AV News Magazine | Page 18

AV News 186 - November 2011 M o ld C a m e ra C lu b A V G ro u p - T h e S to ry S o F a r John Hoogerwerf The AV group is up and running with a very successful training day in June and two evening meetings at the Beaufort Park. With around twenty members signed up (and paid up) Chris Noble advised that the AV group had a healthy financial balance to pay for the hire of the room and guest speakers. The first meeting concentrated largely on setting the ground rules for the group and the second meeting started to look at more practical issues with respect to creating and showing AV presentations. Each meeting commences with AV presentations from members which are either complete or in the process of development. Comments are sought from all members present and there is a lot of constructive criticism given to members. The presentations also serve another purpose which is to give members ideas for techniques which they can then include in their own presentations. Examples include the use of zooming a slide to create a smooth transition between landscape and portrait formats. It also demonstrates that such techniques should be used sparingly. As the presentations become more slick, members find it easier to make helpful comments and to advise on what they do and don’t like. The practical sessions are also proving a success and a good learning technique for those with as yet little skill or experience and for those who have a great deal more experience – even those leading the practical sessions. The AV software packages available contain a huge array of options which, in common with ‘Photoshop’, enable the photographer to resolve problems or issues in a variety of ways. Having free time towards the end of the evening allows the more experienced members to show how they manage various techniques in one-to-one exercises or by showing the whole group via the projector. Members are quickly becoming aware of what makes for a successful AV presentation and it shouldn’t be long before the club are producing high quality AVs for competitions at regional and National level. AV is another technique that photographers can use to show case their work and at a time when the club competition entries for print and DPI are limited due to the numbers taking part, enables a wider range of work to be exhibited. Andy Polakowski The evening of 22nd September, was given over to Marion Waine and John Rowell (why do I always want to morph them into one entity called 'John Waine'?) from the North Wales and Wirral AV Group to instruct us on the 'audio' side of AVs, an area that doesn’t come as naturally to photographers as the 'visuals'. Further information may be found on their website www.chasingthelight.co.uk Page 16