Best Picture “Autumn” by Mike Iberson

The Group met at 10:00 on 8th November with the theme ‘Autumn’. Of the six portfolios submitted, Pam Liberson and John Hawke tied for best set of four with Mike Liberson’s photograph of ‘Autumn’ voted Best Picture. We welcomed a new (old!) member, Mike Liberson. Theresa Twitchell could not attend but sent a portfolio – her adjudged best picture wittily showed a rake, trug, leaves, etc. – a true representation of autumn!
Pam and Mike showed the changes in colour prints as their HP printer cartridges changed with age caused by only having a black and colour cartridge. John Hawke uses a Canon printer with individual colour cartridges with the benefit of replacing each colour as they were exhausted.

Rosemary/John get their prints developed in an Andover shop – up for sale, so the future looks doubtful.
We also discussed allowing post-processing editing – limited to cropping until now. It was agreed that some editing could be used to get prints close to that on the camera/PC screen (exposure, brightness/contrast, sharpen). John Hawke emphasised the danger of over-editing and getting the best shot in the camera.
John Hawke gave some tips to Mike to get the optimal settings for his new Panasonic Bridge Camera (auto ISO limit determination, single-point focus for birding, etc.)
Theme for next meeting is ‘Lowlight photography (dawn, dusk and night scenes)’.

Best Picture – Pam Liberson’s “Memorial Bench”

The Group met at 10 a.m. on 11th October with the theme ‘Documentary’.
Rosemary Crumplin and John Clark had recently returned from a cruise of Coastal Spain to find that they had computer/printer problems – we viewed their portfolios (Hidden Andover/RAF Andover) in camera.
​Of the two portfolios submitted, John Hawke was adjudged best set of four ‘Cooking Saltimbocca’ and Pam Liberson’s photograph of a WWII memorial bench was voted Beat Picture. (Click picture to zoom)

John Hawke led a discussion on Landscape Photography with an emphasis on composing the picture by analysing what was the focus of one’s attention that made one want to take a picture in the first place. He also pointed out that one had time to compose the shot and encouraged those present to take a minute to determine the focal point one wanted to highlight. He then suggested that, by moving around, (from side to side as well as forwards and backwards) capture the ‘best shot’ by including objects that led the eye to that focal point. During a lively discussion, various techniques were described including optimal aperture/speed settings, focus stacking and multiple exposure blending. (to ‘remove’ moving people from the scene)
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Theme for next meeting is ‘Autumn’ – the above discussion is relevant for this topic! Future themes are on the Group’s web site.

Best Picture, “Steamer” by John Clark

The Group met at 9:30 on 13th September with the theme ‘Transport’. Of the four portfolios submitted, Rosemary Crumplin was adjudged best set of four and John Clark’s photograph of a steamboat was voted Beat Picture. We welcomed a new member, Teresa Twitchell, and she had brought along her camera at the Group Leader’s request.

Apparently the camera, an Olympus OMD-10 Mk III, had been bought some time ago but had been little used because it was too confusing – not helped by a 5 page ‘manual’ that was not very comprehensive! The Group Leader described some of the key features of the camera with suggestions on how to use it.