The Winding Path to Better Photgraphy
Derek Smith • 14 August 2025
Scaleber Foss at f/2.8
Scaleber Foss at f/2.8 by Derek Smith
A Captive Merlin
A Captive Merlin by Derek Smith
View to Stanage Edge
View to Stanage Edge by Derek Smith
Competing Insects
Competing Insects by Derek Smith
I’ve recently read an article on “Fstoppers”, written by Adam Matthews, his opinion is that improving at photography isn’t a step-by-step process. It’s a winding, often unpredictable journey shaped by curiosity, creativity, and the kind of images we want to make.
There’s a great deal of correctness in the article by Adam; however, I would argue that composition is the most important part of photography, and that is where the biggest improvement in our photography lies.
When we pick up our mobile phone and snap an image, we take that photo because we want to capture the moment, some of the most iconic photos ever taken were taken on mediocre cameras, often with a fixed focal length, fixed aperture lenses, and the resulting image was everything.
When we view an image, it’s the image that we see, we don’t analyse the camera, or settings, many of us will remember “The Napalm Girl”, taken during the Vietnam war of a girl running away from the American napalm bombs. More recently there’s an image of President Trump at the top of the steps entering the door of the Air Force One aircraft, just as he enters the door, he is looking into the aircraft, and his image is reflected on the outside of the aircraft, the journalist who took the photo commented that the image was more of a reflex action, she saw the image and took the shot.
Recently, I was asked for a copy of some images taken some 4 years ago at a Lincoln Hotel, inside the hotel room using natural light, I was fairly surprised when I looked at the technical settings of the images, the camera was set with an aperture of f/4, which was a deliberate action on my part, even though the lens used could open up to f/2.8, but I do find the f/4 aperture preferable for contextual indoor shots, what did surprise me though was the use of auto WB, and the auto ISO setting of 1000, but regardless of the semi-automatic settings the photos had worked, and the client was very happy with them.
As the Fstoppers article notes, we learn photography in often a nonlinear way, we get to learn our cameras, the associated lenses, the camera settings, composition techniques, watching the light, perhaps introducing artificial lighting to enhance our images, eventually it all comes together, and we gradually improve our photography. We learn from other photographers, we learn from viewing other people’s work, and we learn from photographic club competitions where a judge’s constructive critique can be invaluable.
In my eight years of serious photography, I’ve become more confident in fully using the camera, choosing the correct aperture, and lens for the scene – but I still make mistakes as this photo of Scaleber Foss shows, I shoot it at f/2.8, and the foreground is out of focus, attached are some of my better photos.
I still want to improve with my landscape, wildlife, and macro photography.
In conclusion, continue to learn, use your natural creativity, try different techniques, and above all enjoy your hobby.
Louth Photographic Society
Our speaker last night was our very own member Tony Gaskins, who gave an excellent presentation "Coast 3" with some stunning visual images. Tony specialises in capturing long exposure coastal scenes, he related how beginning several years ago with a long exposure view of Whitby Pier he got the "bug" for long exposure photography. Much of his photography takes place along the Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire east coast, often arising in the early hours to catch a sunrise. Weather conditions dictate a lot of how the final image looks, and the long exposure style often creates a sense of calmness, and serenity, with pastel coloured skies, and milky seas. When the weather turns wild, the long exposure image presents a very dramatic scene with foreboding clouds. He recently travelled to Lewis & Harris island in the Outer Hebrides and took many images there, sometimes at sunny white sand beaches, and at other times moody bleak images as the weather closed in. Tony's technique requires a lot of patience, often spending hours at a location, with the camera mounted on a study tripod, and the ND filters on the camera permitting an exposure time of several minutes. Many thanks Tony for a very informative talk, well presented, and with some beautiful imagery.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a Local Nature and Open PDI competition, members Dave Turner and Steve Chapman kindly offered to judge the competition, thank you to you both, it was a good night and the entries were of a high standard giving you both quite a task. The results are on our website, but the two winners on the night were, Local Nature Tony Gaskins and Open Harry Kerman. This week, Wednesday 8th April, Tony Gaskins, one of our members is showing us Coast 3, a PDI presentation. Tony is an excellent photographer and spends many hours photographing our coastline. Aprils Print competition, Circles and Open is fast approaching, you can send your titles to Dave Turner when your ready and bring your prints in the week before the competition. Regards Graham
It was no April fools, when we held our PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition last night. The images submitted into this competition were off the highest quality. Dave Turner judged the Open category, which I think is always one of the hardest categories to judge, pitting landscapes, against nature, and still life, but Dave did a magnificent job, offering well founded critique of the images submitted. After the break, Steve Chapman judged the Local Nature category, (nature images taken within a 25 mile radius of St. James' church, Louth) Steve "held back" 10 out of the 18 submitted images, and gave those 10 images very careful consideration until he finally arrived at the 3 highest placed images. Steve commented that the submitted images were indeed of high quality, and he took his time to evaluate the submitted images and offered useful critique on each one. The competition made for a very interesting evening, and all members deserve praise for the quality of the submitted images. The website Competition page has been updated with the full results, and the top three images from each category. On this post is 1st placed Sedge Warbler, Cleethorpes by Tony Gaskins, in the Local Nature category, and 1st placed Hudson Bay Wolf, (Lincoln Zoo) by Harry Kerman, in the Open category.
