Following the formal events of the previous meeting covering the requirements of the AGM we launched ourselves back into the more fun side of the societies activities. Firstly, Joan took centre stage as the new Chair of the society and took us through the formalities of notices and the necessary pre-ambles to all our meetings. She handed over to Ian Stanyon who took us on a whirlwind (apologies for the pun) slideshow of anything and everything weather related as a prompt for this year’s competition. Ian had slightly broken the rules by including images taken outside of the UK but only in the spirit of introducing members to the concept of the competition theme ‘Whatever the weather: a truly British obsession’. There were images from deep snow to wind to rain to sunshine and everything in-between. Images should not just be limited to pictures of weather but may relate to activities or moments in time that reflect the subject. However the main objective of the theme is to celebrate British weather and activities related to it with the weather being the main subject (so no landscapes with lovely fluffy clouds, they need to be a more explicit about weather).
Ian went on to demonstrate the change of rules this year by way of the introduction of a card mount to submissions and the move away from mounting onto borderless foam board. A big thanks has to go to Ray Fowler for his instigating the whole process of mounting our images so professionally. With Ray’s blessing we are moving on to the next level and hopefully members will be proud to see their images with a mounted card surround.
Following the break, several members put forward their images to challenge the current chair Joan and the two previous chairs Ian and Nick. The evening was littered with a wide range of images from close up detailing, to landscapes, light painting and photo montages. Joan, Ian and Nick along with comments from the audience looked at each picture in turn and gave their thoughts to how the image affected them. Where appropriate constructive critique was given that might improve the images but it has to be said that the standard of photography within the society is on the up and up. It is this sort of evening that members enjoy because of the friendly and supportive nature of the society and not the more critical appraisal given at more competition oriented clubs.
We can now look forward to our next meeting in March with our visiting speaker Jean Walker Warden on her exploits travelling to the North Pole.