Lacock Positive

Lacock Positive Meeting, 19th March 2026

2026-03-29T12:12:00.000+01:00

For the first half of this meeting one of our members, Philip Male, shared some of his photographs of the kestrels that he sees from his house. The female kestrel has successfully raised a family of chicks from a nesting box behind Philip's house, for several years and Philip has taken the opportunity to record their lives with his beautiful photos.

The following pictures show an insight into the lives of these beautiful birds, captured with Philip's inimitable style, particularly in some by using a shallow depth of field to introduce a blur of colour.

One intriguing fact about kestrels is the Alula - this is a small group of feathers on the leading edge of the wing, which acts like the birds "thumb" assisting in flight manoeuvres. This is clearly shown in the first of these pictures.

(all the following pictures are copyright Philip Male)

Following our coffee break, we reviewed two members challenges. Continuing our journey through the year, we reviewed the February pictures, and here are some of these - a recurring theme for February is spring flowers, so snowdrops made an appearance along with hellebores. There were also abstract pictures, and brave people taking a plunge in cold water!

Continuing our trek through the alphabet we have reached "U", so here are some of these pictures. I think we are already wondering what we can use for "X".

Uninhabited © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Umbrella © Pam Bamford

Ungulate © Ruth Baldwin

Up © Tony Bamford

Umbellifer © Amanda Gregory

Under the Arches © Caroline Howe

Lacock Positive Meeting, 5th March 2026

2026-03-08T10:22:00.000+00:00

Presentation by Julie Skelton, Professional Garden Photographer

We were very lucky to be joined by Julie Skelton, who talked to us about her approach to garden photography. Julie specialises in garden photography and her work has featured in many publications. One major achievement is her contribution to the book "A Year of Colour" by the garden designer Ann Marie Powell, for which she worked with Ann Marie extensively to capture a garden throughout the year.

Julie talked about her approach and one of the key take away messages was the importance of light. Light at either end of the day allows you to pick out the texture and form of plants, in preference to light in the middle of the day, which is often too harsh to show the fine detail of the petals or leaves. This of course does require some planning, especially if you can only access gardens during public opening times. Julie suggested that there are ways to access gardens by contacting the owners, particularly those in the National Gardens Scheme. Consideration of light may also lead you to visiting gardens in winter, when the opening times are more likely to coincide with morning and evening light.

Another drawback of accessing public gardens is the presence of other people - this requires patience to wait for people to pass, once you have set up your shot!

Here are some photos from Julie's portfolio

(all pictures are Copyright: Julie Skelton)

Julie's photographs include a wide range of approaches, from macro, and close up to the wider shots. She emphasised the importance of composition, using leading lines, S-shaped paths, and the golden spiral, for example, to draw the viewer's eye into the picture.

Following our coffee break Julie very kindly offered some critique to members' garden pictures. As always from our members there was a wide variety of approaches to the prompt of garden photography. There were macro photographs that emphasised the detail of the flowers, to wider views of garden, evoking feelings of peace. Here are just a few examples of those that we looked at.

ⓒCraig Purvis

ⓒCaroline Howe

ⓒAmanda Gregory

ⓒTony Bamford

ⓒRob Macklin

ⓒPhiliip Male

ⓒJulia Lloyd-Parks

ⓒAnn Horne

ⓒDanny Wootton

Lacock Positive Meeting, 19th February 2026

2026-02-24T13:32:00.000+00:00

The Highlight of the club's year is the annual exhibition of member's photographs. this is held in the Lacock Village Hall and the dates for this year are 3rd and 4th May. To make the exhibition run smoothly takes a lot of preparation, and so for at the start of the meeting on 19th February we spend some time discussing the logistics for the event. we have to start early and it requires the input of all club members. If you are reading this, maybe you will be able to visit - more information will be available nearer the time.

Review of photos from Savernake Forest

A group of intrepid members went, in the pouring rain, to Savernake Forest last autumn to photograph fungi, and here are a sample of the photos taken and then shared at our meeting:

One Month, One Photograph

The locations for our January photos ranged from the Caribbean and Oman to Wales, through Dorset and of course Wiltshire. The weather also featured in the picture, with rain drops and frost both making an appearance.

Review of Macro Photographs

Macro photography is endlessly fascinating, and our members showed this with the wide variety of pictures in this category. Those shown here are just a small selection.

