Summer Events 2012

Wednesday June 6th (evening): 
The Architects of Air Luminarium at Lakeside Arts Centre, University of Nottingham.
Sunday June 24th (morning):
The Barrow Hill Roundhouse
Wednesday July 25th (evening):
Canal Photo Walk (Shireoaks to Turner Wood)
Wednesday August 29th (evening)
Sheffield City Centre (Peace Gardens & Millennium Gallery)

Doug Chinnery Workshops
Sat July 21st (evening/night): Whitby (now full)
Date tba: Peak District

PROGRAMME FOR 2012 - 2013 With thanks to Ray Staley

left click to enlarge

left click to enlarge

left click to enlarge

Photography Exhibition Invite

Hi All,

As I may of mentioned to some of you on Wednesday nights at club I have been busy organising a Photographic Exhibition for the Nottingham Flickr Group (our 5^th and most prestigious venue to date) where we will be exhibiting almost 50 printed pieces of work as well as showing another 80 – 100 images via a digitally projected audio visual. The exhibition itself runs between Saturday 28^th April and Sunday 27^th May at Patchings Art Centre, Oxton Road Calverton near Nottingham.

I would like to take this opportunity to formally invite you all to the Official Opening Event, which is to be held on Saturday 5^th May between 10am and 4pm, there will be a free drink on entry between 10am and 11am as well as a variety of events we have organised throughout the day including a lecture by an exceptional landscape photographer.

The schedule for the day is as follows:

10:00 - 10:15 Opening & Introduction to the Nottingham Flickr Group.

10:00 - 11:00 Complimentary drink & nibbles / viewing

10:30 - 12:00 Meet the Photographers / viewing

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch / viewing (Patchings offer an excellent choice of home cooked food at reasonable prices for you to purchase.

1:00 - 14:30 Love of Landscape Lecture by Chris Newham

15:00- 15:45 Digitally projected AV of Nottingham Flickr Group members work / viewing.

16:00 Close and thanks.

Karen and I would love to see any fellow members of Worksop Photographic Society at the opening event, your support would be greatly appreciated. There is no charge at all for entry to the Arts Centre and there is a large of amount of car parking, there are a number of other events on the different parts of the Patchings site on the 5^th including an exhibition by world renowned wildlife and steam train painter David Shepherd, for more details about Patchings Art Centre see: http://www.patchingsartcentre.co.uk/

 

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at our event and I hope to see as many of you there as possible on Saturday 5^th May.

Many Thanks

Rob

AGM Key Points

Thanks to everyone who attended the AGM

Key Changes

COMMITTEE 2012 -2013
President: Alan Kirkby
Vice President: Emma Kenmore
Secretary: Chris Jesinger
Treasurer: John Palmer
Programme Secretary: Raymond Staley
Competition Secretary: Gilly Gardner
External Competition Secretary: Stuart Dobson
Webmaster: Kevin Woodcock

Committee Members:
Eileen Murray
Alan Janaszek
Ian Webb
Peter Farthing

Some changes were made to the Competition Rules and these will shortly be added to our website.
Key changes were:
Clause included to address copyright and plagarism issues
Slides to be dropped from Monthly Competitions and Annual Exhibition
Monthly Competition rounds reduced from 6 to 4
Monthly Competition set subject rounds reduced from 2 to 1
Annual 2-way battle suspended for next season pending feedback from Warsop society

PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

Roger Smith has for sale the following Professional Medium Format equipment

ZENZA BRONICA ETRSi BODY (6x4.5 format)
THIS IS THE WH FOX-TALBOT 150th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION CAMERA WITH FITTED WINDER GRIP

f2.8 75mm ZENZANON EII LENS
f2.8 50mm ZENZANON PE LENS
f3.5 150mm ZENZANON MC LENS

ZENZA BRONICA AE-II METERING VIEWFINDER FITTED WITH A BEATTIE SCREEN

A METZ 45 CL-4 TWIN FLASH HAMMERHEAD FLASHGUN

AN SCA 386 AUTOMATIC FLASH ADAPTOR FOR BRONICA/METZ GIVING AUTO FLASH

VARIOUS LEADS/HOODS/DIFFUSER/CAMERA BAG ETC

ALL THE ABOVE ARE IN MINT CONDITION

£450

Contact Roger on 01909 481103 or e-mail rogerfoto@btinternet.com

Annual Exhibition

This event took place on Wednesday April 18th. The exhibition itself was judged by Keith Brown FRPS MPAGB APAGB EFIAP. A full list of awards is available from the Competition Secretary but a summary is below

