Whilst our monthly meetings are based at Littleton Hall, we enjoy outdoor activities, sometimes joining up with a Quester group. One such example is to walk-around a local town or village and photograph things that catch our eye. Hampshire has some lovely locations often with hidden interest, sometimes we will venture further afield. We are in the process of investigating options for this year, having compiled a list of possible outings in our programme. What is particularly rewarding is that we all have a different eye for things, so there is great interest in seeing the variety of images that result.

The meeting second-half sessions are aimed at both educating and enthusing members through topics suggested and presented by members. We will be featuring talks on basic photo editing, printing, using flash, creating panoramas and more.

We currently have vacancies in the Photography Group. Interestingly, more and more of us are submitting images taken on our smartphones to great effect, so don’t feel that you have to be an ‘enthusiast’ with the latest camera gear, but if you like exploring places and ideas through images and want to know more about the subject, you are welcome to come along and see what we get up to. Our meetings are held at Littleton Hall, from 2pm to 4pm on the first Monday of every month.

The members of our Photography Group use the monthly meetings at Littleton Memorial Hall to explore set subjects as each individual sees, interprets and records them. A theme is decided in advance, we then review projected images during the first half of our meetings.

Recent subjects have been “Black & White”, “Signs of Spring”, “Framed” and “Architecture”. After a break for August, we will be back meeting again in September with a theme of “A Colour”. Discussion tends to favour composition and background to how or why the photograph was taken. Sometimes we will discuss camera settings but with a large proportion of images taken on smart
phones, the emphasis has changed. The aim is to understand what makes a good image regardless of which device is used. Our monthly images can be viewed here.

After a tea and coffee break (with biscuits) we gather again for an educational or topical session covering an aspect of photography. Recent sessions include photo editing Q&A, why you don’t always need a long zoom lens and last month an update on AI (Artificial Intelligence) in photo editing. In September we will talk about and have a demonstration of Still Life and Table-top photography.

In recent meetings we have explored composition (symmetry and cropping) as well as architecture. Our monthly image themes give us an opportunity to focus our photography on specific tasks and enjoy a review at our monthly meetings.
Whilst in the past we may have talked about f-stop and ISO settings, the majority of the photographs we share are taken on smartphones, using automatic modes. Whilst the smartphone technology has limitations, which means that some of our members are still keen to use their interchangeable lens cameras, we acknowledge that the convenience of a smartphone often outweighs the complexity and bulk of a ‘proper’ camera. Smartphone cameras are adept at handling difficult lighting conditions and, given attention to the composition of the scene or subject, astonishingly good results can be obtained.
Each meeting includes a short teaching session, covering anything from how to take close-up photos, to basic editing on computer or smartphone, to printing and creating photobooks. Where possible we like to include a practical element (hands-on) and tie-in with our monthly image subject. Recently, we have included smartphone workshops and first-aid sessions to discuss, solve problems and answer queries from our members.
In May the group will visit Bishop’s Waltham for a walk-around. As one of Hampshire’s lovely market towns, there is a lot of hidden detail, historical references and variety of subjects to photograph. We hope to visit Tichfield Haven Nature Reserve and the adjacent coastline during August, to keep us busy during the month when we do not have a meeting.
If you are looking for a knowledgeable photography group, want to know more about how to take good photographs, we can provide that in a sociable environment. We cater for all levels of photography. Come along to a meeting at Littleton Millennium Memorial Hall, SO22 6QL - held from 2pm to 4pm on the first Monday of every month (except August).
If you would like further details, please contact me at paul_c_haines@hotmail.com or just turn up at a meeting and introduce yourself.
Paul Haines

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