Last week’s meeting Tues 22 April: Paul Kilsby, PhD RCA – Unnatural Histories followed by members’ project reviews Paul spoke about his latest work Unnatural Histories, which were photographs of birds with prey in their beaks which would never occur in the wild. But before getting to this he told a little bit about himself, and what shaped his childhood, so that we could understand why he chose birds and ‘nature’. He was brought up around the Ilse of Purbeck in Dorset, very close to Poole. He showed an old black and white photograph of his school class, 9-11 year olds, in a primary school near Christchurch in Dorset. Paul was not in the photo as he rarely went to school.

Last week’s meeting Tues 15 April: A Passage To India with Sandra Devaney and Linda Wride Last year Sandra gave us a presentation of her trip to northern India. This time she was showing images from her visit to southern India. She went the state of Kerala which had the first democratically elected Communist government in the world (1957). Kerala has the best human development indicators in India – higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, lower birth rate, lower death rate, higher literacy rate.

Last week’s meeting Tues 8 April: Projected Digital Image No. 3 Our judge was Peter Cox and the results were First Place White Tailed Eagle in Snowstorm Dave McKay Second Place Dulce et Decorum est Pro Partia Mori Ian Bray Third Place Lynx Hunting Alan Lewis H. Commended Come Back Here Les Gordon H. Commended Cheetah in Early Morning Light Dave Belcher H. Commended Petulant Young Elephant Keith Worthington Commended Lynx 3 Alan Lewis Commended Hornbill and the Rising Sun Dave Atkinson Commended Shortie Dave Atkinson Commended Mating Crown Cranes 3 Keith Worthington Congratulations to all who took part.

Last week’s meeting Tues 1 April: The Soul of the Creator – Paul Sanders Paul began his talk sharing a quote from the art critic John Berger’s seminal work ‘Ways of Seeing’: “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” Paul added that photography is the only language that needs no translation.

Many thanks to all members who put in images for the competition. The quality of the images was exceptionally high. After expertly talking through each image, Phil held back a long list which then became a short list, then an even shorter list, Phil choose his four favourites which were: 1st place: Heads Up by John Boteler 2nd place: Shade to Light by Rob Ferrands 3rd place: Contemplation by Pete Warrington 4th place: Potter #3 by Linda Wride Congratulations to all who entered.

The Dave A and B introduced the talk with a history of Zimanga which is set in KwaZula Natal in north-east South Africa near the border of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). This private nature reserve is the brainchild of South African sugar farmer, Charl Senekal, who has turned a former hunting reserve into a 6,000 hectare wildlife haven where photographers can take stunning shots of the park’s wildlife from ‘state of the art’ hides and trips around the reserve. Charl hired Bence Máté, an award-winning wildlife photographer, to design the hides, some of which have illuminated water holes with all ‘mod-cons’ for the nocturnal photographer.

Last week’s meeting Tues 11 March: Janteloven – ‘No one is better than the other’ with Michele Peters Michele has visited Denmark on many occasions, and she introduced us to the Scandinavian concept of ‘Jantoven’ which is a social code that emphasises the ‘we are all in it together’ approach to society. She would pick up this ‘no one is better than the other’ approach in her second half of her talk.

There were some extremely effective and creative panels as members shook off the shackles of the single image and played around with panels. Phil talked through each panel, discussing how they worked and how successful they were. The winners were: Print: Helen Stewart with her black and white portraits of model and shadows. Digital: Jill Bain with her sea sickness panel of a ferry journey on a choppy water. A very enjoyable evening and congratulations to all who took part.

Ivor’s funeral will be at 4pm on Tuesday 4th March at North Oxford Crematorium, Tackley.  Refreshments afterwards at Sturdys Castle nearby if you would like to attend. Ivor’s nephew, Mark, says that one of Ivor’s specific requests was that those attending his funeral wear “normal” clothes as opposed to funereal black.

Last week’s meeting Tues 18 February: What Does Photography Mean to You? Grant Scott Grant, who is now 60 years old, started from humble beginnings. His father was a bricklayer and his mother was a hairdresser. He was brought up a proud Londoner, and though not born within ear shot of Bow bells, Tooting Broadway station was just across the road. His introduction to photography was from his father who took family photos on films bought and developed next door to Tooting Broadway station.