2022 & Before Meetings

Image by Peter Löffler

Past Meetings

December 2022

In the agenda, there was a short introduction to our January “Bring a Print” project by Karina and to February’s “Triptych” project by Joaquim.

The main event for the meeting was one of our two semi-annual Challenges. The topic was “Colour Vibes”. We had an excellent participation with a very diverse range of colourful images.

To see all images that participated in the challenge, click here.

November 2022

Alun presented various techniques for printing and displaying your prints, whether for exhibitions, sales, storage or just for fun. This included the advantages and disadvantages of using photo paper, canvas, Dibond, Chromaluxe, Perspex, Forex, foamboard, classic frames, passepartouts, and photo books.

During the break, members showed the various camera bags that they use. This included pouches, shoulder bags, sling bags, backpacks, and rolling cases.

The final event of the evening was the viewing of photos from the joint Viewfinders – Royal Photographic Society weekend trip to Maastricht. The organizer of the visit, Simon Pugh, former Viewfinders President and Maastricht resident, gave an excellent pictorial overview of the history, architecture, Maas river, industry, activities and culture of Maastricht, one of the oldest cities in Europe.

Katherine Maguire from the RPS presented her photos via Zoom. This was followed by photos taken by Alun, Caroline and Joaquim.

October 2022

Milton Fanfa presented a short tutorial on “Composing with Light and Colour”, i.e. using light and colour to create contrast. You can find his presentation in the Tutorials page.

The main event of the evening was the viewing of photos from 9 members: Marko’s concert photos, black and white food photos from Marci, Kathy’s abstract prints, Brazilian wildlife photos from Karina, Piotr’s night photos, Paula’s selection of two images from Italian monuments, Moncho’s colour (cross processing) and black and white street photos, photos showing street life in Colombia from Janet, and Virginia’s beach photos from Ancona, Italy.

September 2022

The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Karel Uyttendaele, a Belgian concert photographer from Aalst. He is the house photographer at Ancienne Belgique and Greenhouse Talent and the photography coordinator and photographer at daMusic.be. Karel presented the DO’S and the DONT’s of the practical aspects of concert photography. He discussed his equipment, camera settings and shooting techniques along the challenges of getting good shots of artists performing on stage without getting killed by the fans. After the break, there was a highly interactive session with Karel while he was navigating his web site. Information about Karel can be found on his website, Facebook and Instagram.

Karel was kind enough to share his Concert Photography presentation with us, which you can find in our Tutorial Notes.

In addtion, Alun presented a short tutorial on “Resizing Photos”: what it is, how to do it, and why you (might) need it.

June 2022

In addition to holding the Annual General Meeting where we reviewed the current season’s activities, elected the new committee, and previewed next season, a good part of the meeting was devoted to the presentation of member’s photos including photos from recent Viewfinders photo walks. (Photos featured here are, clockwise, by Joaquim Capitao, Nathan Wajsman, Bob Taylor and Peter Tulp).

May 2022

The meeting started with a very interesting presentation on "Preparing Images for Printing" by our guest speaker, Charles Henniker-Heaton. We will shortly have some information about where to review the contents of his presentation. It was a very helpful guide, covering the following topics:

1) Color management: a profiled and calibrated monitor is essential; 2) Color mode: RGB color, 8 bits per channel; 3) Actual Print Size; 4) PPI: 300 pixels per inch; 5) Color Space: sRGB versus Adobe RGB; 6) Saving the file: TIFF or high-quality JPG.

A pre-recorded video version of his presentation can be seen in this link.

This was followed by our “Water” project, with 13 members showing us, in some unusual or special way, what water means to them. The images showed water in many of its different forms including rain, ice, mist, foam, dew drops, water canons, and in various countries and surroundings such as oceans, canals, fountains, reflections in puddles, wet sand, and even the appearance of oceans in minerals.

April 2022

In the agenda, a short tutorial by Philippe Clabots on camera “Autofocus Modes”. See the March newsletter for an introduction.

The main event of the evening was the showing of the images and the selection of the winners for the photos submitted to our “Urban Life” Challenge. Damien Maguire was our guest judge for the evening, who also provided a critique of some of the images received for the challenge. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks everyone for participating!!

To see all images that participated in the challenge, click here.

March 2022 Meeting

In the agenda was our “Image to Edit” post processing project where members will be able to show their interpretation of images provided by the club.

