Best Picture “Mick”

The Group met at 10:15 on 11th July with 6 present. The theme was ‘Quintessentially English’. The resulting photographs were broad in range from a village cricket match via steam trains to old buildings. Best picture was by Pam Liberson of her friend Mick – a prime example of a country gentleman.(Click/tap the picture to enlarge it).
Theresa Twitchell’s photographs were voted as Best Portfolio.

Theresa Twitchell spoke, initially, about portraits she had taken recently of her grandchildren emphasising the need to vary the angle, shoot from below (and above) and be aware of the serendipity of ‘catching the moment’ illustrated by a capture of a furtive/cheeky look from the grand-daughter taken from above at just the right angle. Subsequent discussion prompted her to show some more photographs with some descriptions of how the photographs were taken – concluding with her favourite photograph of a rose, lightly sprayed with water using a black board as a background. This made the rose ‘pop’. It was interesting to view the varied preferences for the photographs that showed the differences in personal tastes!

Evening

Cash Crop

The Group met at 18:00 on 21st June on a farm visit, arranged by Rosemary Crumplin, to Trinley Estate Farm hosted by the Estate Manager Mike Farrell.

Additional U3A members from the now defunct Birding and Natural History, the Lowings and the Kemps, also came along. The weather was idyllic and the light was excellent for photography.

Hare

Thistle

The Estate is making concerted efforts to encourage wildlife by planting hedgerows, seeding areas with wild flowers, sunflowers, etc and water features to attract amphibians and dragon/damsel flies. It was very obvious that Mike Farrell was very enthusiastic about the whole project.

Unfortunately wildlife was elusive. An early sighting of a low-flying Red Kite, the retreating rump of a Hare and the flushing of a Tawny Owl from its daytime roost in a shed were the highlights but there were plenty of opportunities to capture wildflowers, insects and the agricultural landscape on a very big farm.

Most attendees finished off the evening with a splendid meal at the Hare and Hounds on Charlton Down.

Best Picture: Water Vole on the River Test (Click to enlarge)

The Group met at 10:15 on 9th May with the theme ‘Spring’. Of the six portfolios submitted, Theresa Twitchell was voted best set of four and John Hawke’s photograph of ‘Water Vole on the Test’ was voted Best Picture.
Discussions centred on various attributes of some photographs submitted. Mike Liberson asked whether the difficulty in taking a picture should be taken into account when judging. It was agreed that pictures should be judged by impact – quality, difficulty, composition and novelty all being part of that impact.
John Hawke suggested that future meetings should include a presentation from a member on topics of their choice. Theresa Twitchell was ‘volunteered’ for the next indoor meeting!

Rosemary Crumplin had been liaising with a local farmer to arrange a Group visit. This has now been arranged for 21st June and will override the June indoor meeting