2014
Mark Kelly was our presenter in March. Mark exhibits regularly at the Milk Factory in Bowral, and he is a versatile photographer who enjoys photographing a variety of subjects. He showed a series of vibrant autumn images, then a collection of colourful abstracts which were macro shots of old rusting cars. Many of these abstract patterns are used on a new range of beautiful silk scarves, which Mark showed us, and even allowed us to touch! He demonstrated some of his post processing techniques, and also encouraged us to have a bit of fun with the Snapseed photo app.
In October we had our annual Creative Competition. Dawn Zandstra achieved first while Jan Glover and Prue Platt-Hepworth tied equal first in the popular choice.
The photo shows Dawn Zandstra.
At the AGM in November Alison Seccombe took over the position of President from John Chapman. The membership debated whether to move to Club Willoughby on a Tuesday night but with considerable opposition the committee decided to wait until a better offer became available.
In November we had our friendly Interclub Challenge with Lane Cove and Mosman Camera Clubs.
The subject was “e-motion”, purposefully designed to be ambiguous and open to interpretation. Each club showed ten prints and the critiquing was moderated by Susan Buchanan, Jim Crew and Yvonne Lewington.
The photo shows Jim Crew from Lane Cove Camera Club.
John Chapman organised the last outing of the year. It is incredible how very diverse attractions were available in such a small area: the spectacular Bald Hill lookout, waterfalls, a disused railway tunnel, a Hindu temple and the very colourful rock formations of Coledale.
Our first meeting of the year was a social night and members had an opportunity to demonstrate their creativity in interpreting the subject “selfies”. Steve Mullarkey did an excellent job of commenting on the entries, and gave the top award to Peter Steele.
As happens every second year this is the year of the portfolio. Susan again generously offered her house for the monthly meetings and also the mentoring. It culminated by a most impressive display of works in November.
Shirley Steel was the first presenter of the year and her influence showed in Portfolio 2015.
Susan Buchanan and Carolyn Pettigrew introduced us to the delights of Venice in winter.
Outings included a day at the races, joining in the Chinese New Year, trips to Kurnell, Mt Annan, North Narrabeen, the fish market and a week-end in Mittagong.
NCP provided an exhibit and information centre at the Chatswood Library during the Vivid Lights festival. It was followed by an exhibition of our work at the Willoughby Council and then to the Ku-ring-gai Council Chambers.
Steve Mullarkey and Trevor Nash presented a very illuminating workshop on flash.
Andrew Chittenden presented a very successful workshop on Lightroom.
NCP also made a presentation at the North Sydney Camera Club. The use of alternative processes and creativity left their members spellbound.
Instructions for the NCP Creative Competition were to “go wild with your imagination” and that was obviously what members did. Congratulations to Prue Platt-Hepworth who scooped the pool, winning first prize for one of her entries and the popular vote for another!!
Jan Glover was the winner of the Top Shot with her stunning photograph of trees in the mist.
At the AGM Alison accepted to remain president for a second year.
2016
Our President is Alison Seccombe and we are still meeting at Lindfield Uniting Church.
Our February social night challenge was “Same but Different”.
Outings included Wisemans Ferry, Paddington Reservoir Gardens, Flemington Markets, Cape Banks, Vaucluse House, North Head Sanctuary.
Enjoyable weekends away were to Norah Head in April/May, Goulburn in October.
Judges for the year included Meredith Schofield, Pauline Plumb, John Slaytor, Len Metcalf, Len Brown, Des Crawley, Allan Coker.
Presenters were Valerie Martin (Travel), Peter Elfes (The Green Desert), Alfonso Calero (Texture), Luke Tscharke (Award Winning Photography), David Knight (Creative Portraiture), Michael Snedic (Wildlife Photography), Mike Stacey (Portraiture).
In August Steve Mullarkey gave us a comprehensive understanding of Raw Processing in a Saturday afternoon workshop at the hall.
Competitions in May and August were replaced by Image Review Nights. An informal competition “May the fourth be with you” inspired many different interpretations.
The topic of the Interclub night in September at Lane Cove was “Environment”.
Several members attended the Blue Mountains Photography Group workshop at Blaxland, where Tony Hewitt was the keynote speaker, and our own Susan Buchanan presented a workshop on “Building a Body of Work”.
In August members of Norths Photographic Society brought along their work to show us.
A new electronic entry form for competitions was introduced, and members must now register the titles of the print and EDI entries via the form on the website.
Our Photo Rally subject was “Markets”.
