The Group met at 10:15 a.m. on 11^th November with the theme ‘Creature Feature’.

Only 4 people attended, Rosemary Crumplin sent her apologies for not attending.

With such a small number, a unanimous vote for best picture was given to Pam Liberson’s ‘Snail Close Up’ – the snail was held in her hand to get the picture. One of John Hawke’s pictures was of a large spider in his bath – the high definition of the hairs on its legs exposed Anjie Sargeant’s arachnophobia!

Snail Close Up – Pam Liberson (taken on Mobile Phone)

December’s Theme is ‘Quirky’ – a theme suggested by Rosemary Franklin (who may not attend the next meeting due to ongoing health problems). There was an intensive discussion about what could be considered as quirky – at one point Anjie Sargeant used a dictionary (did not help!)

Both Pam and Mike Liberson were having difficulties with Windows 11 after upgrading from Windows 10.

The first problem was not recognising photographs held on a USB stick – solved by using File Explorer: Highlight the USB Drive (E:/) and drag on to the desktop or right click on the folder and use copy and paste – the problem here is that Windows 11 has an abbreviated listing so one has to click on ‘More Options’ to reveal the Copy and Paste functions. One can use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V shortcuts which takes out these extra steps.

John Hawke also showed how to assign default apps for specific file types by going into ‘Settings/Apps/Default Apps’ and scrolling down to ‘Choose defaults by File Type’. He showed the examples of setting default apps for .jpeg and .tif files – by double clicking/opening the file it will be automatically loaded into the preferred photo app.

Pam Liberson was able to print e-mail attachments but could not print photographs. Investigation showed that her laptop had two default printers – one for direct connection and one for wifi – both the same printer! The wifi printer had a notification that the driver was not valid. Using Device Manager and updating the driver did not resolve the issue. No solution was found on the day.

The Group met at 10:15 a.m. on 14^th October with the theme ‘Autumn Colour’.

Only 4 people attended, Rosemary Crumplin sent her apologies for not attending.

With such a small number, a unanimous vote for best picture was given to Pam Liberson’s ‘Chestnuts’ – the subject was enhanced with Fallen leaves from her garden.

November’s Theme is ‘Creature Feature’.

Anjie Sargeant showed her photographs from her recent holiday in Croatia.

Some camera issues were discussed including a problem with Mike Liberson’s Panasonic FZ1000 Mk II. This was resolved in 2 ways:

1. Using the LVF (Fn 8) button to manually switch between eyepiece and screen.
2. Automatic switching between viewfinder and monitor:The eye sensor automatically switches the display to viewfinder when your eye or an object moves close to the viewfinder. When the eye or object moves away from the viewfinder, the camera returns to monitor display.

The Group met at 10:15 a.m. on 9^th September with the theme ‘Summer Events’.

Only 5 people attended John Clark being absent. Rosemary Crumplin was welcomed back from her recent cruise around the British Isles and the Azores.

With such a small number, it was surprising that a unanimous vote for best picture was given to Anjie Sargeant’s ‘Andover Carnival’.

September’s Theme is ‘Autumn Colour’.

John Hawke stated that this theme should not restrict itself to foliage changes but the use of the ‘golden hours at sunrise and sunset of any subject.

Anjie Sargeant showed her photograph album from her recent holiday based at Lake Como with many stunning pictures.

Some camera issues were discussed including the use of menu settings for digital  zoom and minimising noise when using it.