1st Meeting...

Folks,

Today saw the first meeting of the Almanzora Photo Club at the Rumores bar in Albox. There were, as expected, only a very few attendees, five in total, with apologies from another two who couldn't make it. However, the feeling was from tiny acorns mighty oaks grow, so we got stuck in to determine what we could, regarding what the structure of the club would be... build it, and they will come!

It was felt that as photography is very much an outdoor hobby, the emphasis as a club should not be solely based on indoor meetings, but should also include regular outdoor club field trips. It was therefore agreed to meet monthly at Rumores bar, and also to arrange a monthly field trip somewhere, so that the club met as a group every two weeks, once indoors & once outdoors.

We hope to make our monthly indoor meeting on Fridays (dates to be confirmed) early/mid afternoon to follow on from the computer club meeting, so that we can make use of their overhead projector for any demos/presentations/teaching sessions.

The next club monthly meeting at Rumores bar, Albox is Friday October 7th at 2pm.

As stated above, we also intend to 'get out and about' with our cameras on small field trips. We hope to spend enjoyable days at various locations, snapping plenty of shots to upload onto the forum later, and also enjoy the day out, perhaps stopping off for a cuppa, vino, tapas, lunch etc.

The next club field trip will be to the village of Bedar on Wednesday September 28th.
Members will be meeting outside the Overa hotel just off the E15 motorway, Salida 547 roundabout at 11am.
We will then drive down the motorway to Bedar.

Anyone interested in the club or forum, who have not joined and wish to join us on the field trip, should first register with the forum and let us know via a post. Current members are sharing cars but future members may be able to arrange a car share via the forum (Photo Cafe) chat room.

As well as these two monthly events, we intend to run regular photo topic challenges on the forum, just to get members using their cameras, and used to uploading & posting on the forum. It's quite easy to be caught wondering what to take photos of, but when a topic is suggested, it becomes an interesting challenge. With that in mind, at each monthly club meeting, or on the forum itself, a topic will be suggested, and members asked to get out and take some photos based on that subject. Members should then upload their best shots to the forum for all to see and comment on. It makes it an interesting challenge to see how members of all abilities interpret the given subject.

The September topic is - 'Mi Casa'

So basically any photos of around your house & garden, but with perhaps a more creative viewpoint. Think about any interesting shapes, colours or textures.

Please post your monthly topic photos in the Darkroom Gallery forum.

This club, particularly the forum, will be quite photo based, so it is important for users to get used to the upload and post process. There is a 'Sticky' message in all forums detailing this, and we, for the moment recommend using ImageShack.us to upload your images and get the address code to insert in your posts. If you have any difficulties, just post for some help, and a member will help you out. We will also cover this important aspect at one of our first meetings.

Also be aware, that as a member, when you upload an image to the forum, it will not only be for sharing, but for other members to comment on and critique. This is how a photo club works, and how we learn. Any comments should not be taken personally, but accepted as normal club activity. Moderators will monitor to ensure comments are valid and productive.

Todays meeting also discussed the very important matter of using software to process and enhance our digital images. These days, this is just as important as choice of camera, and quite a lot of users still have little experience of it. We intend to make this an important part of our monthly meetings, hopefully having regular training sessions on all aspects of basic and creative digital techniques. To this end it would be best to concentrate on one piece of graphic software initially for club training purposes, until the basics are learned. We have decided to start the sessions using Corel's Paint Shop Pro to illustrate the basic photo editing techniques, as it has a more compact and intuitive interface. However the basic tools and techniques learned here will be transferrable to other packages such as Elements and Photoshop, which would be too daunting for the beginner.

We understand that members have varying levels of experience, so we intend to spend the first few months (and beyond) of all our meeting's content on the very basics of photography and image processing. We want to ensure that all members are happy and understand each subject covered. We're sure the more experienced users will cooperate and probably benefit from covering all topics. We have plenty of time to study all aspects of digital photography at a slow & steady pace. We welcome users with basic compact cameras (or phone cameras!) as well as those with larger systems.

We decided at the meeting, that at every monthly meeting we should decide the location of the next field trip, the next month's forum 'photo topic' (although this could be discussed on the forum itself), and any subject that members would want to discuss at the following meeting, via an open chat or presentation session using Powerpoint, or a laptop linked to the big screen. The agenda being fairly flexible with enough forewarning to prepare some content.

The issue of funding was also discussed, and for the time being agreed along the lines of 'pay as you go' where any money required (entry to a location etc) be paid on the day by members to eliminate the requirement for club accounts/ treasurer etc.

Finally, it was decided that enough had been discussed today, as detailed above, to get us started, and hopefully give people intending to join enough information on how we intended to run the club.

There is obviously nothing set in stone as yet, and we will no doubt be adjusting how we run the club as the membership hopefully grows and new ideas come in.

We look forward to meeting anyone interested at forthcoming club meetings, field trips or online on the forum.

Best regards,
Howard Dickson

Hi All
Sorry I missed the first meeting as Fridays are a bit busy for me, one of the reasons I had to give up computer club as they changed to Fridays

The reason I’m replying to this post is that I’m concerned that taking photo of Mi Casa putting it on here and then going on a field trip with the dates published on the same site. Isn’t that an open invitation to “Tea Leafs?” to check the place out?

I do hope it won’t be only picture themes taken in Spain as the Arboleas forum as some people travel.

J C

Jc,

Sorry you can't do Fridays, but a decision had to be made for the time being, particularly if it means we get the use of the screen projector at Rumores. If it becomes too much of an issue for other members, then we'll have another look at it. We will try to post any tips & techniques covered at meetings on the forum. Hope you can make it to field trips sometime, and stay active on the forum.

A fair point re security, but the theme Mi Casa is more to do with objects and subject matter found around your house & garden, not neccessarily views of your house that could pinpoint your location. Users should be aware of that sort of thing regardless of what forum you are on.

As for future photo topics, they will be covering all sorts of subject matter that can be taken anywhere (eg the colour red, water, silhouettes etc etc).

Rgds,
Howard