Warrington

Photography

Group Coordinator - Tony Pelham

Welcome to the Photography Group home page.

The Photography Group meets on alternate Fridays (odd weeks in your diary) from 2-4pm starting in September and finishing late June.
The TUTORED GROUP classes are held the same day in the morning

Click on 'Programme' link for the year's programme

Click on 'Venue' link for more details of how to find us.

The Group Coordinator can be contacted by clicking on the contact link at the top right-hand corner of this page.
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Information for prospective joiners

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. The photos are placed on tables and numbered. Members circulate around the tables and choose a specified number of photos (usually 3 or 4) to vote for on a ballot paper. After counting the ballots the prints with the highest number of votes may be directly declared first, second & third or a second round of voting may take place with a show of hands if the winners are not clear cut. There is usually a small prize for the winner.

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. At the end of the time period, someone from each table will present the favourite image to the rest of the room with a short explanation of what the table liked about the image (and possibly any constructive criticism to improve it). Once each table has presented its favourite, the images are passed on to the next table and the process is repeated for up to an hour by which time approximately half the images submitted may have been discussed. 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 (last year, we all tried stop-frame animation).

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, tickets are sold to 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.

There is also an ANNUAL MEAL around Christmas time and a photography HOLIDAY.