CLUB DIVISION

Certificate of Merit

Peter O'Driscoll (1); James Kenmore (2); Janet Allsop (2); Paul Booker (1); Karen Leach (2)

Highly Commended

Harry Woodcock (1); Karen Leach (1); Thomas Leach (1); Peter O'Driscoll (2); Paul Booker (1)

Winners

Projected Digital: Gilly Gardner
Colour Print: Paul Booker
Mono Print: Karen Leach

ADVANCED DIVISION

Certificate of Merit

Chris Tait (1); Glyn Kaye (1); Dennis Farrell (2); John Palmer (1); Kevin Woodcock (1); Marcel Walker (1); Rob Turner (2); Janet Allsop (1); Ray Staley (1); Mick Painter (1); Peter Farthing (2)

Highly Commended

Dennis Farrell (1); Emma Kenmore (1); Ian Webb (1); Linda Painter (1); Mick Painter (1); Ray Staley (1); Rob Knight (3); Tim Bamber (2); Peter Farthing (3); John Sims (1)

The Winners

Projected Digital: Dennis Farrell
Colour Print: Peter Farthing
Mono Print: Rob Knight
Slide: Dennis Farrell

Annual Exhibition Overall Winner

Sedge Warbler Singing by Dennis Farrell




AWARDS FOR SUCCESS IN THE MONTHLY COMPETITIONS

CLUB DIVISION
Digital
THE CLUMBER CUP James Kenmore
Colour Prints
THE CARLTON TROPHY Anne Millen
Mono Prints
THE BEGINNERS' TROPHY Karen Leach

ADVANCED DIVISION
Digital
THE DUKERIES CUP Dennis Farrell
Colour Prints
THE CARLTON CUP Peter Farthing
Mono Prints
THE PRESIDENT'S TROPHY Peter Farthing
Slides
THE BUTLER CUP Dennis Farrell

OTHER AWARDS
THE PARSON'S TROPHY
Rob Turner

THE ALAN FORD MEMORIAL TROPHY
Rob Knight

THE WILF SALMON MEMORIAL TROPHY
(for outstanding work on behalf of the society)
Ray Staley

THE GEOFF KEMP MEMORIAL TROPHY
(for this year's most improved photographer)
James Kenmore

PROMOTIONS TO ADVANCED DIVISION
DIGITAL Karen Leach, Janet Allsop, Annette Crook
MONO PRINT Karen Leach

Thanks to our judge and to all involved.

The Alan Ford Trophy

This annual competition was held on May 11th. The event is organised by club member Anne Ford who circulates the images to members of her family in sveral parts of the UK who comment on the photographs and choose their personal favourites. Anne then has the task of compiling all the comments and sorting out the top placed images.

The winners this year were

1st Rob Knight for "Walker's Mill, Misty Morn"

2nd Stuart Dobson for "Lakeside"
3rd Linda Painter for "Winter Light on the Boathouse"

The images can be seen below.

Thanks to Anne and her family for all they do to make this event such a success.

Tutorial Session 5

Some images from the Strobism and Studio Lighting evening. I will send some pics to Heather.

Summer Events

Our 2011-2012 season ends with the AGM on April 25th and has been, I am sure most will agree, enjoyable if perhaps a tad more eventful than normal. For this Summer, we decided to arrange a few "extra curricular" meetings where we could get together and do some real photography rather that just look at the work of others. We start with 1st and 2nd of May when Doug Chinnery will be running a "mini" workshop locally. Doug's preferred limits mean that these sessions are fully booked but if they prove popular we can arrange more. On the evening of June 6th we will be visiting the Architects of Air Luminarium in Nottingham. This will be the first appearance of their latest and most ambitious installation and should provide for excellent photographic opportunities. The location is the Nottingham University Campus which offers additional photographic themes so the evening should be interesting. So far around 10 members have expressed interest but there is no limit on numbers so if you are interested then speak to a committee member. On Sunday June 24th we have arranged a morning visit to the Roundhouse at Barrow Hill (near Staveley). This is an excellent venue for railway and industrial photography and so far there is quite a lot of interest. We will also be arranging evening sessions in July and August so keep an eye on the blog and your e-mails. Last, but perhaps most exciting, will be a full photographic workshop with Doug Chinnery. Numbers will be limited because Doug always makes sure that everyone gets his full attention. So far 8 members have shown interest which would be around Doug's upper limit. Please let us know if you are interested in similar workshops as we can arrange additional outings. Next season, in addition to the usual fare, we have several "Club" nights which we hope will provide opportunities for practical photography and informal sessions. The Tuesday night Tutorial groups will continue next season and details will be available in September. As soon as it is ready the programme will be published on both the Blog and Website and printed copies will be available in September. Don't forget that there will be just 4 rounds in next season's Monthly Competitions starting in October rather than September.

