Hi all. Speaking for myself, I certainly enjoyed the talk from Chris Palmer this week. It was refreshing to see a lot of quality images that were taken mainly for the joy of photography, rather than just a selection of “competition winners”. His presentation was relaxed and informative and I would welcome him back again in the future.

We now enter August which in past years has usually been a quiet month for the society in the run up to our new season. Richard is working hard to put together an entertaining programme for August, starting with a variation on a critique night this week. I’m looking forward to seeing you all then.

Looking ahead to our new season – which is only just over 4 weeks away – we are finding that we are having to adapt to the circumstances that we find ourselves in. I have been corresponding with about a dozen of our neighbouring clubs, to see how they propose to handle the season ahead. None are planning to have physical meetings from the start of September, indeed, most believe that these meetings are unlikely before January. We will do our utmost to get back to normal, but only when your committee deem that it is safe to do so.

Therefore, until further notice, our meetings will continue to be online via Zoom. Jan has put together an excellent programme to keep you entertained. Some of the highlights before Christmas include Claire Carter (you will remember her excellent talk from two years ago), the return of Damien Demolder, our very own Michael McIlvaney plus a live presentation from New Zealand – don’t say that we don’t scour the world for top talent for your entertainment.

The programme will be available in a downloadable version on https://www.bromsgroveps.com/ as well as on the Facebook page.  These will be available later this week. I will inform you when they are life. Please feel free to share our events on Facebook with your many Facebook friends. As ever the society is always open for new members – there is little live entertainment around for people at the minute, so joining in with our Zoom meetings on a Tuesday is an excellent way to spend an evening – still remarkable value at £1 per week.

We will also be making our membership form available on the webpage in the next few days – this will make it easy for you to rejoin or encourage new members to join. I will let you know when this is life.

That’s all for today, but please continue to look out for any updates from your committee in the coming weeks.

Best wishes

David