Whitchurch Hill Camera Club

WHITCHURCH Hill Camera Club was formed in 1980 by enthusiastic amateurs and for many years meetings were held in the village hall by the green.

When the hall was being refurbished the club moved to a new location at the village hall in Manor Road, Whitchurch.

In the early days of the club, photography was based on the use of 35mm film being processed and developed in the darkroom, or being sent away for processing by a specialist at a financial cost.

It was difficult to have control of the pictures except getting everything right in the camera before pressing the button.

With the invention of digital technology and the production of affordable cameras, photography became within the reach of many more people who wanted memories easily recoverable either as images or prints.

Now most people carry a camera capable of producing an image.

Over the years, digital cameras have become much more sophisticated and their abilities are being expanded continuously.

The aim of the numerous camera clubs throughout the area is to improve the abilities of photographers to produce the perfect image but we are not all perfect.

From the very basic camera to the most expensive on the market, the images produced and the quality are, as the saying goes, “in the eye of the beholder”.

So not everybody gets it right all the time.

At our camera club the aim is to encourage members to improve their photos, to consider where, how and why the picture is being taken.

Evenings are held where we explore the use of digital manipulation of RAW and JPEG images with such programs as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Safari and
Faststone.

Competitions between members are held, where trained judges comment on the images and prints in a constructive manner, not that everybody always agrees with them, and not all can get the highest score.

But that is all part of the fun that can be achieved by entering.

Talks have been recently received from professional and amateur photographers on such subjects as wildlife in Africa, photo manipulation, outdoor and street photography, landscape and much more with numerous subjects in the programme still to come.

With the aid of Zoom online meetings are also held, which gives the club the ability to invite talks from professional and amateur photographers from all over the county on an increased range of subjects associated with photography.

It is unfortunate that covid has reduced the ability to explore, research and take new pictures, so members are now eager to get out and about with day trips to events, some to new holiday destinations and others to the wilds “on safari”.

Next year’s programme is currently being compiled to commence in September.

For more information, visit www.whitchurchhill
cameraclub.co.uk

(Bring this article for your first guest night free).

Ray Lewis