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Back to WHAT WE DO Photography Group 2015
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ANYONE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE GROUP PLEASE CONTACT WALTER MASON.
The group currently meets monthly in members' houses, and is limited to members possessing reasonable skills in photography, emailing, and the ability to store pictures on a computer.
The emphasis will be on sharing skills and experience with each other, as well as working on practical projects each month.
PROGRAMME FOR 2015 ALL THURSDAYS
| January 15th | Chris Gibson's house | Unusual shots of everyday objects |
| Diane Saxon's house | Art Deco | |
| March 19th | Brian Beck's house | Crowds |
| April 16th | Fred Goodier's house | Manchester |
| May 21st | Pam Wood's House | Movement |
| June 18th | Walter Mason's house | Close-ups |
| July 16th | Chris Gibson's house | Shopping |
| August 20th | Diane Saxon's house | Sport |
| September 17th | Brian Beck's house | Science |
| October15th | Fred Goodier's house | Clouds/sky scenes |
| November 19th | Pam Wood's house | Scarecrows |
| December 17th | Walter Mason's house | Farming |
The topic of our January meeting was Everyday objects from unusual angles.
Two photographs by Brian Beck were deemed the best followed by one from Chris Gibson and one from Walter Mason.
The topic of our February meeting was “Art Deco”; much more of a challenge than previous topics. Members searched family possessions and used Google to look for things to photograph, then produced a range of photographs including local buildings, furniture and china. The winner of the competition was Fred Goodier, for his photograph of a Royal Doulton milk jug made in the 1930s
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Second and third were Diane's photos of the Compton organ in Stockport Plaza and of the art deco building on Quay Street Manchester, which started life as a bus station in the 1930s.
Our photographs led to a wide-ranging discussion (with help from the internet) to find information about Fred's Royal Doulton jug and to explore Art Deco buildings in Manchester. Several of these were in the Swan Street/Oldham Road area and appeared rundown and in need of TLC. We thought that perhaps listed status makes modernisation difficult or expensive.
We also discovered that there were many art deco cinemas scattered around Greater Manchester but few of these remain. Later, our discussion widened to art deco in Underground stations in London, Paris and Moscow, the landmark Midland Hotel in Morecambe and theatre organs.
Our next meeting is 19 March, when the subject of the competition is “Crowds”.
Diane Saxon /Walter Mason
The subject “crowds” had a varied set of pictures, along with some discussion whether crowds could only be people, or could be interpreted more generally.
The result was 1st. “Changing of Guard at Prague Castle” (Walter Mason); 2nd equals “Tallin Market” (Chris Gibson) and “Line Out Drama at Cardiff Arms” (Brian Beck. 2 days later, Brian captured clear shots of the partial eclipse.
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In April we welcomed Bob Barlow to our group, and hope he enjoyed our meeting. Theis month’s competition “Manchester” had a variety of subjects, but mostly photographed in the city centre. The result was 1st – Walter Mason “Selfridges at Christmas”; 2nd Chris Gibson “Manchester Town Hall”; 3rd Walter Mason “Triangle – former Corn Exchange”. A few emailed images sent for the competition were small, and required group knowledge and some computer experimentation to bring towards full screen size. Later, Fred projected a DVD on portrait taking, which gave useful tips on obtaining best pictures.
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Robert Barlow had a cracking start in our May monthly competition “Movement”, by coming 1st (Child in large ball on swimming pool) , and 2nd Equals (children walking along beach). The other success was by Chris Gibson with 2nd Equals (fairground scene) and 4th (little girl). Some technically clever pictures of moving objects “froze” the object too much to suggest movement. We had an interesting discussion, on why a slanting skyline appeared to convey a sense of motion.
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Because of holidays, a photoshoot in Etherow Country Park had few attendees, and our competition on “Close-Ups” had fewer entries than usual. The result was 1st. Diane Saxon – dandelion clock. 2nd. Fred Goodyear – wasp on convolvulus flower. 3rd Diane Saxon – tomato.
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Holidays and medical appointments took their toll, with too few pictures to judge a competion. In a shortened meeting, Chris demonstrated his mastery of computer lightening and darkening.
Back to Programme 2015
The topic for our August competition was Sport photography.
The winners were 1st Walter (Racing yachts in Porto harbour), 2nd Walter (Runners on Hollins Cross), 3rd Diane (Roger Federer).
Afterwards Diane showed some of the photography tutorials available on YouTube.
We viewed a talk on lighting, and how it affected landscape and portrait photography. Then we puzzled on how to photograph science for the next meeting!
The topic for the September meeting was Science. Initially this caused most of us to scratch our heads, but on the day there was a varied selection of interesting pictures.
The result was: 1st Walter Mason – Butterfly Investigation; 2nd Chris Gibson – Spinning Gyroscope; 3rd Brian Beck – Steam Engine “King George V”.
Examination of our pictures illustrated the wide scope of science, but also how with photography we could each display only a tiny aspect of the subject
In October the group met at Fred’s house and the subject of the competition was Clouds and Sky pictures.
The results were : 1st Brian Beck; 2nd Bob Barlow; joint 3rd Brian Beck and Chris Gibson.
Fred gave us some information about different types of clouds and cloud formations.
There was a discussion about the difficulties of capturing cloud scenes; lighting and surroundings playing a part.
The difficulties of capturing locomotive steam against light skies were voiced and the conclusion was that dark storm clouds were a better background.
Reflections of sky are always bluer than reality due to differences in reflection of different parts of the light spectrum.
The competition subject for our November meeting was Scarecrows.
The winner was this image taken by Diane at the Hazel Grove Allotment open day.
The last meeting of the year produced, unusually, a clear winner on this month’s subject of farming.
The results were 1st Walter – Approaching sheep on Cown Edge.
2nd Brian - Paddy fields in Guilin, Southern China.
3rd Pam – Slaterbank Farm, Start Lane, Whaley Bridge/Kettleshulme.
