Review PFF MEETING October 2024 THEME  Black and White

With some new members arriving after the ru3a day to get to know, and the fact that the key wasn’t available at the shop, we were a bit late getting set up and started. We handed out a small paper version of our themes for the rest of the year. Keep these handy to look at when out and about taking photos as they could come in useful as a reminder of the topics for the rest of the year. You can take them early of course!

Judith welcomed our newcomers and noted that only a couple of people couldn’t make it.

Theme Photographs: Black & White/ Monochrome / Pop of colour  

With numbers increasing, this section of the meeting could get too long if we don’t stick to a maximum of three photos from each person on the ‘theme of the month’. Please choose only your best three photos to send. Photographs can be selected from your ‘back catalogue’ if they haven’t been shown to us before or shot earlier in the year as mentioned above.

You can also send up to three photos for your ‘Shot of the Month’ section too. These do not relate to the theme but are a ‘free choice’ usually taken during the prior month.

Before looking at the photos, we thought about what makes a good Black and White photograph. This includes strong contrast (a good range from deep black to white and all the greys in between), good subjects with contrasting textures, distinct shapes, dramatic lighting etc.

 I’m pleased to say we saw some good examples of pure Black and White shots as well as those that included a ‘pop’ of colour, which is a fun thing to do! You can of course include Black and White shots as part of the other themes coming up but do consider if a shot is better in colour or black and white. There were too many photos to mention, but I’ll put a PDF of a selection of the photographs on our website page soon. Apologies to Ruth as I mistakenly put her photos in the wrong place for viewing. Do let me know in the meeting if I have missed someone out!

There wasn’t a 10 Minute Talk this month but let me know if you would like to do something for us, please. Anything to do with photography, photographers, your photos or someone else’s!

For the EPTAS section (Every Photo Tells A Story) Andrew T had a photo he wanted to show taken on a Greek island. The story was that the photograph, a beach scene with three umbrellas, chairs and the sea was rejected eventually after working on it in Black and White as it just didn’t work and looked much better in colour. We all agreed!

Often, we have looked at ‘iconic’ or ‘famous’ photos from history which have a significant story to it which is explained by a member. We have seen and heard about quite a few but there are many more. It can also be one of your own if you have a good story to go with it. For this section, bring along a photo(s) on a memory stick but let me know if you are going to do that.

The Shots of the Month section included photos from Charles and Elizabeth at the Southwell Ploughing Match, and at the minster for the WW2 model knitting display “The Longest Yarn”, Terry had a shot of the GB Bike race in Ravenshead, Maureen had something fishy going on with Koi Carp, and Diana had a good sunset shot from her back garden. If you know of any forthcoming events that might be a photo opportunity, let me know and I’ll pass it on to the group.

Andy had been on Safari and included a couple of his wildlife shots. More of this next month in Andy’s 10 minute talk.

Improving your understanding of photography and the terms we use!

We saw a video by Chris Bray. His free course on YouTube consists of 10 videos each dealing with aspects of photography that will help beginners and more advanced photographers alike. Well worth watching and can be found here: Learn Photography - Simple, Practical - Free Photography Course 1/10 (youtube.com). Although it shows use of DSLRs ( it was made quite a few years ago!) the information gives us the understanding of the terminology used in photography even if you just use your phone!

NEXT MONTHS  THEME:  Frame in a Frame

Frame in a Frame photography was explained as we looked through the PowerPoint. As another aid to good composition in photography, this will be a good exercise to have a go at. It gave us many examples and ideas that can help you decide on producing something on this theme. Read the whole PowerPoint as a PDF attached to this email to help you. The last slide outlines the task for the month.

There are many helpful websites out there that I discovered and used. Here are a few:

Composition: How to Create a Frame within a Frame - Nature TTL

Frame Within a Frame Photography: A Guide (digital-photography-school.com)

Frame within a Frame Photography — The School of Photography - Courses, Tutorials & Books

That’s all for now.

Judith and Terry

Next Meeting : Wednesday November  6th  2024   1.30 pm Brammer Room (Frame in a Frame theme photos)

Scroll down the PDF to see all the photo selection. Or click the link below to open in a new tab. On Mobile or Tablets you may need to download the file using the button below.