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Whether you consider weather (pun intended!) to be a good topic for a photographic competition, or not, just like Murcia’s sun it brought out some glorious photos from the members of the LADCC. From vast open beaches and quiet still mornings, it was the chance to showcase the power of the sea and poetry of the skies. Their lenses froze emotive weather scenes such as swirling clouds, fire and smoke-filled skies, dancing rain captured through windows and windscreens, reflected in puddles, and also the eerie calm before a storm. Our members all told a weather story through their photos, and the judges (the club members) had another tough time evaluating some great and unusual interpretations, some very abstract.

 

The overall winner this month was Bob Gasston with his photo which captured the power of the weather on the sea, as a normally perfect surfing beach in Western Australia was transformed into a raging force. Fortunately, Bob was on a safe part of the beach and, using a Canon 55-210 zoom lens, managed to create a photo that put the viewer a little bit closer to the action than normally possible! Members felt that this had truly captured the effect of weather on the sea, plus Bob used good natural light on the surge of water in front of the camera. Although he came out on top, his scoring ranged between 4 and 10 on technique and from 6-10 on artistic impression, showing how difficult members found it to judge this month. These are the two criteria that members need to vote on, to give their final scores. Scoring of photos is something that LADCC discuss regularly at their meetings in order to help members evaluate photos and also to give constructive feedback.

 

 

Despite Bob’s win, new member Julian Pering came out on top overall for his combined score for his two photos. With both photos also featuring the sea, he managed to captured more emotive scenes whilst photographing the sadness of a grounded vessel in the wind plus the early morning beauty and calm of the Mar Menor. His combined score was the highest of the year, many congratulations to Julian!

 

 

 

Next month’s topic ‘Negative Space’ is an unusually named one for those outside the photographic world. To clarify topic titles, the next month’s topic is discussed at the monthly meeting and explained in order to give guidance and ideas for the topic. This time, Richard Townend very kindly supplied the definition along with several links to videos and articles explaining the topic in more detail, and showing examples.

 

According to his guidance, Negative Space is a term used to describe an image where the main subject (positive space) occupies a relatively small area of the overall image, and that image is emphasised by the use of an unobtrusive, complementary, non-competing background which is referred to as the negative space. Examples of negative space include, but are not limited to, sky, water, sand, grass, walls, studio backgrounds etc. It can also be created by using a shallow depth of field. It will be interesting to see what the members have learnt next month!

 

The club usually meets twice a month, at the Las Claras centre in Los Alcázares, on the first Tuesday of every month and, often, an outing toward the end of the month, where the group gets together to collectively work on the topic for the monthly competition. With modern day technology they can all keep in contact for training sessions, sharing knowledge etc or more regularly via ‘group chats’.

 

They are interested in hearing from anyone who would like to join the club when the opportunity arises. You will be put on a waiting list and be contacted when a space becomes available. If you would like more information about the club, please do not hesitate to look at the website www.ladcc.es or email informationladcc@gmail.com.