©Julia Lloyd-Parks

Lacock Positive Meeting, January 22nd 2026

2026-01-24T14:02:00.000+00:00

At this meeting we were very pleased to welcome Tim Jones, Technical Manager of Fotospeed. The title of his talk was "Demystifying Printing". The overall objective of the talk was to provide an understanding of what is needed to produce a good print of your photos, whether you are printing for yourself, or you are using an external printer.

There are three main foundations on which to build:

Knowing your printer whether this is your own physical printer, or you are outsourcing your printing
Calibration of your screen - particularly important if you are sending your pictures out for printing
Using the ICC profile for the specific paper that you are using

Then, on to printers. there are two principal types of printers, either those using pigment ink, or the dye printers.

Pigment ink printers

These are considered the gold standard for "Fine Art" prints, which are of archival quality, if printed on Fine Art paper - these might be expected to last for more than 200 years.
They will have more inks with a wider range of colours, maybe 10-12 colours, including greys
Black and white printing will be much better, because of the grey inks, particularly if printed on paper designed for black and white

Dye ink printers

May have only 4-6 inks, which may include only 1 grey colour
Prints are not seen as archival, although the "life" of a print is increasing and may be up to 100 years
It is harder to produce a natural black and white
they are cheaper to run than pigment ink printers

The next topic was colour management, and this encompasses both the screen and the printer. Tim reminded us that we all see colour differently, so what is most important in printing is that there is colour accuracy and consistency of colour.

The ICC profile is a data file standardised by the International Colour Consortium, and is used throughout the technology industry, and applies to the widest range of applications, including televisions, computers, scanners, monitors, phones etc. So screen calibration is carried out according to this profile.

Devices are available to assist in the calibration of computer screens several are available including Calibrite and Datacolour Spyder.

One point to note is that often our computer screens are too bright, and looking at pictures on the screen is akin to having a backlight, whereas the print, which might look dark, is using only reflected light. Dark prints is a frequent complaint when printing one's own pictures.

Profiles also apply to the paper that is used, and if using Fotospeed papers you can use the pre-prepared profiles to ensure that you use the right profile, for the paper. And then once you have printed the picture might appear completely different from what you see on the screen - you may notice things that you didn't on the screen. This may also be influenced by the choice of paper, whether it is matt, smooth, gloss, or textured.

In general a good photo would look good on any paper, but a different paper may elevate the picture a little, for example, a textured paper can add some sharpness to a leafy forest picture, or could distract on a more flat picture (e.g. a calm seascape).

It is important to feel the papers, and if experimenting - try the same picture on different papers. The quality of the black may influence the appearance of the final print, and can completely change the mood. And not all whites are the same, with some papers being brighter than others.

A final piece of advice is to let a picture sit for a little while, and come back to it, maybe days or weeks later and see if your feelings about it have changed.

One final thought is that there is no need to become frustrated if your printing is not going as you wanted - Fotospeed (www.fotospeed.com) is always willing to offer advice on all aspects of printing. And they provide a wide range of papers as well!

Lacock Positive Meeting, 8th January 2026

2026-01-09T13:58:00.000+00:00

Our first meeting for 2026 began with a bang with an excellent presentation (via Zoom) from multi-award winning photographer Tony North MPAGB ABPE, entitled Flora & Fungi.

©Tony North

Over the course of two hours, Tony shared not only some of his wonderful imagery, but gave an extremely useful insight into his typical 'Floral Calendar of Subjects', Fungi and techniques to achieve eye-catching images. Based in Manchester, Tony will often visit RHS Garden Bridgewater in search of subjects, as well as his garden. He has even prostrated himself in the middle of an urban carriageway's central reservation to get a particular image of a tree!

The example below is his Highly Commended image entered in the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2024.

©Tony North

Tony looks us through, month by month, the sorts of flora typically in bloom at different times of the year. He shared with us his tips for improving our imagery, such as: isolating individual flowers; getting down low; looking for uncluttered backgrounds, to name but a few. But he also gave an introduction to 'Focus Bracketing and Stacking', either utilising Photoshop, or his preferred option, Helicon Focus. Through a combination of the tips he described, and the photo stacking technique, images such as this beautiful Magnolia flower are suddenly within reach.

©Tony North

This Helenium was particularly striking.

©Tony North

The second half of the evening saw us venturing into the fascinating world of Fungi. Again Tony shared plenty of useful tips, including descriptions of his set-up.

©Tony North

One tip that did capture the imagination was the artistic use of water sprays combined with differing shutter speeds, depending on the desired effect. The image below was shot at 1/160s.

©Tony North

The use of glycerin to provide a 'controlled' water droplet, such as below, was also explained.

