For many years Syd Cumbus has provided a brief review of the week’s meeting to the Lancaster Guardian for their social scene column. We’re now very happy to be able to also present these round ups on the website.

The President of the Society, Christian Cable introduced Lee Metcalfe of Lancaster to present his lecture entitled ‘Perfect Light’ Lee is a local professional photographer who specializes in landscape photography and has enjoyed successful exhibitions of his work in the Ashton Memorial and local galleries plus cover photographs for Lancashire Life and articles for the Outdoor Photography magazine.

He showed a total of 37 images showing Lancaster, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. With each photograph Lee explained his reasons for taking the shot and spoke of his selected locations. Many of the exhibited photographs were taken at dawn and dusk and this is a feature of his specialist approach to landscape imaging. Panoramic images of Buttermere were often multiple frame shots which were then stitched together in Photoshop. Many of the Lancaster images featured the Ashton Memorial with one set showing the memorial building in each season of the year.

The vote of thanks was given by Allan Hartley.

For many years Syd Cumbus has provided a brief review of the week’s meeting to the Lancaster Guardian for their increasingly irregular social scene column. We’re now very happy to be able to also present these round ups on the website.

Ruth Wood, a long standing member of the Society presented a lecture on her recent visit to the Antarctic entitled ‘Penguins, Penguins and more Penguins’.

The trip commenced in Ushaia in the far south of Argentina and Ruth started with a short tour of the town before the cruise which included the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands. Ruth explained how the January temperatures varied with Ushaia about 17 degrees C, South Georgia 5 degrees C and the Antarctic Peninsula zero degrees Celsius. The talk was well illustrated with with exceptional digital images of the bird populations of the area including the Patagonian Finch, the Wandering Albatross with a 10ft wingspan, the Giant Petrel and the Blue-eyed Shag.

Visits to the islands were made by Zodiacs from the cruise ship and included Carcass Islands and West Point Island where the party hiked across. On South Georgia a visit was made to Grysviken to view Shackleton’s grave and later to Stromness to see the former whaling station. On the islands the group viewed many Fur Seals and some Elephant Seals, but perhaps the highlight of the tour was to be able to view King Penguins, Chinstrap Penguins, Rockhopper Penguins, Adelie, Penguins, Macaroni Penguins and to be able to photograph them at close quarters.

On the Falkland Islands a visit to the capital, Stanley was arranged and here thee party had the opportunity to walk some of the local trails. The final call of the cruise was to Antarctic Peninsula where the group viewed Killer Whales. Later a trip in the Zodiacs around the many icebergs enabled Ruth to see the colours and sculpted patterns on the icebergs, created by the prevailing Antarctic winds and these were recorded in a series of stunning photographs.

The vote of thanks was proposed by Chris Thoume.

For many years Syd Cumbus has provided a brief review of the week’s meeting to the Lancaster Guardian for their increasingly irregular social scene column. We’re now very happy to be able to also present these round ups on the website. This week’s column was guest written by Christian Cable

This week at Lancaster Photographic Society the Society reviewed, discussed and critiqued the latest colour print portfolio from the Lancashire & Cheshire Photographic Union.

The portfolio was made up of sixty of the best images produced by photographic clubs across Lancashire, Cheshire and the Isle of Man. The images showcased a variety of styles and techniques with subjects ranging from stunning landscapes to gothic portraiture.

As always with any artistic discussion the evening was full of lively debate. Members discussed what makes a powerful image and what they would have done differently in the place of the photographers. Viewing the work of other photographers is a great way to improve your own photographic eye and these discussions are always popular.

Lancaster Photographic Society meets 7:30pm each Wednesday evening at Greaves Methodist Church.

The next meeting will be after the Christmas break on the 4th of January.

More information can be found at http://www.lancasterphotographicsociety.org.uk