CLUB NEWS - EVENTS
GCC MEMBERS CLUB NIGHT 26/04/23 – The Psychology of Colour
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This evening, our club member Sheryle Griffiths gave a presentation on “The Psychology of Colour”. Sheryle explained that colour psychology is the study of how different colours affect human mood and behaviour. The presentation explores how colours can influence emotional responses, as well as how responses to colour are affected by factors such as age and cultural background.
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The presentation covered the history and influences of colour from its use in ancient times through to modern times and in our everyday lives.
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Isaac Newton’s discovered that when white light is projected through a prism, it is separated into all visible colours and as a result he created a rudimentary colour wheel. Philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe introduced darkness as an active ingredient to Newtons colour wheel and the colour wheel became constructed of warm and cool colours. He later devised a 12 step colour wheel and the principles he devised to combine colour are still the most widely used today. Perhaps his most fascinating theories explored the psychological impact of different colours on mood and emotion.
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Sheryle illustrated with images how colours have a range of symbolic and emotional meanings such as:
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Red: Passion, excitement, love
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Purple: Mysterious, noble, glamorous
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Blue: Wisdom, hope, reason, peace
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Green: Nature, growth, freshness
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Yellow: Hope, joy, danger
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Orange: Warmth, kindness, joy
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White: Truth, indifference
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Black: Noble, mysterious, cold
Not only do colours affect our emotions but also surprisingly can affect our taste in foods and drinks.
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Also illustrated was how colour can affect human behaviour such as in marketing and influencing purchases on websites. Of course, companies are aligned with colours that are tuned to their marketing and branding. Think McDonalds, Amazon, Ford, Apple and Coca Cola as examples and how important a role colour plays in how their brand is perceived.
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This presentation illustrated notably, if photographing in colour, how colours are employed in an image to invoke feelings and emotions in the viewer.
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GCC MEMBERS CLUB NIGHT 19/04/23 – Guest Speaker Steve Day
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The evening was devoted to our guest speaker Steve Day who is an award winning black & white fine art architectural and urban photographer.
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Since childhood Steve has had a fascination with architecture and cityscapes, and so he gravitated to photographing architectural subjects which has become his passion.
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Steve works primarily in black and white, frequently using long exposure techniques to conceive his vision. He enjoys creating moody minimalist images that emphasises the form, structure, the light and shadows produced by these man-made structures and landscapes.
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Steve is self-taught and his work has been published in several domestic and international magazines.
Steve walked us through his vision, tools, techniques and post processing workflow using Lightroom, Photoshop and a Photoshop plug-in from renowned fine art architecture photographer, Joel Tjintjelaar.
During the session he showed us images from his portfolio commencing with the images of his early days as he ventured into this genre of photography. His images were captured in a variety of locations including Melbourne, New York and London. He also exhibited in many instances the original captured image and the resultant post-processed image. The images were always dramatically “lit” for a minimalist look and feel, precise in form and devoid of humanity.
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This was a somewhat interactive session as members were very interested in Steve’s subject matter, the steps to get the final image and Steve fielded questions during and after his presentation.
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GCC MEMBERS CLUB NIGHT 12/04/23 – Guest Speaker Brett Ferguson
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The evening was devoted to our guest speaker Brett Ferguson who is a professional and an award winning portrait photographer.
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The session was devoted to a presentation and a practical session of portrait lighting, modelling, gear and a Q&A segment.
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Brett commenced providing information about his photographic journey which was supplemented with a presentation of many of his excellent portraiture images. He spoke of and demonstrated how several family treasured outfits used by his children and other models contributed to establishing photographic themes in the early days of exploring portraiture photography.
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A very able and willing club member, Gloria, volunteered to be Brett’s model as he demonstrated a variety of equipment, modelling, lighting, settings and techniques for portraiture. He took time to explain each and every move – simultaneously fielding audience questions – and the reasons why. This demonstration also resulted in Brett explaining his preferred “signature” portraiture lighting set-up.
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A very practical, informative and interactive evening filled with some very inspirational portrait photography that the membership found interesting, helpful and provided lots of information and ideas when next undertaking portrait photography.
GCC APRIL COMPETITION MEETING 05/04/23
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The club competition, held on 5th April for Open Prints, Open EDI's and Set Subject EDI's (Trees & Forests), was adjudicated by guest judge Nigel Beresford from Drouin whose photography interests extends to birds & nature, street, macro and architecture.
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A fabulous turn-out for the night that saw a record number of competition entries in total. A heavy workload for Nigel who did an excellent job in judging and providing commentary on all entries.
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During the judging, Nigel remarked on ensuring that there is a focal point in the image. Whilst some entries had well executed imagery, this deficiency made it difficult to settle the eye on any part of the photograph.
He further remarked to not be afraid in cropping tighter to remove non-beneficial elements and to also focus on post editing to remove or tone down any distracting elements.
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It was striking on the number of bird & nature photograph entries this month. A subject which has a strong following and no doubt will get stronger because of the Birds & Nature SIG.
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Congratulations to all the winning entries on the night which comprised of a considerable number of excellent images as usual. The winning images can be viewed on the websites Gallery page.
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