©Tony North

Again, the use of photo bracketing and stacking was also recommended for shooting fungi. One compositional element that Tony always sought to seek out was the incorporation of an insect. Insects abound on the forest and woodland floor, so careful inspection of your chosen subject may reveal one already in situ. If not, the careful utilisation and temporary relocation of a 'model', can work very well, but it needs to sit still to allow for photo bracketing!

©Tony North

It was a real treat to have Tony share with us, not just some of his marvellous portfolio of work, but also his techniques, tips and methodology behind them, and we look forward to welcoming him again to the club in the future.

©Tony North

More of Tony's work, including information on courses that he runs, can be found here: https://www.artofmacro.com/galleries

Lacock Positive Meetings, January 2026

2025-12-28T13:00:00.000+00:00

Our 2026 programme kicks off with 2 external speakers in January. Our first meeting will be on Thursday 8th January, and will be held via Zoom, with members attending from home. This meeting will feature Tony North who will be talking about Fungi and Flora.

Then, on 22nd January, we will be back in the Manor Room, Lacock and our speaker will be Tim Jones from Fotospeed.

New members are always welcome, and if you are interested you can join us for up to 3 trial meetings before taking the plunge to join us. Please see the contact details to the right of this page.

Lacock Positive Meeting, 11th December 2025

2025-12-28T12:53:00.000+00:00

As this was our last meeting before Christmas, we took the opportunity to spend some time socialising and having snacks and nibbles. Then taking our plates to our seats we reviewed the pictures from some of the recent challenges.

The following are just a taste of what our members submitted.

Challenge: The Letter "S"

S for Shells ©Sue Power

Strawberry Splash ©Roger Parry

S for scaffolding ©Derek Liversidge

Sheep ©Danny Wootton

Sun, sea and sand ©Ann Horne

One Month, One Picture - November

Blackwood Forest ©Amanda Gregory

Yet more bottle photography ©Tony Bamford

Gone Fishing ©Pam Bamford

Tarr Steps, Exmoor ©Caroline Howe

And finally our seasonal challenge: Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls ©Ann Horne

Festive Shoppers Ponte Vecchio ©Craig Purvis

Deck the Halls ©Caroline Howe

Baaaaa Humbug ©Pam Bamford

Christmas ©Lesley Cadger

Lacock Positive Meeting, 27th November 2025

2025-11-30T12:14:00.000+00:00

Our meeting on 27th November was filled with a wide variety of shots, displaying the inventiveness and creativity of our members.

The meeting started with a presentation from Julia Lloyd-Parks who described her trip earlier this year to The Camargue to photograph the white horses. these horses are a traditional breed, indigenous to The Camargue. They live in semi-feral conditions in the marshy areas of the region. They are the traditional mount of the Gardians - the Camargue riders who herd the black bulls of the area. The horses are always grey, but are born as black or dark brown.

For the purposes of the shoots, the horses are herded by the Gardians, and are driven towards the photographers to get the most dramatic shots. In between runs the horses relax and this is a primetime to get portrait shots of them. The shoots were organised in different locations - a lake, at the beach, and in a tidal lagoon.

The weather was bright and the sky clear, and this, combined with the colour of the horses, lends itself beautifully to the use of black and white for the images, so there is a mix of colour and black and white in this selection.

Here are some of the photos that we saw at the meeting (all pictures ©Julia Lloyd-Parks):

From the lakeside shoot:

At the beach:

There was also an opportunity to photograph stallions sparring with each other. This was very carefully managed, and no blood was drawn.

Early morning at the lagoon

One month, one photo - September

Our coffee break is a chance to catch up with others, and after coffee we resumed with the member challenges - the first was photos for September. Here are just a few from that session:

The Milky Way over Dragon's Den ©Helen Day

©Philip Male

Kew Gardens ©Tony Bamford

©Caroline Howe

One Month, One Photo - October

The next challenge was the photos from October

Ginkgo Leaves ©Jeremy Fox

Beach Huts at West Wittering ©Pam Bamford

Salisbury Cathedral ©Roger Parry

Beach Trees ©Sue Power

Ents Dancing in Savernake Forest ©Danny Wootton

Autumn Colour

©David Sage

Penny bun mushroom ©Lesley Cadger

©Philip Selby

Red Deer Stag at Bradgate Park ©Amanda Gregory

Autumn Sunrise at Blundell Oak ©Craig Purvis

Lacock Positive Meeting, 30th October

2025-11-03T17:10:00.000+00:00

For this meeting we were Joined by Keith Thomson, who shared pictures of his trip around Scotland. This was an interesting presentation and exemplified the efforts required to achieve landscape photographs. This might be fighting to keep your feet as the wind whistles around your ears, or returning to the same site on repeated occasions to catch the "ideal" weather conditions.

