Spring Activity At The Club

Spring has sprung!

It seems Spring has finally “sprung”, although on occasions the news does not seem to have got through to the Northerly winds which have given both nature and our photographers a sharp reminder of the need to dress appropriately.

Members have continued to enjoy an impressive range of speakers and presentations on our Monday night club evenings. Whether our speakers have joined us in person, or occasionally via Zoom, we have been shown some wonderful images from around the globe with interesting insights into the equipment used and techniques involved in making the images.

Light Painting with Tim Gamble

Some  of our club nights include practical sessions.

Following an intriguing talk to the Club about Light Painting, Tim Gamble returned with a large selection of his equipment and showed us how we too can use the facilities of modern cameras to create some interesting images.

 Light Painting Night at the Club

The members had a real fun evening creating these images.

Cole Thompson

Cole Thompson, an acclaimed landscape photogropher from America, showed us how he visualises landscapes with a view to converting an image to a fine art monochrome masterpiece and showed us some truly amazing photos.

Member Monthly Competitions

We continue with the monthly members’ competitions, with guest judges reviewing and scoring images in; Open, Print, Nature and Theme categories. 

Members have engaged strongly in the theme section and enjoy preparing their pictures to fit the requirement of that particular month. Recent themes have included, Graphic Images, Industry and Black & White Patterns. It is always interested to see the varying interpretations of these topics. Here are some member images from these competitions:

Graphic Images - George Franks : Rebekah Crow : Gordon Dryden

Industry - Andrew Proctor : Martin Malies

Black and White Patterns - Phil Carway : Mike Reeve : Tom Pocklington

The winning entries to all competitions can be viewed  here: SMCC Competitions

Special Interest Groups

Meanwhile our Special Interest Groups, (SIGs) continue their activities offering members opportunities to join group outing to a variety of locations to capture images in their own particular style or to try something completely new to them and hopefully to discover another type of photography that they can enjoy.

Urban - Our Urban group have had a number of outings in and around Manchester, exploring; new and old architecture, the pubs of Manchester, and the older parts of Salford.

Macro -  Members of the Macro section have been out capturing beautiful images of the Spring flowers as they have appeared in various locations.

Landscapes - The Landscape group have visited locations in N Wales, the Peak District and Anglesey, as well was trying Light Photography “in the woods”.

Basic Skills - Our Basic Skills team continue their partnership with the Friends of Fog Lane Park in celebration of the park’s centenary. The first collection of images in our rotation exhibition at the park café is now on display and has received a positive response.  

Fog Lane Park - Cafe Exhibition

A few members of the group were also fortunate to attend a session of the National Track Cycling Championships as guests of British Cycling. A very different challenge making a very interesting day out.

Photo Editing

We also continue our occasional sessions reviewing group members’ pictures considering how they might be enhanced either at time of capture or by editing in post processing software. These have always been popular sessions and capacity is alway reached quickly.

Interested in Joining?

All our group activities are friendly and a great opportunity for members to enjoy their photography together. often learning new or alternate ways to make a photograph successful. Members are alway generous in sharing ideas and tips. Why not come along and find out more? We are a friendly and supportive club catering for all levels of photographers and meet weekly in Burnage, South Manchester.

We meet throughout the year and have a variety of activities including interesting and informative external speakers, monthly competitions with fellow members and practical evenings out and about with our cameras in the local area, as well as further afield.

We cater for all levels of experience from beginners through to experienced photographers , the aim being to help you socialise and improve your photography with other members in the outings arranged by the various Interest Groups which you can join.

Whichever level you are at, South Manchester Camera Club can help you enjoy your hobby whilst helping you to realise your full potential. Take a look at our Join The Club Page for further details. We'd love to see you and tell you more about us.

For further information about the Club and it's activities, feel free to contact:

Naeem Dean President (president@smcc.org.uk) or
Hamish Beck Publicity (publicity@smcc.org.uk)