Congratulations to Linda Watkin for her very popular picture of West Street at night. You can download further information below
We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back after the summer break. The meeting starts at 7.30 as usual and will feature a photography-based quiz and a preview of the audio-visual presentation that will be on show at the exhibition this weekend
July shoot will be on Sunday 21st July 1.30pm at farthest car park, Cocklawburn - see bulletin.
Berwick Camera Club Marygate Exhibition Open Morning was a great success!
Around 80 people came in to view the exhibition. Club members were on hand to talk with visitors about photography, the Bridge400 Competition and our Annual Exhibition in September.
We welcomed everyone,...
This Saturday, 18 May, from 10am until noon, Camera Club members will be on hand to chat about all things photography, including the Bridge400 competition. The Exhibition is open weekdays, in the walk-in Berwick Council office in Marygate. Everyone welcome.
The Exhibition, also displaying the Bridge400 Compeition winners so far, is now open to the public.
The Berwick Town Council Offices are open 10am till 4pm, weekdays.
Meet at the Quays car park, Berwick, 6.30pm.
Please submit your images as soon as possible.
Refer to the latest bulletin for guidance.
The results of all competitions and the overall club champion were announced at our AGM this week. Full details are in the document attached
The AGM documents have been added to a bulletin.
Our AGM next week will be available to join over Zoom and people joining remotely will be able to vote on the important issues we will be considering via comments. Usual log-in details - https://us02web.zoom.us/j...
There is a dropbox link in the recent bulletin, and you may now upload your images for consideration. Please see the guidelines in the bulletin, and give your images a title!
Thank you.
We have been offered exhibition space in the Town Council Marygate office. It is an exciting opportunity for the club to show the wide variety of styles and techniques used in photography. We hope the exhibition will be opened in May.
Our theme this year was 'Motion' which resulted in some very imaginative entries. Jeanette came out on top with her superb surfing sequence. William Clelland took 2nd place with some beautiful star-trail images, and Janet Mew was 3rd with some well-caught pictures of a bird taking off.
The next meeting will be on 4 March 2024.
This will be the last meeting before the Annual Review on 19 March.
Please contact the secretary, Julie, with any matter you would like raised at this, or any other meeting, particularly for the AGM on 16 April 2024.
Alternatively, let...
The menu can be accessed via the recent bulletin.
You can now make your choices and pay for your dinners, by BACS please.
In case some of you can't make it on 28th November when we will have the draw, we will be selling tickets this week at clubnight, so please bring cash.
It would be good to have some more prizes/surprises, so please bring a wrapped prize on Tuesday. Many thanks.
Mark your diaries for the club annual dinner on 26th March 2024.
The evening will be at Marshal Meadows Manor, just north of Berwick on the A1. There is plenty of parking, and a 2 course menu will be available soon for your choices. Price £25 per person for 2 courses. Drinks and coffee/tea...
The AGM has been moved to Tuesday 16th April 2024 as the original date was too close to the Bank Holidays.
Our annual exhibition was a great success this year with 279 people attending. We also managed to sell 25 prints raising money for club funds. People also enjoyed the audio/visual display that William Clelland put together featuring more than a dozen creative activities going on in and around...
We will give a warm welcome to anyone considering joining our club at Registration on Tuesday 5th September.
You can come along to 2 sessions before making up your mind about joining. Our new programme can be found on the home page, along with details of where we meet.
All you need...
Sheila who is Jim's neice thanks everyone for their condolences. Jim's funeral will be at 2 pm Melrose Crematorium on Monday 24th April and thereafter at Kingsknowes Hotel. All are welcome.
It is with great sadness I have to announce that our president Jim Walker died this afternoon. Jim has been a tremendous support to photographers and the club for many years and will be sadly missed. He has been in poor health for the last couple of years but always retained an interest in the...
The activity on the 21st doesn't really lend itself to being streamed over Zoom as we will mostly be working in smaller groups viewing images on multiple screens. Also, I will be on holiday and won't be there to share it :)
Check out the recording of Glenys Garnett's talk instead if you...
We had a bumper crop of prints submitted to our Print competition, which was judged this week by Geoffrey Bradford. As usual, Geoffrey provided each each with some insightful and positive feedback. You can download a copy of his comments below. The results were as follows:
Portrait
...
