Yes, here we are again and welcome all to our 2022/23 season at Photocraft.

Our opening evening was simply a run through the planned events of the season and to highlight that we have a distinct, separate period over the winter months when we will be online via Zoom only. Also, just to remind all, our hall meetings are no longer streamed so we really do hope to see more of you in person back in the hall.

One of the points I made at our meeting was that we have a number of members’ evenings both in the hall and online. The key to these being successful is the participation of members, whether it be by providing ideas for these events, asking questions or sharing answers to questions.

A quick run through our members’ evenings that are planned (not photo walks or set meetings, e.g. AGM):

October
05/10/2022 Movement – Member’s evening Hall
26/10/2022 Studio Night – Member’s evening Hall
November
16/11/2022 Open Mic – Member’s evening Zoom
December
07/12/2022 Colour or Monochrome – Member’s evening Zoom
21/12/2022 Christmas Social – Member’s evening External
January
18/01/2023 Panel Challenge – Member’s evening Zoom
February
08/02/2023 Help Night – Member’s evening Zoom
22/02/2023 Experimental and creative images – Member’s evening Zoom
March
15/03/2023 Studio Night – Table Top Night – Member’s evening Hall
22/03/2023 Interclub Competition – Member’s evening Hall
May
10/05/2023 Calendar Image Selection – Member’s evening Hall

The committee is happy to receive ideas, plans, comments, etc. from members to help make these evenings useful and entertaining for all. For those evenings with set themes, anyone who is happy to help demonstrate will be most welcome, e.g. our opening one is about Movement. Some examples of your work that shows this in an image or a willingness to share knowledge of how to capture movement will all be a great help.

Our Christmas Social is something we hope appeals to many and we are open to ideas for what and where to enjoy this get-together.

I also mentioned our plans for special courses on editing. These have been featured in David P’s excellent newsletter – issue 4. For ease of reference, here are the details:

Editing Evenings – New this season
We’re planning to run online editing evenings on the second and fourth Mondays of every month, with the first one being 26th September.

These will be around two hours and are to give all members the chance to gain more skills and confidence in how to use the many editing software packages that are available. Members can both demonstrate their own editing process and/or seek help and support to make full use of the software they have.

We will also be looking at the many plugins and additional tools available. Note this will not be just about Adobe. So if you use Luminar, Affinity or any other post-production software, we want to include them all.

This first batch of evenings will be taking us up to Christmas. We will then recommence in January 2023, running to Easter and then a final batch from after the Easter break to the end of the season.
Donations of £25 are requested for each batch of evenings, the whole amount going towards club funds to help us continue to grow.

If you would like to register for the sessions, Chris has set up a link for you https://membermojo.co.uk/photocraftcameraclub/store.

We will react to demand for the above and are not currently planning a limit on numbers unless the response is such that it needs to be considered.

SOMETHING ELSE TO HIGHLIGHT

Bloggers still needed
We are still in need of one or two more bloggers, so if you fancy giving it a go and would like to know more about what’s involved, please get in touch. If you don’t feel ready to commit, perhaps you could give it try and see how you take to it. I find blogging helps me get more out of our meetings as I need to pay close attention to the proceedings to take notes. Unlike this Newsletter which once sent is set in stone, any bloopers can be edited, hopefully before anyone notices!

There is a hidden appeal to blogging; you get an opportunity to express your own opinion. For example, if you felt that an external judge has been destructively critical about the images without tempering that with recognition of their merits, there are ways to imply that between the lines;o)

I want to also share details of our communications and email distribution lists.

As far as the club and communication is concerned, I encourage all to read and enjoy the newsletters – we have had five so far. They are issued to keep all updated as well as to share news. We continue to have our forums on the website for comments and debate and have now created email address below that members can use themselves to share their photo trips, should they wish to meet up with fellow members for some time with their cameras.

events@photocraftcameraclub.co.uk

For this to work, make sure that you send it from the email address you have registered with the club and that you include the word ‘Event’ in the subject line of the email.

Finally, I am sure I speak for all at the club when I say that we are all sending our heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family on the sad passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II. God Save the King.

Author: brianconnollyphotos