Benefits of Belonging to a Photographic Club
Derek Smith • 15 August 2023
Being a hobbyist photographer can often be a very solitary pastime, getting out to various locations taking the photographs, and developing the skills needed to master your camera, and the art of seeing an image will all take time before you become proficient in your hobby. When you’ve taken the very best images of your chosen subject that you possibly can, what do you do with those images? Do you share them on social media, with friends, or relatives? Or are the images just sitting on your computer?
Belonging to a photographic club is one of the best ways to quickly become proficient in your chosen hobby, it is a place where you can share ideas, and have valuable critique on your images. Learning composition techniques, sharing camera settings, and being involved in a group outing or workshop can all help develop your skills. I well remember one of our members, who is a very competent landscape, and street photographer, coming along to one of our outings to the Cadwell Circuit and never having photographed racing motorcycles before, took one of the best images from the whole afternoon. At one of our studio portrait sessions, many of those members who attended commented on how much they had not only enjoyed portraiture, but also learned a lot in the process.
Competitions held within the club also develop skills, and motivation. I find that it motivates me to get out with my camera and take the photos that I normally wouldn’t even consider taking, it gives me a subject to go and seek out. One of the topics for a future competition is “Chimneys”, and this within a 25 mile radius of Louth, now I would never normally consider taking a photo of a chimney, but I must go, seek them out, and produce the images for that competition. One aspect of competitions that sometimes causes issues is that a judge’s opinion of a photograph is subjective, often a judge will give full marks for a photograph, but the same photograph placed before another judge will receive low marks: nothing against the photographer, or the photograph, just simply a difference of opinion. Overall, the benefits of entering competitions far outweigh the drawbacks, the judge’s critique is usually very helpful, and feedback from your peers when reviewing a photograph is useful.
The social aspect of being in a photographic club can never be underestimated, the weekly meetings, the summer outings, the annual dinner, and the Christmas buffet all engender a feeling of belonging.
I am immensely proud to belong to the Louth Photographic Society, we are a diverse mix of men, and women, with different skills, and attributes, a friendly, welcoming, bunch, sharing ideas, and suggestions, where needed.
Now for some very welcome news, over the last few months our club has been involved in a friendly interclub “Battles” competition. Each Lincolnshire club has to select 15 photographic prints by their members to be judged against 15 photographic prints from each of two other clubs in the same meeting, the points derived from the various rounds at different club venues are collated, and the highest scoring clubs go forward to the final “Battle” to be held at Nettleham Village Hall on Sunday 15th October, the judge will be Malcolm Sales QEP, ABIPP, ARPS. Four clubs will participate in the final “Battle”, Deepings, Grimsby, Pinchbeck, and Louth, yes, we’re in the final!
Finally, if you’ve managed to stay alert during all my ramblings, the answers to the quiz that I set you on my last post.
A – Rachel, taken with a full frame Sony A7ii, and Sony 85mm f/1.8 lens
B – Amy, taken with an APS-C Fuji X-S20, and Fuji XF 50mm f/2 lens
C – Fleur, taken with a micro four thirds Olympus OM-D E-M5iii, and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens
If you didn’t get any of those right you would not be alone, whether your camera costs £200, or £2000 the gear does not matter that much, the skill of the photographer matters far more.
Louth Photographic Society
Good Morning All Last week we visited the nature reserves at Fir Hill quarry and Muckton wood. I have written a blog report on the evening which is on our website. You can always try something a little different like I did using camera movement. This week, Wednesday 24th June, a print competition will be held, with the categories of "Trees" and "Open" and is to be judged by Gail Wrigg. The following week we have an outing to Kirkby Gravel pits. If you want advice on camera settings etc the outings are the perfect opportunity to ask other members while we all have our cameras. Regards Graham
Each year Louth Photographic Society begins a new project, one photo taken each month on a specific subject, that's 12 photos presented on "Project Night" in January. Last year the subject was "Prime Time" one photo each month taken with the same fixed focal length lens. This year the subject is water, the subject sounds easy enough, and I've completed 5 photos already, but I'm struggling a little with a photo for June. I'm currently on holiday in Corfu, an island surrounded by water which should be easy, but I'm yet to find the "definitive" photo for the project. These are my photos so far this month: Best regards Derek
Good Evening All
Summer is here at last, maybe?