The pictures shared here are all from one site, Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. Keith stayed local to this site, and visited over 4 days, and these pictures impressively show the effect that the weather and light have on the photos.

All pictures ©Keith Thomson

You can see more of Keith's work on his site: keithgthomsonphoto.myportfolio.com

Our next meeting will be held on 13th November, at 7pm, where we will be joined by another speaker - Mike Martin - whose title is “Shooting People”, from portraits to print, a journey into the creative process. Mike is an ambassador for Fotospeed and will bring examples of prints on different types of paper.

Lacock Positive Meeting, 16th October. Part 2

2025-10-20T10:22:00.000+01:00

We reviewed pictures from 2 challenges and the pictures reflected the full range of techniques that members used in response to the challenge.

Movement

The first challenge was simply(!) Movement, and here is a small selectin of the pictures shared.

In this first picture Amanda has frozen the movement using a fast shutter speed.

©Amanda Gregory

The wind generates movement, and to capture this Craig has used a long shutter speed, enabled by the use of filters, to show movement in the tree and the clouds.

©Craig Purvis

This pictures uses a fast shutter speed so that we can see the trails of droplets coming from the fish as the kingfisher beats it on the stick.

©Julia Lloyd-Parks

This fascinating picture shows the behaviour of the huge number of knots as they move from left to right, and right to left, carefully avoiding the sleeping oystercatcher! this type of shot uses a slow shutter speed.

©Philip Male

The wash from the boat, the spray from the water-skier all contribute to a visual representation of movement.

©Rob Macklin

Slow shutter speed, and a high key exposure have resulted in an ethereal picture of free-flowing flight.

©Sue Power

The Letter "R"

Yet again our members showed ingenuity in their choices of shot to show the letter "R".

Red Arrows over Morgan's Hill

©Craig Purvis

Red Door

©Danny Wootton

Ring-tailed lemur

©Jeremy Fox

Ripon College Chapel

©Pam Bamford

Red necked phalarope

©Philip Male

Red Balloons

©David Sage

R is for riders

©Sue Power

Rock at the Racetrack

©Tony Bamford

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 30th October, and we have an external speaker joining us: Keith Thomson will be talking about Western Scotland.

Potential new members can come along for 3 trial sessions before joining, so please do come along if you are interested.

Lacock Positive Meeting, 16th October. Part 1

2025-10-19T18:02:00.000+01:00

Our meeting on 16th October was very busy, so the blog will be split into 2 parts.

In this first part, I have included pictures from 2 of our club group activities. The first was a workshop focussing on portraits, and the second was the group shoot to Castle Combe on a Race Day.

So, firstly here is a selection of pictures from the portrait workshop. for many of the participants this was a first, and it involved getting to grips with lighting and how to handle the lighting for different set-ups.

We were lucky to have 2 models, both grandchildren of members. For the purposes of the blog, I will share just pictures of the older model.

©Amanda Gregory

©Ann Horne

©Danny Wootton

©Lesley Cadger

©Rose Porfirio

©Sue Power

And finally a picture of our member Paul Hounsell who supplied a set of lights and donated them to the club.

©Sue Power

The Need for Speed

Four members went to Castle Combe for a Classic Car Race day. Following on from the introduction given by Danny Wootton at the meeting previously, they were all willing to try different approaches to shots of cars racing on the track.

IN this first picture, Caroline has used panning to reinforce the impression of speed.

©Caroline Howe

Here, Caroline has captured the variety of cars taking part, and the skid marks on the track add atmosphere.

©Caroline Howe

Danny has captured a mini in typical corning position - cocking a wheel!

©Danny Wootton

The slanting horizon and the blurred background from panning add to the impression of speed, while the use of black of white give a feel for this older Alfa Romeo.

©Danny Wootton

Panning again, this time by Lesley with a beautiful vintage car.

©Lesley Cadger

And it is not just the cars that give the classic car atmosphere.

©Lesley Cadger

A picture reminiscent of yesteryear - Sue captured these cars in a demonstration race. Those tyres look so thin!

©Sue Power

These are just 2 examples of the types of activity we do in groups. If you are interested in finding out more about what we do, please contact use.

Potential members can come to 3 meetings before committing to join, so why not give it a try.