A members’ presentation night in June attracted prints, photobooks, electronic images and audiovisuals.
At the December Gala Night, Steve Mullarkey won the Topshot of the Year with his colour print “That Wanaka Tree again”. Judith Bennett’s portrait “Hard times” won the monochrome award, and Alison Seccombe won the EDI section with “Before the Storm”.
Peter Steele won the Overall Annual Point Score, followed by Dawn Zandstra and Jan Glover.
2017
Our President is John Pettett.
It’s a Portfolio Year – our seventh!, and to get us started Prof. Des Crawley in conjunction with Susan Buchanan presented a workshop “Evaluating your images”. 44 members attended. The Portfolio exhibition was held on 15thNovember. Dawn Zandstra produced a beautiful book featuring the portfolios of the participants.
The subject of our Photo Rally is “Railways” and Malcolm McKay was the winner with an image taken at Trainworks, Thirlmere.
We are given a grant of $1,500 from Ku-ring-gai Council to purchase a new projector and screen. The new projector offers two and a half times the detail of the old projector.
Outings included the Maritime Museum and Cazneaux Exhibition, Penrith White Water Rafting Stadium for the Australian Open Canoe Slalom, Mardi Gras, Astrophotography with Luke Tscharke at Turimetta, Circular Quay and The Rocks, Trainworks at Thirlmere, Darling Harbour and Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition, Somersby Falls and Glenworth Valley, Newtown.
Our Weekends Away – Bathurst (March), Mystery Bay (October) were most enjoyable.
Competition judges included Len Brown, Michael Smyth, Malcolm Fackender, Jim Crew, Dr Roy Killen,
Presenters were Luke Tasharke (Starry Nights), Brett Patman (The Lost Collective), Alfonso Calero (Environmental Portraiture), Meredith Schofield (Hybrid Shooting), Peter Eastway (The Art of Travel and Landscape Photography). What a talented lot!
We took up Meredith Schofield’s challenge of shooting 12 images only (without deleting) and producing a contact sheet.
Susan Buchanan and Jan Glover were awarded Life Memberships for their contribution to the club over many years.
Our annual Creative Competition was won by Carol Abbott.
We entered the audio-visual competition organised by Hornsby Heights Camera Club, and participated in the “friendly” interclub competition with Lane Cove and Mosman clubs – the theme was “Atmosphere”.
The Topshot Award in December was won by Dawn Zandstra for her EDI entry “Vista” Alison Seccombe’s “Geometrics” won the Colour Print award, and Jan Glover’s “Camel Rock” won the Monochrome Print award.
The Competition Overall Point Score was won by Jan Glover, with Steve Mullarkey and Peter Steele tying for a close second place.
2018
Weekends away were to Scone for the Horse Festival in May, and Wollongong in October.
Competition judges included mark Kelly, Sandra Dann, Len Metcalf, Tanya du Toit.
Outings were to Cockatoo Island, the Mardi Gras, a dawn shoot at Mona Vale, Taronga Zoo, Windsor, Wildwood Garden at Bilpin, Scheyville and Cattai National Parks.
Presenters included Pamela Pauline, John Swainston, Malcolm Fackender, John Dobson, Mark Kelly, Sandra Dann.
Winners included Alison Seccombe for the “Beach Ghosts” on our opening night, Judith Bennett for her winning Photo Rally image of a gorilla.
Other activities included our exhibition “You are here” in August at the Willoughby Council Foyer Gallery; a visit to the Old St Thomas Chapel at Narellan where Kylie Lyons organised a model shoot for us. In October we participated in the Interclub challenge with Lane Cove and Mosman clubs – the theme was “Temptation”.
At Gala Night in December, Peter Steele won first place in the Annual Point Score competition, with 3 equal runners-up – Jan Glover, Rod Lowe and Steve Mullarkey. Steve won the Overall Topshot Award with his monochrome print “Old Man of the Kimberley”, Alison Seccombe won the Colour Topshot award with “Mt Robson” and Jan Glover won the EDI Topshot Award with “Manly Ferry”.
In November Judith Bennett took over as President from John Pettett. The committee decided to make an important change to the competition rules and limit the number of entries to two each month.
2019
Another memorable Portfolio Year mentored by Susan Buchanan. Over thirty enthusiastic participants produced stunning work to display at the end of year Portfolio Exhibition. Dawn Zandstra organised the production of the large full-colour book, featuring all portfolios.
