Club Meetings
Viewfinders holds monthly meetings from September until June, normally on a mid-month Wednesday evening. Often, a guest speaker will be present (you can find links to the websites of some of our past speakers on the "Speakers" page). Short presentations on photographic technique, often by other club members, are also regular features. We organise two Photography Challenges (which are judged by an external guest and also by the members present at the meeting) and at least one photographic project per year, as well as many other "Members' Portfolio" evenings and other opportunities to show photographs throughout the year.
In this page you can see what activities have been organized in past meetings. Announcements for future meetings are in the home page.
November 2024
Viewfinders member Eduardo Tardáguila had a presentation of a project he developed in his native country, Uruguay. In his own words: "it's about Photography, but it's also about dreaming, and how both working together can change the whole trajectory of someone's life.
It is about the development of a 10 years Photography project realized in Uruguay (South-América) together with Marjan Van Doorselaer. The fundamental structure of the project was the creation and diffusion of images showing the reality of the Uruguayan people with disabilities. Increasing the awareness about it, could be a way to improve their condition inside the society. To make this possible we began to teach photography to disabled people in Montevideo. The motto was: A vision of themselves, told and created by themselves. "
Hélène Cook presented one of her series inspired on the photography of Ernst Haas as an introduction and inspiration to the photo project that will run until February, with the title “Photos in the style of”.
The rest of the meeting was covered with presentations of photos by club members of the recent photo walk in Charleroi, as well as personal projects.
October 2024
The October meeting was the occasion to commemorate 30 years of the Viewfinders Photography Club of Brussels. As stated on our website, Viewfinders is “inspiring photographers of today and the next generations”, and we are open to anyone with an interest of photography, as we represent a wide range of backgrounds, nationalities and photographic abilities and interests.
In this occasion, we started the meeting with a social event, sharing a birthday cake.
Our main event of the evening, a presentation by a guest speaker, Carine Van Gerven.
Carine Van Gerven is a Belgian photographer and photography teacher from Pelt and her name is practically synonymous with the highly successful “Lens op the Mens” photography festival that takes place in Pelt once every two years since 2017.
But Carine is also a highly successful photographer on her own right, having exhibited in several countries and having been curator not only of “her” festival in Pelt but also of the Helphoto International Festival in Helsinki. She also received international awards in events such as the prestigious Siena Awards 2024.
Carine Van Gerven creates personal life stories and emotions with a nod to the past but still universal and off all times. Her beautiful photos of “tableaux vivants” are inspired by 17th century paintings and form a body of work that is unlike anything seen at Viewfinders meetings before. To find out more about her, visit her website.
September 2024
Our guest speaker, Brussels and Lisbon-based Music Photographer David Vannucci shared what it takes to be a committed concert, festival, and tour photographer. He walked us through the challenges and joys of low-light photography and working with strict routines and schedules while working on festivals or being on tour, but also shared the rewarding and creative process of working on studio projects, off-stage with artists and performers.
Over the years David developed a niche for Behind the Scenes photography, a niche that he was able to finetune through his collaboration with the Belgian music festival Pukkelpop: It was the starting point for his “Stardust” series of photo expos and books.
You can find more info on David’s work visiting www.davidvannucci.art and www.muckmag.com/work/stardust-pukkelpop-mainstage.
In addition, Erick presented a “technical tip” on the use of social media as a way to increase the visibility of your photos beyond your circle of family and friends, and for attracting potential customers or opening possibilities for collaboration. He highlighted the fact that different social media have different audiences.
June 2024
Meeting started with our AGM, where we reviewed the activities of the season and a new committee was approved, including the appointment of a new president.
We devoted the second part of the meeting to the presentation of photos from the “Street Photography” project and also other personal projects presented by club members.
The street photos were taken in a number of different countries including Japan, China, the Philippines, India, The Netherlands, Portugal, and the USA and featured the use of a number of different shooting styles and techniques including slow shutter speeds, in camera movement, multiple exposures, and reflections. The colorful Japanese night life photos were particularly impressive.