We had a great start to 2023 with over 30 members turning up to learn about triptychs. There was lots of interesting discussion and some great ideas. Thanks to members who brought some sample triptychs. Dereks take on the theme of shadows was I think the high point of the evening. Lets hope...
We had some fantastic photographs to be judged in our projected images competition this week. Thanks again to Patrick Sheard for his insightful and encouraging comments. You can see the winning photos in our Results gallery but to summarise ...
Creative: 1st Julie Riley, 2nd William...
This week members judged the entries for this year's Sunday Shoot competition. It was a bumper year with 20 photographers entering images.
The winners were:
In first place - Chris Jary
In second place - Barbara Bogacka
In third place - Paul Anderson
But it...
Unfortunately the nature of this meeting makes it impractical to share over Zoom. Apologies to anyone who hoped to join us remotely. Normal service will be resumed for our speaker on the 25th.
We had a great evening last night with over 30 members in attendance. Nine photographers showed examples of their work to produce a stimulating and varied evening. The breadth of subjects genres and techniques had something for everyone and emphasised again how lucky we are in the club to have...
The club's annual exhibition last weekend attracted more than 230 visitors who came to see 96 images taken by 18 different photographers. Given the chance to vote for their favourite pictures the public chose The Long Wait by Robin Sibley as the overall winner. Robin also took second place with...
September is almost upon us and our new season will open on 6th at East Ord Hall starting at 7.30.Once again it will be good to meet up and share our interest in photgraphy. This years programme is full of interest and we are all looking forward to learning and sharing as well as having fun with...
These were the winners of our various competitions over the 21-22 season.
Projected Image Carol Dunham
Printed Image (joint award) ...
For our last meeting before the Christmas break we were treated to a masterclass on photographing water by Bill Ward. And then we got a bonus showing of some of his recent more experimental work too.
Next proper meeting will be 11th January, but don't forget we also have our trip to...
On tuesday we had an evening of practical sessions which seemed to work well for those that could attend. Unfortunately we could think of no way to include zoom but next week zoom will be back.
We had 4 tables set up to show some simple and not so simple still life techniques. This...
Neil Forster treated us to a fascinating talk on lenses this week - everything from the basics on how light works, through early designs and improvements, how to fix common problems, and also gave us an introduction to adapting old lenses to work on modern cameras. You can download his...
This weekend saw our first proper exhibition for 2 years (last year we had to show our photographs online for obvious reasons) and we were pleased to welcome a record number of visitors over the Saturday and Sunday. Mountains of cake and gallons of tea and coffee were devoured so thanks to all...
It was great to finally all meet again as usual on Tuesday night. There were some new things to get used to - some good, some bad. On the plus side, the teas and coffees are now served to you by our new waitress service. On the downside, it is not fun to have to wear a mask all evening. And...
Our 2020-21 season wrapped up this week with our AGM during which we agreed some changes to competitions for next year. We will be having fewer external judges and spending more time discussing the images ourselves. And we ended the evening with a short presentation of the winning photographs...
We had a total of 35 entries for our 'Bestist' competition - 20 colour and 15 monochrome. Normally the competition would be for Best Print and Best Projected Image but with only online activity this year we havent been able to do prints so it was divided between Colour and Mono instead....
Something different this week when we split into smaller groups for a series of online workshops. We had a variety of topics including using Affinity to create collages; processing images using Camera Raw; using external lights (avialable to borrow from the club; and creating a photobook. You...
Last night our judge, Keith Collins, gave us the verdict on our final projected image competition (we still have our 'Bestist' competition to decide the ultimate mono and colour shots of the year to come). Keith has an impressive photographic resume and his comments on each photograph were...
This week we were treated to an evening of photographs by Mike Caithness all taken in the one location and featuring the fascinating abstracts to be found in rust and flaky paint. You can see more of his work at http://www.mica-images.co.uk/
Jane Coltman was kind enough to judge our panel of three competition again and this year the theme was In the Balance. We had 10 entries altogether and all of them found very different ways of illustrating the topic. Congratulations to Jeanette Conlan who came first with her three pictures...
Dave Banks gave us a fascinating insight into the world of journalism. After a lifetime of rubbing shoulders with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and deciding what images would be published in some of the biggest newspapers, Dave gave us some insights into what would make a photo attractive to a...
