Did goe to the Mandurah Camera Club laste night and was greatley entertained.
Any club that meets in a bistro with a bar and snacks is doing it right. This was the Mandurah Bowling club - new premises - and it has the advantage of being easy to find, easy to park, and serviced by a freeway.
Photographers are a funny lot. Sometimes funny haha and sometime funny hmmm. The Mandurah CC are funny fun - their photos were good and their welcome was warm. And there was a large roll-up...this is a club that is expanding. There were visitors other than myself last night and they were as warmly welcomed as I was.
Judging at club contests can be funny as well - some places I have felt that there are severe intra-club rivalries and I try to steer clear of favouring one person or one camp over another. Or at least keep an eye out for when the mood of the competition night turns and the first folding chair is thrown through the darkness and the scuffle begins. Then I run for the door.
Mandurah was not like that. They were out for a good time, had a good time, and showed me a good time. Everyone played nice. They even lined up for a group photo.
The set subject for the night was a self portrait taken by the contestant. They had rules that the person had to be operating the camera themselves - fortunately most of the modern cameras have ether some port for remote control ( And we sell remote controls. See, Saul, I'm selling...) or a self timer that will allow for 10 seconds of frantic posing.
There were a number of good images - one of which is actually a very good commercial proposition if someone cared to pursue it. One of the others - a Gold winner - has been shamelessly pinched by me for the heading image on this blog. I am a bad person for doing this, but the image was so delightful that I could not resist. It has colour, humour, and charm...and as it is a self portrait we can cheerfully say the same about the photographer.
