Another brilliant week at BPS last Tuesday, featuring all home-grown talent.

First off, we had Sheila and Jenny talking about printing, especially about how the choice of paper and proper use of calibration profiles can affect the results. I hope everyone learned something from it. I see that Permajet have sent around some information about upcoming courses that would be a good fit for anyone wanting to advance their printing skills further.

Sheila also sent an email from Louise Hill about an opportunity for a group of members to arrange a printing course on a Saturday, if we can get between 10 and 20 interested participants. Please contact Sheila if this is something you would like to be involved in.

The main session last week featured two of our star members, with inspirational and informative talks. First off we had Al Haden talking about photographic opportunities in Iceland – somewhere I’d love to go back to. It’s a fascinating, friendly, beautiful and unique place, something which I think came across very clearly in Al’s photos and his narrative.

After the break, Nick Veale gave us a feast of information (and some great pictures) on how to use long exposures to give unique dreamy smooth skies and water, or captivating light trails.

Many thanks to both Al and Nick for their excellent presentations.

Coming up this week we have something a little different for the main session – a pre-recorded lecture from a Canadian photographer called David DuChemin. I’ve been following his work for a few years now – I own two or three of his books too – and have always enjoyed his work and his presentation style, so hopefully it will be an enjoyable evening.

Before that, for the early session, I will be talking about Flash Photography – particularly the use of speedlights (or your camera’s built-in flash) as opposed to studio flash. I’ll be talking about when you might want to use a flash, how to avoid some of the pitfalls that use of a flash can lead to, what sort of flash you might want to buy if you don’t have one, and what all the 23 different settings your average flash seems to come with these days mean, and which ones are worth worrying about. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting, and those of you that are already experts in the use of flash will be tactful enough to pretend that I know what I am talking about.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday

Richard