Round 6 Results

Left click on image to enlarge

These are the final results of the Monthly Competition

Congratulations to the winners

Lightroom 4 Public Beta - Online Resources

It’s been just over 24 hours since the release of Lightroom 4 Beta and already there are a multitude of reviews, resources, discussions, tips and video’s online already. If you are an existing Lightroom user and haven’t downloaded your FREE copy of LR4 beta, you can do so now from Adobe web site here. If you’ve never used Lightroom then this is a great opportunity to start right now and have of a free copy at your disposal for a few months.

But where do you start? If you’ve just downloaded and installed your LR4 beta copy you may be a tad confused on opening up the new version. New modules like Map and Book are pretty obvious, but what about the other, more subtle changes and how do you use them? You may be confused about how to use the new Develop module Basic panel, or like me you may be confused why the Basic panel looks exactly the same as it did before (tip: you need to update the Process to 2012 in the Calibration panel first)? Well don’t worry as there are already many good resources out there and many from the official Adobe testing fraternity who have been involved with the development and have had time to prepare their posts ready for yesterdays release day.

Adobe’s official release notes can be found here, but if you are looking for a really good explanation of the new features then excellent postings from the Computer Darkroom and dpreview are probably an ideal place to start. Personally I like video instruction as I find this the quickest and easiest way to get up to speed with new features, and in this Adobe have already provided a comprehensive online library of 8 videos on the Lightroom 4 beta at Adobe TV. If you can put up with the rather irritatingly squeaky voice from Adobe’s Evangelist Julieanne Kost who presents these videos, and don’t get fed up with the glaring abundant overuse of the word “Excellent” (sorry Julieanne!), then this is the best video resource for LR4 beta so far.  And lastly don’t forget to check out Michael Reichmann’s 22 minute long video overview on the Luminous Landscape and the series of videos from Matt Kloskowski and Scott Kelby at their NAPP Lightroom 4 Beta Launch Centre. These together with a few other resources I’ve found useful I’ve listed below. Enjoy beta testing!

 

Reviews and New Features

• Adobe – Lightroom 4 Beta Official Release Notes
• Computer Darkroom – LR4 Public Beta New Feature Review
• dpreview – Lightroom 4 Public Beta: What's New
• LightroomSecrets – Lightroom 4 Public Beta is Here
• LightroomSolutiions – Lightroom 4 Posts
• LightroomQueen – What’s New in Lightroom4 Beta
• Pixiq – Preview of the Next Version of Lightroom
• The Photo Geek – Adobe Releases Lightroom 4 Beta

Forums

• Adobe Labs Forum of Lightroom 4 Beta

Resources

• Julieanne Kost’s Blog - LR4 Beta New Shortcuts

Videos

• Luminous Landscape - What's New in Lightroom 4 Overview
• Adobe TV – Introduction to Lightroom 4 Beta
• Adobe TV – Develop Module Enhancements
• Adobe TV – Sot Proofing & DNG Enhancements
• Adobe TV – Working with DSLR Video
• Adobe TV – Mapping Your Photos
• Adobe TV – Book Module Basics
• Adobe TV – Modifying Book Layouts
• Adobe TV – Advance Book Features
• NAPP – Lightroom 4 Beta Launch Centre Videos
• Terry White’s Blog – What’s New in Lightroom 4
• PhotoshopCAFE – Image Processing & Adjusting Photos
• PhotoshopCAFE – Map Module & GPS
• PhotoshopCAFE – Creative looks for video and colorizing
• IceFlowStudio – LR4 Beta Develop Module
• IceFlowStudio – LR4 Beta Maps
• IceFlowStudio – LR4 Beta Video Editing
• Digital Dog – Lightroom 4 and Soft Proofing
• LightroomSolutions – Lightroom 4 Layout Overlay Options

Lightroom 4 Beta Available for Download.

