A conversation with Graham, the Interest Group Leader of Photography at Limebrook u3a

I have been running the photography group for just over nine years and it has over 20 members of various skills with equipment that ranges from mobile phones, compact, bridge and DSLR cameras.  We meet on the first Wednesday of each month and alternate between site visits to various places of interest for a photo shoot and a local hall, where we review photographs taken on the site visit the previous month. 

 

We have from the early days of the Group run a monthly competition where a subject is set and each member invited to bring a photo to the hall, and  to keep the author anonymous, each photo would be given a number. The group would then vote for their favorite image by number. The author of the photograph that received the most votes is presented with a small trophy to treasure until the next competition. 

 

Unfortunately, Covid brought this all to an end, but not to give up we continued to meet each month via Zoom and the competition moved on line.  Each group member was invited to send me up to three photographs on a set subject each month, I would then give each a number and after a set cut off date post them on our Flickr site for all to view.  Each member would then email me with their three favorite numbers and of course the photograph with the most votes win.   During complete lock down I would send a first-place certificate to the winner via email. 

This format was so popular with the group that we have continued it since restrictions have been lifted. 

 

We have a few other activities during the year such as producing a wall calendar from members photographs, workshops on various aspects of photography and we also have had a couple of local professional photographers come along and give us a talk on ways to improve our techniques.

 

The Calendar for 2023 had the theme “Essex Events.”  Twelve different Photographers were represented and there was a very wide range of subjects. One of these can be seen above - February's picture, Call of the Wild by member Brian.

 

The Group is very friendly and we enjoy our hobby without getting too serious regarding the equipment or technical side of photography., It is all about meeting and having fun with other members of Limebrook u3a.