Good Morning, All, Last week at the club member Chris Birchmore gave a presentation on MPP cameras which included some of Chris's collection of cameras and prints taken. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. Thank you Chris for an interesting evening. This week, Wednesday 1st April, we are holding a local and open PDI competition the local subject being nature, please if you haven't already, send your entries to Harry before midnight tonight. Members Steve Chapman and Dave Turner have volunteered to judge. Also on the Wednesday 1st April our Louth Photographic Society 70th anniversary exhibition will be open to view at the Louth Museum. Regards Graham
Chris Birchmore gave an informative, and interesting talk and demonstration of his medium format film cameras. at the beginning of the evening Chris gave a potted history of the origins of the MPP cameras he was showing us. The cameras take a 5 x 4" film stock, and looking at the cameras it seems incredible that photographers in the recent past could take excellent photographs with these. The MPP cameras were often used by the British Armed Forcies during the Second World War, and throughout the 1950s, and 60s, and some of these medium format were still being manufactured in the 1970s. The prints that Chris showed taken with these cameras were of excellent quality, with an amazing depth of field. Many thanks Chris for a fascinating evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a committee meeting, which was very productive, we made the final arrangements for the exhibition, charity night, and studio evening as well as other items on the agenda. We are holding an Exhibition opening night at Louth Museum on Friday 17th April celebrating 70 years of Louth Photographic Society. There will be a small buffet and cold drinks available, if any member would like to donate a bottle of wine to the occasion please hand it to Harry at one of our club nights. This week, Wednesday 25th March, member Chris Birchmore will be giving us a presentation. The following week is a local competition, with the categoriess of "Local Nature" (up to 25 miles radius from St James church) and "Open" (unlimited mileage) please send your entries to Harry before midnight, Sunday 29th March. Members Steve Chapman will judge the Nature category, and Dave Turner the Open category. Regards Graham
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition judged by Martyn Wrigg, the standard of entries was very high and well done to Tony Gaskins for a first in the Architectural Detail and Derek Smith for his first place in the Open. All the results are on our website under competitions. This week, Wednesday 18th March we will be holding a Committee meeting, just committee members for this one. The following week Chris Birchmore is the speaker for the night. Harry is now accepting entries for the PDI local competition, with the categories of "Local Nature" and "Open". We judge this competition in house so if you would like to judge one of the subjects please let me know. Regards Graham
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A PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition was held last night with the categories of "Architectural Detail", and "Open". Martyn Wrigg was our judge for the evening, and he competently judged the submitted images, although he diid surprise with some of his choices of placing, but that's a judges perogative. Martyn complemented members on the quality of the images presented, which had made some of his decisions difficult. First placed was "It's a Fixer Upper" in the Architectural Detail section, and "Dervish Musician" in the Open section. Congratulations to Robin Begley, who as one of our newest members submitted some impressive images, achieving a 3rd place in "Architectural Details", and 2nd in the "Open" category. All the results are now posted to our website Competition page.
Good Morning All Last week at the club member Steve Chapman gave us an insight into his life and especially his time at Ilam Park in Derbyshire photographing for the National Trust. Steve showed us many photographs he had taken of the people involved with the trust and the Peak District. The second half was dedicated to Steve's own work, some superb aircraft photography as well as many other subjects. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. This week, Wednesday 11th March we are holding a PDI competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail " and "Open" to be judged by Martyn Wrigg of Barton. The following week is a committee meeting for the committee members only on that evening. For newer members we have two committee meetings a year. Regards Graham