Lacock Positive Meeting, 2nd October 2025

2025-10-06T13:14:00.001+01:00

At our most recent meeting we were pleased to welcome Paul Alistair Collins, who shared his experiences of Panama's rainforest.

©Alistair Paul Collins

During his time working on television reality shows set in Panama, he started exploring the rain forest, discovering an old, derelict communication tower, built in the 1960s. This has been renovated and now is at the heart of the Soberania National Park, and is used as an eco-lodge.

(All the following pictures are Copyright: Paul Alistair Collins)

This is the canopy tower, as it is now. It is an ideal location to see the hundreds of birds that live in the different levels of the rainforest. From the ground such birds are difficult to photograph, and to capture the variety of colours and forms, whereas from the higher levels of the tower their full glory can be revealed.

Toucan

Woodnymph

Hummingbird

Trogon

At different heights within the forest sloths can be seen sleeping in the trees and there are butterflies and frogs. The butterflies are territorial and can be seen fighting one another. The Glass Frog has transparent skin and it is possible to see the stomach through the skin.

Sloth

Butterflies

Glass Frog

Down at ground level there are relatives of many familiar bird groups, such as the gallinule, related to the moorhen.

Gallinule

You can visit Paul's website to see more pictures, and explore other locations where he runs workshops for photographers:

https://www.paulalistaircollins.co.uk/

Lacock Positive Meeting 18 September 2025

2025-09-19T11:53:00.002+01:00

We welcomed members, new and old, to our second meeting of the Club's year with a preparation talk for an upcoming shoot at Castle Combe racing circuit on 21st September and a catch up on all the Club's shoots that had taken place during the Summer break.

Danny started by showing images he had taken at Le Mans alongside guidance notes on the typical speed and depth of field that might be used for different sorts of images to suggest car movement. Panning is a skill that needs to be practised and settings will depend on the distance to the car and the speed of travel. A head on shot and alternate ways of showing speed were also discussed and illustrated.

This and the following five images © Danny Wootton 2025

Danny also suggested looking for interesting car details, paddock portraits and perhaps even abstract interpretations.

He finished by sharing his 'how to' notes and suggestions on camera settings. Let's hope it doesn't rain too much... but take an umbrella just in case!

The first Summer shoot shown was from Lydiard Park (lydiardpark@swindon.gov.uk) at the beginning of July, which proved to be a lovely evening of golden sun providing plenty of light and shade opportunities. A selection of images are shown below:

Reflection © Caroline Howe 2025

Cool Spot © Sue Power 2025

Next up was a July shoot at a Dauntsey Park Horse Trials event where a mix of members with and without experience of this type of photography attended and enjoyed. (https://www.horse-events.co.uk/venues/dauntsey-park/).

Next, a good turnout went to Hungerford, some for the first time, and had fun exploring the canal area in lovely early evening light.

The final Summer shoot, at the end of August, was at Brown's Folly (https://www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reserves/brownes-folly) but the weather was changeable and challenging and the hoped for sunset did not arrive.

A review of images taken on World Photography Day 19 August was also made and a selection of these can be seen on an earlier posting (4th September) on this blog.

Finally, Congratulations to Philip Male for his Highly Commended image of A Pair of Little Owls! See: https://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/photo-prize-winners

Need for Speed, Lacock Positive, next meeting, 18th September 2025

2025-09-11T15:31:00.002+01:00

Our next meeting will be held on 18th September, and at that meeting one of our members, Danny Wootton, will be talking about the preparation for a visit to Castle Combe Autumn Classic Racing Festival (21st Sept).

The club offers potential new members up to three trial meetings before committing to join, so if you are interested, do come along on 18th September to meet us, and then maybe join us at Castle Combe.

For more information, please contact our Chairman, Lesley Cadger : lcadger66@googlemail.com

The picture below was taken at the Castle Combe Classic in 2022.

Lacock Positive Meeting, 4th September 2025, Part 3

2025-09-08T16:50:00.002+01:00

Our final review of photos at this meeting was a group of Black and White photos of wildlife.

This is a selection:

Giraffes in the Masai Mara © Julia Lloyd-Parks

Accusing eyes © Craig Purvis

Ruddy Turnstone © Derek Liversidge

Lacock Positive Meeting, 4th September 2025, Part 2

2025-09-08T16:40:00.000+01:00

Our summer challenge was to take photographs of entrances and exits, and there was a huge variety of approaches. Here are some examples.

