Benefits of Belonging to a Photographic Club
Derek Smith • 15 August 2023
Being a hobbyist photographer can often be a very solitary pastime, getting out to various locations taking the photographs, and developing the skills needed to master your camera, and the art of seeing an image will all take time before you become proficient in your hobby. When you’ve taken the very best images of your chosen subject that you possibly can, what do you do with those images? Do you share them on social media, with friends, or relatives? Or are the images just sitting on your computer?
Belonging to a photographic club is one of the best ways to quickly become proficient in your chosen hobby, it is a place where you can share ideas, and have valuable critique on your images. Learning composition techniques, sharing camera settings, and being involved in a group outing or workshop can all help develop your skills. I well remember one of our members, who is a very competent landscape, and street photographer, coming along to one of our outings to the Cadwell Circuit and never having photographed racing motorcycles before, took one of the best images from the whole afternoon. At one of our studio portrait sessions, many of those members who attended commented on how much they had not only enjoyed portraiture, but also learned a lot in the process.
Competitions held within the club also develop skills, and motivation. I find that it motivates me to get out with my camera and take the photos that I normally wouldn’t even consider taking, it gives me a subject to go and seek out. One of the topics for a future competition is “Chimneys”, and this within a 25 mile radius of Louth, now I would never normally consider taking a photo of a chimney, but I must go, seek them out, and produce the images for that competition. One aspect of competitions that sometimes causes issues is that a judge’s opinion of a photograph is subjective, often a judge will give full marks for a photograph, but the same photograph placed before another judge will receive low marks: nothing against the photographer, or the photograph, just simply a difference of opinion. Overall, the benefits of entering competitions far outweigh the drawbacks, the judge’s critique is usually very helpful, and feedback from your peers when reviewing a photograph is useful.
The social aspect of being in a photographic club can never be underestimated, the weekly meetings, the summer outings, the annual dinner, and the Christmas buffet all engender a feeling of belonging.
I am immensely proud to belong to the Louth Photographic Society, we are a diverse mix of men, and women, with different skills, and attributes, a friendly, welcoming, bunch, sharing ideas, and suggestions, where needed.
Now for some very welcome news, over the last few months our club has been involved in a friendly interclub “Battles” competition. Each Lincolnshire club has to select 15 photographic prints by their members to be judged against 15 photographic prints from each of two other clubs in the same meeting, the points derived from the various rounds at different club venues are collated, and the highest scoring clubs go forward to the final “Battle” to be held at Nettleham Village Hall on Sunday 15th October, the judge will be Malcolm Sales QEP, ABIPP, ARPS. Four clubs will participate in the final “Battle”, Deepings, Grimsby, Pinchbeck, and Louth, yes, we’re in the final!
Finally, if you’ve managed to stay alert during all my ramblings, the answers to the quiz that I set you on my last post.
A – Rachel, taken with a full frame Sony A7ii, and Sony 85mm f/1.8 lens
B – Amy, taken with an APS-C Fuji X-S20, and Fuji XF 50mm f/2 lens
C – Fleur, taken with a micro four thirds Olympus OM-D E-M5iii, and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens
If you didn’t get any of those right you would not be alone, whether your camera costs £200, or £2000 the gear does not matter that much, the skill of the photographer matters far more.
Louth Photographic Society
Good Morning All Last week at the club member Steve Chapman gave us an insight into his life and especially his time at Ilam Park in Derbyshire photographing for the National Trust. Steve showed us many photographs he had taken of the people involved with the trust and the Peak District. The second half was dedicated to Steve's own work, some superb aircraft photography as well as many other subjects. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. This week, Wednesday 11th March we are holding a PDI competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail " and "Open" to be judged by Martyn Wrigg of Barton. The following week is a committee meeting for the committee members only on that evening. For newer members we have two committee meetings a year. Regards Graham
Last night Steve Chapman presented a selection of images from his archives. Steve had previously been a volunteer photographer for the National Trust, and he showed many photos from the Ilam Park Estate, Dovedale, it was interesting to see some of the "behind the scenes" photos. The Jacobite reenactment battle scenes were amazing, the uniforms showed great attention to detail, and there were some real characters among the reenactors. After the break Steve showed some of his general photography, he has a great photographic eye, as some of his photos showed with different colours, shapes, and leading lines. Steve has taken many photos of agricultural machinery, and risked life and limb to create some close up aircraft photos. For atmosphere, just look at these horseriders at the top of the hill on a cool early morning. For heartstopping imagery look at these children on the side of a building, the children are photos on the side of the building, however, Steve wasted no time in capturing this stunning image. Many thanks to Steve for a fascinating evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club I gave you a PDI (Projected Digital Image) presentation showing photographs I had taken on my travels last year, following up with some past and present photographs of Binbrook. I hope you all enjoyed the evening and maybe saw parts of England you hadn't seen before. This week, Wednesday 4th March, our member Steve Chapman will be showing us photographs he has taken. This is Steve's first time showing the club his work so will be a very good night. Harry is now accepting your PDI's for the next competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail" and "Open". The closing date is Friday 6th March. Regards Graham
The N&EMPF Exhibition will be on display in Cleethorpes from 3rd March.
