Starlings on the Somerset Levels

The Group met at 10:15 on 11th April with the theme ‘Group of Three’. Of the six portfolios submitted, John Hawke was voted best set of four and his photograph of three ‘Starlings on the Somerset Levels’ was voted Best Picture. (click on picture to enlarge it)

Theresa Twitchell was given an honourable mention for ‘Three Colour Pencils’.

Discussions centred on macrophotography. Initial comments concerned using the macro function on fixed lens cameras with the conclusion that it was better to use a sharply focused zoom setting with subsequent cropping to fill the frame.
John Hawke discussed the use of extension tubes to create macro photographs for cameras with interchangeable lenses – a cheap option to a dedicated macro lens. Theresa Twitchell showed her album of superb macro photographs submitted as part of a past photography course.
The need to be aware of unwanted/misaligned objects in the background of pictures were also emphasised!

Pam Liberson announced that HP had acknowledged that their printer was faulty and it had been replaced – both hers and Mike Liberson’s prints were well colour balanced as a result.

Best Picture by Mike Liberson. “Spider’s Web” Click to enlarge it

The Group met at 10:15 on 14th March with the theme ‘Fragile’.
Of the six portfolios submitted, Pam Liberson tied for best set of four and Mike Liberson’s photograph of a spider’s web was voted Best Picture.
Theresa Twitchell could not attend but sent a portfolio – her adjudged best picture wittily showed a gin bottle, beer bottle and aspirins!
Discussion centred on autofocus modes, especially the advantages of using spot focus/exposure to maintain accurate colour for the prime subject in the picture – especially when photographing wildlife.
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Theme for next meeting is ‘Group of Three’.

Bottle Glow – Best Picture

The Group met at 10:00 on 13th December with the theme ‘Low level light photography’. Of the six portfolios, Theresa Twitchell submitted the best set of four and Rosemary Crumplin’s photograph of a effectively lit bottle was voted Best Picture.
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The group returned to the discussion on post-processing editing. The Liberson’s showed some photographs where increased brightness gave prints which were much closer to the on-screen pictures – it also served to give a visually enhanced depth of field (more ‘punch’!)

Rosemary confessed that she took several pictures of the bottle at various angles and camera settings but did not know what settings were used for the best picture. John Hawke showed her how to change the ‘View’ in File Explorer from ‘Thumbnail’ to ‘Details’ – this gave all the camera settings for any picture (EXIF data).

Part of Rosemary’s portfolio was a fireworks display. The difficulties in taking such pictures were discussed and was complemented by Theresa showing an excellent photograph of a display taken at a very short shutter speed – this froze the action and generated a perfectly black background.

Theme for next meeting is ‘Christmas’.