This week Irvine Camera Club hosted Dalry Camera Club for what was the first, but I am sure not last, inter club knock out evening between the two clubs.
In normal times we would have a social evening where members of the clubs would be able to mingle and get to know each other with the host club laying on a food and drink at the interval. Of course, times are far from normal and as has been the case for nearly a year now, the meeting was carried out virtually on Zoom.
Both clubs were asked to provide 16 fresh images that had not previously been used in competition. Those photographs were then presented in pairs to the meeting attendees and, after a few seconds to consider each pair, everyone was asked to vote for their favourite. The wonders of technology allow all the counting to be done automatically instead of the traditional method of hand counting (which can be a struggle in a dark club room!) With the results in for a pair of images, the one with the most votes was put forward to the next round. The knocked-out image was then given a short constructive critique before the next pair was presented.
The evening proceeded in this manner until we were left with just two images to vote on. Fortuitously on this occasion we were left with one image from each club in the final pairing. A portrait of black Labrador “Jura” by Colin Houston from Dalry and, from Irvine, Kevin Thorne’s “Sunset on the Clyde”. It was a close-run thing but I am pleased to say that Kevin’s moody image just edged out Colin’s photograph when the votes were counted.
Members of both clubs thoroughly enjoyed the evening and we look forward to a time, not too far in the future, when we can all get together in person.
As always, if you have an interest in photography and you would like to come along to one of our virtual meetings please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us. All of our details are at www.irvinecc.co.uk and you can also find us across the various social media platforms.