It was "President's Night" with Graham Harrison showing some of his images from short breaks, and holidays around the UK. Graham rented a holiday cottage in Newbiggin, Northumberland, and showed many of his photos from that area, including a visit to Lindisfarne, where the castle on the rocky outcrop made for an impressive photo. In Suffolk, Graham visited Pakefield, and photographed the colourful beach huts at the top of the shingle beach, he also showed several photos from the Lake District. One of my favourite photos from last night was St. Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, with the groins in juxtaposition. Thank you Graham for a very interesting evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club Harry and Chris gave us an insight into how our exhibition preparation is going, we have a lot of historical photos to go on show and there may be room for some more up to date ones but Harry and Chris will see how much room we have left when they start putting it all together at the museum. I also took the time to find out what you wanted in the new program, filling in the competition subjects and outings. This week, Wednesday 25th February, it is the Presidents night, so that's my night and I will be showing you what I got up to in 2025. The rainbow at Brough castle gives you idea of one area I visited. Harry is now accepting entries for the next PDI competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail" and "Open". The new program is nearly done and to give you a chance to get ready for the first two competitions in May and June the subjects are May, PDI comp - Landscapes with water and Open and June, Print competition, Trees and Open. Regards Graham
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our Print Of The Year (POTY) competition, it's one of our highlights of the year and judged by Grahame Dunkin, it proved to be an excellent night with some very good prints on show. The results are on our website under competitions but the highlights were Dave Turner being placed first in the Pictorial, landscape and best Mono print in show; Robin Begley, First in the Record section, Keith Rossington first place in Portrait, Harry Kerman first in the photo/journalism (including Street) and myself taking first place in the Nature as well as overall Print of the Year. My photograph of a Hairy Shield bug was taken at Chambers wood on a camera club outing. This week, Wednesday 19th February, we are sorting out Prints for our 70th anniversary exhibition at Louth Museum. Please bring along any local prints you may have and maybe a few further afield for selection. Please also bring along any prints you may have that you think will be ok for the LPA Foster challenge and LPA Battles. They need to be mounted on a 500mm x 400mm mount and a maximum print size of A3. Don't forget to take a photograph of water if you are doing this years project, no real excuses at the moment. Regards Graham
Our highlight competition, Print Of The Year (POTY) competition was held last night, with our judge Grahame Dunkin giving his experienced critique on the excellent images submitted. Congratulations to Dave Turner for his Monochrome image of the year: West Pier Watchtower - Whitby, and Graham Harrison for his Colour image: Hairy Shield Bug.
Good Morning All Last week we went to have a look at the Lancaster sculpture at Norton Disney, it is open for visitors at certain times and although work is still ongoing the main Lancaster is finished and a car park in place. The sculpture is full size weighing 100 tons and honours WW2 RAF crews. Last week at the club Derek Smith ran an editing night, members were asked to bring their laptops in and Derek gave us all an SD card with some images to edit and information regarding the free editing software. A different and interesting night and hopefully we all learnt something and anyone new to photography would have learnt quite a lot. Thank you Derek for running the evening. This week, Wednesday 11th February, we have one of the clubs yearly highlights, the Print Of The Year (POTY) competition to be judged by Grahame Dunkin, all the entries are now in and you should have checked the scoresheets to make sure yours are included. Dave Turner is also asking for prints to enter into the Foster Challenge and LPA Print Battles. He will ask to use prints that are in the print of the year but if you have any prints that you think would be good to enter in the two competitions please bring them and hand them into Dave Turner. The following week we are having an evening collecting everything in for our exhibition at the Louth museum, if you can sort out any prints especially local prints that could go into our exhibition please bring them in on the 18th February. Regards Graham
Last Sunday I was in Stockton on Tees working with Izzy, a favourite model of mine she enjoys cosplay, that’s dressing up as a character from Marvel, Hasbro, or film titles. This photo is of Fey, a woodland sprite, pictured against a woodland backdrop that I bought for the photoshoot. I stayed overnight at a Premier Inn, and in the morning drove to Staithes, as I had always wanted to visit this fishing village, Staithes in the February rain wasn’t much fun, and the tide was out, but I did manage to take a few photos, and I captured one for the “Water” project so I was pleased with that. I was quite surprised how vibrant the colours were in the drizzle, and misty light. Driving back over the North Yorkshire Moors in rain, and fog, didn’t allow for much photography either. Yesterday, walking along the harbour front in Bridlington the high tide, and strong winds had thrown lots of debris onto the promenade, seaweed, nets, tree branches, and cuttlefish kept council workmen busy clearing up the mess. With the right clothing, and a weatherproof camera photography can still be enjoyed even in poor conditions.
