This week Irvine Camera Club welcomed some of the members of Beith Camera Club for a social evening together with a bit of friendly photographic competition. It has been a while since we have been able to host an evening like this in person and we were keen to make it a good night for all who came along.
It is a tradition in camera clubs that when we have visiting clubs we like to not just compete with our photography but also on who can put on the best buffet. A mix up with our catering arrangements almost derailed that plan, but fortunately our Chairperson, Tracy Ross, kindly volunteered at the last minute to single handedly put together what was widely acclaimed to be an absolutely fantastic feed for everyone.
As Tracy was busy with all manner of sandwiches, sausage rolls, goujons and other tasty treats, she had to abandon her previous plan to run the photographic knock-out competition between the two clubs. A last-minute call for help resulted in Colin Houston kindly agreeing to take on the job of welcoming our guests. Colin kicked of the evening before handing over to Alan Kempster who had been press ganged into the breach to take control of the club laptop and to navigate us through the voting process. As usual it was a process of elimination with photos being displayed in pairs and the assembled audience voting on their favourite. Nigel Herron from Irvine took on the important role of counting the hands and the images with the most votes made it through to the next round with the other one being knocked-out. Long standing Irvine club member, Kenny Gordon and Beith president, Fred Wood, provided brief but informative and entertaining comments on each of the knocked-out photos.
The first-round voting took us through to half time and everyone filed down to the lounge area for refreshments and our traditional weekly raffle. Feeling well fed and watered and having had an opportunity for a good blether, it was time to get the show underway once more.
With one more image in the competition than Beith, we had an odd number of photos which meant Alan had to give a “by” to a photo in each round. This caused a bit of friendly debate but didn’t prevent the audience eventually whittling down the field to a final three images… Glen Sannox, Arran, from Bute - by Alan Colvil (Beith), Fruit Bowl by Louise Barker (Beith) and The Red Dragon by Colin Duffy (Irvine). After a tense last vote, the predominately Irvine crowd selected Glen Sannox as their winner. Congratulations to Alan Colvil and to Beith!
Following Kenny’s comments on the final images, Colin Houston stepped up again to close the evening, thanking Beith for coming along and to everyone for their involvement but especially Tracy, Alan, Kenny & Fred for their not inconsiderable effort. Fred also gave his thanks to Irvine for a splendid evening of friendly competition and fine hospitality, adding that he didn’t think that Beith would be likely to surpass the quality and quantity of the buffet when it is their turn to host Irvine next year!
I hope you enjoy this selection of our images from the evening. As usual, if you are interested in joining the club please see our web site www.irvincecc.co.uk
