newsletter february 2010

Mar 9th: Monthly Competition - Monochrome
                 HMS Manchester: Revisited - Chris Simons
                 Back to Basics - Exposure - Arthur Kingdon
                 Foto Forum - Movement - Arthur Kingdon

Apr 13th: Monthly Competition - Movement
Alex Mustard Presentation
Image of the Year result - Alex Mustard

The Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue - The Casson Centre, Rodway Road, Patchway, BS34 5DQ (map) It is easiest to access it via Durban Road, off Highwood Road - you can turn right at the traffic lights if coming from the Gloucester Road direction. The Casson Centre is the left hand part of the Patchway Community Centre, immediately next door to the Patchway Town Council Offices. There is off road parking adjacent to the Centre and further spaces along Rodway Road, near to the local Spa shop.

The monthly competition theme is 'Monochrome'. Send your digital files to Bob (anthonyrez30@tiscali.co.uk ) and please include BUPG on the subject line. Note that all images are to be in by midday on the Sunday before - this will be the standard cut off time unless advised otherwise by Bob. Unsure about entering? Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback - it's an ideal way to learn.

Chris Simons, will give a presentation on HMS Manchester:
“Launched in 1938, HMS Manchester was a Royal Navy light cruiser which saw action in WWII in the Arctic and the Mediterranean. However, HMS Manchester was scuttled off Tunisia in 1942 while on convoy duty to Malta during Operation Pedestal. Discovered in 2002, many rate the wreck of HMS Manchester as the most intact and spectacular Royal Navy WWII wreck of her class. This 15/20 minute presentation reveals the current state of the wreck as dived in July 2009, and compares her current state with some archive photographs”.

Arthur Kingdon will give a technical talk on 'Exposure' and what it means to the underwater photographer - if you're confused by f stops, want to know about EV, aperture versus shutter speed, how to handle sunbursts etc, then this is for you.

With our extended feedback session in mind, the entries have now been limited to two per person. There were seventeen entries for this month's theme but there was really only one image in it - read on.

This competition is for the best prints entered in two categories:- 'British', and 'Overseas'. Only one print per entrant, is allowed in each category. Results as follows:

1st     Arthur Kingdon    28 points
2nd    Trevor Rees        21 points
3rd     Rick Ayrton         16 points

1st      Jan Davies         17 points
2nd   Arthur Kingdon   16 points
3rd    Rick Ayrton         15 points

1st     Arthur Kingdon     44 points
2nd   Trevor Rees         32 points
3rd    Rick Ayrton          31 points

Arthur Kingdon was presented with the winner's trophy, and the individual category winners were presented with a calendar kindly donated by Jeremy & Amanda Cuff. The calendars can be seen on their website.

Jim presented a quick overview of Lightroom, looking in turn at the main views of Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web. Each view was looked at and some example images were taken through a light workflow from Import through to Export.

Jim sees the main benefits as being a smaller, lighter, quicker programme that is ideal for some simple, post-capture editing such as cropping, exposure/colour tweaks and sharpening as well as cloning. Whilst it doesn't have the depths of CS2/3/4, the User Interface is more friendly and intuitive.

A good discussion was had on the differences between Lightroom and the more commonly used Photoshop Elements and CS2/3/4. Quite a few members went away thinking of trying Lightroom as an alternative to their usual programme, or as an excellent way of cataloguing their work.

Success in BSoUP competitions continues for Trevor Rees, whose excellent shot of two pike won the February 'Focus On' competition. Taker a look on the BSoUP website.