Last night we welcomed Roy Carr from some unpronounceable and unspellable village in South Wales! He delivered his talk - From Very Near To Not Quite So Far. The talk was in two sections, in the first part he showed some images from his immediate locality. Some lovely macro shots from his garden and some delightful ‘people’ shots from characters in his village.

In the second section, Roy showed us many images of the beautiful area in which he lives. He obviously loves the hills and woodlands that he frequently walks with his faithful dog. Some were of the same image, taken at different times of the day and year, illustrating how things change with different conditions. The talk was delivered in a very gentle manner, full of details of the area and not filled with technical or post processing details. Roy told us that most of his images were taken on a tripod, and that he is ‘a slow photographer’, taking time to wait for the right conditions and to compose his shot .There were some really beautiful images taken with lovely light.

He also obviously loved waterfalls and managed to find many on his walks that are off the beaten track. Roy demonstrated the beauty of natural open spaces and the details of such place. Part of his talk showed us some ‘micro’ landscapes, close ups where small details were emphasised. Something we could all practice perhaps! It was a great talk which was rounded up with piece of descriptive prose that Roy had written about one of his favourite woods, a reaction to the sudden death of his brother (images here). I think a lesson that we all learnt was to take more notice of our immediate area and search out the unusual shots to be found. I look forward to seeing them!!

Peter T reminded us of our ‘Seasonal Meal’ this evening at Villa Verde – 7 for 7.30 pm, - hope to see some of you there.

Next week is a face to face meeting at the Rugby Club for our first competition of 2023 and our first print competition for what feels like a million years – ‘Shapes’ (well circles, squares etc!) and Open. I look forward to it. This is how Paul has described it on the website – in his usual ‘witty’ manner.!!??

'Our first competition of 2023 is all about shapes. Come along and see how club members circled this topic and how judge Simon Caplan squared up to challenge of deciding a winner!'

Do come along, even if you have not entered; so much can be learnt from looking at others' images and hearing the critique, which is really the important part of the competition!

Stay warm and safe and have a good week!!