Barnsley Photo Club was back in full swing on Sunday 12th January after the festive break with no less than seven new members taking the total to 52 with another four months until the club sees it's first birthday.

To start the New Year and introduction was given to the upcoming program as well as insight to the location meeting in two weeks time for the night shoot in Leeds. It was then over to club member Chris Plant was back from Africa to headline the evening with more photographs and tales from his latest safari.

Along with the new members, an excellent turn out gave one of the best attended meets to date. We look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting on 26th January. 

Our latest meeting held Sunday 27th October was on the subject of still life photography lead by our admin team member Sara.  This included a short introduction to still life photography covering what it is, how it started and examples with some advice on backgrounds, ways to light the subject, modifying the light by just using a piece of kitchen roll, and the effect of white balance.

Following the break it was then time for all of the members to get their cameras out and have a got themselves. Members had been asked to bring along their gear with any subjects they thought they would like to photograph and these ranged from a pumpkin, ornaments, to bottles of wine and cutlery and spent shot gun shell casings. Subjects were lit with the available ambient light, small torches to off camera flash guns all giving a different effect and it was once again great to see the members taking photographs, getting creative and helping each other to improve their photographic skills. 

Meeting number 11 was an opportunity for one of the club members to take the stage for the evening to show off their images, and first up was Chris 'Auto' Plant. Chris will be the first to tell you that he is not the most technically skilled photographer having taken all of his photographs on 'Auto' mode since he bought his Panasonic bridge camera back in 2006, thus getting the affectionate nickname from other members at the club. As Chris began the evening he tells is the story of a scientist he was acquainted with who 'threw is camera's user manual up a tree' when he went out on safari that year.

Chris's subject for the evening was photographs and stories from the number of safaris in Tanzania and Botswana and he delivered a very interesting and entertaining presentation of his images, displaying an incredible amount of passion for wildlife and a love of taking photographs. The evening also clearly demonstrated that Auto mode will do an absolutely cracking job in the right situation and will still provide you some great images, the most important thing is to have a love and passion for your subject and for taking photographs!

In a few weeks, Chris will be off again on safari, and through his short time with Barnsley Photo Club going out on mini meets and gaining help form other members, Chris will be having a go at working with the other semi-auto and manual modes on his camera although he says he will call on to his trusty Auto when necessary. One thing is for sure is that we are all looking forward to seeing the images he comes back with on his return.

Well done Chris, and thanks for a great evening!

Our latest meeting on Sunday 15th September was an evening location shoot, with Barnsley Town Centre our choice. The newly opened Town Hall square and gardens proved to be a very popular subject with our members and we are very pleased to share some of these stunning images with you of our Barnsley Town centre. Many thanks to David Goodier, David Key, Shane Newton and Roland Rodgerson who's images are shown in the gallery below.

After a four week break due to the Spring Bank Holiday we were back for meeting #03.

During the break, the BPC Admin team had got together to review the first couple of meetings and look to iron out a few teething issues and I am pleased to say that it paid off. We returned with a new presentation format (below)

The night kicked off just about on time and ran much more slicker than what the first couple of meetings had.

Without any images submitted for The Good, Bad and Ugly, we used this time to discuss between the members what this segment was all about as the name has caused confusion amongst the group. The idea is it's an opportunity for members to submit photographs that will be viewed at the meeting with other members offering their thoughts - what they like about it, and what would they do differently. We also got on to discussing a name change for the segment, something that is more suited to what it is and what the section is trying to achieve. A number of options have been put forward by members, and these are now open for a vote on our Facebook members group page. The poll will be closed during the next meeting and the winning name announced.

The quiz was pulled together by John, mainly photographic questions that sparked some interesting conversations between the group with several different view points on the best answers. Also thrown in there were a couple of more humorous questions keeping a light atmosphere to the whole thing which seemed to go down well.

Sara then showed off some of here Proshow skills :-) with date's for the diary for outings with the club, dates of which again will be posted on the Facebook group page for members and distributed via email.

After the break our resident Photoshop expert Rich gave us an introduction to the basic buttons and what they do in Photoshop, thank you Rich for preparing  and delivering this!

Thanks to all the members who contributed to what was a big step in the right direction for Barnsley Photo Club, we are certainly heading in the right direction and look forward to the future meetings! Hope to see you there!

Last night's meeting opened with what we aim to be a regular and important feature of Barnsley Photo Club; viewing Your Images, that is images sent in by fellow members.

Thanks to the clear instructions given by our Sara (and the threat of receiving her wrath!), this week ran a lot more smoothly with everyone keeping themselves in check and only one member giving feedback on the image at one time. Whilst this was a big improvement on the last meeting and enjoyed by all those present, there is still work to be done as the section did over run just a little :-) and with technical problems still being experienced with one of our laptops then the live editing again had to be saved for another time.
(The technical issues have now been resolved, managed to get the laptop working after the meeting)

The night then moved on to discuss some of the different lenses available, what they are primarily used for, and the advantages/disadvantages. This sparked some interesting discussions, and allowed some members to show and share the in depth and technical knowledge they have.

Following a short break, and an opportunity for everyone to get to the bar it was time to run through 10 top tips and tricks which included an interesting explanation from member David Goodier and supported by Andy Gordon, on how jpegs work.

The final part of the evening allowed time for the members to have some input on the two meetings held so far with some valuable comments being made. There are four weeks now until the next meeting taking place on Sunday 9th June due to the Spring Bank Holiday, which will give us opportunity to review the two meetings and the feedback to make the future meetings even more awesome (as Amy would say). If any one would like to provide feedback, or make a suggestion then please get in touch through the Facebook page, email us, or use the contact form on this website.

Thanks to all of you attended, another great turnout and we look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!

Launch night had been and gone. A very successful evening had resulted in 25 brand new fully signed up members for Barnsley Photography Club...a great start! But two weeks on, it was now down the business of our first actual club meeting...

The plan was to open with ' The Good, Bad and Ugly', a fifteen minute slot to showcase members images which had been sent in the previous week offering the chance for other club members to share their thoughts on what they liked and how they felt the image could be improved. OH NO! the laptop wasn't connecting to our projector! Not to worry, whilst the technical hitches were being ironed out, it was quickly on to the next segment of the meeting, a fun photography quiz! Club members were split in to small groups to complete a small number of questions on some of the basic technical aspects of photography and it wasn't long before the new members were beginning to get to know each other and share their knowledge.

With the technical issues sorted, it was on with showing the member's images ranging from portraits to wildlife, macro to landscapes, members openly shared their thoughts and discussions quickly opened up giving everyone an opportunity to take something from the comments whether it was their image on show or not. Some refinement is required, but it is early days and it was nice to see and share the member's images.

The second half of the meeting moved on to the basics, looking at Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO, the effects they have and how they are combined to get the image that you want. A cheat sheet was shared before again breaking in to small groups and finishing with a practical session on shutter speeds photographing moving toy cars and light trailers thanks to BPC member and model Kat, some images of which are below.

Thanks to everyone who attended, it was a superb first evening and we can't wait for the next meeting on sunday 12th May at 7pm. Please see here or our Facebook Page for more info.