Don’t forget the deadline for our next competition, “This Working Life” is Friday, 6th of May
Slide Show Competition!
Following Ian Pyrah’s inspiring slide show at our last meeting, the MPC Committee has decided to add a slide show to our competition schedule next year. Slide shows were part of our competitions in the past and there’s even a trophy that was presented to the winner!
A date in April 2023 has been targeted for this competition. It’s worth remembering that you will need to have a different image displayed every three seconds when creating a slide show. A three – minute show will need around 60 images! It’s never too early to start thinking of the music, or the images, that you will use, as Ian reminded us last week.
Archive Competition
The Committee approved a proposal to allow club member’s to use a photograph from their personal archive for a special club competition each year. Photos older than 18 months can be entered in this special archive competition. Further details of the Archive Competition will be posted in due course.
New Membership Drive
The MPC Committee has recently initiated a membership drive. Beautiful posters advertising our club with contact details have been created by member Bill Tetlow to be displayed in local businesses and offices. Bill has also created handy pocket programmes detailing our club’s spring programme of activities and guest speakers that will be made available in the library, community centre, and local amenities to anyone interested in club activities. And we very recently distributed to members MPC business cards, designed and sourced for us by John Cole, that can also help with efforts to share our club contact details with businesses as well as personal contacts.
Please help in our efforts to grow our membership! If you notice a location where a poster or pocket programmes might attract attention of potential members please let Bill, or any member of the MPC Committee know and materials will be passed along to you or dropped off in suggested locations for display.
Of course the best method for attracting new members is through a personal contact and invitation. If you know someone who might have an interest in photography please invite them to come along to a meeting and consider becoming a member.
Thank you for your help; now looking ahead…
MPC Programme:
John Cole has the important role of developing and coordinating our club programme. His work includes searching for guest speakers who can join our meetings at the Masham Town Hall to provide in-person presentations on a great variety of topics.
With the help of club member Bill Tetlow we’re now fortunate to be able to enjoy presentations at the Town Hall delivered in real time by guest speakers located almost anywhere in the world using Zoom. The excellent digital hardware available for our use can make an online presentation an enjoyable and inspirational experience. We’re lucky to be able to widen our search for speakers using our in-house expertise and equipment. If you have suggestions for speakers near or far, and topics that you’re interested in learning more about, please share your ideas with John.
30 Photographs
I wanted to remind everyone about selecting your 30 photographs [for the 20-minute-Slots] Remember they can be ‘anything and everything’ in terms of what you include and all you need to do for the time being is to store them on a memory stick or on your computer.
Keeping It Simple!
A couple of members have asked for a bit more information on how best to save their photographs in order to make their presentation as easy and simple as possible. It would be best to number your images in the order that you’d like to present them. For example if the image you wish to show first is one you have named “My Favourite Tree”, you would rename this image as 01_Favourite tree. If the second image you wish to show is one you’ve named “My Holiday”, you would rename your image as 02_holiday.
If you can number and rename your images in this way you won’t need to use PowerPoint or any similar program and your presentation will be really easy to deliver when the time comes! If you’d like any assistance with this please don’t hesitate to ask. And please try to bring your 30/20 images to our next meeting if possible so that we can begin to store our presentations on the club computer.
The short film from John below tells you some more about this project – do let me know if you need any help on this one. Thirty photographs with 40 seconds of talking per image gives the club a 20 minute presentation slot.
John also organises and coordinates the presentations created by club members. It’s important that we have a “bank” of club presentations available to schedule for regular meetings but also to call into use when booked speakers cancel due to travel problems or illness. When this happens, often at the last minute, we need to call on members to provide us with a substitute presentation.
Your presentation could be a series of your favourite photos, a compilation of photos taken on a trip, editing tips, a presentation on a favourite photographer – there are many possibilities. Help is always nearby if you’d like any assistance with this.
Please contact John to share your ideas for a presentation.
MPC Competitions:
Competition rules have been updated and can be found in full here on the website
David Mason organises and coordinates MPC competitions, a key part club activities. If you have suggestions for topics please share them with David. Also please let him know if you’re willing to judge a competition and / or if you know someone who is not a member but who would be willing to be a competition judge.
MPC Website:
Chris Broadbent has taken on the important role of Webmaster for our website. He’ll regularly update information across the site and address problems that arise connected with access and navigation. If you experience a problem or have a question about the site please speak with Chris at a regular Tuesday meeting or contact him directly:
The website is a terrific resource for internal communication around our programme and special events, and especially for sharing our photographs with each other. The site also provides the general public with a window into our activities, the friendly ethos of the club, and our passion for photography.
Many thanks
Tom
Masham Photographic Club 