Monthly Challenge – Film Title 30/6/21

With Wimbledon in full swing and pleasant summer weather it was good to see 29 members (including a guest) joining our meeting. Inspiration for this month’s subject came from its choice as a future Interclub ‘set subject’.

A wide range of images were submitted by 22 members with the emphasis on creativity, as the aim was to produce an image recognisably depicting a well-known Film Title. In giving their critique, Sheelagh Davidson and Alan Stopher rose to the additional challenge of researching each of the films in order to give a more complete opinion of the relevance of each portrayal. Ordinarily, text is frowned upon but in this case it was accepted to help the viewers’ recognition of the film title.

As with previous Monthly Challenges, members were circulated with the images a few days beforehand so that they could give their votes for 1st 2nd and 3rd. The outcome was revealed after the critique had been given.

Shown here are the three most successful images on the night giving the club a good start in identifying which one to enter into the Interclub in October.

Congratulations go to the three winners. Well done to all entrants for showing us their carefully thought out images.

A Fistful of Dollars - Graham Sykes

War Horse - Barbara Sheldrake

The Legends of Sleepy Hollow - Mike Hey

Speaker - Janey Lazenby - Inspired By Art 23/06/21

We welcomed back tonight, the talented, Artist, Teacher and Equine Photographer Janey Lazenby.

Janey explained that her art background always comes to the fore when producing images, whether they be for her own use, clients or for competition work.

When looking for a project or certain look then Janey turns to her Art books, whether it be for a style of lighting, composition, colour, clothes.

Many Artists have inspired Janey’s work, her particular favourites are Caravaggio, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, Edgar Degas, George Stubbs and the Pre Raphaelites.

Janey took us through each Artist, a brief background to their work and works that they are famous for and what it was about that particular artist that inspired, from whether it be the chiaroscuro effect, composition, rich colours of the clothes, the emotional state or the dynamic storytelling.

Janey showed her fantastic images each created a story on its own and the detailed elements such position of hands, fingers, reference to the particular period, Baroque, Dutch masters, Pre-Raphaelite to name a few.

In the second half Janey took us through the process of creating an image first in the Rembrandt style and then in Degas style using Photoshop. Janey produces her own textures and went through each step on how to achieve this.

HPIC Annual Competition - Oscars Night 16/06/21

Wednesday night was Oscars night and what a night it was. The annual prize giving evening is always a real highlight of the year for our members. We awarded our photographers trophies and certificates for their winning and runner up images in our upcoming Annual Exhibition.

Unlike previous awards evenings, this year was once again run virtually, so members supplied their own wine and nibbles as we perused the finalists' images. Although virtual, the evening was still full of excitement and anticipation as those shortlisted members waited to hear if they had won a coveted trophy or had their work recognised with a certificate.

Tony led the proceedings and we were lucky enough to also be joined by guests in the form of some of our judges, which was great to see.

The first half of the evening took us through each of the individual categories and prize giving. Then, after the break, we revisited the winning images with each author taking us through a brief description of how they had captured their image and what had inspired their creative process in editing and producing the final piece of work.

All in all the evening was an excellent precursor to our upcoming exhibition which will commence in Huddersfield on Thursday 8th July to Saturday 14th August. We hope to see you all there as we share our work with the wider public.