Warrington

The group meets fortnightly on Friday afternoons at the Fairfield & Howley Neighbourhood Project, meetings last 2 hours (2-4pm) including a coffee break. (The tearoom also serves meals if you wish to get lunch before the meeting.) The levels of skill and experience are wide-ranging and beginners are welcome, although it helps to have a basic understanding of the subject.

Meetings are usually attended by approx 30 members and are intended to offer a relaxed group forum to provide mutual help mixed with competitions and reviews with constructive criticism. Minutes of each meeting are circulated to members afterwards. Meetings are divided into 4 types:

BI-MONTHLY COMPETITIONS on a specified theme – members are encouraged to submit (usually) 2 A4 prints. There is no obligation to submit photos and you can still take part in the judging.
PHOTOSHOOT & REVIEW – these take place throughout the year, shoots are organised at a variety of locations in the area. At the following meeting there is a print review and a review of digital images. For the print review, members are encouraged to bring (usually) 4 A4 prints, these are split between a number of tables. Members sitting at each table will discuss the images presented to them for about 5 minutes and select their favourite. Once each table has chosen its favourite, the images are passed on to the next table and the process is repeated. Again there is no obligation to submit prints and you can still take part in the assessment, or just listen and learn from others' comments.
In the second half of the meeting, members may submit a further number of images electronically and these are all displayed to the group who may comment.

EXTERNAL SPEAKERS – once or twice per year we get a professional photographer to come and speak to us about their speciality.

GROUP MEETINGS/INTERNAL SPEAKERS – remaining meetings consist of a mixture of talks by members about software, techniques, projects or of practical sessions to try something out.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION – at the end of the year we hold a joint exhibition with the U3A Art groups one evening. This is a social event with food & wine for other U3A members, families and friends. Members are invited to submit up to 5 images taken during the year (not necessarily for U3A group projects), mounted and labelled to a common format. These are displayed in the hall at the Fairfield & Howley Neighbourhood Project and further exhibition of a smaller group may be arranged in Warrington town centre.