The Lions Gate Nature Competition is on again this year and there are a number of changes.  There are new categories, the rules have been clarified inline with CAPA and there is a image size limit of 1.8 mb.

There are four categories in this competition:

•  01 – Botanical – subjects such as wild flowers, plants, trees, fungi and algae. Germinated and grown without human assistance.
•  02 – Nature – subjects such as animals, birds, insects, reptiles and marine subjects – under the control and feeding of humans if not obvious – such as zoos, game farms, animal preserves, aquarium, etc…
•  03 – Landscape – subjects such as weather phenomena, geological formations, landscapes, seascapes and natural phenomena, planets, stars and astronomical events – no hand of man.
•  04 – Wildlife – ONLY living and untamed mammals, birds, insects, reptiles and marine subjects – no hand of man.

Link to the CAPA rules for each category

Link to the Lions Gate specifications

Images have to be uploaded by October 20th followed by a week of voting.  You can vote eight images including your own image.  The top eight images will be forwarded to the Lions Gate club by November 1st.

Look through your best shots, be certain there is no ‘hand of man’ in the image, ensure it is less than 1.8mb and submit it.  Images have a maximum width of 1400 pixels and maximum height of 1050 pixels. 

This is a unique opportunity for the photography produced by your members to be judged by some of the best nature photographers in Canada.

For the field trip we are going to leave our island and join up with the  Gabriola Photo Club to explore Gabriola Island.  For those of you who would like to we can walk on the ferry and meet up with our host on the other side. Others who want to drive are able to do that and once off the ferry can and follow one of our host cars.   They are going to take us to the beaches and do a circle route of the island.  We would like to have lunch or a snack on a beach (weather permitting) – bring your own snacks.  Lunch will be between 3- 5 and then back on the 5;50 pm ferry

I would suggest that we car pool to the ferry for easier parking.  I am trying to get London drugs to give us some of their spots so they don’t object to  us spending the day.

Lunch will be confirmed later – it will either be at one of two restaurants on Gabriola or we will chip in $5.00 each and one of our hosts has offered to provide the food at her home

This event will be rain or shine so watch the weather.  You may want to bring rain gear

The costs will include: walk on ferry= 9.70 each way  Total 19.40

Car if you want to take your own  = 22.70

Lunch if not in a restaurant = 5.oo

I think this should be lots of fun

Photo is from the Milner Garden website

Our next field trip is going to be a little different and will be in the evening.  We will be going to the family festival of lights and music in Milner Gardens on Sunday Dec 15th.  The time with Oceanside Photographers will be from 5pm til 6:30pm  but you are welcome to stay longer.  The grounds close at 8:30.  You can walk through the trails that have lots of lights on them.  If you want to go inside there is the Teddy Bear Cottage, the gift shop and the tea room each with their own specialty.  There is Santa’s den but I am not sure if that is inside or out.

The cost for this event is by donation but they suggest $5.00

Bring your tripods and enjoy some incredible Christmas lights.

This should be a fun time with some very beautiful lights

Many of you have asked to go to this local distillery and now here is your chance. It was established in 2011and is located on 380 acres in Oyster River (near Campbell River) We will be meeting with the staff for photographic tour of the facility and farm. They will be touring us through the farm in vehicles with lots of photographic stops. It is going to be a fabulous day. Because of distance I will have car pooling sheets available at the next meeting

It should be a lot of fun as we have the entire place to ourselves except for staff

Lunch location is the Driftwood Restaurant at noon- 1329 S Island Highway . It is only 2.8 km from the distillery.

The Harbour City Photography Club is hosting Photo Salon again this year.  Your image(s) need to be submitted by February 15th/2020.

Photo Salon is part of a worldwide system of recognized forums to showcase the commitment, achievement and outstanding work of photographers in the region. It is open to club and non-club members on Vancouver Island. A panel of judges adjudicates the digital entries and, if accepted, the photographs are printed, hung and evaluated for 1st -, 2nd -, and 3rd -place recognition. There is also a ‘People’s Choice’ award. Photo Salon is hosted by the Harbour City Photography Club in Nanaimo and is endorsed by the Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA), the prime photography group in Canada.

Full details for image sizes and print sizes, dates and timeline are detailed in INVITATION-INFORMATION 2020.

Photo by Kathy Desjardins

Come and join with us at Englishmen River Falls. With all of the rain that has been falling the falls are running extremely fast and should make for some incredible photography opportunities.

We will be having lunch at Trees Restaurant – 1385 Alberni Highway – at noon.

Following the field trip don’t forget to enter 3 of your photos on the field trip page on the website.

French Creek Harbour

With the herring in the marina will be a bustle of action giving lots of opportunity for fantastic photos.  There are so many seagulls and other birds along the beach in Qualicum, it should make for some incredible photography opportunities.

Lunch will be at the French Creek Pub at noon.

Following the field trip don’t forget to enter 3 of your photos on the field trip page on the website.

Over the past few weeks are lives have been turned upside down and inside out.  We want to provide you with an opportunity to do what we all love to do – take photos so until the virus pandemic ends we will be having two field trips per month that can be in your own yard or on social distancing walks if you choose.  Enter your photos as always under field trips and we will produce a slide show at the end of the two weeks with the entries and send you a link.    Have fun and let’s use this time as one to enjoy and if only for a few minutes escaping the daily stresses

Field trip number 1 description

SPRING HAS SPRUNG – It really is spring even though I know that the weather hasn’t always seemed like it. Let’s go outside and see what signs of spring we can find. It could be new flowers, birds arriving – eg, I had 10 robins feeding in my yard one day last week, gardens getting readyor yes even your themometer showing the heat is coming. As in all field trips you can use your imagination however your want

Keeping Spring in mind –   Introduce us to your neighborhood

Take a walk around your neighborhood and see what interesting photos ops you can find. Birds nesting, flowers blooming, interesting trees, rocks, water – whatever you can find. You can enter up to 5 photos for field trips.  If you have entered for field trip number one or unsure of how to size the photos for uploading please send them to president.opc@gmail.com and I will make sure they are included.

Have fun with this and we are looking forward your photos

Location: Your refrigerator, cupboards, or where ever you keep your fruits and veggies
Topic: Still Life
Description: This topic is very loose so you can have lots of fun with it. You can do a very traditional and serious still life or if you wish have fun and dress them up in things like sunglasses and hats. You can use cut, partially eaten, skins, or shells. You can add other items with it as long as your fruit or veggie stays the main feature. You are allowed to post five photos for field trips