This week’s session was set up as a “Group critique” (with the emphasis on positive feedback) and discussion about what improvements could be made to some example images and why certain changes would or could improve the images scores in potential competitions.

A number of brave souls offered up a few images for the critique, among them some of our new members for whom this was a bit nerve-wracking but also hopefully a good learning experience.

Thanks to Letty for this weeks update..

Chris had brought along a range of backdrops and reflectors. We all took turns “being guinea pig” and posing for each other in small groups. Chris was on hand to help with hints and tips for the best lighting angles for reflectors and flashes.

It was a fun evening with a lot of laughter.

The biggest difficulty seemed to be learning how the complicated flash guns worked!

I found it particularly interesting to discover that gold reflectors don’t flatter older skin and should only be used for young people whereas silver and white reflectors are suitable for all.

A regular feature on the calendar, the (fun) competition was judged by Derek Nash, and scored by Chris Williams.

Derek’s judging was called into question in a variety of less than polite terms, the highlight (for me) being his decision that a butterfly was a better match to a bird, than another bird. At least my team scored on that one. The winners were led (at least vocally) by Steve Else, but from where I sat I could not see who else was on his team.

Thanks to Derek and Chris, and congrats to the winners.

Many thanks to Martin Patten for judging our first round of prints. There were relatively fewer entries than normal, probably due to this being half-term holidays. Martin was an excellent judge, giving plenty of useful information about why he was marking up or down, and advice on how to bring some of those unsuccessful images up a notch or two.

In the colour league there were 20 entries, and the winner was Richard Craddock with Icelandic Dawn, with 20’s also going to Kieron Keller and Laura Barfoot. Check out the Results and Placed Images pages.

In the monochrome section, from the 14 entries, the winner was Chris Dundon-Smith in his first competition! Runner up was Richard Craddock, and 3rd place went to Juliet Morton. Check out these Results and Images.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who entered.

This week saw a practical session with 4 or 5 different set ups for close up “table top” photography. A range of techniques and equipment were generously set up by experienced members to allow the rest of us to play and learn.

Great enthusiasm was shown by all participants, and I expect to see some entries in the upcoming competitions.

Time to review everyone’s images from the night out 2 weeks previous. It was great to see the range of things that people had been inspired to, and also how a lot of good photos were taken in pretty unpromising light conditions. Also good to see everyone participating and opening themselves up to a group critique.

A splendid talk “Confessions of a landscape photographer” by Paul Mitchell. Useful tips for the landscapers amongst us, and some beautiful images to inspire.

Colin’s main take was that he needs a new alarm clock!

For the second week of the year we had a session in the city taking photos on themes drawn at random from a range drawn up by Chris Bennett.

Despite the poor weather, most people spent plenty of time searching for the matching image, and then gathered at the Cathedral entrance before adjourning to the pub for a chat.