The Main Monthly Meeting presentation on Tuesday 11 August 2009 will be given by Jeff Colwell. Jeff is well known to members for his expertise in digital photography. Tonight his aim is to focus on aspects of interest to people who take photographs when holidaying and to contrast the fundamentals of digital with those of film photography of the recent past. Using film era terminology, today holiday makers are "clicking away " (without click sounds) with their digital camera and are being delighted with the resulting "snapshots". The "You press the button, we do the rest" of Eastman Kodak for the Box Camera produced after the invention of the film camera in 1881 could now be replaced by "You press the button, a computer does the rest" for the digital camera. The digital results generally look great on a monitor or TV screen and likewise in the prints produced by photo shops at little cost.

Jeff thinks the serious photographer can generally do at least a bit better by applying knowledge about the fundamentals of digital photography, both when taking snaps and printing them with a computer and digital printer. ”Personally, I much prefer a coffee table book/album of photos for viewing by friends, rather than the type of slide show that I used to present years ago with photo transparencies, and I enjoy reliving holidays with their production.”

“At the end, time permitting, I plan to show some photos taken on a recent holiday in southern Africa illustrating the use of the digital techniques - not merely a travelogue.” says Jeff.

Be on time (7pm for a 7:30 start) and stay for a cuppa afterwards when you can get Jeff to reveal more of his secrets about taking memorable pictures on your holidays.

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POST-MEETING NOTE: The August MMM was a presentation by Jeff Colwell on digital photography while on holiday in South Africa. Jeff's talk revealed several informative points about the taking of good holiday photographs.  Jeff described, for example, software available free from Microsoft that allows the composition of panoramas.  He also demonstrated the facility on some modern digital cameras to make a good composite photo from three images taken at different exposure levels - solving problems caused by excessive light and shade in a particular scene. I am very grateful to Jeff for volunteering to give this presentation. There was a lot in Jeff's presentation to keep the audience interested, including glimpses of some of his excellent holiday photographs.