Fun, friendship. President s Report

Transcription

1 October Fun, friendship and Learning President s Report The Shutterbug Report Presidents monthly report Hi Everyone, I trust you all had a pleasant break over the Christmas period. Buy, Swap, Sell Canon EF mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens for sale in excellent condition $1650 ph We held the annual lunch in January. Whilst the company was good, the food left a lot to be desired. Not what was promised. A change of venue I think promises to be a busy one for the club. May/June is match time against England...a win is long overdue lets see if we can do this year. June is Camera Club Rally. August 25/26th sees us hosting the Annual Western Districts Meeting. More about this in the near future. December...The Cherry Festival Exhibition this year is our coming of age...yes 21 years. although I have come across an old program that indicated that the club is in fact over 100 years old. If you have any knowledge of this I would be interested (not that any current members were around at the beginning). We will endeavour to make the monthly meetings more interesting and informative. To this end we have modified the monthly competition as per my in January. We hope to invite more guest speakers throughout If you have any ideas or suggestions please let someone know. ALL of the above can only be successfully achieved with your help so please any help large or small will be most gratefully accepted and I look forward to a successful Subject/Challenge for March is...the colour Purple No more than 25% of the print to be of this colour. Good luck to everyone and have fun with your photos Cheers Trevor OFFICE BEARERS President: Trevor Faulkes Vice President: Susie McDonell Secretary: John Van Rijswijk Treasurer: John Van Rijswijk Publicity: Brian James Events Organiser: Trevor Faulkes Shutterbug: Gail Douglas Public Officer: John Van Rijswijk Supper: Susie McDonell

2 Results - Camera Club Comp A GRADE Open 1st 2nd 3rd A GRADE Subject Australia Day 1st 2nd 3rd JUNIORS Open 1st 2nd - 3rd Next meeting is the 14th March. March subject/challenge is The Colour Purple. No more than 25% purple. Just a note. Can members please bring a prize for the club night raffle (under $10.00). UPCOMING EVENTS JUNIORS Subject Sports LARGE PRINT 1st 2nd 3rd Please note the change in the club competition: B Grade will be suspended. A Grade only subject/challenge and open class. Meta Data to written on back of photo. Junior and large print remain unchanged. Subject/challenge to be announced at previous meeting and included in Shutterbug. All photos must be taken within one month of comp. Photos must be sole work of entrant. Member must present photo in person or via a sibling only. Monthly comp to be judged/critiqued by guest presenter. Print sizes and presentation to remain unchanged. The results for Camera Club from last year were:- Large Prints:- Equal 1st - Miranda Howard and Narelle Howard, 2nd - Liam Howard, = 3rd - Glenn Innwood A Grade 1st - Narelle Howard, 2nd - Michael Rhodes, 3rd - Susie McDonell B Grade 1st - Julie Downs, 2nd - Trevor Faulkes, 3rd - Jean Faulkes Juniors 1st - Miranda Howard, 2nd - Samantha Beale, 3rd - Liam Howard Brian Hargreaves Award Tracey Dawson won with her photo Rain the Cat President s Encouragement Award Susie McDonell

3 How to Reboot Your Creativity with 15-Minute Exercises By: Stacey Hill Here are four steps to rebooting your creativity and desire to do more photography with some 15-minute simple exercises. Have you lost your photography mojo? I get it, you ve been at work all day, and it s been stressful. Maybe there are kids to look after and dinner to cook as well. Perhaps a dog to take for a run or a family dinner to attend. There are all kinds of reasons why you don t have the time or energy to pick up your camera and shoot. When we don t want to do something, we focus on all the reasons why it s too hard it takes too long to drive somewhere, the light is wrong, it s raining, the battery is flat and so on. It s easy to tell ourselves a story that allows us to talk our way out of doing something, especially when there aren t any major consequences. Don t get up early in the morning and miss the spectacular sunrise? Life goes on. But the longer you leave your camera sitting in its bag gathering dust, the easier it becomes to talk yourself out of picking it up again. Months or even years go by. Maybe you think about it now and then and feel a niggling guilt or just sad. Well, there is good news. With a small amount of effort, you can take steps to reboot your creativity and enthusiasm for photography again. A shiny copper coin on a piece of black cardboard and a macro lens. Simple as (of course I have a macro lens!) can be.