In personal projects, we were treated to Kenyan safari photos, colorful sunrise photos, and more beautiful colorful night photos from Japan.
Richard Sylvester
May 2024
We viewed and discuss the photos that members submitted for the “Photo to Edit” project, our yearly photo interpretation and post-processing exercise. Eleven members presented their edits of the two photos that had been previously provided for this exercise, a Chinese bride and a Copenhagen street.
The resulting photos showed a wide range of interpretations based on cropping, composition, selective modification of the colours, conversion to black and white, and the use of monochrome or high key.
The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Omar Havana, a Spanish freelance photojournalist based in Brussels. Omar has worked as a professional photojournalist since 2005. Starting in 2009, photography and photojournalism have been his full-time job. Represented by Getty Images, his photos have been published in thousands of publications around the world. From the beginning of his career, Omar has focused on working with humanitarian organizations across the world. He has covered stories in many different countries in Europe and southeast Asia, along with Tunisia, Egypt and Nepal.
The subject of Omar’s presentation was the 2015 earthquake in Nepal and photos from his book Endurance. Living in Nepal at the time of the earthquake, Omar presented a very moving and emotional account of his life as a photo-journalist in Nepal after the quake, having to deal with the devastation and misery in the country, his difficulties in coping with the situation, but given strength by the smiles of the survivors, especially those of the children.
For more information on Omar, his very impressive work, and tributes to his book Endurance, see his website .
Richard Sylvester
April 2024
We started with the main event of the evening, which was one of our semi-annual Challenges, this time on the subject of “Patterns in Nature”. Our judge, Charlotte Bellamy, who moved to The Netherlands from England some 12 years ago, is a creative artist who uses Fine Art and Abstract Photography to showcase her love for the beauty of nature. provided comments on a selection of images and summarized her judging criteria.
Peter Loffler, with his colorful display of woodland leaves, received the award for the best projected image, while Joaquim Capitao received the award for the best print with his photo of a colorful Spanish cliff which resembled the close-up of a gemstone. The best overall image award went to Endre Sebok for his photo of dew drops on a spider web. The People’s Choice award was given to Miguel Angel for his photo of a Feather Duster Worm taken on a coral reef in the Philippines. Honorable Mentions went to Annette Boon, Endre Sebok and Joaquim Capitao.
After the Challenge, Gueric Rommel then presented a short tutorial on street photography in preparation for June’s “Street Photography” Photo Project.
Although Gueric’s photographic work is mainly in street photography, it is a wide topic with no clear cut definition. There are different styles and settings in street photography including urban, animals, light and shadow. His main focus was, however, on people interacting with each other in groups on the street. By pushing B&W film, he presented gritty, high contrast, close-up photos of crowds of people showing the hardness of street life.
He discussed some of the techniques and tips for good street photography which include people: the use of B&W film versus digital cameras, the advantage of using a small light weight discreet camera, shooting using manual focus with the zone technique, not moving the camera around, not looking through the viewfinder, getting in close, and being on your own. In a crowd, no one notices you. You can walk around or stay put waiting for the action to come to you. For the street photography of children, it should be together with the family, their approval and interaction.
Richard Sylvester
March 2024
Adrian gave a short intro on shooting fireworks. You can see a copy of his presentation "Shooting Fireworks" in the Tutorials web page.
Our guest speaker was Katherine Maguire, from the Benelux Chapter of the UK Royal Photographic Society (RPS). She has an Associate Distinction from the RPS and is currently the editor of the Benelux Chapter’s eJournal.
She is a Dutch photographer, originally from Cumbernauld Scotland, she moved to Amsterdam in 1997 and gained her new nationality last year. Her main photography interests have included HDR, cityscapes and ICM before switching to a project-based approach.
