On Wednesday 28th May, the Society will be showing a DVD that hopefully will give advice on techniques, and skills for “Macro Photography”. The following Wednesday we will meet up at Red Hill to practice those skills, and techniques. So, what is “Macro Photography”? Wikipedia gives the following definition: "Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life-size." To photograph small insects, or flowers larger than life-size a photographer will need to have a lens suitable for the purpose, a dedicated macro lens, a close focusing telephoto zoom lens, or the least expensive option is a set of extension tubes. With my Fuji camera system I used a 70-300mm zoom lens to capture these images, now that I am using the Olympus / OM System cameras I can buy a dedicated macro lens for about £400, however rather than spending a lot of money, I have opted to purchase a set of extension tubes, for £33, the tubes fit between the camera body and the lens enabling closer focusing to the subject. One of my techniques for close focusing is to obtain focus, either with auto focus, or manual focus, and gently rock back, and forward to fine tune the focus. A camera flash, or a portable LED light can also be used to highlight the subject.

Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Seasons" and "Open" judged by a new judge to the LPA, Dane Butler. There is a report on the evening on our blog and all the results are on our website under competitions. Well done to Steve Chapman who came first in both subjects. This week, Wednesday 21st May, we host Lincoln in the first round of the print LPA Battles judged by Brian Grommett. Don't forget, subs are now due, also keep going on your project, prime time if you are taking part. Regards Graham

The first round of the LPA Print Battles was held last night, Louth hosted Lincoln for this round. The judge for the evening was the excellent, quietly spoken, knowledgeable Brian Gromett. Brian reviewed the prints in his usual calm manner, holding back four prints from the Lincoln entries, and nine prints from Louth. The club room was packed for the evening, I was especially taken with three of the detailed insect prints submitted by Lincoln, and presumably by the same author, as the pastel like green backgrounds were in the same style. It was an excellent and close fought competition, well done to Lincoln, but after the points were added up Louth led by 20 points.

Our PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition with the categories of “Seasons”, and “Open” was held last night. Dane Butler was the judge for the evening, and there were some stunning images submitted into the competition to review. Dane judged the images fairly, majoring on the technical imperfections of the images, depth of focus, composition, elements within an image that could have been removed, improved cropping of an image, and image titling. Thank you to Dane who is a new judge on the LPA circuit, I felt he did well, he does need to think about addressing the audience with his critique of the submitted images, and speak a little louder. I know that the technical critique helps us to develop our skills as photographers, sometimes though, it would be nice if a judge could concentrate on the pleasing aesthetics of a submitted image, rather than on the technical deficiencies of an image, for me as a personal viewpoint it should be how an image has an impact on the viewer, or the story that the image conveys. I present two images for consideration, the first of the heritage passenger train hauled by the steam locomotive “Eric Treacy” drawing into Goathland station and being met by the Stationmaster on the platform conveys a story, the second is of a visually impactful corn flower, both images have technical imperfections but are nevertheless stunning. Congratulations to Steve Chapman, and Graham Harrison for achieving the highest placings in the competition. All the competition results, and top three placements from the competition categories have been uploaded to the Competition page on the website.

Good Morning All Last Wednesday we held our Annual General Meeting, it was a good attendance, with all the Officer, and Committee posts filled for another year, thank you to all. This week, Wednesday 14th May, we hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Seasons" and "Open" to be judged by Dane Butler, entries to Harry by midnight tonight please. Regards Graham

Our AGM was held last night; it was a productive evening with all the Society Officers re-elected for the forthcoming year. A big thank you to Peter Cory who has stood down from the Committee, Paul Twomey has been nominated in his place on the Committee. Following the AGM, the cups, and trophies were awarded to members with the highest points scores in the competitions.

We held a PDI Competition last night with the categories of “Local Events”, (the “Local” designation applies to any photograph taken within a 25-mile radius of St. James Church, Louth) and “Open”. Our own Graham Harrison was the judge for the evening, and he did a sterling job of selecting the top three highest placed images in each category. All the results of the competition can be viewed on our Competition webpage. I want to take a moment to praise the work of our Competition Secretaries, Dave Turner is the Print Secretary, he collects, collates the submitted competition prints, and produces the score sheets, he also submits club entries into the LPA Fosters competition, and the LPA Battles for members. Harry Kerman is our PDI Secretary, he receives submitted digital images usually via WeTransfer, collates the entries, produces the score sheets, and presents the images on the competition evening, as he did last night. Our Society would be much poorer without the hard work and dedication of these two individuals. It would be a real help to both Competition Secretaries if you could pay attention to the titles of your submitted entries, in the topic categories a judge must be guided by the title, as well as the image to evaluate whether the image meets the topic criteria. Our next PDI competition has the topic of “Seasons”, carefully choose both the image and the appropriate title to help the judge. It seems a shame to put a lot of hard work into taking a photograph, editing the image, and submitting the entry, only to lose points because your image did not meet the criteria. I would also encourage you to join our outings in June, it’s where we can socialise, and learn from other members how to use our cameras and gain some composition tips. This photo of an Orb Weaver spider taken at Chambers Farm Wood, from last year, is an example of what can be achieved on our outings.

Good Morning All Last week at the club Derek Smith kindly organised a studio night for us all, it was a very successful evening with Derek providing all the lighting, backdrops, and booking the model. Thank you, Derek, for all your hard work organising the evening. This week, Wednesday 30th April, we are holding a local PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Events" and "Open", you have until midnight tonight to get your entries to Harry. The local is always judged by members and this week you have yours truly judging. The following week it is that time of year already when we hold our AGM and presentation night. If any members have trophies to hand in, this week please. The week after the AGM it is the first monthly PDI competition of our new competition year, Seasons and Open, you can begin sorting out your entries for that one as well now and send them to Harry after this Monday to avoid confusion. Regards Graham

Our “Studio Night” was held last night, this is an annual event, with a model being on hand for members to practice portrait, and fashion photography. This year, I wanted to try something a little different, with two sets positioning a model at one end of the room for the fashion shoot, and another set for portraits at the opposite end of the room. I tried booking a male model, and a female model for the shoot with a casting call on my usual modelling site, initially gaining interest from one male model, but unfortunately, he had to drop out. Re-advertising the shoot, yielded a female model from Rugby, and a male model from London. Where were all the Lincolnshire models? I pulled up a list of Lincolnshire models, and directly messaged several, without any response, until just 3 days before the event a female model under the name of Dahlia_Void (Megan) from Grimsby, responded and the “Studio Night” was on. Our very own talented Paul Rudd agreed to model for us, and both models did a superb job. I believe that the “Studio Night” was a success, with members seemingly able to take some excellent images of both models. Importantly, there didn’t seem to be a lot of waiting around for members to take their shots, and the models appeared relaxed. Megan was a little star, being very patient while we pointed cameras at her.