4 Four Simple Steps How to Reboot Your Creativity with 15-Minute Exercises (Cont) So here are the four simple steps I promised earlier. Step One PREPARE Get your gear out, clean it, and charge the batteries. Check that it s all still working and present. Wipe the memory cards clean. Do everything you need to do in order to have your gear in peak working condition so you can grab it and go. The trick here is to remove the first mental block stopping you from shooting. If your gear is all prepped, then you don t have anything stopping you there. A marble I found walking on the beach on a piece of white fabric. Shot on a craft table in my spare room with natural window light. Step Two ASSEMBLE Keep it simple and find some space at home where you can shoot. Work with objects you have at hand. Put together a small still life studio, maybe using window light or a flash, whatever you have nearby. An assortment of props that I have assembled for my still life photography. Note the neutral colour tones and mostly matte finish. That piece of slate gets used a lot. By keeping it close to home and working with what you have close at hand, this removes the mental block about having to go out, needing to take the time, or spending more money. Making a small still life studio doesn t need much, a neutral background and a base surface, some light and shadow and you are done.

5 How to Reboot Your Creativity with 15-Minute Exercises (Cont) A bunch of white stock, wrapped in white fabric, with a window draped in a white curtain in the background. Simple and cheap and you can use white fabric for so many things. Having something quick and easy to put together (maybe a couple of sheets of white cardboard or foam core) that you can easily store out of the way reduces the resistance to setting up a shoot. Even better if you can leave it set up for a few days while working on this project. My studio is a craft table, covered in white cotton, a window draped in white fabric, and neutral walls. Step Three TAKE 15 minutes No one has enough time in the day, there are always things to do, places to be, demands on our time. However, for this exercise, I challenge you to give yourself a calendar appointment every day for a week. When you get home from work, instead of sitting down in front of the TV, or immersing yourself in social media or whatever it is you do to chill out, instead make a date with your camera.

6 How to Reboot Your Creativity with 15-Minute Exercises (Cont) If you have done Step One and Two, you have everything you need in place but the hardest is Step Three. Give yourself permission to take just 15 minutes out of your day and shoot. This length of time is long enough to be able to create some images but not so long it will interfere with your day too much. Let s face it, by the time you make yourself a coffee and drink it, that probably takes just as long. A wooden board and scoop and some chocolate chips. Yum! Here is the really critical thing IT DOESN T HAVE TO BE PERFECT! In fact, it will be really hard for the first couple of days. The point of this exercise is for you to have your camera in your hands again, and to get you shooting something, anything. Half a lemon on a wooden board and a macro lens. Simple and clean and vibrant yellow. Step Four PERSEVERE If it has been a while since you ve done any photography, you will probably find this quite hard. Shooting still life isn t everyone s cup of tea either but it is the simplest combination of factors to get you up and going. Maybe you decide to shoot the same item in different ways or using different lighting. It doesn t matter. No one else needs to ever see these images, you just need to do it. Pomegranate on my favourite slate slab. Gorgeous color, via the window in my studio. My studio is a spare bedroom.

7 How to Reboot Your Creativity with 15-Minute Exercises (Cont) Maybe you decide to shoot all the different kinds of cutlery and utensils in the house. You could do close-ups of labels on wine bottles. Maybe you have some smooth white eggs and one brown freckled one. Or maybe you make up a bowl of ice cream and pour chocolate sauce and sprinkles on it. Your cat or dog is asleep in the sun and you do close-ups of their noses or paws. Maybe your kids are building something random with Lego. Maybe there are some flowers in the garden or some stones found on the footpath. If you have a macro lens or setting you can experiment with things up close and abstract. Maybe you go for a walk around the block or to the park instead. Eggs in a crate with a feather that came along for the ride on a table draped in white linen. Whatever it is, it doesn t matter so long as you take the time to point your camera at it and take time to do it every day for a week seven days. By setting yourself both an achievable goal and a reasonable limit, it is easier to trick your brain into saying, Okay we can do this instead of thinking, "Oh this is just too hard. I found this gorgeous lime green viburnum out on a walk. The house owner kindly let me pick a bunch to take home when I asked nicely. Summary The point of this exercise is simple, get your camera in your hands and get in the habit of shooting again. More importantly, it also helps overcome the mental blocks you put in place when you think something is too hard or will take too long. This puts some structure in place and makes it easy for you to allocate a small achievable time slot every day to just shoot, and not care about the outcome. Just the fact you are shooting is what s really important. It doesn t really matter if you follow the framework laid out here, or do something completely different, so long as you take some time every day for a period and commit to picking up your camera and shooting.

8 How to Reboot Your Creativity with 15-Minute Exercises (Cont)

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