The 2024 project was “Numbers”, one photo that included a number for each month of the year, I have just finished my last photo for this month, it has been an interesting project. Our 2025 project is “Prime Time”, one photo each month taken with the same prime lens, (a lens with a fixed focal length). Yesterday I was out visiting the Alice in Wonderland experience at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, I took one camera, the Fuji X-S20, with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 prime lens to capture some images. Having a fixed focal length certainly makes a photographer concentrate on composition but consider that many iconic photographs from the 20th century were taken in this fashion. My 30mm lens on an APS-C camera is the equivalent of 45mm on a full frame camera, the lens is considered a “normal” focal length. For this project I would probably use my wide-angle Samyang 12mm f/2, (18mm full frame) which I normally use for architecture, or landscape photography, I could also use the TT Artisans 56mm f/1.8 (85mm full frame) portrait lens, either lens would challenge my photographic skills, and I will choose in the next week or so. Photographs taken at Castle Howard with a Sigma 30mm prime lens.

Good Morning All Last Wednesday we held our annual Buffet and quiz night including Harry's raffle. I think you would all agree we had a very good night, and I must thank all our members for donating so many raffle prizes. Thank you also to my partner Jane for preparing the buffet, Dave Mann for sorting the buffet out and making the drinks and Harry who ran the raffle and read out the quiz prepared by Paul Malley. Thank you Paul for compiling the quiz for us. We now have our Christmas break and when we return on January 15th we start with the monthly PDI competition, Shadows and Open. You can send your entries to Harry after the new year to give Harry a break, it will give us something to do over the festive season. Have a great Christmas. Regards Graham

This was the last meeting of the year, and we celebrated the evening with a delicious buffet provided by Graham's partner Jane, and there was plenty of food for members attending the evening, with some members taking leftovers home. Paul Malley was unfortunately unable to attend owing to ill health, but, he had prepared a general knowledge quiz, with some very obscure questions, which kept us puzzled, and entertained, Tony Gaskins scored the most points, and took the prize cup. Members had brought in items for the raffle, Harry Kerman sold the tickets, and the raffle raised £47 for club funds. Overall it was a very successful evening. So, a big thank you to Jane for the buffet, Paul for the quiz, Harry for running the raffle, and Dave Mann for laying the buffet out, and preparing refreshments. A date for your 2025 diary: Saturday 22nd February there will be an opportunity to photograph a Taekwondo event; details to follow. Wishing all our readers, and members a very Happy Christmas.

Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly print competition judged by Ron Abbott, as usual there were some really good prints on show and all the results are on our website. This week we are holding our Christmas buffet, quiz and raffle night, so don't have too much to eat before you attend as there will be plenty to eat. Paul Malley is organising the quiz and Harry the raffle, please bring a raffle prize on the night if you would be so kind. You can also bring a drink of beer or wine if you wish, or Dave will be boiling the kettle. Christmas jumpers optional. Regards Graham

Good Morning All Last Wednesday we were treated to an excellent talk and PDI show by Gavin Smith a very keen aviation photographer. Gavin had a very personal approach to photographing planes getting in closer than we may do and showing incredible detail in his photographs. There is more about Gavin on our blog. I also tried re - editing one of my photographs to get more detail which is the Kittyhawk attached. This week, Wednesday 11th December, we will hold the monthly print competition, with the categories of "Events" and "Open" to be judged by Ron Abbott. The following week it is our Christmas buffet and quiz night, were has the year gone? Harry will be holding a Christmas raffle, could members bring some donated prizes in on the night please. Regards Graham

Last night our speaker the very articulate Gavin Smith, a self-confessed aircraft “geek” gave us a very interesting talk on aircraft photography. Gavin is a volunteer guide at the Coningsby Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and the International Bomber Command Centre. For many experienced photographers some of the knowledge he imparted was fairly obvious, shoot in RAW in order to draw out the most dynamic range and detail from the image, and use a lens greater than a 300mm focal length. One of the nuggets of information that Gavin spoke on that I hadn’t appreciated is that many Royal Air Force airfields have a single runway orientated in a southwest, northeast direction, owing to the British prevailing winds, the viewing areas, workshops, administration buildings are often located to the north of the runway, resulting in photographers forced into taking photos of aircraft in flight against a bright sky looking to the south. Coningsby, Duxford, and East Kirkby airfields are orientated in this manner making life more difficult for photographers. Gavin showed us stunning images of aircraft in flight, very closely cropped views of aircraft in flight, showing every single panel, fastenings, and rivets on the fuselage in sharp detail. The photos of aircraft low flying through the “Mach Loop” valley in Wales were especially strong in dynamic composition, the RAF Airbus A400M cargo aircraft steeply banking through the valley, and looking down onto the RAF GR1 Panavia Tornado, still in desert camouflage, as it passed through the valley below Gavin’s viewpoint. Gavin likes to photograph the pilots at the controls, in their “office” as he put it. Some of the tips that Gavin shared were to shoot in Aperture, or Shutter priority, and to “pan” through the expected track of an aircraft to meter for correct exposure as the ISO may need to be raised if the aircraft is flying into an area of shadow. Keep an eye on shutter speed for propeller driven aircraft to blur the propellers, on take-off the propellers will be turning faster than for a throttled back fly-past, or landing. Other personal preferences from Gavin were as follows: Shoot on the bright side with partial metering (+2/3 / +1 EV) and expect the sky to be blown out. In post processing “push” shadows, dampen the highlights, and saturation. Don’t over sharpen or use excessive clarity. A vignette, or graduated filter can soften the corners, and draw the viewers eye to the subject. Thanks, Gavin, for an interesting talk, with valuable insights and tips, punctuated with stunning photography, a great evening which I’m sure we all enjoyed.

