Welcome all to the start of the new year with CBPC.  We are hoping to get back to LIVE meetings as soon as we can but we will continue with our themes and ZOOM calls as we did last year.  

I am going to outline the theme categories for the next year to give everyone time to plan their shots.

We relied heavily on themes last year to help us through the pandemic and it is only through the active participation of our members that the program was successful.  We need as many of our members to contribute, besides being fun it also is a learning process as you get to see everyones pics and their interpretation of the themes.

SEPTEMBER – “Pick a Patch” – This one needs some explanation, basically you pick a location, that is about 4 Metres by 4 Metres.  You can photograph anything within that area.  It can be anywhere, in your house, your garden, the beach, anywhere.  The rule is that all three of your pictures must be from objects within that space.  

The goal here is to really look at your surroundings, look at tiny compositions, at unique relationships that might exist.  As photographers our personal mission is to look at the world in detail to see the things that others might miss.

OCTOBER – “Food” – Be a product photographer for a day.  Anything that you can eat is food and is fair game this month.  Cooked or raw, it doesn’t matter.  Edward Weston found beauty in peppers and cabbages, what can you find?

NOVEMBER – “Things that begin with the letter M”.  Mother, Moose, Marigolds or Mustangs.  Whatever begins with the letter M is fair game.  Interesting to see what everyone comes up with here.

DECEMBER – “Things that bring you Joy” – Why not at this time of year.  Time to reflect on what happiness is and what brings you that happiness.

JANUARY – “B&W” – A recurring theme at this time of year as hopefully our B&W competition will be up and running next spring.  Set your camera to monochrome and set off looking for that great B&W capture.  Think contrast, think wide tonal ranges from pure whites to black blacks.  Check out Ansel Adams Zone system for some inspiration.

FEBRUARY – “Repeating Shapes” – All around us, especially in our man made world are repeating shapes.  Seek them out and capture them.

MARCH – “Trees or Bark” – Didn’t really have to include bark because it would be a part of a tree theme but I wanted everyone to really think about and explore the delicate detail of trees.  

APRIL – “Fences” – You can be creative here, a fence is anything that defines a space.  Lots of very cool fences out there just waiting to be found.

MAY – “Abstract”  PLUS  “Crescent Beach Pier” –  This is a little confusing sooo, we have two themes for the month.  Firstly we have “Abstract” ,similar to our theme for March of last year.  More on that later when we get closer to May.  Secondly we have any photo of the Crescent Beach Pier taken anytime between now and the end of May.  No archived photos of the pier.  I want everyone to keep the pier in mind throughout this year and visit often with camera in hand.  Might be a snowy day or foggy or night or early morning or sunset.  Look at the pier from different angles, when the tide is in or out, try to capture something unique.

And that should be it for the next year.  Again I really want to encourage as many entries each month as possible.  A club is only as strong as its members and participation will make our club strong.

The rules for entering the monthly themes is as follows;

Image submission details:

Image Sizing: 

Landscape oriented image    1400 pixels on the long side

Portrait oriented image          1050 pixels on the long side

Naming convention – YourName-PhotoTitle.jpeg

The following three submission options are open to you:

1. Three new images (taken this month) 

or 

2. Two new images, (taken this month) plus one image from your archives.

or

3. One or two images (taken this month).

The submission option that requires that images be taken in the month of the theme is a must.  It is easy to dig up old pics from your archives but that is not the purpose of the monthly themes.  They are meant to encourage everyone to get out with their camera on a regular basis.  In order to be fair, everyone must follow the rules. 

Send your photos to me within the first week of the following month. (ie. September themes will need to be sent to me by the first week of October)  I will get them judged and will forward them to Brian to be put on our website.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Mike Strong