The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Peter Brodbeck. A former Viewfinders club member, Peter now lives in Melbourne, Australia. His passion for photography started when he was 13 when he bought his first Kodak Instamatic camera. Early on he always carried 2 cameras, 1 with B&W film and one with colour, and has a weakness for B&W photography. Like many, he is basically self-taught.

He enjoys the challenge of themed photoshoots, whether that be underwater, throwing flour or paint on models, action / long exposure images or themed portrait work. Peter exhibited work when he was living in Belgium and Switzerland, and enjoys taking images for himself and sharing them on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. He finds photography a great way to relax and meet people.

February 2022 Meeting

Sebastian Boatca provided 12 tips in a very interesting and instructive tutorial on Low-Light/Night Photography. The tips included advice on the use of a tripod, aperture priority, the choice of shutter speed and ISO, underexposing using exposure compensation, choice of white balance, using fast wide-angle lenses, lens OIS, in camera IBIS, shooting in RAW and/or JPEG, and techniques for holding the camera.

The main event of the evening was our Black and White photo project. Photos from 9 members were presented. The photos were a mixture of film digitization, black and white jpgs, and black and white conversions from color RAW images. They illustrated the importance of (high) contrast, composition, geometry and leading lines, texture, and shape in black and photography. In the discussion that followed, the importance of being able to “see” in black and white, without the distraction of color, was emphasized.

January 2022 Meeting

Endre Sebok presented a short tutorial on Multiple Exposure. A copy of his presentation is available in the Tutorials page.

The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Eric Weytens. Alternately press photographer, portraitist, nude specialist, landscape and commercial photographer, Eric is first of all a true craftsman with a deep passion for fine imagery. He is an internationally recognized award-winning artist with several exhibitions in Belgium and Germany behind him.

For more information about Eric, see his website.

December 2021 Meeting

Although initially scheduled to be held at the usual place, the most recent measures has forced us to cancel this part of the meeting, but we were still able to hold an online meeting.

In the agenda, a presentation on Black & White photography by Miguel Angel, as there is a project with this theme coming in the next months.

The main event for the meeting was one of our two semi-annual Challenges. The topic is “Fragile”. Professional photographers Michael Chia and Yann Bertrand were our guest judges which provided also insightful critiques on the participating pictures.

To see all images that participated in the challenge, click here.

November 2021 Meeting: Bill Funk

Richard presented a short tutorial on Color Infrared Photography. He discussed why it is of interest and the ideal conditions and different methods for shooting infrared.

The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Bill Funk, an American amateur photographer living in Brussels. His belief is that every organism and object on the planet has a soul, and that photography is all about getting beneath the surface, finding its soul, and making it visible.

Bill presented an amazing and fun selection of his images, mostly photomontages (composites), involving a wide range of subjects which included architecture, landscapes, portraits, skeletons, and cats. They illustrated important aspects of composition including the use of diagonals and triangles.

On his website you can see a collection of roughly 30 years of his work on film and digital media, some of which he will be presenting at the meeting.

October 2021 Meeting: Members Portfolios

Alun presented a short tutorial on Color Calibration at the “front end”. After briefly discussing in-camera adjustment of the white balance, he showed how to make a custom camera profile using a color checker passport and your photo processor to create a custom ICC profile.

The main event of the evening was the presentation of images by 6 members: Bob Taylor (Pairi Daiza), Endre Sebok (Double Exposure), Marci Bayona (Painting with your camera), Marko Saynekoski (Ruisrock Music Festival), Miguel Angel Vilar (Architecture), and finally Alun Foster (Landscapes).

September 2021 Meeting: Damien Maguire

For the first time since the start of the pandemic early last year, we were able to hold our meeting, the new season, at the Swedish church, accompanied by the live streaming of the meeting via Zoom. There were some 20 members present at the church with another 10 members attending via Zoom.

The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Damien Maguire, a professional photographer from the UK who has recently relocated to Namur. With over 25 years of experience, he is involved in many areas of commercial photography, specializing in architecture and interiors, products, portraits, and public relations. Damien presented and discussed 52 images from his Press Archive.

More information about Damien can be found on his website.

This was followed by Alun's presentation on White Balance. He focused on the colour temperatures of common light sources and their effect on the photos that we take. He then provided insights on adjusting white balance, both “in camera” and in “post processing”.

