Better late than never?!

by Feb 12, 2024

Well it seemed like an OK idea at the time when I agreed to take a turn on the blog rota two days before going away on holiday, but with hindsight that probably wasn’t so wise as I completely forgot I needed to write something until this morning! Oops! Sorry for keeping all you avid blog readers waiting, but as the saying goes, all good things come to those that wait 🙂

So what did we learn last week at Photocraft then? