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.

Last week’s meeting Tues 25 November: Take a Moment with Eddie Keogh plus Canon Partner Event There was quite a good turnout for the talk and the Canon and London Camera Exchange event. Not only did it attract a lot of members but there were 18 guests as well. Eddie has worked as the official photographer for the England football team for eight years and has built a very close working relationship with all the players and the staff. He is clearly a very friendly and engaging person, as witnessed by the amount of effort he put into talking to just about everyone who came to the Band Hall. The first image he showed was of himself with his camera at Wembley Stadium, pitch-side, in the press photographers’ area at the 1982 FA Cup Final. He was a photography student and at half time he had blagged his way to the press area to take some shots. It was a nil-nil draw, and he tried a second time to blag his way pitch side for the re-play but his luck had run out. Still, it stood him in good stead for a career in press photography which he has been earning a living for more than forty years.

Last week’s meeting Tues 18 November: Wildlife from -15°C to +40°C with Dave McKay plus Show and Tell Dave started his talk at the coldest end – Alaska in winter. He had gone there with three other club members to photograph bald eagles that congregate to feed on the salmon which have spawned in the river at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. Getting there took several days due to remoteness of the area. There are 300-400 eagles permanently there but in winter there could be up to 3,000.

Last week’s meeting Tues 11 November: Landscapes and People with John Boteler Our booked speaker had to cancel with very little notice and thankfully John stepped in to give us a great evening listening to his photographic tales and seeing his splendid images – both ‘projected’ and ‘prints’. But first we were taken down an old analogue path of the first camera – his elder brother’s in 1966 – and the subsequent upgrades. Then into the digital age, roundabout the year 2000, and the rapid journey through the never-ending churn of ‘new’ models that promise more and better – plus the need to replace ones that have fallen in the sea.

Last week’s meeting Tues 4 November: WORKSHOP – Painting with Light with Kieran Hunt Keiran started with an overview of painting with light and showed various examples. He started with light trails – streaks of light using a long exposure – and asked us whether we could work out how they were done. Besides the usual shots of vehicles lights driving through the night Keiran showed shots of lights snaking over a canal and other creative ways of using moving light. He then showed various other examples of painting with light which were astonishing.