We have an annual audio-visual competition - known as the Tully Jackson Trophy. The first part of this week's meeting was a review of entries for this, and members then voted for their favourite. Alastair and Grace gave me notes on how this went, as I was unable to make it this week.
We had four entries. There were two on the theme of the recent stormy weather at Dunbar, "Storm Surge" from Michael Harvey, and "Power of the Waves" from Bill Paterson. Also a through-the-night timelapse entitled "A Night of Sky" from Iain Smith and the all-action "Freddy Jump" from Muriel starring her dog Freddy, mostly in mid air.
There were a nice range of stills, video clips and timelapses from all concerned. By a show of hands, the winner was Michael's "Storm Surge", set to the very appropriate "Winter" by Vivaldi. Congratulations Michael. You can catch up with the video here. (Note, it's quite a large file).
The time consuming part of an AV is gathering the images. Putting one together can be quick and easy- it's basically a slide show with music- though you can fiddle with transitions forever. The default free app for AV was Microsoft's Photos app. This has been replaced by "Clip Champ", which has to be downloaded (free) from the Microsoft store. Paul actually downloaded it at the tea break and we managed to get a basic AV working while the board cutters were busy mounting prints at the other end of the room.
Talking of which, after the break, there was a Practical session on improving our mounting skills. Michael Thomson and Rita Johnson brought their cutting boards and assisted the members who participated in measuring, cutting accurately and successfully mounting images. Their patience was appreciated!