Thursday, November 02, 2006

Photo club

About time I did an update. I've been a bit busy lately getting my prints ready for the November camera club comp and getting my web page up and running. Things are all up-to-date for now so it's time to catch up here.
Firstly here's some recent photos.
On Sunday I was trying to take some last minute photos for camera club on the set subject of 'doors and windows' by getting Alex to look through the window. It didn't last long. He thought it was fun until the palm tree brushed against the glass and scared him.

Here's one of my unimpressed husband sitting by the window so I could test the light first.

Here's Alex at the window. Not sure which version I prefer. The B/W emphasises the light more so makes it more a window shot but I didn't end up using this for the comp anyway.

I bought a new lens, well it's an old third hand lens and it came with a camera but I bought it because I wanted the lens. A Sigma 24mm macro lens. I thought this would be good for indoor shoots when I don't have a lot of room to back up. Unfortunately it's a bit old to work with the digital cameras. I've found if I use it at anything other than f2.8 it crashes the cameras with ERR 99. I'm not sure I'll keep it. f2.8 is a bit limiting as far as depth of field goes when I want to use it for up close portraits.
Here's a couple of test snaps I took to check the focus. Awful photos but the lens seems sharp enough.

I've registered my own domain and uploaded a basic web page. It's only a gallery of photos at this stage but eventually will include info about my work and pricing etc. For now it works as somewhere to send people who ask about having photos taken.
http://www.reblphotography.com.au
and now I have my first 'stranger' (as in not family or someone from my social circle) photo shoot booked for Sunday! It is a large family group in a small house so it could be challenging.
Last night was the camera club comp. As usual I spent Sunday getting my print order off. They arrived Tuesday so Tuesday night was spent mounting photos. Mom and Dad came over yesterday and baby sat for us so we got to enjoy a night out without trying to shhh Alex all through the judging. Alex was well behaved, excited to see his grandparents and he slept well for them.
There's been a change of committee at camera club. There was a meeting last week which we didn't know about in time to attend. Anyway in our absence Graham was voted back in as reserve show secretary which was useful last night as the show secretary wasn't there. It was a good night. We had a judge who we've had before and he is always interesting and entertaining. He critiques well and involves the audience with questions or by picking on them :) He knows how to make me blush. It makes such a difference to have an interesting judge. I left feeling inspired. We also have a new member who showed for the first time last night. I was very impressed with his photos. He has a different eye composition and his photos had a finished look to them, kinda like my style, so I enjoyed seeing his work. He entered 4 photos and got an honour for one but I liked them all.
I did well with my photos. I got 4 honours (1 in each class I entered) and 6 merits (2 in each print class) and 1 acceptance. So I entered 14 photos and placed 11 of them. It was my first time entering slide class, mainly cause it's taken me all year to finish the roll after the camera broke. I was nervous about the slides as I hadn't seen them projected before so I wasn't sure if the focus and exposure was correct and of course with slide they are straight out of the camera, there's no editing/retouching/correcting so it's purely down to the photography skills and not photoshop skills. Some people 'crop' their slides by masking off part. I didn't with mine, I thought about it but I like the negative space in them. I entered 2 slides and got a honour for 1 and acceptance for the other so I feel really good. I really pleased that my work can stand on it's own without any retouching.

So here's my winning entries.
If you want to see all the entries with the 3 that didn't place have a look at http://members.optusnet.com.au/capturedbyrebl/november/
I'll probably keep that site up until the next comp results.

Small print class.


Colour print class.


Mono/B&W class.


Slide class. The statue shot has been cropped here but I showed it with a lot of space to the right.


Check out the scoreboard for the camera club at http://www.parracameraclub.com/scoreboard.html

Oh I've had a few photos featured on Coffee Photography blog http://coffeephotography.blogspot.com/
pop on over and have a look at the work there.

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