Well, there's leaving on a high note photographically, and then there's leaving on a high note socially...And while, in a perfect world, it would have been nice to do both, taking out the Eric Robertson Trophy for Portraiture in the process, I'm actually really happy with the way my final Camera Club went...
The last few times that I've been there not all of my "friends and associates" have been present... it's been one or two of them on any given night, but not all of them at once... but tonight the Universe was smiling on me... Stu was there (mostly for "moral support", which was nice, because I'd already seen him earlier that day for the photo excursion I mentioned on Monday)... Cat was there... Mikey was there... even young River was there... so I was able to tell them all in turn (well except for Cat... Stu went and ratted me out before I got a chance to tell her) that tonight was my final appearance...
The only person who wasn't there was El Presidente... and he was the main one who I wanted to say "Thanks, but I'm so outie" to... double dammit...
But it was nice to be surrounded by friendly faces. There were probably a couple of other folks that I could have/should have told I was leaving, but they'll work it out on their own. Mikey, Stu and I even went out for coffee afterwards, which we haven't done in a while (and I swear, on a stack of swearable things, that the semi-cute, semi-woggy, semi-chubby, semi-short waiter boy was flirting with me when I was getting my coffee)...
And the Universe was obviously doubly smiling on me, because it sent me a judge for my final competition, who, although completely harsh in his scores and the occasional comment, was at least consistent... so consistent in fact that I got the same score for all three of my images...
Samuel (top left) from the Valentine's Camera Club... Alex (top right) from the June Competition... and Looking Out (bottom center) last seen at the last competition...
All sevens...
In fact, until he got to the entry that won, he hadn't given out anything higher than an 8... then the winning entry scored a 10... and yes, it was a striking image... it was also predictable and was of a model that I'm just fed up of seeing in Camera Club competitions...
Not that I need to worry about that any more...
So, yeah... for once I didn't actually want to dismember the judge or stick and pencil in his eye or anything... everyone I really wanted to see on my final night was there... and although I didn't win anything, I left feeling pretty good about the whole Camera Club experience...
It was what it was, and now it's all done... and on the upside, I still have my friendship with Stu, which is actually more important to me than the Club has been for a while...
Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to come a-running on the second Tuesday of the month when somebody texts me with the secret codeword "Coffee?"...
Current Mood:
3 comments:
I think you really hit it when you said that at least you got your friendship with Stu. I think a lot of times groups like that are really more useful as social gateways than actual events.
And by the way, you're a very good photographer :)
Congrats! So how is Mr. Robertson's trophy? ;-)
I'd say it's about 10 or so inches tall and very solid... :P
Course it's also inlayed with metal and gets ingraved once a year, but that doesn't sound so filthy...
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