Well it’s here, Adobe have today released the beta version of Lightroom 4 and it’s available to download from their web site here. I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it so far, but the big new features seem to be Video support (which is not really of much interest to me, but no doubt very commercial), GPS support, new shadow and highlight controls, additional local adjustment controls and the much requested soft-proofing. Adobe’s summary of the new headline features is as follows:

• Robust Video Support
• Manage images by location with the Map Module
• Simplified Basic Adjustments
• Powerful new Shadow & Highlight controls
• Additional local adjustments including Noise Reduction and White Balance
• Soft Proofing Reinvented
• Elegant Photo Book creation
• Email from directly within Lightroom
• Publish videos directly to Facebook or Flickr
• Enhanced DNG workflows
• Adobe Revel export workflow

The GPS support includes integration with Google maps. The Develop module has a new engine with a 2012 Process version, and the local adjustments now include noise reduction, temperature and tint, shadows, highlights and moiré. The clarity slider has been refined to help reduce artefacts and after such a long, long wait, soft-proof has finally been introduced to Lightroom including both paper and ink simulation. Soft-proofing has been a much requested feature and it was way up there on my list, so hopefully at long last I won’t have to waste so much expensive photo-paper trying to get my prints look like the screen version.  There’s also book creation direct from Lightroom and tight integration with Blurb printing services.  A full list of the changes, new functionality and enhancements can be found in Adobes release notes here. Some notable absentees are face recognition, and improved slide shows so lets hope Adobe are saving those the final release version. Face recognition is a much heralded feature of Aperture so I’d be surprised if Adobe didn’t match its functionality in LR4, and improved slide shows have been a very much requested feature on the forums.

As ever, don’t use this with your existing catalog as it is only a beta version and things could go wrong. Adobe list some know issues in the release notes. Back up your catalog first, and remember this is only to test drive the new functionality an not meant to be a perfect, fully working copy.

John.R. Birch

Lightroom 4 Beta Soon ?

Lightroom 4 Beta to be released soon?

I was recently on a Photo workshop with a well known Lightroom beta tester who also writes books on a particular aspect of Lightroom. He let slip his new revised book on Lightroom 4 is set to be delivered to his publisher in February 2012 and that we should seeing a Beta version of Lightroom 4 released very soon. He also intimated that there may be a few surprises in store especially with the Lightroom user interface, but he was pretty tight-lipped about exactly what those surprises would be. He had a beta version of LR4 on his laptop but of course we didn't get to see it! He indicated that the released beta version would probably only contain around 60% of the functionality of the final release version so we can expect additional functions to be included at release time.

The Evidence

Other glimpses of a beta version have been observed on the web also with Sean Reid’s review of the Fuji X10 on Luminous Landscape where the RAW files were apparently converted in a beta version of Lightroom. Also keen eyed followers of Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom Killer Tips, have spotted a files called LR_4.0_796371_osx10_Release_Installer.zip and LR4R15ReleaseNotes.pdf" in his video release on December 12th 2011, so make of those what you will. Perhaps the final release is closer than we think although I somehow doubt that.

Of course, programming new features, and especially debugging and refining them even after beta testing can be a tricky and time consuming art, so don’t be surprised if the time fame gets extended, but it certainly looks also we should be getting a beta version sooner rather than later.

What New Features to Expect?

The question now of course is what big new features can we expect to see in LR4. Judging from comments made by Jeff Schewe in the recent video release "From Camera to Print & screen" from Luminous Landscape, soft proofing (much to Jeff’s seemingly apparent annoyance) was dropped from the LR3 release at the very last minute, so I’d fully expect it to play a significant role within LR4. Soft proofing was a pretty major part of my wish list for Lightroom 4 as I still have problems getting my prints to match the screen version and I know many other photographers still do too. My wish list (which can be seen here) also contained GPS support, a keyword manager,  face recognition, and improved cloning and healing tools to name but a few. Certainly the later seems to have been a firm favourite around the forums together with improved local adjustment tools to include vibrance, white balance,  fill light and individual HSL controls. There’s a multitude of GPS devices around now too so that may just have caught the LR boffin’s eyes, but it’s certainly not on everyone’s list. There have also been many requests to add Photo-stitching for panoramas and HDR blending for HDR, but these require computational intensive algorithms and personally I can’t see them being included in Lightroom as they seem more suited to Photoshop.  Face recognition is popular in many other photo-packages now including Lightroom’s main rival Aperture; I’ve tried it and it’s a very useful too, so that would be a great addition to see.

Scott Kelby posted his wish list on his blog site in August which of course got a lot of attention and enough comments were left to justify another article on the most popular feature request for Lightroom 4. He also mentioned that the Lightroom developers were listening, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the most popular features request are included.

Let's hope there's not long too wait.

John Birch

Thanks Alan

Thanks to Society President, Alan Kirkby, for an excellent President's Evening. Everyone should appreciate just how many hours of work were put in to fill an evening's programme, sadly more members could not be there but on behalf of those that were - thanks Alan.

Thanks too to James Kenmore who hosted the evening and read out the announcements, not easy for a young guy to get up in front of us old fogeys - well done James.

Parson's Trophy 2011

The Parson's Trophy competition was held on Wednesday December 14th and judged by Keith Naylor DPAGB EFIAP BPE4*

Table of results and winning images are shown below (left click to enlarge)

Thanks to all entrants and to Keith for an excellent job





3rd Place - OOH MY EYES by David Tait




2nd Place - A TOUCH OF CLASS by Ian Webb




1st Place - ICY RIVER by Rob Turner

BLOG

Club members can contribute posts and use the blog to upload images, comments etc.

To do so you will need an invitation from our webmaster, Kev Woodcock so, if you wish to participate, please get back to me and I will pass your details to Kev.

However do please note the following:

The blog is moderated and any content considered to be unsuitable or offensive will be removed

You may advertise items for sale but only photographic or computer related equipment is accepted.

FORTHCOMING TUTORIAL/PRACTICAL EVENINGS

TUES 22nd November:- Photoshop Q&A: Alternative approaches to image processing: Handling and processing RAW files.

TUES 10th January:- Macro/Close Up: Filters and Long Exposures: Camera Techniques.

TUES 14th February:- Adobe Lightroom.

TUES 13th March:- Strobist Techniques: Studio Flash Basics.

April - Date TBA:- Audio Visual Techniques using Pro Show Gold and Pictures To Exe

ALSO

STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY SESSION with advice on using studio flash.
This session will be held at Rother Valley Optics, Kiveton Park and will give participants the opportunity to use state of the art Bowens studio equipment in a controlled environment.
A professional model will be provided so this is an opportunity to get some high quality images for your portfolio. As we have to hire both studio and model there will be a charge for this session.

RVO Studios Launch Event - Not to be missed!

Hi Everyone

As I announced a couple of weeks ago at the society, the Studio (RVO Studios) which I freelance for is having an open day. The Studio is extremely keen to work with all local photographic societies and is looking forward to working with Worksop. We have been given first refusal on tickets for this event and as listed below, its not to be missed if you have an interest in Studio Lighting, Studio Photography, how to work with models etc this is right up your street.

Top Fashion and Lingerie Model KATIE GREEN and Highly acclaimed Fashion & Glamour photographer Jon Gray FBIPP will be coming to open our NEW PHOTO STUDIO on Thursday 24th March 2011.

This one day event will be a HANDS ON lighting workshops and using the latest Bowen's Lighting,

with guidance from Jon, you will be given the opportunity to experience shooting (one to one) with Top model Katie Green, so bring your Camera's!

Lighting workshop content:

Jon will be showing his portfolio with Q%A session.

A Lighting demonstration for Fashion and Beauty including Model posing techniques.

A chat with Katie and a chance to get a signed copy of her latest Calendar.

Jon Gray latest teaching lighting Dvd.

Fee for each half day session £35

PLEASE BOOK EARLY AS THIS IS EVENT WILL BE

STRICTLY LIMITED TO 30 Photographers

Adobe Release Lightroom 3.3

Software

Today Adobe have finally released version 3.3 of Lightroom; this has been released in conjunction with version 6.3 of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) for Photoshop. The update has been available for some while as a beta version for field testing, but is now in its commercial version for general consumption. This release contains the usual additional support for a bevy of new cameras and some bug fixes. Perhaps the most interesting addition for existing Lightroom user are the addition of many new lens profiles. This includes 15 additional Canon lenses, 26 Nikon lenses, 14 Pentax lenses  as well as a few Sigma, Tamron, Ricoh and Samsung lenses.

