52-Week Photo Challenge

By James Troi - 1st January, 2018 filed in Photo Opportunities

We're starting 2018 off with the first week in our 52-week photo challenge. We're encouraging our members to take place in the challenge of taking a photo a week for 52 weeks around the theme of our choosing.

The hope is the themes and challenges will prompt members to make more photos throughout 2018 and to shoot with the intention of filling a brief. At times the brief will be a simple word prompt, other times it will be the exploration of a photography genre or method.

Until our new website is up and running, and after, the challenge will be conducted on our major Social Media outlets such as our public page at www.facebook.com/williamstowncameraclub, via Instagram (with the week's hashtag and tagging @williamstowncc), and on Twitter were you'll find us using @williamstowncc.

We look forward to seeing all the awesome images I'm sure you'll be making.

Visitors are also welcome to participate in the challenge, hence why we're running it via our public page rather than our closed group, so jump on in and share your photos with us.

Our first theme is "new" use the hashtag #WCC52_new to have your images included in our round up on Twitter and Instagram, or post your image as a comment to the original post on our Facebook page.

A new theme will be released each Monday and we'd expect final images in by midnight the following Sunday.

We had so many great images entered this year in both our club competition and our interclub comps, a testament to the wonderful work of our members. Below are the results of our end of year awards. Congratulations to our winners.

Aggregate Awards 2017

The aggregate awards are compiled over the year. Members are awarded 1 point for each entry, 10 points for a first place, 6 points for second place, and 4 points for third. These are aggregated over the year to form the leaderboard determining our winners.

Print aggregate

1st place - 78 points, Brett Ferguson

2nd place - 46 points, Neil Anderson

3rd place - 32 points, Karl Zeller

Digital aggregate

1st place - 48 points, Brett Feguson

2nd place - 28 points, Neil Anderson

3rd place - 27 points, Kathryn Hocking

Images of the year

The image of the year for print and digital categories are awarded by a panel of judges from another camera club. This year we welcomed a four-panel team from the Southern Suburbs Photographic Society who provided us with some valuable feedback on a range of images that were presented for consideration this year. Traditionally we only have a single print image of the year and digital image of the year, however, this year the team from Southern Suburbs Photographic Society awarded 2nd, 3rd and Highly Commended awards to other images entered.

Print Image of the Year

"The Florist" by Brett Ferguson

Runners up

2nd place - "The Blue Dress" by Brett Ferguson

3rd place - "Lillian" by Brett Ferguson

Highly Commended

"Nardoo" by Sue Searls

"In Flight" by Trudy Purchas

Digital Image of the Year

"Flame Robin" by Kathryn Hocking

Runners up

2nd place - "Coke" by Andre Bellaire

3rd place - "Lucy the Barn Owl" by Phil Taylor

Highly commended

"Tell me a story" by Brett Ferguson

"Remember Us" by Kathryn Hocking

Competition Winners: Umbrellas and Open

By Tania Chalmers - 26th October, 2017 filed in Competition Results

Print Open

• 1st Place – Brett Ferguson “Tom” 
• 2nd Place – Ronald Clarke “An Australian Icon” 
• 3rd Place – Neil Anderson “Kayaking” 
• Highy Commended - Françoise Muller-Robbie "Water Dragon"

Set Print – "Umbrella"

• 1st Place – Brett Ferguson “The Rainmaker” 
• 2nd Place – Neil Anderson “Strawberry Cocktail” 
• 3rd Place – Brian Obst “Umbrella Wedding” 
• Highly Commended - Sue Searls "Through Water"

Open Digital

• 1st Place – Brett Ferguson “Form" 
• 2nd Place – Neil Anderson "Yarra Twilight ” 
• 3rd Place – Jamie Cifuentes “Splash”

Set Digital – "Umbrella"

• 1st Place – Robyn Bartlett “The Rains Are Here” 
• 2nd Place – Gayle Tout “Coffee Anyone” 
• 3rd Place – Karl Zeller “Windy” 

Novice Digital

• 1st Place – Anne Malthouse “Umbrella”

Castlemaine Weekend 2017

By Karen Malbon - 16th October, 2017 filed in Shoot Reports

We went to Castlemaine seeking gold. Our gold was not the precious metal discovered in the 1880s by miners digging, blasting and panning. Our gold was found in the light, the buildings, the people and the landscape of the historic goldfields town.