Many thanks to Lynda Golightly, our judge for the 3rd Projected Image contest. She had encouraging and insightful feedback for all the entries. Have a look in our results gallery for all the winning shots
Our first visiting speaker of 2021 was Craig Easton who gave us a fascinating evening presenting his long-term project on the fisherwomen of the east coast, telling the story of the herring industry and the women who work in it. This also included some beautiful landscape photography. We also...
Many thanks to Emma for devising the Quiz that marked our first meeting in 2021. It was certainly an entertaining start to the year even if I was ashamed to find that I couldn't remember what ISO stood for! Next week we are back to actual photographs when we will be sharing some photographs that...
It was suggested that we might continue our zoom meetings on a Tuesday night over the Christmas break and a few of us met up tonight. We decided to set ourselves a series of photographic challenges to keep us busy making images over the next few weeks. Our first one is fairly simple - take a...
Our last meeting of 2020 featured our 'Two on a Theme' challenge where members were asked to submit two images with a common theme. This year the theme was Shadows and Light. We had a strong selection to view and there was a lively debate on how some of them might have been treated or cropped...
Our Monochrome competition this year was judged by George Ledger. His constructive and insightful comments made for an entertaining and enlightening evening and the final results can be viewed in our Results gallery
After a few technical hitches, we were treated to a fascinating talk by Joan Coates, the current artist in residence for Berwick Visual Arts. Joanne's project explores gender in agriculture but she also shared images from her previous projects. See more of her work at
...
There were some strong entries for our second Projected Image competition and our judge for the evening, Patrick Sheard, provided plenty of helpful feedback. You can view the winning entries in the Results Gallery
Thanks to Neil and Andy we had a great evening on Tuesday.We were able to view a good selection of their images. Both photographers illustrated both the frustration and the rewards of their chosen genre. It was good to get the story behind images and to be able to understand some of the ...
We were treated to an evening of very different landscapes by our visiting speaker, Mark Reeves. Many of them were created using ICM (intentional camera movement) and Mark was kind enough to share some hints and tips about his techniques. We finished with a thought-provoking AV presentation on...
The club welcomed Harry Hall as our first external judge to decide the outcome of the first Projected Image competition. All the winning entries can be seen in our Results Gallery but the winners were:
Landscape - 1st Neil Forster; 2nd Neil Forster; 3rd Paul Anderson
Illustrative -...
This meeting was given over to everybody sharing a photograph that had inspired them and we had a very varied collection. In fact it inspired so much discussion that we ran out of time and will have to repeat the excercise so that we are able to give everybody a chance to share the kind of...
Four members shared their experiences of applying for (and gaining) an RPS Distinction. Jeanette told us about how she put together her LRPS panel while Maggie and Basia spoke about their ARPS journey. Finally Michael brought us up to date on his quest for the elusive FRPS. Plenty of helpful...
Andrew Green treated us to an amazing selection of Macro photographs, giving us a glimpse into the hidden worlds all around us as well as showing some helpful tips on equipment and technique
This weeks meeting included photos from 7 members on topics that included a tour of some of the lesser known parts of Berwick; the life cycle of a frog; 'a year in the kitchen'; a trip to newcastle to see the Knife Angel sculpture; views of Niagra Falls and getting up close with bears; salmon...
After last week's AGM our 20-21 season got underway properly last night, starting with a showing of the episode from the 2007 BBC series 'The genius of Photography'. This was another meeting conducted over Zoom so naturally we had a few technical hiccups with some people experience some...
The club held a trial meeting using Zoom, partly just so we could all meet up again after what feels like ages and partly to test whether or not we could move some of our activities online should we not abe able to resume our usual meetings in September. 12 members managed to navigate the...
We may have had to cancel our last few meetings but at least we were able to complete all the competitions.
And the winners were...
Colour Print Competition ...
I hope everyone has received Annies email explaining that we have closed our season early due to the pandemic. This was a difficult decision but in light of the deteriorating situation I am sure it is the safest thing to do. Hopefully as things settle down we shall be able to start again in...
This week saw our keenly contested "Best Overall Image" contest for Prints and Projected Images. The winners were Jeanette Conlan for her print "Hydrangea" and Barbara Bogacka for her digital image "In a glacial cave".
We had some excellent entries for our second Projected Images competition, judged this year by Patrick Sheard.
