Outing - Huddersfield 22/11/23

Tonight's outing was rearranged from the intended visit to Castle Hill, to meeting in St. Georges square in Huddersfield centre. The task for the evening had been changed from "night time photography" to taking images of "Transport". This was determined as any type of transport, stationary or moving, cars, buses or any other type. Fortunately considering how the weather had been during the day it was fine and dry albeit a little breezy.

Considering the short notice that members were given about the change to the plans, we had quite a good turn out for the evening, with around 16/17 members attending. James gave us all directions on what to try and capture and we left the square around 7:40pm with the plan to meet up again around 9:00pm.

Some members decided to try their luck on the train station and some managed to get in free, whereas others had to pay to get in. The rest of us went our separate ways to attempt to capture anything that was moving. At the end of the evening, when we all met up again, most of us were persuaded to try a tipple or two at the Sportsman pub. It will be interesting at a later date to see some of the images that all the members managed to capture. I'm sure that there will be quite a mixture of subjects. I think that it would be fair to say that a good evening was had by all.

Speaker – Chris Shepherd 'London Light/London Life' 15/11/23

Once more showing the benefits of Zoom in bringing in speakers from afar, this week we had an illustrated talk by Epping Forest based Chris Shepherd.  Chris is an accomplished photographer with awards for entries to Landscape Photographer of the Year but much of his photography is achieved nearer home.  His talk to us was subtitled ‘Can you become an expert in your own lunch hour?’.

Chris is fortunate in having an office in the City of London which gives him plenty of scope for taking architectural shots, candid street photography and recording some significant events on his doorstep. The challenge he set himself, and us, was to take a camera to work, go out come rain or shine and try something different whether it’s pointing straight up or positioning yourself and waiting for the Cartier-Bresson moment.  He advocated taking a light camera body with a short telephoto lens so as not to attract the attention of security guards in areas where seemingly public areas are actually private.

The four screenshot captures here give a flavour of the range of his imagery. The first is taken at the latest free viewing point at 8 Bishopgate, the second a juxtaposition beside an advertising hoarding, the third a climate demo in the rain and the fourth a close crop of a Red Brigade woman in a startling group of XR demonstrators.  I’m sure we were all left thinking about how we can apply Chris’s advice: ‘all artists must practice your craft’. I’ll definitely be visiting some of those City of London buildings when next ‘in the smoke’ and we can all try out some of his ideas nearer home. Thanks Chris for an entertaining evening and thanks also to Sue Gibson for organising the session.

Author: Chris Shepherd

Author: Chris Shepherd

Author: Chris Shepherd

Author: Chris Shepherd

Monthly Challenge 7 – Print - Rotting vegetables or fruit 8/11/23

Whilst the number of A4 prints was small at 9,  this was more than made up for by the quality and thought that had gone into the entries.

One of our members had a wrinkled nose throughout in response to the smell which was almost coming through each print.

Mike Hey and Carla Lloyd shared the critique drawing out their thoughts on each of the prints on the easel and they invited addition al comments from the audience as well as information from each author about how each image had been taken.

When it came to the scores the top two were only a point apart. Congratulations to the three members who submitted the images shown here – Alan Stopher, Graham Sykes and Carole Haigh  and well done to all who entered.

This annual competition for the Monthly Challenge trophy is hotting up with just one round more to come.

3rd - Rotting Pepper - Carole Haigh

2nd - Rotting Rosehips - Graham Sykes

1st - Apples in the Compost - Alan Stopher