Lacock Positive: 2021

MEETING 09.12.21

A busy agenda with lots of images to peruse and a longer chance to chat. Many thanks to those who brought in nibbles and treats to share in the break. A good way to end 2021 meetings!

David Sage talked about his project '20 images from 20 yards' which he undertook in Swanage. He based himself in one spot and by using a range of F stops to change the depth of field, a variety of angles and small adjustments to location he challenged himself to find different images. A couple of his examples are shown below.

Both images © David Sage 2021

Images submitted as taken in November produced many showing the beautiful colours of Autumn in the trees and landscape and with quite a few showing reflections in lakes. It was lovely to see a submission from one of our Honorary Members, Bob Bray, who has been unable to attend meetings in person for a while.

A Club shoot in Savernake mid-November also homed in on the magnificent trees of course but also featured plenty of images of funghi.

Despite the constraints of Covid and all the changes to regulations, Lacock Photography has had a successful year and is pleased to have welcomed new members too. We meet again on January 6 2022 when there will be a talk on Morocco and reviews of images taken in December and from a shoot in Bristol that took place last August.

Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year to one and all

MEETING 25.11.21

Peter Crane ARPS (https://www.petercrane.co.uk) gave an interesting and informative talk about his street photography passion. He talked about his techniques, including shooting from the hip using pre-focus and auto ISO or following an interesting person to get the shot he wanted. Not the easiest kind of photography without being challenged, he also likes to shoot in colour rather than taking the monochrome route and is prepared to spend time waiting for the right colour combination to come along!

Next meeting: Members' November images and a member's presentation on 20 things from 20 yards, plus our Christmas Social with Jean's super snacks!

MEETING 11.11.21

Star club member of the meeting was PHILIP MALE, with his presentation 'A Year in the life of a Little Owl family', a distillation of many, many hours of observation and photographing these characterful birds. Afterwards one member commented that watching the story unfold (with excellent stills and videos of course) was 'Better than Autumn or Spring Watch'. Eat your heart out BBC! (Philip can be followed on Flickr for more wildlife images and other subjects)

All three images above © Philip Male 2021

Most of our members joined in the monthly challenge to submit one image representing their photography during the previous month. Finding something different is all part of the fun! A few selected from the entries are shown below:

There was also a colourful short AV on Bristol Street Art in an area around St Pauls and Stokes Croft, wall and house paintings making political, cultural and artistic statements.

© Sue Power 2021

Members were advised that an exhibition by Carinthia West (portraits of famous rockstars and actors) has currently been extended until 31 December at the American Museum

https://americanmuseum.org/whats-on/exhibitions/

Next meeting: 25 November: A presentation by Peter Crane: Street Photography

https://www.petercrane.co.uk/

MEETING 28.10.21

An excellent start by two members who opened the meeting - Ros presented an AV of her trip down the Wild Atlantic Way and Julia gave a presentation about her week photographing wildlife in Shetland.

WILD ATLANTIC WAY

Both images above © Ros Vickers 2021

SHETLAND

All three above © Julia Lloyd-Parks 2021

Images from two more summer shoots followed - a few members went to the Barbury Horse Trials while more went to an early evening shoot in Bath. Barbury was a challenge to capture good rider & horse positions and avoid too much background clutter. Bath skies were flat and grey so finding good subjects and compositions also proved tricky.

BARBURY

BATH

NEXT MEETING

Members will show an AV of Bristol Street Art and a presentation about a Little Owl family, plus a selection of their images taken in October.

MEETING 14.10.21

The review of the 'One Month, One Pic' monthly challenge showed that some members had experienced some fantastic light and weather during September, while others had retreated indoors to find their subjects!

The second part of the meeting was given to a critique session, whereby members shared images for comment or perhaps sought advice on how to improve these through field craft or post-processing. A few images discussed are shown below.

Next meeting: October 28

Members presentations - The Wild Atlantic Way and Shetland

Images from two summer shoots - Barbury Horse Trials and Bath City Centre

MEETING 30.09.21

A smaller number of members than usual met to review images from a shoot at the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum, Calne (https://atwellwilson.org.uk) and also images that had been post-processed using Split Toning techniques. A very interactive session followed!

The motor museum holds a good range of subjects but packed displays and tricky lighting makes photography there challenging. Some examples from the visit are shown below:

The split-toning challenge led to some experimentation - how much of a change was a matter of taste perhaps. Do you go subtle or bold? Before and After processing examples are shown below:

Next meeting: October 14

Critique evening (up to 3 images)
One month, One photo - September (1 image!)

MEETING 16.09.21

Robert Harvey delivered his presentation entitled “Photographing Wiltshire”. It was a very interesting and informative talk, illustrated with great photographs of Wiltshire, both of well known and less familiar sites. It was a great stimulus for ideas of places to visit.

Robert advised the links below which may be of interest:

Robert's book “Photographing Wiltshire” contains many images from the presentation and full details of how to take them. This can be viewed and purchased here: www.naturalworldphotography.net/section874465.html

He invited members to join his Facebook group Inspirational Outdoor Photography. The group only accepts images from the British Isles taken within the last seven days, so it is focused on what is happening in the countryside now: www.facebook.com/groups/InspirationalOutdoorPix

Details of Robert's photography tours focused on landscapes, wildlife and night sky can be found here: www.naturalworldphotography.net/section844883.html

To sign up for his email newsletter four times a year go to: www.naturalworldphotography.net/section853925.html.

The next club meeting is on 30^th September. The meeting will cover the following:

Julia - Shetland
Challenge - split toning/colour grading - one picture - before and after
Shoot review - Atwell-Wilson Car Museum

MEETING 02.08.21

It was great to be meeting up again, the first time in the Manor Room since March 2020. We welcomed back our members, both old and new. Advice to make our meetings Covid-compliant was discussed, seats were socially distanced and coats were kept on as doors were left open to allow air circulation.

We started our new term with reviews of the challenge 'Our favourite images' taken during the 2020-2021 year and the first of our summer shoots 'Lacock River Walk'. While our own selection processes were challenged by the first, finding interesting subjects for the second proved tricky! Below is a small selection.

FAVOURITE IMAGES 2020-2021

LACOCK RIVER WALK

NEXT MEETING: Sept 16 - Robert Harvey presentation 'Photographing Wiltshire'

ABOUT US

Lacock Positive, formed in 2009, is for anyone with a keen interest in photography irrespective of skill level and camera type.

The Club meets 7pm - 9pm fortnightly on Thursdays from September to June in the Manor Room, Lacock (adjacent to the Village Hall) for a varied programme of activities. We also arrange outside shoots throughout the year. In addition the Club holds an annual exhibition and manages its own Flickr and YouTube sites.

Lacock Positive is a friendly, non-competitive club and we are happy to help each other to fulfil personal photographic aspirations.

If you would like to join us at a Club meeting, please contact julialp@hotmail.co.uk