Enter dirty, exit clean © Derek Liversidge

To the secret garden © Jeremy Fox

Ford Motor Company, Entrance and Exit © Pam Bamford

Entrance © Philip Male

Snowshill © David Sage

Enter stage left, exit stage right © Tony Bamford

Blue Front Door, Corsham © Adam Jacques

©Amanda Gregory

I wonder what their hobby is! ©Ann Horne

Entrance to the Undercroft at Fountains Abbey © Danny Wootton

Lacock Positive meeting 4th September 2025

2025-09-08T14:07:00.000+01:00

Over the summer our members have been out and about, taking photos for our One Month/One Photo challenge, and also our summer challenge of Entrances and Exits.

The One Month/One Photo challenges gives us an opportunity to see what we have all been up to, and where we have visited. Hopefully it will trigger some inspiration to visit new places, or try new techniques.

Here are some of the pictures taken for June and July.

JUNE PICTURES

Porto Bridge ©Sue Power

©Helen Day

Macaws ©Jeremy Fox

Summer Solstice ©Lesley Cadger

Winchester Cathedral ©Pam Bamford

©Philip Male

JULY PICTURES

Cotswold Lavender ©David Sage

Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand ©Julia Lloyd-Parks

©Lesley Cadger

Lincoln Cathedral ©Pam Bamford

British Museum ©Tony Bamford

Porthcawl Sunset, ICM ©Caroline Howe

Speckled Bush Cricket ©Craig Purvis

World Photography Day 19th August 2025

2025-08-31T13:40:00.000+01:00

Lacock Positive members were out and about on World Photography Day on 19th August 2025. Here are some of the photos that were taken.

Wilton Windmill © Caroline Howe

Dawn, Kennett and Avon Canal at Seend © Craig Purvis

World Photography Day © Derek Liversidge

Not a butterfly © Jeremy Fox

World Photography Day on Dartmoor © Julia Lloyd-Parks

World Photography Day 1 © Philip Male

World Photography Day 2 © Philip Male

Taking on the BIG boys © Sue Power

2025-06-30T14:15:00.001+01:00

LACOCK POSITIVE 2025-26

After a Summer Break (apart from a number of Club Shoots here and there!), we next meet up in the Manor Room, Lacock (adjacent to the Village Hall) again on Thursday 4 September. The Club meets 7pm - 9pm fortnightly from September to June for a varied programme of activities, including an annual exhibition.

Lacock Positive is a friendly, non-competitive club and we are happy to help each other to fulfil personal photographic aspirations. The Club is for anyone with a keen interest in photography irrespective of skill level and camera type.

If you would like to join us at a Club meeting, please contact Mrs Lesley Cadger at lcadger66@gmail.com

Lacock Positive 19th June 2025

2025-06-22T14:10:00.001+01:00

Today's meeting was the last one of our programme before our summer break. As well as our Annual General Meeting, we reviewed our photos from May, which highlighted a diverse set of images that represents our club.

The club would like to thank the committee members for all their hard work this year in making it a great year full of activities and fun. Thank you.

2025-05-23T17:16:00.002+01:00

Lacock Positive 17 May 2025

As a non-competitive Club we aim to help each other towards our own photographic goals but we have noted that we need to improve our feedback when we share our images with each other.

Our Critique evening started with member Craig giving an overview of how to approach this by drawing together advice collected from taken courses. A quick summary suggests that the photographer should:

(1) Introduce their image by explaining the Where and the When it was taken, the What they were trying to achieve and whether they felt they had succeeded.

Feedback should cover:

(2) Technical points e.g.is image in focus (or softened intentionally), are exposure and depth of field appropriate for the intention, are the lighting and colour balance good?

(3) Emotional response - was there anything felt by the viewer on seeing the image; does the image tell a story or part of one?

(4) Composition - what skills has the photographer used to create the image or have 'rules' been challenged; what has been kept in (or out) of the frame?

Craig amplified many of these points especially about compositional guidelines e.g. rule of thirds, leading lines, symmetry, negative space, diagonal lines, Golden ratios. Members will find further information on the Club's Learning Zone.

Member Sue then showed Black& White images taken by professional photographers for everybody to practise their critiqueing skills on by saying why they felt each image was successful (or not) judging by the Points 2 to 4 above. It was interesting to note the breadth of opinion! Sue advised that the average viewing time of images in galleries is 10 seconds so that makes it quite challenging to find a way of grabbing attention.

The second half of the evening was intended to cover members' Black & White images of Portraits, Landscape or Wildlife but such was our enthusiasm to give feedback we only managed to see the first category, the other two will now be shown as a later date. A selection of portrait images (where permission had been sought from the subject) by participating members are shown below.