Her vision being permanently blurred by a rare disease which resulted in a loss of sight and a shallow depth of field, she gave us a glimpse into the world of the restricted vision of individuals with damaged retinas. She discussed why some 6 years ago she started a photo project about her illness, showed paired images from her ARPS distinction panel (shallow depth of field/normal depth of field) and described how she went about creating them.
She then moved on to present her current self-portrait photo project (I am not invisible, but my illness is), explained why she started it, showed some examples, and discussed how she created her composite photos. They were absolutely amazing. A very thought provoking, interactive discussion followed.
Through her work, she discovered a strength that she didn’t know that she had. Her photography was therapeutic, allowing her to overcome her limitations and improve her quality of life. Her work serves as an inspiration to others for overcoming the limitations of their illnesses.
Thank you Katherine for having had the courage to present your very special story to us.
You can see here a more detailed introduction, as well as a copy of the presentation she gave in the Tutorial Notes web page (Direct links: Introduction, and Presentation). For more information about Katherine and her latest work, see her current website, older work can be found here, and here.
February 2024
Miguel Angel spoke about Aspect Ratios, the relation between an image’s width and height. Miguel Angel then provided some thoughts about the creative rationale for using different aspect ratios in various scenarios. To conclude, he led a very interesting interactive discussion concerning the choice of different aspect ratios and the composition of a selection of his photos. An extract of his presentation can be found here.
The main event of the evening was the viewing of photos that were provided members for the long exposure project. A wide variety of visually stunning images were presented in different settings: architecture and cityscapes, seascapes, landscapes, nature, and interiors. The nightscapes, which featured a variety of lights and colours, different compositional points of view, areas of sharpness and blur, were impressive, but it was the light trails from trams and light painting art that were especially eye catching.
Richard Sylvester
January 2024
Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so the meeting was entirely held online via Zoom with Alun welcoming the 40 some attendees to our first meeting of 2024.
Adrian presented a tutorial on shooting smoke, or why “Smoking is Good for You”. A copy of his presentations is available here, and in the Tutorials page.
The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Jess Sutton. She was born in the UK and graduated in Contemporary Arts at Nottingham Trent University in 2004. During 2005-2006, she trained to be a teacher and taught Art for 5 years alongside developing her own work within the artistic community in Cambridge. She left the UK in 2011 and has lived and worked in Brussels ever since.
Based on her fascination with space, time and existence, her work takes form through video, painting, performance, photography, collage and installation. Glass and reflective surfaces remain a constant source of interest. Her recent works explore our deep need to connect with nature and it’s energy whilst living on a planet that we are simultaneously destroying.
She has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions, both in the UK and in Brussels.
December 2023
Erick introduced the Long Exposure Photo Project for which photos will be presented at the club meeting on 14 February 2024. He explained its interest and how it can be applied to landscapes, urban motion, night photography and lightning and storms, as well as discussing the optimal camera settings for long exposure and the equipment required.
The main event of the evening was one of our semi-annual Challenges, this time on the subject of “Humour”. 22 members submitted a total of 38 digital images and 2 prints. The voting was by the members who were present in the room, with prizes being given for the top 3 images. After the Christmas party that was held during the break, and before announcing the winners, Alun and Miguel Angel led a review and lively discussion of the images that were submitted. Humour is not always evident in the images as everyone’s perception of humour is different, with humour meaning different things to different people.
Honorable mentions went to Martin for his photo of a “closed door” and to Alan for his “drinkable toilet water”. Third place went to Karina, second place to Adrian, and first place to Moncho. You can see all participating images here.
© Miguel Angel Vilar
November 2023
Karina lead a discussion downstairs on the topic: My Best Kit /My Worst kit. Some 10 members presented the camera or accessories that they found to be the most useful and/or those that they didn’t like or have never even used.
