Good Evening All, It seems I was right after some of our summer outings to nature reserves this year that there seemed to be a lack of butterflies, apparently and worryingly numbers were down statistically by50% this year. Last week at the club we held a PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition, with the categories of "Panoramic Landscapes" and "Open" judged by Bob Mould. It was a very good evening with some very high standard photography on show. All the results and a blog on the evening are on our website but very well done to Paul Gray for his panoramic evening photograph of Bridge to Tromso which won the subject, and Derek Smith who won the open section with his lollipop girl portrayal. This week, Wednesday 25th September, I won't be there but I have left the N&EMPF DVD featuring the 2024 N&EMPF exhibition of PDI’s, these images are of a very high standard and show the best photography from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, some of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, you may spot some of our members photographs in the exhibition. Regards Graham

A PDI competition was held last night with the categories of “panoramic”, and “open”. The judge for the evening was Bob Mould, who confessed that he was inexperienced at judging, but in my view he carried out the task in a competent, and professional manner. Bob had been supplied with the competition images before the event, and had written notes on every image submitted, the evening began with the judging of the “open” category which is a difficult subject for any judge, because of the mix of subject matter. How do you compare a record shot, with a stunning monochrome, a portrait, or a landscape? Bob handled this very well with a light hearted critique of each image. Following the break Bob began judging the “panoramic” category, the definition of a panoramic image in his opinion was that the image should be in a 2:1 ratio, twice as wide as the height, which I had never considered before. One of the composition errors that Bob pointed out was an imbalance in the image, with large trees, or rocks being predominant on one side of an image. Some of the submitted images, whilst of a high standard were not in a panoramic format and lost marks accordingly. This was a very successful evening, the panoramic category was a first for the club and it was fascinating to see the different interpretations presented. There was a very high standard of submissions to this competition, and Bob’s assessment of each image will have helped many members with composition tips. Thank you Bob for a practical, informative, and engaging evening.

Good morning All Last week we started back at the club after the summer break with mini lectures, show us what you have been up to over the summer. Looks like some of you did quite a lot of travelling and some members had been to more local events, we had a varied evening with some excellent photography. Thank you to all those who took part. This week, Wednesday 18th September, we are holding a PDI competition, Panoramic Landscapes and Open judged by Bob Croft of Dunholme. The following week we are showing the NEMPF exhibition DVD. Regards Graham

It was our first meeting following our summer break, it felt good to be back. Members were asked to give a short talk, with photos from their activities during the summer. The evening was a fascinating visual treat, everything from planes, trains, automobiles, a music festival, and travel photos from Scotland, via France to the Mediterranean. A big thank you to the seven members who gave us a glimpse of their summer meanderings, which made for a thoroughly entertaining evening.

Good Morning All Binbrook held it’s annual scarecrow day yesterday, we had a walk round later in the day, and there were around thirty scarecrows in the village to marvel at. This week, Wednesday 11th September, at the club we a holding a series of mini lectures by members. I had a very good response and will limit it to the first seven, if you can keep it to no more than 15 minutes please to allow all seven a chance. Our speakers in this order are, Harry Kerman, Paul Gray, Derek Smith, Dave Turner. After the break time, Paul Twomeys, Peter Cory and Keith Rossington. The following week a PDI competition will be held, with the categories of: "Panoramic Landscapes" and "Open", please send your entries to Harry by midnight this Wednesday. We have a new judge for the evening, Bob Croft of Dunholme, who has kindly stepped in due to Martin Joy not being able to judge at the moment. Remember a max of three in each subject with an (R) after one of them in case we have too many entries, max size is as usual 1920px x 1200px. Just a reminder that on 2nd October we are holding a local competition with photographs taken on a compact camera or mobile phone. We will need one or two judges for that one if any member fancies having a go. Regards Graham

The rise of smartphones with the associated improved cameras, and computer aided photography leads to many people asking “do I need a digital camera?” For the majority of people the answer is simply “no”. The smartphone is just so ubiquitous, in everyone’s pocket or handbag, ready to take an image at the click of a button. Even at weddings, social occasions, and events the smartphone is ever present clicking away, and for most people the resolution of the image is perfectly acceptable, especially for social media where these images are frequently used, and shared. However, for those of us, a somewhat diminishing breed of photographers now, a digital camera is an essential tool to capture the very best images, yes it does require learning and acquiring the skills needed to obtain the very best from the camera, but when that stunning image is captured there’s a deep satisfaction in capturing an image that is just not possible with the smartphone. Here's a selection of images that demonstrate what can be achieved with a digital camera, a ladybird on foliage, and a gannet rising out of the sea with a fish in it’s mouth. For comparison this is a photograph taken on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey heritage railway, the locomotive is pictured first with a smartphone pointing into low sun, and the flaring makes this image almost unusable, whereas this image of the locomotive taken shortly after on a digital camera is more controlled and usable. The Louth Photographic Society reopens after the summer break on Wednesday evening 11th September at 19:30, members of the Society will be giving short illustrated talks titled “What you did over the summer”. Come along and see what we do, our Society is a friendly group enjoying photography.