Coming Up

June 5: Jenny Grewal will be talking about Kruger Safari

June 19: Julia will kick off the Club's AGM and Danny will be checking out ideas for summer shoots locations!

Lacock Positive 8th May 2025

2025-05-09T10:23:00.002+01:00

This evening started with a few announcements:

Julia is stepping down as club chairperson
Lesley is considering nominating herself for chairperson next year
Other members should consider nominating themselves for the role of chairperson
We need volunteers/nominations for club secretary before June 19th (AGM)

We then discussed the exhibition. The footfall was the highest we have ever seen at almost 1000 people in two days. Helen requested members who had sold prints (for which the club had taken payment via the SumUp machine) to send her their bank details so she can pay them.

The sale of cards was a great success and many thanks to Caroline for organising this.

Suggestions (some from visitors to the exhibition) were:

A note be added to image labels to say if a card was available
We need to think about the display of cards, which was a bit limited
Prints displayed nearer the walls seem to get less attention because of crowds
Consider hiring an extra room

Next year's exhibition will again be held over the May Bank Holiday weekend, so members should make a note in their diaries.

We followed with David Sage, ARPS (of our own parish) giving part 2 of his talk entitled "This and That", a journey through his photographic career.

He started with a tribute to VE day:

Then continued with wildlife:

Then street photography:

And finished with landscape photography:

After tea and coffee, we continued with a review of images from April:

Low Tide © Caroline Howe

Beech Sapling in Light © Craig Purvis

Dressage © David Liversidge

Egyptian Geese © David Sage

A Bluebell's View of the Wood © Julia Lloyd Parks

Bluebell Zoom Burst © Lesley Cadger

Cornflower © Pam Bamford

Fritillaries © Phil Male

Phil Water-skiing © Rob Macklin

Wisteria © Rose Porfirio

The Clock Stopped © Sue Power

Backlit Almond Tree © Tony Bamford

We continued with the "Letter Q" challenge" - one of the more challenging letters of the alphabet:

Q for Quill © Amanda Gregory

Q for Queens © Ann Horne

Q for Quality Street © Caroline Howe

Q for "Q YP" © Craig Purvis

Q for Quiescent Drone Fly © Craig Purvis

Q for Quadrangle © Danny Wootton

Members are reminded that the portraiture session will be held in the village hall on 17th May, 9am to 1pm.

The next meeting on the 22nd May will be devoted to a monochrome photograph critique session. Members are asked to submit two images per subject into the following three categories (i.e. a maximum of 6 images per member):

Portraiture (includes sports photography)
Landscape (includes architecture)
Wildlife

Images should have been taken within the last 3 years.

This evening started with a few announcements:

Julia is stepping down as club chairperson
Lesley is considering nominating herself for chairperson next year
Other members should consider nominating themselves for the role of chairperson
We need volunteers/nominations for club secretary before June 19th (AGM)

The sale of cards was a great success and many thanks to Caroline for organising this.

Suggestions (some from visitors to the exhibition) were:

A note be added to image labels to say if a card was available
We need to think about the display of cards, which was a bit limited
Prints displayed nearer the walls seem to get less attention because of crowds
Consider hiring an extra room

Next year's exhibition will again be held over the May Bank Holiday weekend, so members should make a note in their diaries.

We followed with David Sage, ARPS (of our own parish) giving part 2 of his talk entitled "This and That", a journey through his photographic career.

Images to follow.

After tea and coffee, we continued with a review of images from April:

We continued with the "Letter Q" challenge" - one of the more challenging letters of the alphabet:

Members are reminded that the portraiture session will be held in the village hall on 17th May, 9am to 1pm.

Portraiture (includes sports photography)
Landscape (includes architecture)
Wildlife

Images should have been taken within the last 3 years.

Lacock Positive Exhibition - 4th/5th May 2025

2025-05-06T14:32:00.002+01:00

Our annual club exhibition took place at Lacock Village Hall on the 4th and 5th May as planned.

Although we are a non-competitive club, we ask visitors to vote for their three favourite images. There were 2776 votes from 925 people (up on last year's 795), 15 from the USA, plus visitors from Italy, Germany, France, Spain, New Zealand, Poland, Australia, Iran, the Netherlands, Canada, Portugal, China, Mexico, Turkey Sri Lanka, Greece, Hungary and Ireland.