Good Morning All Last week we held our Autumn committee meeting, Derek has done an excellent blog on our website on what we sorted out for the rest of our year until May. This week, Wednesday 4th December, Gavin Smith is our speaker coming to the club to show us his aviation photography. Gavin is a well known photographer in the aviation world so it should be an excellent evening. Please attend if you possibly can to support our outside speaker evenings. Dave Turner will be collecting prints this week for the following weeks print competition, with the categories of "Events" and "Open". Please also email Dave Turner your titles with an (R) after one of them in the event of too many entries. Regards Graham

The Society held a productive Committee meeting last night. Among many items discussed was the Programme with several speakers added for 2025, and the very successful “Studio Night” will be held on the 23rd April, it is proposed to have a live model again, and techniques of lighting, posing, and camera settings will be demonstrated. How is everyone progressing with this year’s annual project of “Numbers”? Next year’s annual project will be “Prime Time”, one photo each month to be taken with a fixed focal length prime lens, it should be a very creative project. A couple of Committee members have 105mm macro lenses, and it will be interesting to see what images can be obtained with these, I have a 56mm APS-C lens, 85mm full frame, that will be a challenge. A prime lens need not be an expensive acquisition, a new manual focus lens for your camera system can be purchased from Amazon for less than £70, TT Artisans, 7 Artisans, and Mieke manufacture a 25mm or 35mm lens at that price. As an alternative consider a M42 screw mount manual focus lens, you will need an adapter for your camera mount, (around £20) then on eBay branded lenses from Helios, and Pentacon, and Carl Zeis are available in several focal lengths. The Christmas Buffet, and quiz night will be held on the 18th December. The door entry charge will be £3 to cover the room hire, and cost of the buffet, Paul Malley has organised a quiz, Jane will be providing the buffet, which Graham will bring in, a raffle will be held by Harry Kerman, and he will need some prizes to be brought in on the night. These are some photos from last year’s buffet, so it should be a another good evening.

Good Morning All Firstly, I have my new computer up and running with the latest version of Elements so I can now edit again. What I have learnt is how important it is to back everything up which I will be doing in future. I have not managed to retrieve anything of my old computer yet but there is still hope that the hard drive is still ok and can be accessed by a specialist. The good news is I was also lazy deleting photographs on my camera's memory card, so I have 1150 photos to make a fresh start and as I have done a talk every year at the club, I have most of them still on memory sticks. Still plenty of bad news but think positive. I took the photograph of the Long-tailed tit at Linwood last Friday and is my first edited image on Elements 25. Last week at the club we held a minute's silence in memory of Paul Gray who sadly passed away recently and will be greatly missed by us all. The evening didn't really go to plan, firstly no heating then when we got heating the power tripped and no trip box could be found. It was a disappointment as it was PDI of the year and we had a judge attending from Barton. Gail judged the first three subjects on the night and the other three later at home. We now have the results, and they are on our website. Results are as follows Landscape 1st Dave Tuner - Calm before the storm, Loch Long 2nd Dave Turner - Trotternish Ridge sky 3rd Derek Smith Ilkley Moor Cow and Calf Nature 1st Paul Malley - Gryfalcon - just killing time 2nd Harry Kerman - Red Kite 3rd Derek Smith - Keeled Skimmer Highly commended Simon Millson - Brown Hare Photo/Journalism 1st Keith Rossington - Enjoying the ride 2nd Keith Rossington - Making a splash 3rd Paul Twomey - Matt Henry takes evasive action Pictorial 1st Dave Turner - Tower Bridge 2nd Harry Kerman - Iris 3rd Paul Twomey - Blickling Hall Portrait 1st Graham Harrison - The Warden 2nd Paul Malley - Alicia and Joe 3rd Keith Rossington - Ta Daa Record 1st Keith Rossington - The old bridge to the sea 2nd Derek Smith - Cranford in steam 3rd Dave Mann - Bath Overall PDI of the year Paul Malley with his nature photograph of a Gyrfalcon. just killing time Well done Paul, great photograph This week we have a committee meeting, committee members only to attend please. We have two meetings a year to keep steering the club going in the right direction and sort any events in the future. If anyone would like to attend the LPA day of photography in March, please let me know and I can order your tickets for you, It is £15 a ticket. Regards Graham