Walsall wood camera club, my second visit.

This was my second visit to the club which meets each Tuesday in the hall behind St Johns church Walsall wood.
On this occasion, one of the local rival clubs (Aldridge) turned up to put on a prints and digital show for us.
I must start off by saying it was a fantastic turn out again, i never in my wildest dreams thought that a camera club could have so many active members.
One of the gentlemen from Aldridge, gave a brief description of what we were about to see.
The first display was by a gentleman who had a fantastic selection of shots from the Lake district. There were plenty of water shots which i particularly like, as he managed to capture very still waters and great reflections.
We then had a display of mixed monochrome and colour images. This particular selection had a couple of portraits in it. one of the portraits was of a Greek fella that the gentleman had spotted in a cafe while on holiday. This particular image was really eye catching for me and has enthused me to capture as many images of characters as i can.

Here is an image i took a year or so ago with a compact camera. This guy rocked up on a pier in Greece with his fishing rod and a stool. He pitched up next to me wearing wellies and what i imagined was a old German world war 2 helmet. He kept the helmet on the whole time to keep the sun off his head (i would imagine) as it was 40 degrees.

my favorite people shot so far.

Please feel free to criticise my images. I have not photo shopped this image, but what could photo shop actually do for this image?

The next set of prints came from some one who used the Clayhanger wet lands a lot. i was amazed at how he had managed to make some rather mundane spots, look fantastic on his prints. May be its the fact that i go there a la lot that i don't consider the area worthy of a good photo (lesson learnt). Next time i am over that area i will be taking my camera. That set of prints has given me much enthusiasm to capture more of the places i often go and don't appreciate.

It was time then for a cup of tea and a chat with some of the members. I don't have trouble chatting to be honest. A couple of the senior members made a point of coming over for a chat. I signed up for a lesson on framing (how to) which is something i need to learn fairly quickly. I had brought a photo with me which i had framed, my idea was to get an opinion of what i had done rite or wrong in this effort. I ended up putting it into the competition for next week. I know it won't win any prizes, but the criticism will be constructive and help me in producing a better shot in the future.

The photo i entered into the competition (the Oss)

We then moved into a digital display which was very interesting. Some of the shows were of mundane subjects, and others of specific targets. One of which was a dance group, definitely not mundane. These photos had some great shots in which seemed to utilize lots of black and white clothing and background, mostly black The little amount of colour on shots made the photos very interesting to me. I suppose if you get a subject so full of energy you are going to have that come out in your images, which these surely did.

There were a couple of the shows presented to music. These pricked my interest in setting some of my snaps to sound. Watch this space!

All in all it was a very informative night, and i look forward to my next visit.

Please leave comments on this blog, i do like to be interactive.

god bless ya.

Photography.......i wish i was a little bit better.

I have always been a amateur photographer, and they way i have progressed, i always will be.
My wife is looking for buying me a new camera this Christmas  which i will cherish just as much as the Nikon D60 that she got for me 5 or 6 years ago.

Nikon D60 which has traveled the world with me.

As hard as i try i can never take what i consider to be a great photograph. My wife says that a photo i took of a grey horse in Alrewas is her favorite. I do like this photo as it looks somewhat unreal, but i have not done any photo shop on it. The one thing that annoys me is that just seconds before i took the snap the horse came rite up to my face and started neighing at me and showing its teeth. If only i had the presence of mind to catch that moment on camera i might well have my best ever photo. Instead i stood in amazement for 5 seconds then fumbled around to set the camera up and the moment was lost.

My shot of the Grey stallion and hay cart.

As anyone who has ever read my blog will know i am a keen metal detectorist. You might expect that i would get some good shots while out with the detector. This is not the case though, it's very difficult to carry a large slr camera and all of my detecting kit. I do carry a small digital camera with me, however having dirty hands and using a camera is very difficult.

Its always pleasing to get a good landscape shot (or what i consider good) while out walking. I think that if you have a mind to take good photos, you are always on the look out for an opportunistic shot. Here is one i snapped just a few weeks ago while in York. I was passing through a park early in the morning and noticed how the sun shining through the branches of a tree was lighting up the mist.

Early morning in York.

I will endeavor to take a better photo over the coming months/years as i expect all armature photographers do.

God bless ya.