The most useful included an old Sony digital camera that stored photos on diskettes, a flash, a flash reflector, several different small monopods, a zoom lens, a lens cap clip, a rubber lens cap protector, and a camera hand strap. The worst included screw on lens filters, a macro focusing rail, a camera back pack, and a remote flash trigger. Finally, one member couldn’t decide if he liked his camera or not.
The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Sean Hayes, who lives in Brussels and works as a photographer and advertising art director. He has over 35 years’ experience working in advertising for multinational ad agencies and their clients in 5 European countries. He has won numerous industry awards for creativity and marketing effectiveness for many clients across multiple categories of products and services. Sean has established his position as a working creative, including photography, where he has been greatly inspired by the historic painters. Sean presented photos from his portfolio, which included portraits, still life, mobile photography, music and event photography.
In addition, Sean discussed with us the hot topic of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in photography. The open discussion elicited many interesting, relevant and thoughtful responses from the members present, ranging from the basic technical understanding of the processes to the higher aesthetic and cultural appreciation of visual art.
Richard Sylvester
October 2023
Erick gave a tutorial on panning. Panning is a technique where you move the camera as you press the shutter button. As you follow the subject’s movement with the camera, the surroundings blur, but the subject remains sharp.
The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Gerry Coe, who talked about iPhone art. Gerry joined us online from the UK.
Gerry has been a professional photographer in Northern Ireland for some 60 years, leaving school just before his 16th birthday. Originally working for a number of other photographers, especially in the commercial/industrial field, he eventually started his own photography and picture framing business.
He has covered almost all aspects of photography, including portraits, weddings, commercial, industrial, aerial, architecture, press and PR. Over the years he has been awarded Fellowships from the major photographic organizations. He has used many different cameras from Large format 10x8 to 35mm, Digital and now the iPhone, and received the first ever Fellowship for a panel of images taken on his iPhone. Although he no longer works professionally, he now uses his iPhone to explore new ideas and to show people what can be done with a mobile device. You can enjoy his work in Instagram and Facebook.
September 2023
In the first meeting after the summer break, Alun summarized the upcoming activities that are being organized, which include the “Humor” Challenge in December, the “Patterns in Nature” Challenge in April, photo projects in February (Long Exposure) and June (Street Photography), a photo walk in Mechelen on 1 October, an upcoming trip to the Oostende photo biennale, and ideas for some new club exhibitions.
Camera Supports. Members were asked to bring their camera supports to the meeting. Several members brought tripods, monopod, gimbal for smartphone to discuss the pros and cons, pricing, portability. Other handy tricks such as using your body, gorilla pods, strings and bean bags were discussed.
Members Photos. The main event of the evening was the viewing of photos. Seven members volunteered to show their photos: John (South Georgia Island), Diego (Estonia), Kaim (France), Kathy (two projects: poetry, portrait), Alan (Grand Canyon), Adrian (Brussels Canal) and Miguel Angel (Spain).
Five sets of photos from the July Brussels canal photo walk were then presented: Erick, Isane, Marci, Miguel Angel and Alun. The photos were a mixture of color and black and white, showing the canal and surrounding facades and architecture. The color photos graffiti photos were particularly eye catching.
Richard Sylvester
June 2023
In addition to holding the Annual General Meeting where we reviewed the current season’s activities, preview next season, and elect the new committee, we devoted part of the meeting to the presentation of member’s photos and photos from the “Portraits in the Park” photo project.
Ten members presented 5 photos each from the Portraits in the Park photo project that was shot in the Abbaye de la Cambre . Both colour and black and white photos were shown using both non-professional and professional models and a variety of styles.
The final item on the agenda was the showing of images from members, covering a wide variety of topics having been shot in a number of different countries.
May 2023
Richard gave an overview of photo noise, its relation to ISO, noise reduction software and the compromise between noise reduction and photo sharpness. Using a 12800 ISO RAW photo from Alun, Richard showed examples of noise reduction using Lightroom, Capture One Pro, and ON1 Photo RAW post processing software, and the Topaz, DxO and Dfine 2 (Nik) plugins. You can find her Noise Reduction presentation in the Tutorials page.