Landscape: 1st Neil Forster; 2nd Chris Jary; 3rd John Tully
Artistic: 1st Anne Christie; 2nd Jeanette Conlan; 3rd Allan Brown
Illustrative: 1st Michael Barron; 2nd...
Our last speaker for this season was Duncan Wherret who gave us a fascinating evening showing a huge variety of images and demonstrating some of the large format film cameras that he uses to create his unique images. While some effects can be recreated digitally, many can only be achieved using...
We had some excellent entries for our Panel of Three competition on the theme of 'Light and Dark'. It was judged by Jane Coltman and the winners were:
1st - Maggie Jary
2nd - Barbara Bogacka
3rd - Michael Barron
Last Tuesday we had a members night when we were able to look at some of the work members had been doing. Six people showed their work. In spite of minor glitches with the IT we had an enjoyable stimulating evening.
Next week is the Panel competition. Entries for the second digital...
Mike Allport was our judge for the second print competition and he gave some useful and constructive feedback on all of the photographs entered. The results were:
Landscape
1st Paul Anderson 2nd Barabara Bogacka 3rd Annie Watt
Artistic
1st Maggie Jary 2nd Jeanette Conlan...
We had a fascinating talk on Astrophotography from Ford Renton this week. He talked us through some of the technical issues involved in getting good images of the heavens such as calculating the maximum exposure time to gather as much light as possible but to avoid getting star trails using the...
This weeks meeting gave us all a chance to learn something new. Three of our in-house 'experts' ran a series of short workshops covering the basics of Photoshop, Lightroom, & Affinity. We also had a fine selection of photo books to browse through.
Our first meeting of the year was a members night. It was an opportunity for members to bring along some images and get feedback. We had a lively session with a wide range of all types of images. It was good to see what people are doing and especially when they are trying new things. The evening...
Our Monochrome competition this yearwas judged by Derek Snee who gave every image a carefully considered and helpful critique, including the importance of giving photo an appropriate title that helps the viewer interpret image. The winners were:
Print: 1st Chris Jary (Girl in light...
Our visiting speaker this week was world-renowned local photographer Paul Kenny. It was fascinating to hear how he creates his amazing images, often with the help of sea water dried on glass plates. We were also privileged to get a world-premier of his new short film, and a chance to see some of...
This week saw the judging of our first digital projected image competition and it was keenly contested! Keith Suddaby, our judge for the evening, had great advice for everyone who entered. We will all be checking out the photoshop 'feeling button' for our future entries I am sure! Here are...
On Tuesday we hosted Carol Palmer who showed prints from her wide ranging travel portfolio. She has travelled in USA, Africa and Europe as well as to more local destinations. Carol often works on projects and has some wonderful images. I particularly liked her images of the...
The club decided on the winners of the Sunday Shoot competition last night. 35 images were shown and scored by the members. Thanks to Maggie and Annie for totting up the scores over the coffee break. The worthy winners were:
3rd place - Chris Jary
2nd place - Andrew Green
1st...
This year's theme night was left wide open with the topic being "A subject of your choice". Not surprisingly we had a very varied set of paired photographs to enjoy. Lots of members contributed images and there was a lively discussion about the merits of each! Here a just a few of the...
Last night we had a fascinating talk from Geoff Williams. Geoff is interested in how we see and interpret images. He reminded us of the importance of changing your viewpoint, remembering to look up, down and behind you as this may give a more interesting image. We were able to see how he...
The first Print Competition of the season was keenly contested and our judge, Geoffrey Bradford, had clearly debated long and hard about the results. He gave us some very informative feedback about each and every photograph and supplied a printed copy of his comments which is attached here for...
Basia Bogacka gave us a lot to think about with an interesting presentation on how we can analyse a photograph and hopefully suggest ways in which it might be improved. She shared some examples from her own experience before we all went on to try and put it into practice, commenting on some of...
Berwick Advertiser this weeks carries a short article about the club and Andy Gray's presentation to us.
Five photographers showed their images from the festival. They explained why and how they took the shot. The audience then made comments leading to a lively discussion. The evening was a good example of how we can learn from one another. The images ranged from stunning mono through more...
Eight brave members ignored the BBC forecast and spent the morning walking around Etal searching for inspiration. It is always a surprise when photographers visit the same location but all end up seeing different things. Once again John worked his magic with the laptop and we all downloaded our...
