Bookham Camera Club: Blog

Superzoom Lens Test

(Bookham Camera Club) — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 17:05:19 GMT

For some time now I have looked at the users of the Sigma and Tamron 150 - 600mm superzooms with curiosity and wondered how they compared to Canon options.

Being and owner and regular user of a Canon 400mm f/4.0 DO IS lens I wanted to test this against these superzooms and a Canon 100 - 400mm option at 400mm and see what the other lenses looked like at 600mm.

London Camera Exchange in Guildford obliged and I was able to take images with both the Contemporary and Sports versions of the Sigma 150 - 600 mm lenses and with a Canon 100 - 400 mm with a 1.4 teleconverter attached to compare with my Canon 400 mm DO.

The results were very interesting with the Sigma contemporary appearing to be marginally sharper and having more contrast then all the other lenses.

If anyone would like to see the test images then please feel free to get in touch.

Eddie Hyde

Nature Group meeting

(Bookham Camera Club) — Wed, 24 May 2017 17:05:53 GMT

The Nature Special Interest Group met last night, 23rd May 2017, for a very entertaining evening of member images, largely from a trip that some of the group had had to the British Wildlife Centre for Photographers days which enabled them to go inside the enclosures. Bob Lennox gave a very useful talk on attention to backgrounds and we discussed the judging of nature images following a recent meeting of the SPA judges at which this was the main agenda item.

SPA Inter Club PDI Competition 13th May 2017

(Bookham Camera Club) — Thu, 18 May 2017 18:00:43 GMT

Bookham have been declared the runners up at the SPA Interclub PDI competition ahead of Windelsham, both on 215 points after a countback under rule 17.
Bookham, along with winners Godalming, will now represent the SPA at the national inter-federation competition held by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain in June 2018.

Bookham also came second in the Nature Class, tying with Windelsham on 115 points.

Congratulations are due to our top scorers:
Gerry Middleton Stewart who scored 14 for "Screw City"
Paul Mitchell who scored 13 for "The Crew Returns" and received a judges prize for "Small Eruption on Mount Semeru"
Gary Margetts who scored 13 for "Stonechat"

Walk On By

(Bookham Camera Club) — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 12:56:18 GMT

At the meeting on 2nd March, Two of the clubs Special Interest Groups will be giving presentations:

The Nature Group and Walk on By.

Nature needs no introduction but what is Walk On By?

Well, this started when it occurred to me that:

as photographers we make life difficult for ourselves when we are forever seeking evermore exciting subjects to photograph which often involve considerable time and expenditure to get to and
ignore the subject matter that surrounds us in our everyday lives that
some skilled photographers can turn into beautiful or thought provoking images

In other words, it is about developing the skills to photograph the things that we would normally "Walk On By".

Walk on By has an overlap with Street Photography. So, people are legitimate Walk on By subject as well, providing they are part of a scene that is not a classic shot.

Having had the initial idea, I asked Chris Bussicott to take leadership of the group as I knew Chris was a great exponent of this skill and with Monica providing feedback, she being our Walk On By "Yoda". Chris has lead the group with great enthusiasm but will unfortunately be away on the 2nd. So I will introduce the group, some of our members will talk about their images and Monica will chip in with commentary and sum things up for us.

I think you will be impressed!

Pay close attention because we are bringing in elements of Walk On By as part of a theme for next season! Monica will give a Walk On By presentation, Steve Kingswell will talk on some techniques that can be applied (to this and any other genre) and Alan Thompson will gibe a talk on local photography. There will also be (subject to confirmation) a Set Subject Competition based on Walk On By.

regards

Eddie

Exhibition 2017

(Bookham Camera Club) — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 16:40:30 GMT

1. We are pleased to inform you that this year’s Exhibition will run from Tuesday am 4th - Friday 28th April at The Leatherhead Theatre. This is an opportunity for members to showcase their work and to “fly the flag” for the Club in a public arena. We have seen some excellent images this year and we would like all of you to participate by submitting print and/or PDI images. These don’t have to be images used in competitions but those you personally would like to see displayed. We hope that by giving you early notice it will give you plenty of time to prepare. We would ask you particularly to please note the important changes we are making in curating the exhibition this year.

2. The date for the judging and Open night will move from our usual Thursday slot to Wednesday 5thApril. Our judge this year is Bob Webzell. There will be 2 new trophies this year; one for the best print and one for the best PDI. All members and guests will be offered a complementary glass of wine or a soft drink on arrival but subsequent drinks may be purchased from the cash bar.

For full instructions see the Exhibition article in the Useful Information Section (top menu).

Advanced Photoshop Techniques 1

(Bookham Camera Club) — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:47:04 GMT

To accompany the talk on 23rd February this year (2017) on Advanced Photoshop Techniques: Adding a New Sky (Covering Layers, Selections, Blend Modes and De-Haloing), a set of comprehensive notes has been added to the Useful Information dropdown menu.

Eddie Hyde

Christmas Function

(Bookham Camera Club) — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 20:20:54 GMT

The camera club will be celebrating Christmas / The New Year with a buffet costing about £15.00 per head at the club (Eastwick Road Church Hall) on 12th January 2017. More details to follow

Maunsell Forts

(Bookham Camera Club) — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 18:11:50 GMT

A subset of the club (7 of us) had a fantastic outing on Sunday 28th August to visit the Maunsell Forts at Red Sands in the Thames Estuary. We left from Rochester on the good ship X-Pilot and sailed out through the Medway and into the estuary. A great day was had by all and the forts themselves make for a sight like no other. If you see any new images appear on the website that look like they're from a SciFi movie then chances are they're the Maunsell Forts.

Dungeness

(Bookham Camera Club) — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:59:15 GMT

Bookham CC have just been to the UK photographers equivalent of Mecca: Dungeness!

That well worn corner of England that make Camera Club judges groan when they see the resultant images in competitions: "Oh No! Not another one of the infamous shack etc."

Well, we just had to!

It really is an amazing place.

Welcome

(Bookham Camera Club) — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:55:20 GMT

Welcome to the new Bookham Camera Club website.

We thought it was about time we had a refresh. Our old website was limited on space and we couldn't get any more of our fantastic photographers images on there!

So, here it is - our brand new look.

We hope you like it.