The results, as voted for by the public, are as follows:

Images to be added as they are sent.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 8th May

Lacock Positive - 24th April 2025

2025-04-24T22:00:00.032+01:00

This evening we have two quite different but both very intersting talks given by club menbers. Ros Vickers gave a talk on her trip to Svalbard, highlighting landscape and wildlife images from through out the trip, whilst David Sage gave a 'this and that' talk, comprising of a wide variety of images across lots of different genres.

Svalbard by Ros Vickers

This and That by David Sage

We ended our meeting with a brief recap of what needs to be done for the annual club exhibition, running on Sunday 4th and Monday 5th May, at the Village Hall in Lacock, from 10.00 am to 5.00pm both days

Our next meeting will be on 8th May, at the Manor Room, behind the Village Hall in Lacock.

Lacock Positive 10th April 2025

2025-04-11T11:34:00.002+01:00

This evening, Pete Shaw, of our own parish, gave a talk on how to use flash to achieve straightforward portrait photography shots.

Studio flash units are mains powered, big, heavy and expensive. A cheaper, more portable alternative is the Speedlight. "Speedlight" is Nikon's name, "Speedlite" is Canon's, although the term has now become somewhat more generic, although "strobe" and just "flash" are popular, interchangeable, terms.

In past times, the major camera manufacturers made their own proprietary units which were only compatible with their own cameras (the pin configuration on the camera's hotshoe being different). More recently, the same manufacturers have stopped producing new units as the alternatives from companies like Godox or Nissin are so good (and so much cheaper), they just can't sell their own units any more.

Units are often powered by AA batteries (in which case use Eneloop rechargeables), although occasionally they may take proprietary rechargeable batteries.

Using a Speedlite on a camera gives results somewhat like putting a rabbit into full beam headlights - lighting is flat, stark and unflattering. Generally it is better to take the flash unit off-camera. This is possible with cables (which are usually really expensive), but units these days use either a sophisticated pre-flash to talk to one another, or more commonly, radio frequencies (RF).

RF units invariably operate on a number of different "channels" so if you're controlling your flash units, you won't accidentally start controlling anyone else's nearby.

A unit (essentially a transmitter) invariably placed in the camera's hotshoe is the "controller" or "trigger" while the actual flash guns themselves can be referred to as "slaves". Individual flash guns can be placed into "groups" and controlled collectively.

The next thing to consider is how to support your off-camera flash. Lighting stands are a popular solution, with an important consideration being the proportion of the leg length to what you want to support - heavier loads require longer legs. Although you may consider the average flash unit to be very lightweight, don't forget the additional weight of umbrellas, softboxes, etc.

Use a translucent umbrella to either fire the flash through, or as a big reflector to bounce light back.

Bigger umbrellas mean softer light. The only problem with translucent umbrellas, light is lost in directions you might not want, so perhaps a reflecting umbrella might be a better option (all the light is bounced back):

Another alternative is to use a softbox, which also guarantees light only goes in the direction you want:

They tend to be more expensive compared to umbrellas, but are getting cheaper all the time.

Whatever your source of light (umbrella or softbox) you choose, it will tend to give harsh lighting across the face, leaving one side in almost darkness. To illuminate the other side, you may want another flash setup, but a cheaper alternative is to use a reflector, which come in various shapes and sizes:

Combined diffuser, reflector, background

For convenience, these should be supported by another stand.

The aim is to get a one or two stop light difference between the two sides of the face. Also, never forget the inverse square law, which says if you increase the distance between the light source and your subject, light levels will fall off by the square of the distance.

To add a final touch and achieve a perfect portrait image, a source of light falling on the the hair gives separation from the background. You may also want to illuminate the background as well.

Use softer light for women, harsher light for men. An 85mm lens (on full frame) is about the minimum that should be used, as anything wider might give rise to perspective distortion (things closer to the lens, like hands, tend to look much larger than they are).

The overall lighting setup would look as follows:

Camera shutter speed should always be set to "X" (the camera's flash sync speed). Choose your aperture wisely, as this will effect your depth of field. Also, don't forget to set your white balance to flash.

Finally remember that although it may be better to stick to these rules when starting, rules are made to be broken. Here are some resources to refer to:

https://rangefinderonline.com/news-features/tips-techniques/off-camera-flash-for-portraits/

https://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

and YouTube can also be a good source of information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZKXYqhcNHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuoc53wcnbc

After a break for tea and coffee, we then followed with our challenge for the letter "P":

We then continued with "picture of the month" for March:

We ended our meeting with a brief recap of what needs to be done for the annual club exhibition. Members are reminded to finalise their image titles by 18th April.

Our next meeting will be on 24th April.