Review of the Photography for Fun meeting September 2025
Judith welcomed the members of the group to this first meeting after the summer break and noted that a couple of people had decided to opt out of the group through other commitments. However, there was a good attendance with members submitting lots of photos for the Theme and for Shots of the Month.
· A notice was given that we would need to pay subs of £10 for the coming months, which would hopefully last until the end of the season in July. Fees for the room were now standing at £12 per session.
· Members were asked to support the forthcoming “u3a day” event on Friday 26th September 2025 from11.00 till 2.00pm in the Village Hall. They could come along to answer questions about the group at the display board, and to bring cameras or phones to take photos of the event for publicity purposes. These can be sent direct to John Butler after the event.
Theme photos “Churches and Church Yards”
This theme was carried over to this month after our visit to the Rock Cemetery in Nottingham last April. Whilst some used the photos taken at Rock cemetery, others showed images taken elsewhere which added interest and variety. These were not only in the local area, but further afield in the UK too. Also abroad! Andrew T took us to Sicily and Ken to Thailand, Vietnam and Macau!
A good discussion about techniques and the shots themselves ensued, one of which was ‘converging verticals' and the resulting problems in correcting these.
There was a great selection to look at and find out more about, so thanks to all for your contributions.
Shots of the Month
Most of those present had provided ‘Shots of the Month’ and we found out details of these from the members which is always interesting. One was from Andrew T of the Kubus Huise Rotterdam. “Cube Houses are an iconic architectural landmark in Rotterdam. Designed by Piet Blom between 1982 and 1984, the complex consists of 38 tilted cube-shaped residences along with larger cubes used for businesses and communal functions. Each cube is rotated 45 degrees and rests on a hexagonal pylon, creating the effect of an “urban forest” suspended above street level.” (AI provided this text!)
One of Heather’s images, she explained, was an image combining two shots which she had merged ‘in camera’ a feature that some more modern cameras may have. A blending of two shots can also be done using software. It may be something we can look at in the future as an additional task to try.
Themes for 2025-2026
We gave out a small summary sheet of the forthcoming themes to keep on you whilst out and about. (You can start taking any theme shots as early as you like! Just remember where you saved them!) We have spares if you missed out next time. I’ll also put the list on the website soon. We discussed some of these together, to get an idea of what the themes required, but more detail will be given as usual as we go through the year.
Next month’s theme: Reflections
This is a well-used theme for compositional effect in photography and there are lots of examples and websites describing these. I picked out a few and we looked at the examples on the slideshow to create some ideas for taking our own photos. These are attached as a pdf. One thing to consider is the variety of reflective surfaces available, so I posed the idea that you might like to consider using more than one type of surface to use in your photography for this theme. For example, you may use water as a reflective surface in one photo (in a puddle, pond, lake etc) and a mirror in another. Just an idea, not essential!
Talking of water, the last part of our meeting was accompanied by the sound of thunder and torrential rain. There was an enormous puddle outside the Brammer room door to get out and I got my feet soaked trying to get into my car. I saw no one bothering to take pictures though! No surprises there!
NEXT MEETING: Wednesday October 1st 2025 Brammer Room 1.30pm
We hope to see you all there! Judith and Terry