One of the best things about living in Letchworth is the variety of activities that are available to the people who live here. In my Out and About in Letchworth blogs, I’m meeting some of these groups and taking part in the activities on offer. This month, I paid a visit to the Letchworth Camera Club.
I’ve taken photos before, I’d be surprised to come across someone that hasn’t. And in the era of camera phones and quick photo editing apps such as Instagram, I was intrigued to see what could be learned at such a group.
The group meet every week, with a variety of workshops, seminars, talks and competitions throughout the year. These meetings provide members with both an opportunity to hone their photography skills and learn more from peers, but also to be critiqued in a friendly and welcoming environment.
I joined the group for the judging night of their Projected Image competition. Over the year, members take part in different competitions with the scores from each of these accumulating to provide an overall winner at an end of season awards.
When arranging my visit I asked if I could enter the competition as well; I fancy myself as a decent amateur photographer (I can basically point a camera at things and not mess it up!). Unfortunately I had missed the entry deadline.
Well, after seeing the first image on display as the competition got underway, I was quite relived at missing the deadline! The standard was incredibly high. The photographers had all put a lot of time and effort into their work, whether in the capture of the image itself or in the editing process.
With each image, the judge talked through what he saw and what he believed were the strong points of the image, as well as pointing out any perceived areas of improvement or changes that he would have made. Two things jumped out at from this process: one being that the level of critique given by the judge was very detailed and provided great feedback to the entrants, but also that the process of judging an image was very subjective (a thought shared by the group as they reacted to a low score on an image they all thought deserved better).
Overall I was taken aback by the standard of the photos presented by the group and I strongly recommend anyone with an interest in photography to head down and learn more. The members were super welcoming and they’ll have you on your way to becoming an expert photographer in no time.
If you’d like to find out more about Letchworth Camera Club or to enquire about joining the group, visit http://www.letchworthcameraclub.org.uk/
