The Preston Photographic Club 2015 first workshop is Portrait/Posing. The workshop will be hosted by PPC member Joe Conte who is a professional photographer. Joe was one of a few members who coordinated our highly successful Lighting Workshop last year. I encourage members and visitors to bring along your camera and join us for a fun and informative evening.

Location: Preston Anglers Club, 270 Murray Rd. Preston 3072
Time: 7.30 – 10.00 pm
Attendance Fee: $1 (insurance cover)

Coffee, tea and biscuits supplied. Visitors welcome.

Note: Images from this workshop are not eligible for entry into competitions at the club. 

Reminder: February, Open competition entries are due.

Our first meeting for 2015 will be on Tuesday the 27th January due to the Monday being a public holiday.

Our 2015 program will be presented and it’s going to be a great year at the club.

New members are always welcome, even if you have never taken a photo just bring your enthusiasm to learn.

Preston Library, Gower St Preston.

Meeting Room at 7.30 PM

Our 2015 weekend away will be 20-22 of March in Beechworth. This club outing is open to members, their partners and children only. Theo is the main contact person for this event.

About Beechworth

Beechworth is a historical gold rush town located in the north-east of Victoria (approximately three hours from Preston). Beechworth has many wonderful photography opportunities including:

• Historic and Cultural Precinct with its beautiful and nationally significant buildings
• Public cemetery
• Beechworth Gaol
• Beautiful gardens
• Beechworth Historic Park with its scenic gorge and cascades
• Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum
• Nearby towns: Chiltern, Rutherglen, Yackandandah

Beechworth Ghost Tours offers day and evening tours of the historic Mayday Hill Lunatic Asylum.

Day tours
90 minutes
Adults $25
Conc $20
Kids under 16 $10

Ghost tours
2 hours
Adults $35
Conc $33
Kids under 16 $20

Photography tours
1-3 hours
$80

Tours must be booked in advanced. If you’re interested, please let Theo know.

The London Tavern

The Preston Photographic Club has secured the privately-owned historic London Tavern for the weekend stay. Accommodations include:

• 9 rooms with double and/or bunk beds
• Fully-equipped kitchen
• Bathroom with hot shower
• Sitting/TV room with fireplace
• Grand dining room
• Billiards room and Ping-Pong table
• Enclosed outdoor area
• Can accommodate campers

For more information and to see images of the London Tavern, please visit Stumble Down Under.

Stay tuned for more details!

Congratulations to all the winners of the Reflections competition!

Prints Novice

1st Nightlife by Lisa Rabbito-Nolen

Prints Standard

1st Hot Drink by Steven Pace
2nd In the Mirror by Alison Crea
3rd Rocky Island by Deb Keir
Highly Commended Duck by Deb Keir
Highly Commended Low Tide by Swetko Muntisov

Digital Novice

1st Cheers to Melbourne by Lisa Rabbito-Nolen
2nd Portsea Tea Tree by Sharon Crabb
3rd Shopping by Lisa Rabbito-Nolen
Highly Commended Sorrento Pier by Sharon Crabb

[Show slideshow]

Digital Standard

1st Sunset Reflection by Sonya O’Brien
2nd Grim Reaper by Alison Crea
3rd Morning Mist by Sam Mariani

[Show slideshow]

This is a summary of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and after-meeting held Monday, 13 October for the benefit of our members who were unable to attend. The official minutes were recorded by Club Secretary Andrew Leece.

The AGM

Club President Deborah Keir welcomed everyone and gave her report followed by Sam Mariani, Competition Steward, and Arthur Coates, Secretary.

Click below to read the reports:

AGM President Report 2014

AGM Competition Steward Report 2014

Committee elections were held and the results were as follows:

President: Deborah Keir
Secretary: Andrew Leece
Treasurer: Arthur Coates
Competition Steward: Sam Mariani

Other committee members:

1. Robin Tully
2. Michael Jones
3. Theo Kyrillidis
4. Cosette Paneque
5. Fabian Scarmozzino
6. Sharon Crabb
7. Lisa Rabbito-Nolen
8. Open

The next committee meeting is Monday, 17 November.

This concluded the official AGM and the rest of our meeting time was spent discussing remaining events this year and ideas for 2015.

Other News

The Preston Photographic Club has held exhibits at michaels Camera Video Digital store in the CBD. Unfortunately, the exhibition space is not available this year. An exhibition was proposed at Newlands Primary School and that space is available. However, we are need of an organiser. If you are interested in organising this event, please contact us. We also discussed exploring other venues in the City of Darebin for an exhibition next year.

We are open to suggestions for our library. If there’s a book or an artist that should be represented in our collection, please contact Librarian Michael Jones. For a complete list of titles currently available, please see our Library page.

Competitions

Various members have expressed they would like to explore alternative ways in which competitions are judged including:

• Moving away from the first, second, third, and highly commended points-based scoring system to highly commended and commended without scores from judges, which is a common practice among Victorian camera clubs
• How to score the images for the End of Year Awards
• Limiting the number of entries
• Changing or eliminating the number of points for entries
• More clearly defining the criteria for themes and for judging
• Sourcing judges outside of VAPS

Ideas for competition themes included Abstract, Travel, Sport & Recreation, Alphabet for the Assignment, Negative Space, and Complimentary Colours.

There was consensus that three interclub competitions – VAPS, Preston UK, and Parklands – was enough and working well.

Program

Previous feedback from club members was that hands-on workshops were favourable to guest lectures. Ideas for 2015 included:

• One-station portrait lighting workshop
• Night walk during daylight savings time to take advantage of the sunset and the blue hour
• Short consecutive workshops on naming competition photos properly, sizing them, calibrations, etc.

We would also like to continue with the weekend away, weekend outings, and social nights. For our weekend away, we are proposing Beechworth.

We will continue to explore larger venue options as we are outgrowing our current facility.

Coming Up

27 October: We will be judging the Reflections competition. Also, entries are due for the End of Year competition. The Competition Steward has all of this year’s winning digital images so far. Members should submit their winning prints if they want their prints considered. We also ask that members holding perpetual awards please return them at this time so that we can have new plaques in time.

10 November: Submissions are due for the Calendar Shots Assignment. Up to three digital shots may be submitted. Each shot should be suitable for a month in a calendar – preferably evoking that time of year. Label your photo with the calendar month it is intended for, the image title and your competition number. An image will be selected for each month of the year. Novices will not be judged separately for this assignment. One image per member will be selected for the final calendar unless insufficient images are entered.