Good Morning All I hope you are all enjoying the summer break and having a few outings taking photographs. We have just got back from a week in Conwy, North Wales, so I have been busy with my camera at times last week. It will soon be time to return to club nights starting on the 11th September with a series of mini lectures. For newer members we are looking at 15 minute talks with projected images brought in on a memory stick on the night showing what you have done over the summer break. We have Harry, Paul Gray and Derek so far taking part, please let me know if you would like to take part. The following week we have a PDI competition (Projected Digital Images), with the categories of "Panoramic Landscapes" and "Open" and will be judged by Martin Joy of Barton. You don’t need to do stitch panoramas unless you want to of course you can just crop your images to make them panoramas, remember you can enter up to six images, three in each section but put an R after one of them in case we have too many entries and that one will be withdrawn. You can start sending your entries to Harry from now. It is also the time to start thinking about the N&EMPF exhibition, our club has been quite successful in recent years so hopefully members will get involved again, essentially you will need to send in your very best images. I have acted as our clubs N&EMPF entry secretary in the past and am happy to do it again. Regards Graham

Many of you will know that as a photographer I enjoy working with models. Working with an experienced model can produce some awe-inspiring portraiture, or fashion style images, and the reason I enjoy this genre of photography is the working interaction with the model, many times we are chatting away, discussing different poses, and ideas to create that “special” image. So, some of you may not be aware of the “cosplay” sub-genre of model photography, this is where a model dresses, and takes on the persona of a fantasy figure, a Marvel comic character, a film, or story book character. The attention to detail that some models take to create their characters is stunning, recently I worked with a model to capture an “Alice in Wonderland” scene, but with a Goth twist. The costume, makeup, and props she brought to the shoot must have taken hours to accumulate and cost a fair amount of money. So, here’s a selection of images; Bonnie Raven as Alice in Wonderland, Olga Solo at the Masquerade Ball, a warrioress shoot, and finally the vampire shoot which was a lot of fun. These types of images provide me with several options when entering club competitions, as I will usually drop one of my model images into the “Open” section, as one of my choices, along with a landscape, natural world, or a record shot. I enjoy my photography and get a lot of pleasure from taking photos. Being a member of the Louth Photographic Society has improved my photography, sharing images with other members helps me to learn new skills, and ideas. Our next meeting will be held on the 11th September, why not come along and see what we do.

Many photographers think that the only way to isolate subjects within a scene, especially in portraiture is to buy, and use a f/1.4 aperture lens, there are even f/1.2, and f/0.95 lenses available. When photographers discuss having a blurred background to images, to create subject isolation as a compositional aid, they are talking about the depth of field produced by a specific lens / camera combination. Depth of field, and therefore isolating a subject within an image is primarily obtained by the closeness to the subject, and distance from the subject to the background. The aperture setting, and also the size of the camera sensor all play a part in this. I use an app on my mobile phone called “PhotoPills”, this is a very informative, and invaluable app for photographers. The “PhotoPills” app gives information about sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset times based on your location, exposure value calculator, field of view calculator. The "PhotoPills" depth of field (DoF) calculator to enables a photographer to determine the depth of field for his camera, and lens combination. Mastering aperture priority mode on your camera is a key skill to learn, often it’s a matter of choosing the correct aperture for each situation. In this photo of yours truly, taken by my young lady in a heritage railway carriage, I’ve deliberately set the aperture at f/2 on the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens, before handing the camera to her, and you can see with the sharp focus on my eyes, my clothes, and the backrest of the train seat are blurred, this is a deliberate portrait rather than a contextual view of me sitting in a railway carriage, for a contextual view f/5.6 could have been selected, if an f/1.4 aperture had been chosen my ears, and nose would also have started to blur. Insects, and small mammals / reptiles are notoriously difficult to select the correct aperture (sometimes termed “f stop”) for depth of field, and therefore sharpness over the whole of the creature. How many times has a judge commented on an insect photo about the wings, or tail being out focus? For this lizard photo I selected f/7.1, (more by accident than design) on a 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, the focus on the eye is perfect, the foreground, and background rocks are defocused, in this situation f/5.6 or even an f/6.3 aperture may not have given the correct sharpness on the reptile. This butterfly photo is a complete failure, a grab shot, taken at f/5.6, on the 70-300mm telephoto lens, I’ve got one wing in focus!! A choice of f/7.1 may have improved the focus across the scene. For landscape photographers, choosing the correct aperture to achieve foreground to background sharpness is important. Many landscape photographers suggest setting the aperture somewhere between f/8 to f/16 and focusing a third of the way into the scene. In this scene of the Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor, I’ve chosen f/11 and deliberately focused on the foreground rock to capture the engraved graffiti, this is a contextual scene, with the heather, and Cow and Calf rocks acceptable, rather than “tack sharp”. Remember failure in photography should assist us to learn, rather than discourage us from taking great photographs. Get out there with your camera and enjoy this wonderful hobby.