Lens profiles were one of the great new features added in Lightroom 3.0 and it’s a feature that I find particularly useful. If you shoot a lot of seascapes and landscapes with wide-angle lenses then you’ll know unless your camera is perfectly vertical on your tripod and the horizon is smack bang in the middle of your frame, it’s going to appeared curved. I used to have to flip out to Photoshop and use PTlens to correct my shots but now this can be all handled within LR. It’s great for correcting verticals when shooting architecture too and can also be used as a creative tool.

You can download your copy of Photoshop Lightroom 3.3 Release Candidate from Adobe Labs here, find out full specifications of the Lightroom 3.3 release and a list of all the new lens profiles here.

Great British Landscapes – A New Magazine Website from Joe Cornish

WebSite Review

Joe Cornish, the renowned, and probably the most famous contemporary British Landscape Photographer has, in conjunction with fellow photographer Tim Parkin, launched a  new magazine style website entitled Great British Landscapes (LandscapesGB). The site is the brainchild of Tim Parkin, and in their own words they describe the partnership as Tim being the driver and Joe as the Navigator. The site seems aimed at show casing contemporary ‘great’ British photographers, not only their work, but their methods. However the sites mission statement quotes:

“We hope in time that LandscapeGB will develop its own momentum, with contributions from anyone and everyone from the British landscape photography community who wishes to participate.”

 

MAGAZINE Content

The magazine also includes guides to locations, photography techniques, book reviews and processing techniques. Issue one contains an excellent guide to Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire, an article from Joe on “Shooting into the Sun”, and a run down on some of the winning photographs this year's Landscape Photographer of the Year competition (LPOTY). It will also contain video content to download and the premier issue provides a screencast by Joe on his post processing of one of his older photographs that was recently rescanned on Tim Parkin’s drum scanner. This particular screen cast is over an hour long, and many readers will be no doubt surprised to find out just how far Joe has gone into the realms of digital processing within Photoshop.

On the About page the magazine lists the type of landscape photographers that they are going to look at. It’s no surprise classical photographers such as Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, David Muench and Edward Weston are listed but also contemporaries such as David Ward,  Andrew Nadolski and Michael Kenna are also included. Club members with be interested to see local photographer (and rising star) Doug Chinnery is also listed.

Of particular note is the location guide with the one for Brimhan Rocks providing the precise locations for many of Joe’s classic shots, including his well know shot for the National Trust. This contains a precise location guide, details of where to park, how to get there, links to Google maps and panoramas and even some information on the geology. This is precisely the level of detail a photographer like myself likes to see and I’m sure this feature alone will prove to be very popular. We already have ‘JCB’ (Joe Cornish Boulder!) fully engraved into photography speak, so I can see bagging a JCL (Joe Cornish Location) becoming the next big thing from bagging a Scottish Munroe!

New issues of the magazine are to be released on a bi-monthly basis.

 

The Good and the Bad

The website is written in a blog style and very nicely presented and yes, like many blogs you can add comments and feedback. It is clearly still ‘work-in-progress’ but it’s good to see you can comment and add requests. The articles so far seem quite good and provide more depth and information than comparative magazine articles. The screencast of Joe is enlightening in seeing at ‘master at his work’, but at over an hour long, it is rather tedious to say the least. Joe will seem finicky beyond belief to most and only absolute Joe Cornish devotees and complete Photoshop anoraks would be able to watch this in it’s entirety in one session. It took me about 4 sittings to get through it all. As it’s Joe Cornish it will be watched; Joe’s pictures on a cover of a magazine increase circulation, and there are not many British photographers who can do that. However any similar video by A. N. Other on YouTube I feel would fade into obscurity. If this is to be part of a commercial venture I think the screencasts need to be much shorter, snappier and edited for content.

You’ll notice I stated ‘commercial venture’, yes I’m afraid the content is not free but can only be obtained on a subscription only basis. Currently you can acquire access to individual issues for £3 each or purchase a block subscription for 6 months or a year bringing the price down to £2.50 and £2.00 per issue respectively. The good news is that Issue one is free, all you have to do is register so you can test drive it yourself.

