Last meeting held on Tues 17 February: Rose Bowl Competition      The result was: 1st: 267 score – Oxford PS 2nd: 254 score – St Albans CC 3rd: 253 score – Ealing and Hampshire House

Last meeting held on Tues 10 February: Print Competition No. 2     Our judge, Peter Cox, explained what he would basing his assessments on: Impression Composition Technical Print quality, mount, use of paper After making his short list he said his final assessment would be based on the images the ‘glow’ out to him.

Last meeting held on Tues 3 February: Breathless in Nepal – Julian Elliott, an award-winning landscape and travel photographer, writer and modern-day nomad       Julian showed an excellent set of images of the remote region of Upper Mustang in Nepal which borders on China. It is one of the last truly remote and culturally preserved corners of the Himalayas and a place that few travellers, and fewer photographers, ever see. There is one road in and one road out and tourists need to buy a permit to visit. The culture is rooted in Tibetan Buddhism, but is some parts there are traces of the Bon religion, an even older spiritual practice that predates Buddhism in Tibet. The coexistence of these two belief systems is reflected in the monasteries, rituals, and festivals of the region. Ancient sky caves carved into sheer cliffs hold secrets of both religious traditions, some adorned with centuries-old murals that tell stories of deities, spirits, and cosmic order.

Last meeting held on Tues 27 January: Member Showcase – Double Feature with Pete Warrington and Habip Koçak    My Year in Pictures by Pete Warrington: Pete began his presentation with a series of ‘street’ photographs taken during a visit to Bharat’s exhibition at the Westgate shopping centre. A walk around a small area of Oxford close to the Westgate was done as a challenge to get a good collection of street shots. Pete showed several series of shots and talked through his way of operating and his thought process as he looked for something happening to capture that elusive ‘decisive moment’: a woman very animated in Bonn Square as she spoke on her mobile phone, another woman contorted at the entrance of Westgate trying to sort out something in her shopping bag, catching shoppers as they walked through pools of light.

Last meeting held on Tues 20 January: The Night Climbers of Oxford with Austin Bradley Austin is an extreme sports photographer and has recently graduated from Oxford Brookes University’s photography course. His final project was photographing the Night Climbers of Oxford. The Night Climbers of Oxford is a secret society dedicated to nocturnally scaling college and town buildings in Oxford. The society is noted for its political activism, controversial acts, feats of climbing and parkour (running and jumping), as well as urban exploration. The society was likely inspired by their Cambridge counterparts, The Night Climbers of Cambridge. Activities conducted by the society are forbidden by the University authorities, meaning that acts are completed under the cover of darkness, to avoid detection.

Last meeting held on Tues 13 January: Hidden Romania and images of Croatia and Macedonia + Members Show & Tell Willie had been on a trip to Romania organised by James Kerwin who had given the club a presentation during Covid lockdown on his work photography old and decaying building. He ‘zoomed-in’ from his home in Georgia. Given that most of the shots would be indoors Willie had made sure he had packed wide angle lens. The trip would be covering quite a number of places in the country and Willie had arrived a few days early in the capital Bucharest to get a feel of the place.

Last meeting held on Tues 6 January: The Eccentrics with Danny Jackson aka @Barksey Danny started his talk with a number of his favourite street photographs and talked about why he took them and why he liked them. He said that Brick Lane in London was a mecca for budding street photographers. He had numerous photos – a poster and a girl hairdresser which he liked due to it being a ‘what the f*@k!’ photo. He had another shot which he called ‘Live life to the fullest – you don’t know what’s around the corner’ and a stunner of a shot of his daughter pushing her skateboard on a sea wall, which looked as though she had the distant container ship on the stakeboard. Having humour in his images worked very well.

Last meeting held on Tues 16 December: Alec Pain on Creating Magic and Poetry – the world through plastic camera, experiments and mistake Alec – not really his name, his real name is Alistair Pace – started his talk by lying on the Bandhall floor. He was demonstrating how he takes unconventional panoramic shots on this iPhone. He lays down, holds the phone behind his head then rolls forward like doing a sit up. The results he gets are a 180 degree in portrait mode shot with the sky on top side of the image and also on the bottom side. This can look a little weird, especially if the sky is not blocked by tall objects. He showed some astonishing shots of tall buildings which were close together, trees in a wood and an amazing shot of an empty tube carriage using this method. He called this method a ‘vertical-rama’ than the usual panorama.

Last week’s meeting Tues 9 December: Digital Image competition No. 2. And the results were: First Place A Steely Gaze Peter Warrington Second Place Race Keith Worthington Third Place Calm on Kotor Bay William Hall H. Commended Port Meadow Froze Over Sandra Devaney H. Commended Red Kite Diving for Food Dave Belcher H. Commended Settlers Eagle Landing Dave McKay Commended Bailey on the Charge Dave Belcher Commended Heat Wave Devon Beach John Boteler Commended Under the Bridge Ian Bray Commended Black Beauty Ian Bray Congratulations to all who took part

Last week’s meeting Tues 9 November: Photographing Pilgrimage: The Maha Kumbh Mela and Varanasi + members’ showcase of the ‘movement’ theme Bharat began his talk with a brief background of the ancient city of Varanasi and the three important gods in Hinduism. It is believed that the city dates to 1800BC. It is situation on the banks of the Ganges River in northern India and has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. In Hinduism there is a holy trinity of gods, the “triple deity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, in which the cosmic functions of creation, preservation, and destruction are personified as a triad of deities. Typically, the designations are that of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer”. Bharat has visited Varanasi numerous times. The city is famous for what happens on the banks of the Ganges and in the river – it is a city of life and after-life. People are cremated on the banks of the river and pilgrims go into the river to wash off all sins and for a moment escape Shiva’s cycle of life and death.