Photographers' Question Time 07/10/20

Everyone learnt something this week when we held our own version of Question Time. Needless to say it was conducted in a much more friendly manner than its namesake.

Our panel of Barbara Sheldrake, James Gibson, Chris Rogers and Graham Sykes exhibited a wide breadth of knowledge and President, Tony Renshaw kept us in order from the chair.

Subjects varied from soft box diffusers to exposure values, sharpening to Intentional Camera Movement, how often should you calibrate your screen to what the panel thought were the two most useful lenses to acquire.

As the evening progressed we were given advice on cost effective post-processing software, recommended commercial printers and when to use curves and levels. We even found out about panel members’ favourite Youtube presenters and what projects they had in mind when Covid restrictions were lifted.

President's Evening - Man's Impact On The Environment 30/09/20

Our annual ‘President’s Evening’ took place on Wednesday this week and it generated some interesting work from our members. The ‘President’s Evening’ is an opportunity for our current president to set the agenda for the evening and Tony Renshaw certainly gave us something to think about with the subject, ‘Man’s Impact on the Environment – Good or Bad’.

In all, 35 images were submitted by 19 authors and the openness of the subject provided a broad variety of work. Everything from moorland fires, polluted rivers and the motorway to a metaphor for global warming (ice cubes in a microwave), our impact on nature and extinction rebellion protests were on show as well as a number of images of wind farms.

Each author was asked to provide some commentary on their image – what had drawn them to take the image as well as their thoughts on the current environmental situation. Tony also provided his thoughts in terms of interpretation of the images and how they tied in to the subject matter. The images of wind farms generated a lot of differing opinions as to whether these are majestic to look at or a necessary blot on the landscape as we move towards renewable energy.

Tony finished the ‘President’s Evening’ by sharing the 4 images he felt best conveyed our impact on the environment both photographically and in the choice of subject matter. The four final images were by Mark Turner, Matteo Leonetti, Mike Hey and Graham Sykes.

September Monthly Challenge - Angles 23/09/20

Twenty five authors entered the challenge of presenting their take on

Angles to an audience of more than 36 via Zoom. Two members

volunteered to offer a critique of the images which encompassed a range of objects, from windows, stairs, and scantily clad models to birds of prey.

All the images were of a good quality and the authors are to be

congratulated not only for this but also on their originality of thought. The

reviewers too, are to be congratulated for the thoroughness of their analysis and the amount of time they must have spent in preparing their critiques. Their delivery was relaxed, informative and covered not only the technical aspects of photography but also some of its history and their own reminiscences of places and events.

Based on a tally of votes previously cast by members the four winners

were:

1st place - Mike hay for his image Angular skylight in Piece Hall:

2nd place - Colin Mcgregor for Angles (part of the Sheffield Charles Street Car

Park aka 'The Cheese Grater')

In joint 3rd place - Shane Howson and Bill Stokes for their images, Angles Jodrell Bank

and Angles respectively.