Hugh Sykes

[hsykes]

Hi folks

I joined NCP a few years ago and gain enormous pleasure from taking part in our excellent meetings, competitions and outings. I find the club very welcoming and helpful to new members of all standards.

My initial aim of trying to improve on “point and shoot” photography was to get a reasonable proportion of acceptable family, travel and landscape photos - I previously threw most of my photos away! Retirement, digital photography and its integration with computers re-kindled my enthusiasm.

I enjoy the process of taking a photo. You gain more enjoyment form your surroundings and the light when you try to take good photos. I also get a buzz when other people enjoy my photos.

I take most of my photos as a bi-product of some other activity - travel, family, bush walking and local outings. I have added sport and wildflower photography to my interests. My time to take each photo is usually limited and I need to work with sub-optimal lighting. However, I also try to take more artistic photos for competitions – a challenge for an ex-engineering/ project management “left brained” type I am trying to improve my hit-rate of acceptable and good photos by participating in club activities, personal study and lots of trial and error. Over time, I hope that skill will replace luck as the main factor in my results.

I invite you to view my photo album web-site at:

http://www.pbase.com/hugh_vincent

Hugh

[sjacka]

Hi Hugh,

I have been enjoying your photos.
So far I've looked at the Japan trip which brings back fond memories when I spent 2 weeks there when I was 16.
The photos are very beautiful. The lighting is kind and the blossom subjects irresistible. THEN I saw you had been to the State theatre on the tour. I have just found this and intend to get some friends together to do the tour. I'll have to come back to your site as I need to keep working on our AV for the February meeting.
I was president for 2 years before asking Susan to take on the position. She wondered if she could do the job. Well...history has show how capable she is.
Don't know if we've met but I'll look out for you at the meetings. I new everyone when I was president but as the club has grown it's hard to meet everyone.
I'm interested in the site you used for your images and should do the same with mine. I have a few on the "members photos" link from the club site.
Cheers for now and thanks for sharing your inspiring photos.

Sandy Jacka

[hsykes]

Hi Sandy

Thank you for your kind comments on my album web-site.

Japanese gardens , temples and shrines look very photogenic to me. The designers went to a lot of trouble to compose views that would make pleasing pictures from many view points.

The State Theatre is interesting but the lighting conditions are challenging. I would recommend using a tripod if you are keen to take good images. It would also be helpful to take an ExpoDisk or other method of measuring colour temperature. I had neither item when I visited the place!

I adopted the P-Base (http://www.pbase.com) because Ryde Eastwood Leagues Camera Club uses it for its web-site and I am a member of that club as well as NCP. P-Base is cheap and easy to use. My site got a bit out of hand. Its main purpose was to show our children and grandchildren where we had been on our travels. Then in 2008 we got the amazing oportunity to stay in the UK at low cost for eight months and tour Europe and Egypt from there!

I enjoyed the photos you posted on our members pages, particularly the portraits, underwater images and the photo of Humbug Bay Tasmania.

I look forward to having a chat at our next meeting.

All the best and good shooting.

Hugh