Last night was our first meeting, a Zoom presentation by Jeanette Lenden on Smart Phone photography. What an enthusiastic and animated speaker she was!! It was a very 'non-tecky' talk but I'm sure that everyone learned something about their phone and taking photos with it - I certainly did - and picked up some great tips. It was a very informative and entertaining talk, a shame that some people missed it.

Jeanette told us she would send through some useful links of stuff that she talked about, I will send this on to you all as soon as I receive it.

Wednesday 13th September is the final day for sending your images to the Competition Secretary - wdcccompetitions@gmail.com - for the September Competition - 'Flowers and Gardens' and the usual 'Open'. Full rules and instructions about sizing your images and naming the files etc. are on the website. It is open to paid up members of the club and everyone can enter up to 4 images.

Next week we will be meeting at Wellington Rugby club for a 'Members' Evening'. We are asking that as many members as possible bring in 6 - 10 images that illustrate 'My Summer' that they can briefly talk about. It's a great way of getting to know members and the types if images that we all like to take. Please email me or Diane - diane70.30@gmail.com - to let us know that you are going to show some images, and then please bring them in on a memory stick.

We will be offering tea/coffee and a biscuit for the door money which will now be £2.00. It is the first time that we have served refreshments at this venue so please bear with us while we sort out the best way to operate! We are 'doing our bit' by not using single use cups, so please bring your own mug for your cuppa.

We hope to see you all next week - with a mug!!

Jeanette's links etc:

1. Snapseed (editing). This is the app I use to edit my photos. There are lots of other ones out there - and if you are happy with using one already, then great. If you are looking for a good - free - app for phone editing, then I can totally recommend Snapseed. I have attached some notes re what Snapseed can do which I hope will be helpful Snapseed Notes. Within Snapseed itself, there are also some short tutorials which are well worth looking at (three little dots in the top right hand corner when in Snapseed). The downside of Snapseed is the very basic cloning. If I want something a bit more precise, I use Retouch, as mentioned below.

2. In case anyone is interested, here is the link to the stick on mirrors I mentioned - just in case anyone wants to get creative - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0919XSN31/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These ones are quite small, but you can get bigger ones too.

3. Instead of using the flash (which is horrible!!!), I either use this ‘lightsaber’ type fill in (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B9MNXHTX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) or this video light https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B097TC6NDJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. I have also attached a screenshot of the various selfie sticks/tripods that you can get from Amazon.

Selfie sticks:

Various selfie sticks/tripods

 

This isn’t an up to date list, but to be honest they are all pretty much of a muchness. Just make sure is has the detachable bluetooth remote.

4. Tiny people - These guys are pretty good for small people - https://northwesternmodels.co.uk/products/categories/n-gauge/people-n-gauge/ or Google ’model train set figures’ and lots come up. Lego figures work just as well too.

5. With regard the Apps I use, these are:-

Snapseed - editing
Retouch - much better for cloning and deleting objects than Snapseed although I think it is around the £7.99 price (but worth it!!!)
Image size - great for resizing images (dpi, cm, mm, inches).
Logolicious - great if you want to put your logo on things - absolutely rubbish name!!!
Erase.bg - great if you need to remove the background for something (cut out)
Upscale.media - Use to upscale your images and keep the detail.
Clos - iPhone - iPhone/ipad remote shooting
The Shutter App - android remote shooting (controlled by your laptop)
Slow shutter - long exposure app for when I want more than the iPhone’s inbuilt 2 second ‘live’ long exposure

I have attached a screenshot of these so you can see what they look like

Mobile Apps

 

I have no affiliation at all with any of these products - they are just what I use.

6. You may also be interested in this short article and video about how Nick Knight used AI in his Roses from my Garden Exhibition - https://flowerpowerdaily.com/nick-knight-roses-from-my-garden/ (I wouldn’t be able to do this justice talking about it, so I let Nick talk this through himself and this covers how it was achieved!!!).

7. This is the link to the Petapixel video about the ’Shot on iPhone’ advertising campaigns. Bearing in mind this was recorded in 2017, a lot has changed in the smartphone camera world since then!!! https://petapixel.com/2017/06/30/truth-shot-iphone-style-ads/

8. Here is the link to the clip on macro lenses too, just in case anyone would like any for stocking fillers at Christmas, birthdays, etc - https://www.jetblacksquares.com/shop/