Society Matters 

It’s mind-blowing that we are already in the run up to Christmas.  The season has been particularly interesting and is going by at pace.  It is great to have been able to welcome so many new members: Paul Bentley, Paul Brookman, Dianne Brown, Clive Chapman, Joann Din, David Stuckey, Martin Veith and Maggie Wells.   

Experienced members have been leading some very valuable sessions and we will be holding another Photographic Skills Carousel on Wednesday.  Members have the choice of learning about Focus Stacking with Polina Plotnikova and Back Button Focusing with Peter Sullivan.  Brian is unfortunately unwell but has promised to do his session on Wedding Photography later in the season.  Roger Ford is hosting our second Photographic Improvement Evening on December 2nd – an event more targeted towards standard and intermediate classes.  It will be an opportunity to receive helpful critique on prints in a friendly environment.  If you haven’t let me know if you interested yet, please reply to scdodd@mac.com.  Roger will contact those who have shown an interest with further details of the evening.    

This is also the very last call for images that demonstrate “Capturing Movement” for the exchange with our French friends in Perigny.  Please send a maximum of two images, dimensions 1920 on the longest side, by the end of November to Angela Ford:angelaford19@hotmail.com 

 

On the subject of images if you haven’t contributed to the members’ gallery on the website please do so.  You will need a square image (a thumbnail) 150/150 pixels for the introductory page and around a dozen with the longest side 1024 pixels for your personal page.   

 

Also a reminder about the exhibition which will be held February at Beckenham Public Halls as usual.  Final handing-in/uploading date is December 11th to allow for judging before Christmas; forms and labels are available on the website for printing but for those unable to print copies will be at the club.  Please don’t forget Bill Gray, the exhibition organiser, will be looking for volunteers to take on some of the pre-exhibition roles as well as stewarding duties. 

 

The Christmas social will be on December 18th.  For the first part of the evening we will have the opportunity to view and critique the images from Perigny and then there will be a chance to socialise over refreshments.  Last year we had a fun photographic quiz.  I have a couple of ideas on this front but any other thoughts for the evening, please let me know. 

I think the reusable coffee cups pilot is working pretty well – reducing the amount of time needed for washing up etc and making the break run more smoothly.  Please continue to remember to bring your cup to meetings. 

 

Photographic Opportunities 

Christmas lights provide great opportunities for photography.  Unfortunately, the light show at Kew is now fully booked but Eltham Palace will be running its “Enchanted” evenings between December 5th and 22nd.  There still appear to be tickets for most sessions.  More details:  www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/eltham-enchanted-5-8-dec-2019/  

With the lights all around London and Canary Wharf it is probably a good time to think about a trip on the Emirates Skyline.  More information via this link Emirates Skylines 

 

December 5th – lighting of the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree lights; starts at 6pm 

 

On December 7th a fleet of old buses will be seen along the 159 bus route to mark of the 14th anniversary since the famous London bus travelled along the route.  Event organised by the Routemasters Association – http://routemaster.org.uk/events/index/95 

 

December 8th is London Santacon – hundreds of people dressed as santa racing around different parts of London – you can register at http://www.santacon.co.uk to get details of the route. 

Photography Exhibitions  

Cold winter days seem ideal for a trip to a photographic exhibition.  Here is a selection of those currently showing: 

The winning images from the 2019 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition are on display at the National Maritime Museum until 26 April 2020.  

https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year 

 

Selected images from the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize are on show at the National Portrait Gallery until 16th February 2020  – www.npg.org.uk/whatson/taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2019/exhibition/ 

 

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition continues at the Natural History Museum until 31st May 2020 – www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year.html 

 

An exhibition of Dora Maar’s work is at Tate Modern until March 15th 2020 – www.timeout.com/london/art/dora-maar-review 

 

Two shows at the Photographer’s Gallery until February 9th:  Shot in Soho and Feast for the Eyes – the Story of Food in Photography – www.timeout.com/london/art/shot-in-soho-review 

 

Presentation:  South London Photographic Society is hosting  Vanda Ralevska – an Arena Landscape Photographer on Monday 2ndDecember  at 20:00.  She will be talking on “The Experience of Taking Images” 

https://mylenscapes.uk/.  Visitors are welcome at no charge; more details on https://southlondonps.org.uk/about/ 

Photographic Holidays 

I receive a large number of mailings to the BPS address from companies organising photographic holidays and workshops.  With the traditional January holiday planning season approaching here are a few – just information, no testimonials: 

Wild Photography Holidays – https://wildphotographyholidays.com; Polina will be leading a trip to Bruges in Belgium in March and there are one or two places still available – https://wildphotographyholidays.com/holidays/bruges-belgium-a-medieval-romance 

 

 

Bailey Chinnery Photography – places available in workshops in UK, including one in the Lake District in November 2020 led by Paul Kenny and Berlin; they fill up very quickly – www.baileychinnery.com 

 

Creative Photography Experience – largely based in Wales but does trips to Isle of Skye, Italy, Northumberland – https://creativephotographytraining.co.uk 

 

Image Seen – Landscape workshops to Scotland, the Lake District, Northumberland, SW Cornwall, the Jurassic Coast, Yorkshire and Tuscany – /www.imageseen.co.uk 

 

Secret Atlas – trips to Greenland, Scoresby Sund -  here Svalbard (Wildlife and Photography)  – herewww.secretatlastravel.com 

 

I am sure members know of many more companies and have enjoyed holidays with them.  If you email me details we could include them on the BPS website. 

Photography Show 

Registration is now open for the Photography Show taking place 14-17 March (45% off tickets before November 28th); https://www.photographyshow.com 

 

The next Bulletin will be published early in the New Year.  Please email me any information for inclusion in the January edition 

 

Sheree 

scdodd@mac.com