Our first visiting speaker of the season was local photographer Andy Gray who gave us a fascinating insight into his journey from taking 'standard' landscape photographs to developing advanced ICM and Multiple Exposure skills to creat abstract and painterly images that reinterpret the scenes...
The second meeting of the new season was packed with information. First Maggie Jary took us through the changes to competition rules that have been introduced this year. The main ones were that the maximum permitted entries in any competition has been reduced from 5 to 4 (we were sometimes...
The opening evening of our new season saw us welcoming some new faces, and finding out just how little we knew about photography in our 'get to know you' quiz. We also got to see the new display stands that our talented Chairman had made over the summer, put to good use to show off some...
This months Summer Evening Shoot was during the day rather than the evening. Five of us went to Edinburgh for a day of street photography during the festival. And amazingly it didn't rain!
This months summer evening shoot saw us visiting the standing stones at Duddo. It was a beautiful sunny evening with some interesting clouds to help boost the pictures as well.
The second of our Summer evening shoots took us to Cocklawburn beach
6 intrepid club members braved the cold for the first of our Summer Evening Shoots. St Abbs was the chosen destination on this occasion.
We didn't expect it to turn into a portrait session but we found a couple of very obliging models!
The Club mounted a well attended exhibition on Saturday 13th April in St Aidans Hall, Church Street, Berwick.
Visitors enjoyed some seventy pictures plus coffee and cakes.
Maggie hit by a Tsunami of Silver! Cups were presented to Maggie Jary ARPS by the Clubs President James Walker FRPS. She received five trophies Overall Club Championship, Colour Print Competition, Projected Images and Monochrome Print.
It was a fun event and...
Malcolm Kus was our judge for the evening, someone who has had a long association with the club and his comments have always been helpful and deliverd witt an entertaining style.
He is retirng (after 30 years of judging) so his humour and expertese will be...
Nature
1 Jeanette Conlan, 2 Barbara Bogacka, 3 John Tully
Portrait
1 Alex Aitcheson 2 Paul Marshall 3 Paul...
The club enjoyed a fascinating evening when guest soeaker Cameron Robertson delved into the detective work involved in puting together s photograhic archive.
One of the main subjects was recording the history of William Cowes confectionary business in Bridge...
It being a difficult theme to tackle there were ony eight members who entered panels.
Jane Coltman in judging expressed the opinion that panels of three images tended to work better than just two photographs.
It was a fun evening and the...
Judged by Bill Hume
PRINT 1st Maggie Jary, 2nd Colin Smuthwaite 3rd Jeanette Conlan
PROJECTED 1st Chris Jary, 2nd Alex Aitcheson, ...
Judge by Ian Fullerton
Landscape
1st Paul Anderson
2nd Jeanette Conlan
3rd Maggie Jaty
Artistic
1st Paul Anderson
2nd Maggie Jary...
It proved to be a very popular evening and there was not a chair to spare for the talk given by Les McLean .
Photography that captured the essence of humanity with images that ranged from lovers in a clinch to...
Instruction was given by Alan Brown, Maggie Jary, Annie Watt, Ian Cartwright, and Michael Barron on Sports Photography and improving images in the computer using Photoshop and Light Room software.
The workshop was so popular that there was hardly room to fit in another tripod.
Under Alan Brown's direction members used long exposures to capture the fascinating patterns traced in the dark.
A SEA OF RAINBOWS was the title of the video produced by Ian Cartwright.
The superb images, some of great complexity and beauty were merged together in a kaleidoscope of colour. They were accompanied by the soothing...
The competition attracted seventy-three entries and was judged by Derek Snee who in a departure from the normal style of presentation added music to the screening of each catagory and then gave a detailed adjuication on the winner's work.
n an evening packed with excellent pictures, Laine Baker and Jane Coltman, well known as the Berwick Advertiser Photographer, treated the club to images from, Morroco, Dubhi, London and else where. Intriguing customs were observed, architecture was stunning, graffiti had impact and...
At a well attended meeting members presented a variety of stimulating projects. Allan Rogers displayed a short animation in which chicks avoided being cooked. Annie Watt spoke of the difficulties encountered...
Pictures taken during the recent Sunday Shoot at Eyemouth were judged by Ian Cartwright.