Last night a few of our members had an outing to Old Bolingbroke village. Initially visiting the Lincolnshire Wildlife Reserve of Sow Dale, off Spilsby Hill at the village entrance, I was a little hesitant at first at entering the reserve because of the grazing cattle. When the cattle herd moved up the hill we climbed over the stile and entered the reserve, as we began to take some photos around the reserve though, the herd returned, but seemed quite docile. Later in the evening we moved on to Bolingbroke castle, and took several photos of the castle, fauna, and flora. It was a lovely evening, good to get out with cameras, and socialise with others.
Good Morning All Last week I went to the Lincoln cathedral to see Queen by candlelight, a great night of music and some different lighting in the cathedral. Last week at the club we held our 1 st round of the LPA Battles against Grimsby and Scunthorpe. Members from the two other clubs attended making it a very full room with some excellent photography on show. Scunthorpe won on 255 points, Louth 2 nd with 250 points and Grimsby 3 rd with 245 points. This week there is a 2 nd round LPA Battle at Grantham on Tuesday evening, if any member wants to attend, please contact me for more details. We did decide to have an outing on Wednesday 10th June, I had thought of Donna Nook, but Derek has come up with another idea, Sow Dale and if time permits Bolingbroke Castle both out Horncastle way. Derek is going to see if it's worth visiting Sow Dale and will let us know. Don't forget to send your print titles to Dave Turner. Regards Graham
It was the LPA Battles last night, with Louth hosting Scunthorpe, and Grimsby. Diane Seddon was the judge for the evening, and gave excellent critique of all the the prints presented to her from the three clubs. Our club room was packed with our members, and representatives from Scunthorpe, and Grimsby clubs. At the break the points scores appeared fairly evenly matched. However, it was the highest scoring prints that swung the competition in favour of Scunthorpe, their still life prints of "Sunflowers", and "Weights and Measures" scored 20 points each, taking their cumulative score to a winning 255 points. None of Louth's prints achieved 20 points, but ended with a respectable 250 points. Grimsby produced some strong prints, "The Road to Talmont", and "What's Your Name?" received 20 points each, their overall score was 245 points. As Diane Seddon said the submitted print entries were of a very good standard, resulting in a closely matched contest. Congratulations to Scunthorpe for securing the lead in this LPA Battle round contest.
Good Morning All I did go to Chambers wood last week, not too much around but the Marsh Fritillaries are back again in the meadow. We had a good turnout for the meal on Friday, hope you all enjoyed it, thank you to my partner Jane for organising all the food orders. Everything went to plan until the chef dropped the roulade, hopefully your replacement was just as good. This week we have our first round of the LPA Battles against Grimsby and Scunthorpe. The judge for the evening is Diane Seddon. There should be a good turnout for this one with the other two clubs attending. The print competition with the categories of "Trees" and "Open" is to be held on the 24th of June, please email Dave Turner your titles and then bring your prints in on the night. Regards Graham
It’s been a fairly mundane May photography wise for me. I’ve visited Gibraltar Point, Messingham Sand Quarry, and Far Ings nature reserves, and taken some reasonable photos, but nothing really competition quality. The West Lindsey Open Churches Festival has been on for a couple of weekends, and I climbed the bell tower at St Peter, Scotter, had lunch at Kirton in Lindsey, and dropped in on a couple of churches in Caistor. My model photography has taken a back seat, I’ve not had a model shoot all of this month, I’ve had enquiries from a couple of models that I’ve worked with before, but not been able to arrange anything. Instead, I’ve been concentrating on wildlife, landscapes, and insect photography. My OM Systems cameras have been with me every day, the OM-5 is my daily carry, and the OM-1 is my heavy hitter, especially with the OM 100-400mm lens, or the 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens. I’m continuing to take images for the “Water” project, that’s one image of water for each month, providing twelve images to show on “Project Night” in January 2027. The May photo is an indoor creative image taken on a wet day. The trees, and horses were taken at Gibraltar Point, the Heron, and swans were at Messingham Sand Quarry.
Good Morning, All, Last week at the club we held our monthly competition, a PDI competition, with the categories of "Landscapes with Water" and "Open", there was a very good entry with a high standard of photography. Congratulations go to Tony Gaskins for 1 st place in the Landscapes with Water and Paul Twomey for 1 st place in the Open. The results are on our website with the winning images. This week there is no meeting on Wednesday as it's our annual meal on the Friday. For those attending it's at the Royal Oak (Splash) Little Cawthorpe, to meet up around 7pm for meal at around 7.30pm. For those doing the water project, it's getting towards the end of the month if you haven't already taken your photograph. Regards Graham