June 2021 Meeting: AGM and Portfolios

In addition to holding the Annual General Meeting where we reviewed the current season’s activities and preview next season, we devoted most of the meeting to the presentation of member’s photos from club members, where each of them are given 10 to 15 minutes each to present their images.

Martin Schmid had a presentation about setting up your own photo project.

May 2021 Meeting: Negative Space

During the meeting, members presented their images with the subject of Negative Space. Miguel Angel Vilar explained this concept and his application in photography during the January meeting. His presentation can be found in the Tutorials page.

Our guest speaker was Thomas Vanoost. Thomas is a Belgian artist using photography as his medium. He graduated in photography from a local fine arts school while also studying philosophy and sociology. In 2016, he decided to devote himself to photography after he became painfully conscious of the chaotic world we live in. The results are his series ‘visions of daily chaos’. Heavily influenced by his background in philosophy, his work questions our relationship to reality.

April 2021 Meeting: Challenge "Texture"

The main event of the evening was the showing of the images and the selection of the winners for the photos submitted to our second semi-annual Challenge, this time on the subject of “Texture”. Congratulations to all the winners !

This was preceded by a short tutorial by Philippe Clabots on “Enhancing Contrast and Dynamic Range”.

See below the winning images. To see all images that participated in the challenge, click here.

March 2021 Meeting: Simon Pugh

Our guest speaker was Simon Pugh, freelance photographer based in Maastricht and former club president. With the title "Street Life", Simon presented a series of his street and city photography.

The rest of the evening was dedicated to sharing the results to our post-processing exercise. Members were given a series of images to choose from and were invited to make their own interpretation through post-processing.

Check out here what members submitted in this and last year's post-processing exercises.

February 2021 Meeting: Food Photography

Robert Paridaens talked about the photographic career of the American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer, Stanley Kubrick.

The main event of the evening was the presentation of member’s photos for our Food Photography project. Bon appetite!

January 2021 Meeting: Ben Beechey

We just had our January meeting. Our guest speaker for the evening was Ben Beechey, a freelance commercial photographer currently living in Tokyo, Japan. Ben specializes in travel, documentary, event and portrait photography.

Ben spoke about life in Japan as seen through some of his personal projects and especially that related to the topic of Abandoned Places.

In the agenda as well, Miguel Angel presented the concept of "Negative Space", as it is the subject of one of our upcoming projects.

Philippe spoke about how to have our lenses (and photos) free of dust spots.

December 2020 meeting: Challenge "Inside"

The main event was the challenge with the theme INSIDE, with Simon Pugh, a photographer living in Maastricht and former member of the Club, as judge. The challenge proved to be very popular, with 23 members submitting a total of 42 images. The judge had his work cut out for him, as there were many different interpretations of “Inside”.

Besides selecting the winners, Simon provided very constructive analysis for a selection of images, which proved to be just as valuable for everyone.

Philippe Clabots had a short presentation on workflow to catalog and edit his photos. His presentation is available in the Tutorials page.

Our last Challenge : INSIDE

Our most recent challenge for club members was held during the month of December. All participating images were shown during the monthly meeting.

Former Viewfinders' president Simon Pugh took the difficult task to select the winners, but also provided us with a very insightful critiquing session on his top selections, which is just as rewarding for all of us.

The challenge theme has been (fairly obviously) inspired by the now multiple “lock downs” of varying degree, forcing us all to stay indoors. The results were quite impressive, representing space, emotions, humour, abstraction...

Judge's winner: Sebastian Boatca. 2nd place: Philippe Clabots, 3rd place: Hélène Cook

People's Choice: Miguel Angel Vilar

Visit the Challenges page for a slideshow with all participating images.

November 2020 Meeting: Joris Luyten

During the November online meeting, Hector Epelbaum presented the panel of images that recently earned him his Associate Distinction from the Royal Photographic Society.

The main event of the evening was Food Photography. Joris Luyten, a Belgian photographer, will give us a step by step guide to food photography. This presentation served as an introduction to our February photo project on Food Photography where members will be able to show us their food photos.

April 2020: Challenge "Surprise"

We had a good number of submissions to our SURPRISE challenge. And even though only some can "walk away" with a prize, perhaps an honorable mention, having your own photos critiqued by professionals and by club members is for sure a positive experience. Sometimes you realize how one image can offer different interpretations in contrast with your own, be it from an emotional or a technical point of view.

Check all the images that participated here.

Past Meetings

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