Busy Month

Beacon Photographic Club

Oct 12, 20213 min read

This last few weeks has been a busy. We've had a studio shoot with a male model, Photoshop lessons, critique nights & even entered a L&CPU competition.

It all started with our critique night back 16th September. Viewing images from those members wishing to enter into the Novice Cup. Going through the members images & giving constructive feedback, is a vital part of helping a photographer grow. Some of the images we viewed didn't need much critiquing or none at all, while others need more guidance. From in camera technique's to editing. All our members are at different levels & it's something we have to consider when giving constructive feedback. After spending the night going through the images, we sent our members away to work on them for resubmission, which our committee will then go through & select the final 6 colour & 6 monochrome images for the competition later on.

The following week, we held our members only studio session. These are a very popular night with our members & we fill the limited spaces quickly. This time around, we had a male model in, which for some unknow reason, are hard to get hold of. On the night, our model had 2 costume changes, his first costume was that of "Alan Grant" from the movie, Jurassic Park & his second costume, was that of a miner. Two great costumes, from a really pleasant model. The members got some fantastic shots & were really happy with their results. The members love our studio nights & it's worth their membership for this along. We've had some fantastic models in the past & I've no doubt we'll have a lot more in the future. I'll add some images at the bottom.

The Committee met mid-week via Zoom, to select the images to go forward for the Novice Cup on the 10th October. It took over an hour to narrow the colour images down to just the 6 needed for the competition. It was a really difficult choice, as some of the images were just outstanding. It took 15 minutes to select 6 images for the monochrome section, you may think that was quick compared to the hour, but we had 8 images & had to select 2 to get rid of & that's what took 15 minutes. Again, another difficult decision, but we got there in the end. From there, the images were sent to print, ready for the competition.

The following meeting saw us back at the Artz Centre again, this time for some basic Photoshop lessons. This can be over whelming for some members & frustrating too. I explained that Photoshop is not the only editing software out there, but one I've got use to using over the years. There is Lightroom, Capture One, Affinity, Gimp to name but a few. All have very similar tools for editing your photos, hence why I went over the basic edits, which include the Histogram, Levels, Curves, Saturation & Sharpening etc. I've no doubt we'll be going over this again in the near future & may even use one of the other editing software programmes to edit members images.

Sunday the 10th October, Novice Cup day! Peter Bull set off from Preston with images under arm & made his way to Elmbank Conference Centre in Eccles. The day started out with the judges looking at the colour prints in the morning & the monochrome prints in the afternoon. While Peter waited for the judges to cast their marks over the clubs prints, he was entertained by Tony North & Eddie Leach, who are both L&CPU members, who have recently attained their DPAGB Distinction. They showcased & spoke about their images & how the L&CPU mentoring scheme helped them achieve their success. A really enjoyable day. But how did we do as a club?.........Well, not to bad. Out of 22 clubs that entered this year, we finished 13th overall, with 262 points & just 20 points behind from the winners. This was the best position we've been in since entering the Novice Cup, so a real proud moment for the club. To add to that, one of our members received a "Commended" for one of his images, Vintage Beauty. I've put the Novice Cup results on a competitions page.

Thanks for taking the to read the blog. Our next meeting is Thursday 14th October (details on Syllabus page). Images below from the Studio Night & Novice Cup entries.

Novice Cup Entries

Vintage Beauty by Barry Graham - Commended