 

Summary and Comment

I can’t help but seem a little surprised that a photographer of Joe Cornish’s renown is entering into another commercial venture. I’ve already seen the proliferation of his elegant greeting cards and am left wondering whether he is exploiting his notoriety or this is a economic requirement. If Joe Cornish can’t make a dam good living out of selling his prints then I guess no landscape photographer within the UK can. If it’s the latter then it’s a real pity, since someone of Joe’s talent within the US would be up there with the millionaire photographers like Peter Lik.

The site content has the potential for it to be a real winner and we’ve longed for a UK site that can encompass British Photography in the same way the Luminous Landscape does for those elsewhere. If you compare Great British Landscapes (LandscapesGB) the the current, rather staid and repetitive UK photography magazine fodder, then it wins hands down. However it’s on the internet where most, if not all expect content to be free and it’s up against very stiff free completion. Will it succeed, well with name of Joe Cornish attached, I guess it probably will. I would like to see a downloadable PDF version included with the price however.

Will I subscribe? Well I’m not sure yet, but when I’m overseas it may just seem a too tempting a read. Go ahead and give Issue One it a try and see what you think.

 

John Birch

Camera RAW Problem

I attended the beginners/technique night on Tuesday and was very impressed by Kevin's demo of Camera Raw, so I thought I'd try it myself.
According to Adobe CR 5.6 is compatible with the Fuji S6500 so I took some pics in raw and JPG and tried processing them.
No matter how I tried the results from Camera Raw were poor, unsharp grainy and noisy and not a patch on the jpegs the camera itself produced, and nowhere near as good as what the free utility S7raw produced.
Has any non-Nikon/Canon user tried Camera Raw and if so what were your findings?

Cheers

Alan

SDHC Cards on Amazon

Hi All

Thought I would post this for the SDHC users out there, Amazon have the 8GB Transcend SDHC Card Class 10 marked down to £9.00 Thats the cheapest I have seen these cards anywhere. Speed is obviously not up to the Sandisk Extreme's etc but its still pretty quick and fine for a jobbing card.

Regards

Kev

Useful Resources

As the new season is upon us and we have had two evenings already... I thought I would track down some useful information that could be put on the blog that our members could benefit from. These are listed under a new section called "Useful Resources" Already there are three links in there for some quite good tutorials on Photoshop and one for the Lightroom users of the membership.

Whilst for some of the more experienced users some of the tutorials may be quite standard, I hope that this list will be of use to some. Smart Objects in Photoshop for example is very useful and is a tool that I am using more and more.

If you know of any more tutorials that you feel would be worth sharing, drop me a mail at kevin@coral-design.com and I will add them on there.

See you on Wednesday

Kev

Blog Advice

After due consideration and not wishing to appear officious or negative the committee wish to remind members that this facility is intended as a forum to discuss anything pertinent to photography and the means to upload images for discussion or comment. It is not intended to be a free advertising site for whatever items you may wish to dispose of.

However exceptions can and will be made for anything which is relevant to the hobby including photographic and computer equipment. Any advertisment deemed to be outside these parameters may be removed so if in doubt please request permission from the webmaster or a committee member.

Stunning Sculptures

Following a chat with Marcel last night I took a trip out to the Harley Gallery, Welbeck today. There is a very cool exhibition of work by Helen Denerley, entitled Mechanimals.

The sculptures themselves are stunning in my opinion and it is hard to believe their humble beginnings. They are made from scrap metal using relics of the horse-drawn days of agriculture alongside discarded modern machinery.

It is almost impossible for me to choose a favourite, but if pushed it would have to be the large dragonfly.

Wing in more detail

Cat

Amazing, imposing crocodile!

The exhibition runs until October 17th 2010. I know that I shall be making a return visit and probably with the family in tow.

For more information visit: www.harleygallery.co.uk/

Excellent start to the new season

I just wanted to say how much James and I enjoyed last night. James is still talking about it!

Peter Baker is a fantastic speaker who manages to balance excellent photographs with the right amount of humour! I hope this sets the tone for the rest of the 2010/2011 programme.

Thanks Ray.

Website Update

Hi All

I have just done a mod to the website to make it a bit more swish, I have taken a view from some members too who asked for it to be widened, this has gone up by 200px.

The member gallery has been updated with all the images provided by Chris, this contains all the images he received last season as competition entries.

The programme is now uploaded and is available for download as a pdf, there is a link to adobe.com for those who don't have adobe acrobat reader.

The links page has also been updated.

