see me going to one though.

30p for the coffee, 40p for canned drinks :naughty:

I had to kind of force myself last night to be honest Robert, but I came back much happier than when I went.


That'll be a big :thumbs: for WAPC then ... :clap:

It would seem so on initial impressions and though I only got to talk to about 3 or four regulars there they all seemed to be fairly friendly. As I left, one guy who was in the entrance said "See you again next week?" in a questioing tone...........I took that as an invite! :woot:

Trouble is, I can see this starting to cost. I am now thinking of a new PC and printer to save continually sending images to Photobox. Don't think I am going to be able to produce my own slides from digital though :bang: :lol:
 
Yup, tis refreshing to hear a positive story :D
I'd really like to go to a local one myself, but I'm one of those people who doesn't like going on my own.
 
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