birthday camera club

Yep... only three images for Camera Club this time around... I'm seriously running out of photos and need to take some more so I actually have something to enter...

No, what I actually need is a job, so I can afford to both do more shoots AND get reprints done...

But that's a lament for another time...

I slightly overdid my self-made Birthday dinner of Tandoori Chicken wraps this evening, so I was feeling a little overstuffed when I got there, so Stu, Cat and I ended up sitting up the back on the not overly comfortable wooden benches... on the plus side it meant that we could giggle and snicker, but we do that anyway... so... the downside was that after listening to the judge drone on and on and on the benches become less comfortable.

The Club seems to be attracting a few degree of hot new guy members... there are a couple of guys who came together (although not in a Brokeback Mountain kind of way... I don't think)... who I remember perving on at the last photoshoot... the cute American guy with the dreadlocks, who, as I discovered is called Seth... the new "junior" member, who can't be more than about 15 (he's not hot, but he's young and male so he gets included)... although his "minder" (brother? father? cousin? family friend? I haven't quite worked out their relationship as yet, but said minder did eyeball me twice after I commented to Junior about what he should do with a couple of his shots while he was taking them down after the judging)... and the guy who turned up for the first time today who was very cute in a big, tall, strapping blonde way, and who, because I was sitting around not actually doing anything, came over to me and asked if I could tell him who he needed to talk to about joining the Club....

Unfortunately, because none of the Committee Members were actually there at that stage I couldn't, but I did tell him a little about how the club works before El Presidente turned up and I turned Random Blonde (I never did get his name) over to him. So it's looking like there's new young, male blood in the club... now if only we could get young male blood in the photos and the judging... *sigh*

We've had the judge once before (actually we've had all the judges before) but I don't actually remember him, just that that particular meeting went on and on and on... it sounds like it was probably the first competition night of last year, that seemed to go forever.

He was a judge who liked what he liked and it had to wow him... and he didn't like softer lighting... I knew I was kind of dead in the water right there...

In the end Golden Light, Silver Water (bottom center), the only shot I did that was actually within the Set Subject for tonight contest (and came from the billion shots that Stu and I took at Heritage Shoot) got a 7... which I kind of expected wouldn't score that highly since it was the first try at getting something printed from my digital camera, and I think I got them to print it a size too large... then Blue Tease (top left) also got a 7... for some reason the judges automatically think that any shot containing men in their underwear where the brand name is visible must be an attempt to sell said underwear brand... stoopid judges... finally Male Form (top right) got an 8, which was a surprise because although I like it, it's actually a soft shot because the camera's auto focus kicked in my accident when I was taking it, and focused on the point of his elbow, rather than either his face or body, I'm not sure which now, leaving the shot just soft...

As I mentioned before, after the judging I briefly spoke to "Junior" about the male portrait shot he took at the Heritage Shoot and how he should crop it and that he should enter it in the B Grader Portrait Contest that's coming up in the not too distant future (damn... at the time I couldn't remember when the contest was, but I just remembered it's the meeting after next, because it's partially tied in with the outcome of the next meeting)... and subsequently got eyeballed by his Minder, twice... stoopid Minder...

Coffee was slightly less fun than it could have been because there were a couple of people with us who just annoy me, but I mostly spoke to Mikey about an upcoming shoot he's doing... then Cat turned up at the cafe, late, but with Seth and one of the other members in tow... but he sat on the other side of the table so there really wasn't a great deal of opportunity to chat with him... worse luck.

Addendum: I was about halfway through this post when the ever lovely J (you know, I really should have gone with Jay instead of the single letter... it would make it so much easier to link to just his name) messaged me on MSN to wish me Happy Birthday (actually he messaged me with a voice chat request so he could SING Happy Birthday to me) and we ended up having an hour and a quarter voice chat... so I'm backdating this post a little... in case anyone cares...

Current Mood: