Andy Abbott, a photojournalist from Bury St Edmunds, will show us how the best pictures are opportunistic and as a result of being in the right place at the right time. Andy has captured highlights of East Anglian life with his camera for five decades. His ethos is to secure a memorable image that has the ability to tell a story without caption or explanation and which has the reader thinking ‘wow I must read on’. Away from the relative calm of our region he has also undertaken madcap escapades including filming hang gliders and abseilers and once had a gun aimed at him by East German border guards as he pointed a telephoto lens at Checkpoint Charlie. Thankfully nothing will be pointed him at him at the next meeting of the group except members and visitors eager to hear about his amazing career and see his images.
The evening will conclude with members showing their images from the Aldeburgh carnival which, incidentally, will also be shown in the local press and websites.
In August, we don’t meet. Instead we encourage all our members to attend the Aldeburgh Carnival and, if they wish, to take photographs for our next meeting. A small group of members agree to cover each event and to make photos available to support the carnival publicity. Our next formal meeting is in September.
The next meeting of the photography group will be held on Wednesday 16th July at 7.30pm in the Aldeburgh Library with two speakers we hope will stimulate us to experiment and enhance our skills.
Local photographer, Caroline Greenwell, will present her unique take on recording life around her, images that are candid, different and always interesting. She will show what is possible with a smartphone, keen observation skills and, sometimes, a disregard of the photographic rule book.
We will also have the chance to view some amazing images of our committee member Anne Molyneux’s recent trip to Alaska. We will see the landscape and wildlife and have the opportunity to question her on how some images were set up to maximise the chances of success.
The evening will conclude with members showing their images from the June photoshoot at Sizewell.
Beautiful Sizewell Beach is the location for our next group meeting.  Local photographer and writer, Richard Allenby-Pratt, will be leading the photoshoot and he will help us observe and better record the things we see with our cameras and smartphones.  Richard has won international awards and exhibited his work globally.  Closer to home, Richard leads The Suffolk Project, a study of the East Anglia landscape and its people so he is very well acquainted with the unique and fragile beauty of this coastal area.
Please note that this event is restricted to members and regular ad hoc attenders. Our next meeting in Aldeburgh Library will take place on Wednesday 16 July.
Local artist, David Gillingwater, will speak to us on the subject of composition. It will be fascinating to learn about this from a painter as opposed to a photographer and we hope it will stimulate a lot of discussion.
The Technique of Panning
Alec Brown will speak to us on the technique of panning. This is a skill which takes time to practice but can result in some excellent images capturing the detail in objects moving in front of the camera. He will explain the technique and show photographs that illustrate a moving object against a blurred background. A short video at the end of this session will show someone using the technique.
Our close of evening non competitive look at member’s images will be on the theme of ‘then and now’. This builds on the knowledge gained from last month’s meeting which focused on editing images with the help of popular software solutions.
All photographers sometimes produce images that don’t quite work. Maybe they are too dark, out of alignment, or they would work better if trimmed.
This session will demonstrate how to correct some of these problems. Following an introductory video on an editing workflow, most of the time will be spent in small groups using different editing techniques. At least one group will be for absolute beginners and at least one group will be for people with more experience, so catering for all levels of ability.
We welcome Lucy Kayne to Aldeburgh Library to talk to us about seeking beauty in the everyday.
Lucy describes seeking beauty in the everyday as the underpinning philosophy in how she works. Lucy runs a wide range of workshops for photographers. Details can be found on her website.
Lucy is always on the lookout for new and interesting places to explore and the talk should be informative and interesting.
Our close of evening non competitive look at member’s images will be on the theme of reflections, as demonstrated in the videos presented at the January meeting.
The annual AGM will the first item of the evening. Reports by president, secretary and treasurer will be circulated beforehand and will be available for discussion before the election of committee members and officers.
Regular contributor Chris Atkinson will present on the theme of reflections photography using a smartphone. This should give some inspiration for photos when out and about.
Our usual closing (non competitive) look at member’s photos will be the interpretation of famous photographer’s or artist’s work, showing two original images and the member’s interpretations of those two images. Try looking at the jump photographs by Philippe Halsman, the street photographs of Henri Cartier Bresson or the landscapes of Ansel Adams for example. An alternative might be a reinterpretation of a Constable, a Monet, a Van Gogh or even an abstract piece of artwork.
This meeting is on the second Wednesday of the month,11th December as Christmas approaches.
Our plan is to show two videos on underwater photography. This includes explanations of underwater light, subjects and technical equipment aspects.
A presentation on one of the photography greats, Julia Margaret Cameron has been confirmed. Noted for portraiture and with her photographs dating from the mid 19th century, this should be most informative.
The annual 20 question quiz will be held, subject to timings, with a small prize to the winner. The tea/coffee break will have the added attraction of mince pies.
In our usual non competitive look at member’s photographs, we’ll be looking at landscape photographs.