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Competition Winners: Silhouettes and Open

By Tania Chalmers - 12th September, 2017 filed in Competition Results

Open Print

• 1st Place – Brett Ferguson “The Blue Dress” 
• 2nd Place – Ronald Clarke “White Faced Heron” 
• 3rd Place – Karl Zeller “Foggy Morning” 

Set Print – "Silhouettes"

• 1st Place – Karl Zeller “Dali Exhibit” 
• 2nd Place – Gayle Tout “Inside Looking Out” 
• 3rd Place – Neil Anderson “Moonlight Flight” 

Open Digital

• 1st Place – Neil Anderson “Pinnacles Sunset" 
• 2nd Place – Kathryn Hocking "Flame Robin ” 
• 3rd Place – Karin Volz “Set and Innocent” 
• Highly Commended – Karl Zeller “Gone Fishing”
• Highly Commended – Andrea Sparks “Denise”
• Highly Commended – Tess Maddocks “Little snip here, little tuck there”
• Highly Commended – Françoise Muller Robbie “Resting”

Set Digital – "Silhouettes"

• 1st Place – Cathrine Stevenson “Sam Training Henry” 
• 2nd Place – Jennifer Empey “Outliers” 
• 3rd Place – Trudy Purchas “Is Anybody Out There” 
• Highly Commended – Andrea Sparks “Contemplation”
• Highly Commended – Brett Ferguson "Reflection"
• Highly Commended – Kathryn Hocking "The Other Side"
• Highly Commended – Tony Arceri "Heading Home"
• Highly Commended – Kathleen Moyses "Werribee South"
• Highly Commended – Gayle Tout "As the Sun Goes Down"
• Highly Commended – Andre Bellaire "Corvette"

Competition Winners: Environmental Portraits and Open

By Tess Maddocks - 26th July, 2017 filed in Competition Results

Open Print

• 1st Place – Robert Moyses “Pens, Pencils, Scissors and Stuff” 
• 2nd Place – Akm Imran “Smoke” 
• 3rd Place – Neil Anderson “Baby Elephant” 
• Highly Commended - Jennifer Empey "Dandelion"
• Highly Commended - Colin Lofts "Beach Bird"

Set Print – "Environmental Portrait"

• 1st Place – Brett Ferguson “The Seamstress” 
• 2nd Place – Christine Dennis “Portrait of the Artist” 
• 3rd Place – Karl Zeller “On the Edge” 
• Highly Commended - Françoise Muller Robbie "Electric Iron Man"
• Highly Commended - Akm Imran "Fire Dancer"

Open Digital

• 1st Place – Akm Imran “Aurora” 
• 2nd Place – Brett Ferguson "Chcolat Sec” 
• 3rd Place – Andre Bellaire “Range Rover” 
• Highly Commended – Cas Bukor “Morning Flight”

Set Digital – "Environmental Portrait"

• 1st Place – James Troi “Di the Collector” 
• 2nd Place – Christine Dennis “Portrait Painter” 
• 3rd Place – Robyn Bartlet “A Shoe In” 
• Highly Commended – Brett Ferguson “Maintenance”
• Highly Commended – Akm Imran "Richard, The Sculptor"
• Highly Commended – Karin Volz "The Cameraman"

So, in the Web Whip this week I included a link to PixelPeeper.io, a website where you can upload a JPG image and, if it hasn't had its metadata stripped, see the Lightroom adjustments that have been made. Well seems the world of photography as a love/hate relationship with the site, that is largely unfounded... because... you've actually always been able to do this in Photoshop!

To confirm that PixelPeeper does what it claims to, I uploaded one of my images to the site to see the results.

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Quite the boast right? Well founded though, we even have a trophy and certificate to prove it.

Earlier this week a delegation from the club visited Camberwell Camera Club to attend the judging of "Camberwell Camera Club Interclub Competition". 

We walked away with the trophy for the third year in a row.

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The Paper Bag Challenge 2017: Forks

By James Troi - 28th June, 2017 filed in Meeting Notes

The Paper Bag Challenge has become a tradition in our club over the last few years. We originally started the Paper Bag Challenge as one of our competitions, a way to get members to shoot for the competition rather than dredging up files from the past to enter. But a few years back we turned it into an in-meeting event.

The premise is simple, we bring along our camera gear and in teams we are given a brown paper bag containing an item that must be used to make an image within the confines of the club and with a strict timeframe.

Last night's paper bag challenge item was "forks". Cathy, our President, had hit up all the op-shops she could find and raided them of their forks for us to use. I imagine there are now a whole lot of lopsided cutlery drawers out there.

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