Wow it’s September already! It’s less than a week to the first meeting of our brand new season. With that in mind this month’s theme is one that some members have requested and easy for most of us can partake in. To show the world that CPS members are forward thinking and keen to keep up to date I’ve chosen to accept any photographs taken with a camera phone or tablet.  The subject matter is open, but show us how versatile these high tech devices can be. Many allow you to apply creative special effects and you could always enter them into our PDI competitions.

Camera phones have obvious advantages over their bigger brothers. Their light weight and compact size makes them ideal for street photograph. It’s a lot easier to take a photo without being noticed and the quality of modern camera phone images is excellent.

Cameras are better than any other device at capturing magic moments. We have all reviewed our photographs and noticed elements that we didn’t see at the time. Magic moments come and go in all walks of life. Sport, nature, street scenes, even a dripping water can produce a special moment. Please have a look at the Forum’s Monthly Theme for some examples and advice on this topic.

Why not share your magic moments with fellow members to spark some lively discussion and inspire your photography.

13 year old Rosie Warburton won the ‘Under 16’ category of our Steampunk Competition with her imaginative image of the Municipal Buildings photographed through her steampunk goggles. The judges were impressed with her creative approach and composition.

Rosie was unable to attend the main prizing event at the Municipal Buildings in June and so was invited to attend a Town Council meeting where the prize giving was added to the agenda on 10th.July. She was supported by her proud family and several members of CPS.

When the time arrived Councillor Simon Yates gave Rosie a glowing tribute and thanked Crewe Photographic Society for their work in making the competition a success.  Then Mayor Brian Roberts congratulated and presented Rosie with her trophy, certificate and mounted A4 print. Meg and Dolores were on hand to record the occasion with these photographs. They will be published on the Town Councils web and twitter sites.

Rosie’s dad, Mark kindly emailed with with this email thanking us and telling how pound Rosie is.

“Thank you Peter,
It truly was a brilliant day for Rosie, I know she can be a bit shy but was totally over the moon and still hasn’t stopped talking about meeting you all and the mayor. I do hope she does take photography on as her art teacher at malbank thinks she is very creative with her work at school.
Thank you for the photos they shall be cherished and hopefully see you again soon. We took this one of her having a celebratory lemonade.”

We’ve all been taught how we should construct a picture, but this can make our photography predictable and even stagnate. If we want to progress our photography I think we should experiment more by breaking the predefined rules. Just try out new angles and composition, then post your photo on our forum and see what fellow members make of it. Go on, break the rules!

This month’s theme of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) gives you the opportunity to experiment and get creative. The results of moving the camera during the exposure can be unpredictable, but with experimentation you can develop your very own technique to produce some eye catching photographs. Some members have bravely entered ICM photographs for our monthly competitions. Why not try it your self?

Follow the links in the theme’s post for some guidance and inspiration then share your creations with fellow members.

Crewe’s Steampunk Convivial and food festival took place this bank holiday weekend and as you may recall from my previous emails our members were invited to enjoy photographing the event and pass their photographs to the town council. In return the council have given us credit and publicity for the photographs with links to our website and facebook pages. They also generously gave us a free stall in their Steampunk Market at the Lifestyle centre for the full three days.

A big thank you to Jo, Meg, Dolores and Martin Smith for helping to man it and for talking to the many visitors who showed an interest in our stall. The council also initiated the idea of holding a photographic competition for the public to enter and for us to judge. They’ve promised to donate two cups for the winning entries and we have offered a free years membership to CPS. The mayor is to present the cups to the winners and a press release will be submitted to the local press. This is giving us even more publicity. We gave out over 40 programmes and competition leaflets during the weekend so we hope this will lead to some new members.

There was a steady flow of steampunks floating around town in their amazing costumes. We spoke to one guy who had come from near New York and loved sunny Crewe! There were quite a few visitors from other camera clubs from places like Leyland, Cardiff and Newcastle. Although the event was smaller than previous years the town was still quite busy with entertainment in the town and Memorial squares.  Thank you to those who have photographed the event and offered them for the town councils publicity. If any members have any photographs to pass on please let me know.

On Saturday, 7th.July, Crewe hosts a ‘Traction’ Carnival. After last year’s event some of our members kindly donated some photographs to the town council that they used on their website. The main attraction then and again this year is the ‘Spareparts’ carnival. These creative people build crazy vehicles from spare parts and cycle them around town putting on an entertaining show. Some of our members have agreed to photograph the event again and donate some of their photographs which will help heighten our clubs reputation.

The results for the weekends’ L&CPU Individual Competition has just been published and some of our members have done particularly well.

In the ‘Colour Print’ section, Wallace Baxter scored 12 for ‘Precision On The Beam’ and 13 for ‘Mounting The Beam’ both have been retained for their Folio. Peter Robinson scored 14 for his ‘Posh Chimney Sweep’ photograph and will be displayed in their exhibition.

In the ‘Monochrome Print’ section Wallace Baxter scored 12 for ‘Strength On The Rings’ and ‘Jamie Lewis On Pommel Horse’ which was retained for the exhibition.

In the ‘Colour PDI’ section Stephen Coyne scored 13 for Indian Ascetic’. Peter Robinson scored 12 for ‘Cattle Market’ and ‘Kelsall Jumper’. Wallace Baxter scored 12 for his ‘Elegance, ‘Getting High from the Trampoline’ ‘Panic’ and Floor Exercise’.

In the ‘Monochrome PDI’ section John Royle scored 12 for ‘Driver’ and ‘Life Intimidates Art’. Wallace Baxter scored 12 for ‘Delight’, ‘Estell Eccleston’, and 13 for ‘Mature Competitor’. Stephen Coyne scored 12 for Grand Central Station’.  Peter Robinson scored 12 for ‘Llandudno Pier’, ‘Ruby Turner’, Swing Dance and 13 for ‘Memory Lane’.

In the Nature PDI section Ian Whiston excelled by getting two top scores of 15 for Buffalo and Oxpecker’ which was commened, and for ‘Cheetah and Playful Cub’ which came third. Ian also scored 13 for ‘Kori Bustard Booming’ and ‘Leopard Cub’. Wallace Baxter scored 12 for ‘Point Stag’ and ‘Calling Red Grouse’. Stephen Coyne scored 12 for ‘Camouflaged Gargoyle Gecko’.

Very well done to everyone who entered. The competition is very strong. All the results can be seen under out ‘Resources’ > ‘Results’ page by following this link: L&CPU AIC 2018 Results

Thanks, Peter.

Something a bit different for merry May. Choose a caption for your or other members photos!