A Review

Following the very successful Photography Competition organised by the Cruising Section I thought it was time I wrote a short review of the Photography Group as we have now been running for 12 months.

The group originally formed after joining as a group to learn the basics of photography and how to use your camera. I should say at this stage that a camera is any device that is used to record or take a photograph, ideally digital as the old faithful Box Brownie is not that practical on a yacht!

We do not focus on any specific topic or subject, we talk about what goes on behind and inside the camera, what happens in front of the camera, the subject matter, is up to you!

Boats, Squirrels, Flowers, Dogs and Gardens have all featured at various times of the year. They are all subject to the same issues and considerations - composition, sharpness and purpose, so that is what we talk about on a Tuesday morning over a mug of coffee.

This year we have a few trips planned to various gardens and locations around the area to take our cameras and get some pictures then look at how they might be improved, and try the coffee! These include places like Exbury Gardens, Beaulieu River and Woodside Gardens.

We will also be joined occasionally by various Photography Professionals who will share their knowledge of the craft. The first will be Luke Parkinson, from Wessex Photography in Lymington, who will talk about the services they offer and show some of his photographs. Luke tells me he will be bringing some special vouchers for those attending when he visits at 10:00 on Tuesday 28th February, the regular time of our Coffee Meetups!

This week we will be looking at some digitised family photographs from the 1800's & 1900's and how they might be improved using editing packages like Adobe Lightroom. In the following weeks we plan to explore how you can use photography to share and get more value from your interests or crafts, like taking a nice picture of your family, flowers, garden visitors, wildlife, paintings, sailing trips or the family pet.

After all, these days, most of us always have a good quality camera in our pocket and photography is really only capturing light at a particular moment in time, so why not get it right!

In case you missed it the video link for this years Photography Competition can be found on the Cruising Page on the Website HERE at the bottom of the page.

The winner this year was Nick Ryley, newly elected GC member, with the photograph above that he took with his phone early one morning on the club balcony!