Outings included David Goldblatt at the MCA, Mardi Gras, Eveleigh Railway Workshops, La Perouse and Bare Island, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Muogamarra Nature Reserve, Cabramatta Moon Festival, Photographic Studio at the Powerhouse Museum. In August some members observed the live judging of the APPA awards (Australian Professional Photography Awards).
Judges included Mark Kelly, Tanya du Toit.
Presenters – Michael Snedic (Nature photography), Nuran Zorlu (Architecture across the Middle East), Jacqui Dean (Focus Stacking), Alia Naughton (How to create a stunning audio visual), Peter Eastway (Publishing and Photography), Luke Tscharke (Landscape and travel Photography), Markus Anderson (Documentary Street Photography), Tanya du Toit (Creative Portraiture), David Oliver (Creative Travel Photography)
Weekends Away – Canberra in May, Jervis Bay (Huskisson) in November.
Our Photo Rally topic for May was Fortresses and Castles.
The subject for the Interclub Competition hosted by Lane Cove Creative Photography was “Nostalgia”.
Gala Night and Topshot winners: Winner of the overall Topshot Award and 1st Place in EDI was Dawn Zandstra with “Simplicity”. Steve Mullarkey won the Mono Topshot award with “Country Road” and Jan Glover won the Color Topshot award with “Painted Forest”.
Winner of the Overall Pointscore was Hemant Kogekar, follow by Jan Glover and Steve Mullarkey.
Rod Lowe was the highest scorer in Mono prints, Phil Cargill in EDI and Judith Bennett in Colour.
2020
Our year started well with a several meetings at the hall before Covid-19 forced us to hold our meetings remotely via Zoom. With few outings on the agenda, monthly photo challenges proved to be popular.
February - a social night challenge: 20/20 Vision, won by Judy Watman, and we enjoyed watching the Audio Visual of our Jervis Bay weekend from November 2019.
Pamela Pauline presented “Artistic Photography of Australian Flora and Fauna”.
March - we showed our skills and imagination in the Creative Competition, judged by Mark Kelly. Our annual outing to the Mardi Gras resulted in some great photos.
April - Our competition was judged by Leanne Alessi.
Members attended weekend Photoshop workshops presented by Michael Smyth of Phototutor, just in time before physical meetings were suspended because of the Covid-19 shutdown.
‘Why Monochrome?” was the subject of a very informative slideshow and presentation by Steve Mullarkey and others, with over 40 members attending the Zoom presentation. We were now becoming experts in Zoom language – Screen sharing, mute microphone, background image etc.
May- Our competition judge Tom Toby was eloquent and helpful whilst judging the 73 entries. Next meeting Libby Jeffery from Momento Photobooks presented “How to make a stunning photobook” – with very welcome hints for members doing our photobook project this year.
June - we held an image review night, and the winner of our “Autumn” Photo Rally was announced – congratulations to Fran Brew for her image “Autumn Lane”.
Timothy and Robin Moon gave a most enjoyable and informative presentation of their award winning landscape and wildlife photographs.
July saw our Open competition, and another excellent Zoom presentation "Monochrome Visions" by Douwe (Dex) Dijkstra.
August - Our competition "Simplicity" was judged by Sandra Dann, and 10 images were chosen to represent NCP in the upcoming friendly Interclub competition.
Jackie Ranken and Mike Langford gave a presentation from New Zealand on "Creative Travel Photography".
September - the Interclub friendly competition with Lane Cove and Mosman Clubs was held on Zoom. Suellen Cook presented her work depicting wonderful imaginary worlds. A small group of members visited the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens.
October - the set subject 'Monochrome" competition was judged by Dex Dijstra. Presenter Frederico Rekowski inspired us with his passion to tell viual stories.
Our weekend away to Coonabarabra, the Warrumbungles and the Pilliga was enjoyed by a group of members and spouses.
November - our AGM saw Shane Clarkson elected President, taking over from Judith Bennett who had been our excellent leader for the past two years. There was an outing to the New Sydney Zoo.
During the year around 17 members had been working on their "Photo Book Project" on a topic of their choice. The printed books were delivered to Momento Books for reviewing by Libby Jeffrey. On presentation night extracts from each book were shown by slideshow with comments by Libby. Momento vouchers were awarded to Maureen Rogers. Judith Bennett, and Jan Glover.
December - our Topshot and "Gala" night via Zoom. Members voted online for Topshot entries prior to the evening - John Pettett was the winner with an iconic monochrome image of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Hemant Kogekar was the winner of the annual point score.
To finish the year a very enjoyable picnic punch was held at Tunks Hill in Lane Cove National Park with around 20 members attending.