First Barbara Bobacka
Second Maggie Jary
Third ...
A most imaginative array of print and projected images were submitted. There were a lot unexpected holes and John Tully looked into them throughly before declaring the winners of the projected and print display
Prints:
1st Pamela...
In his talk 'Angels with Dirty Faces' John Race, who is based in the North East, explained his approach to a superb selection images. His subjects varied. Landscapes, abandoned farm houses, rusty contraptions, and people. Rural...
Over sixty prints were entered and the results were :
Landscape
1st A. Brown,
2nd A Aitcheson,
3rd C Jary.
Artistic
...The club considered the distinctions awarded by the Royal Photographic Society; namely Licentiate and Associate. Michael Barron and Maggie Jary, both Associate members of the RPS, and Barbara Bogacka, who is a Licentiate member, will talked about the processes involved, and...
When the Sunday Shoot was held on 7th October the camera club members were practically the only folk on Eymouth's rather wet streets. Later they met at a rearranged venue to have a warming coffee and to transfer their required six images on to Laptops operated by John and Alex...
It was a 'Club Night' and members added five images each to a pile which was divided. Votes were cast as the photographs were displayed two at a time and the loosing ones discarded. The process was repeated until all but one had been knocked out.
...
Members of The Berwick Camera Club had a most enjoyable evening when Ron McCombe was welcomed back to the club as the first speaker of the new season. Ron, a former member of the club now devotes his energies to running wildlife photography workshops, giving lectures and travel that...
The first projected image competition for the 2017-18 season was judged by Jane Coltman
The winners in the various categories were:
Landscape:
1st Colin Smurthwaite,
2nd Chris Jary,...
Ian Cartwright gave an excellent presentation on
'The Parks of the American
South West'.
Using images taken during three different visits, Ian took us through some...
The competition was judged by John Tully who selecrted these winning pictures from the twenty nine entered.
First and second place going to Alex Aitcheson and third to Allan Rogers.
Andrew Manley received an honorable mention
The club was treated to colourful images of happy children when Pamela Wright gave an excellent illustrated talk on the work of the Goodwill Childrens Homes in the South of India.
It was humbling to see their zest for life and to appreciate just...
The first print competition was judged by Mike Allport from the Wooler Camera Club.
The results were
LANDSCAPE
1st Robin Simpson, 2nd Colin Smurthwaite, ...
When colour is removed from the equation monochrome images can be much more powerful.
Bob Craig and John Tully demonstrated how the use of filters, in camera, in photoshop or hustorically in processing in the darkroom can dramatically alter...
Guest Speakers Mick Howe and Edward Foster gave an excellent presentation of their images in glorious monochrome.
A MEMBERS' NIGHT
The Learning Zone - a chance to learn new skills from other members
LENSES
In a busy and sucessful evening Paul Marshall offered tips on using lenses
FLASH
Clive McGuinness splashed vegetables into a water tank and demonstrated how...
Guest speaker: Geoffrey Bradford on 'Building a Portfolio...
Pictures from the Summer evening phpto shoots were among those featured in the members' "Show and Tell" evening.
Slide Shows were presented by Sylvia Grant form a trip to Switzerland which was accompanied by lovely music.
Carolyn Mcgreggor also presented a slide show from the temples...
Changes to the Club's Competitions were presented to members.
Report back from the Heritage Open Day Arts and Craft Fair:
There was some interest in the camera club but a disappointing day for members selling their prints.
The date for the Sunday Shoot was voted on and is to be...
The club's profile was raised when it was was invited to have a stall at the Guildhall at the Heritage Open Day Arts and Craft Fair at the Guildhall on Saturday 14 September. Many people commented the quality of the pictures that we put on display
On the 3rd of September, members caught the magic of an early autumn evening when they visited St Abbs for the last of the montlhy evening photo shoots.
Picture by Alan Dunnett
On Tuesday 6th August members visited the Honey Farm at Horncliffe and explored the photographic possibilities of a vast array of equipent in the grounds,and vehicle museum. There was also a fascinating gallery of household and everyday items from years gone by. It was generally agreed...
The Tuesday evening photoshoot for July took members to Ord Farm. They spent a happy couple of hours in the warm sun rummaging through ancient wrecks. Cars, tractors, bikes and industrial equipment all were there to test their creative abilities.