Karina Robin, one of our club members, gave a presentation on Safari Wildlife Photography based on her personal experiences in various African countries. She showed her fabulous collection of safari photos of different animals using various techniques, including night and golden hour photos, high key photos and examples of panning. You can find her Safari Photography presentation in our Tutorials page. Follow her on Instagram.
The meeting then turned to viewing and commenting on photos taken during a number of different visits and photo walks: Borgloon, Rossel-Le Soir, Brussels night photography and Tournai/Mouscron photo walks.
April 2023
Alun gave an introduction to the upcoming “Portraits in the Park” photo project. This was followed by a short tutorial by Piotr on night photography.
The main event of the meeting was one of our two semi-annual Challenges, with the theme “Faceless Portraits”. We had excellent participation, the attendees voted for their top three pictures. To see all images that participated in the challenge, click here.
March 2023
The start of the club meeting was preceded by an evening visit to our “Collective” exhibition at the GH Market.
During the meeting, we viewed and commented on the images that members have submitted for the “Photo to Edit” project.
The main event of the evening was our external speaker, Eddy Verloes. Eddy is a multi-award-winning Belgian literary symbolic photographer, a visual storyteller. His atmospheric shots of interiors, landscapes, and urban life hover beautifully between realism and surrealism. Taking a spontaneous approach to the craft, Eddy captures the unexpected moments of the day. His studies of literature and philosophy fueled an inquisitive search for the mystical and the poetic. He shoots with his soul, not with the camera.
Eddy spoke about some of his last projects, specially Losing Our Minds (about ultra-orthodox Jews), Aardelingen (Earthlings) : project with Jef Neve in December 2022, and In Omzien : project with the psychiatric institution Alexianen.
The meeting then turned to viewing and commenting on the wide range of edits submitted by 12 members on three images provided for the “Photo to Edit” project: architecture, island jungle and beach photos. During the viewing, Richard and Miguel Angel presented Alun with a certificate for being the best photo exhibition organizer this side of Betelguese.
February 2023
A large part of the announcements was dedicated to questions concerning the forthcoming Collective Exhibition at GH Market which opens on 5 March. There will be a visit to the exhibition on 15 March just prior to the start of the March club meeting, which will feature the guest speaker Eddy Verloes.
The main event of the evening was the Triptych photo project. Print Triptychs were presented by two members while nine members presented digital Triptychs. Generating an interactive discussion, they covered a variety of topics including landscapes, architecture and city scenes, portraits and wildlife, both in black and white and in color. Jason Kravitz then introduced his interactive website, www.aminus3.com which can be used to generate Triptychs with his Photo Resonance Creator App.
January 2023
The meeting started downstairs with the viewing and discussion of prints that members provided for the “Bring a Print” photo project. Some 20 colour and black and white prints, both old and new, and using various printing technologies, were on display. Generating an interactive discussion, they covered a variety of topics such as landscapes, architecture and city scenes, portraits, and wildlife.
The main event of the evening was the presentation by our guest speaker, Xavier Portela, a Belgo-Portuguese creative director, self-taught photographer and videographer currently residing in Brussels. After studying Multimedia, Xavier started his career as a web developer. Frustrated by his day job, in 2012 he dropped it all in order to follow his passion for images and to become a full-time photographer.
Presenting his journey through photography, he stressed the importance of learning, investing in yourself, and developing personal projects. A large part of his presentation focused on the visual onslaught of signs and neon lights from his series Glow. In this ongoing personal project, he traveled the world to capture various cities at night, with a special emphasis on Tokyo, inviting us to dive into the atmosphere of the locations he visited. He manipulated the colours in his images to express the vibrancy and atmosphere of the location, amplifying their saturation to reflect what his mind remembered: like painters who manipulate their medium in order to be able to depict spontaneity and movement in a static, two-dimensional image.
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.