Thanks

Kev

Charity of Choice

Hi All

At the Open Day we are planning to have a Photoshoot, it was suggested at our last meeting that we charge a fee of £1 for people to have their photograph taken. We thought about donating this to Charity and wanted to try and get a feel for the memberships chosen Charity. Names in the frame so far

Help for Heroes

Macmillan Nurses

Bassetlaw Hospice

Update: Disabled Photographers Society added

Please feel free to suggest more....

I will take a vote at the first meeting and announce the results that night.

Thanks

Kev

RAF Cosford - a great day out

Following my disappointment with Doncaster Air Museum I'm pleased to be able to say that RAF Cosford has redressed the balance. It's free to get in (although you do have to pay for parking), the exhibits are all top quality, and subject to the usual constrictions you really can get some decent photos.
It's near Telford which is also handy for the Ironbridge gorge and all the museums in the locality, including the Victorian village currently appearing on TV in the Victorian Pharmacy series, the Wrekin and Wenlock Edge.

Take a look at http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

Here's a view of the Cold War Exhibition building which houses among others examples of all 3 V-bombers and a Trabant!


I'll let you use your imagination as to what's happening here:


And this is a Victor which I've always thought was a really evil-looking aeroplane:


And the Vulcan which is just awesome.

Royal International Air Tattoo RAF Fairford 17th July 2010

Hi Everyone

Following on from the Waddington Airshow post, I thought I would share the results from what turned out to be a fantastic few days with mixed weather, thankfully the weather for airshow itself turned out ok , I will post a video later to show how bad it was for arrivals the day before!!!!

A very spirited display by the RAF Typhoon

More Typhoon...

Chris, my Mum and I went to the Airshow this year, unfortunately Stuart was unable to make it. We stayed at the Totterdownhill Campsite in the caravan, the weather was extreme to say the least, high winds, lashing rain everyday except airshow day. We were there Wednesday through Sunday and had a great time. The Campsite offers one of the best views of an airshow I have ever seen, it actually looks down across the airfield and is bang in the centre of the display area for the aircraft.

We saw some aircraft not normally seen in the UK including the latest US aircraft the F22 Raptor, this display was astonishing, nearly every surface on the plane moves as well as the jet nozzles to keep the plane in the air, it can turn in the opposite direction in almost its own length whilst airborne. The latest troop carrier and C130 Hercules replacement was also displayed, the A400M Airbus.

Business end of the RNAF F16

We had an American C17 display who flew so low over the Campsite we actually felt the draft from it, someone on the airfield recently commented on how low it looked from their perspective and thought it was going to crash. Sadly on that note, an American C17 was lost earlier this week in Alaska whilst practicing for a display, all four crew were lost. Going to show that whilst this hobby is entertaining it certainly has its own dangers attached, the crash could quite easily have been at Fairford. My thoughts are with the lost C17 Crew and their colleagues and families, some of whom were watching the practice.

American C17 on extreme low flyby over the campsite

Anyway with that somber thought, it is with pride that I show my results from the weekend. Ray earlier in the year termed our's and other countries pilots / aircrew as the true professionals, a comment that I wholeheartedly agree with.

On with the show.....

The wonderful Red Arrows

The F22 Raptor

The Belgian F16, love this shot, you can see the dials in the cockpit...

Spitfire, part of the Typhoon and Spitfire Synchro Pair

RNAF F16 Display

Belgian F16 again

Royal New Zealand 757

Airbus A400M

RAF Tornado GR4 Ground Attack Aircraft on a run at over 500mph over the campsite

Red Arrows again...

The F22 Raptor accidentally taken into the Sun

The F22 Raptor on a fast turn over the campsite

The F22 Raptor, yes the sky was that grey...

The mighty, yet technically flawed and poorly managed Vulcan

The French Display Team

All these shots were taken using a Canon 450d with the Sigma 50-500mm (non IS) lens and were hand held. There is no doubt that the Sigma is up there with the bigger players in the game, some of the detail that this lens has managed to resolve at the speeds the aircraft are flying at is amazing. The second picture down is testament to this. Feel free to click on the images for a larger view, following a recommendation from Keith, I have copyrighted them for other visitors to our blog, I have no issues with anyone from the society seeing unbroken images if they wish.

Image theft is becoming a real problem lately across the internet, these are all lowered res too.

Thanks for looking, comments and crit always welcomed

Kev