Well done to everyone who participated, there were some cracking entries his year and I think the judges had their work cut out to pick a winner!
It's always interesting to see what the judges have to say and there was plenty of feedback given, but there can only be one winner and this time it was the turn of Bill to take first and second place with his flower picture while Jon takes third place with Colliford Trees.
Congratulations to the winners!
Tuesday saw a fascinating talk by John Walters titled "The Wildlife of Dartmoor" featuring photos, video and his own sketches. It's amazing to think of the variety of species that I was completely unaware that are found on Dartmoor, and the lengths that you must go to capture such creatures!
For more of his work please see his website:
I think that most of us have suffered with G.A.S. (or Gear Acquisition Syndrome) at one time or another where we lust over a new piece of equipment that could elevate our photography to the next level, but it's always worth thinking things through before we lay down our hard-earned cash as discussed in this via from PetaPixel:
http://petapixel.com/2016/09/26/four-dangers-camera-gear-obsesssion-one-benefit/
By now I'm sure you will have all downloaded and installed the Nik Collection (now free from Google!) but you may be wondering where to start... Digital Photography School has a few pointers to get you going!
http://digital-photography-school.com/5-nik-collection-filters-landscape-photos/
The second competition of the year is the Chairman's Cup which this year is titled "A Summer Event" with the aim to portray a sense of fun, excitement, enjoyment, warmth and the thrill of being at an event that only happens on a beautiful sunny summers day!
We had plenty of varied images with many interpretations on the theme but their can be only one winning entry and that went to Andy Martin with "Steam Rally", second place to Jan Martin with "Morris Dancers" and third place to James Moore with "Yacht".
Well done to all the other entrants!
Andy Martin
Jan Martin
James Moore
A video by Joshua Cripps shows his workflow for quickly processing a landscape image using Photoshop, most of what he does here can easily be translated into Lightroom too.
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-process-a-landscape-photo-in-5-minutes-using-photoshop/
As we start the new season we start with our first competition, the informal Oatey Cup!
This is judged in-house by the other members of the club and gives us a chance to show off a few images that we've been working on over the summer break. Congratulations to Peter, Jon and Tim for coming first, second and third respectively!
Peter Levers
Jon Burtoft
Tim Gilbert
Any camera with interchangeable lenses has the potential for dust to stick on the sensor, and even with modern anti-dust self-cleaning sensor occasionally the inevitable happens.
Recently I rather foolishly managed to pick up my GX7 with no lens and managed to get a finger-print right on the sensor itself; some gentle wafting with a lint-free cloth just proceeded to move the print around and while some progress was made there was plenty of evidence of the residue when taking shots with a small aperture (f16-f22).
Here I shot a blank wall at f22 and the evidence is clear:
before
Shooting at a small aperture makes the spots far more noticeable, while a large aperture (f2-f4) hides the problem, it’s not always possible or desirable to shoot with the lens open.
After much investigation I settled on green swabs from Visible Dust; while a little expensive (£20 for 4 swabs) they seemed to have a good reputation.
These turned out to be a really simple solution, a small amount of the cleaning fluid is added to the swab and with a smooth wipe most of the dust was removed. One particularly obvious mark actually turned out to be a piece of dust on the rear element of the lens which was cleaned with a lint-free cloth.
The final results seems much better, there are still a few spots so I may have another try in a few days to get the last few stubborn leftovers.
One site that a few members speak very highly of is Digital Photography School, with pages of information that cover a wealth topics it's well worth a look:
http://digital-photography-school.com/
http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-photography-tips-for-beginners/
http://digital-photography-school.com/15-best-cheat-sheets-printables-infographics-photographers/
The next time your significant other asks you "do you really need another camera" just point them to this short film about Dilish Parekh, who holds the world record for the largest camera collection with over 4,500 cameras... see how happy he is!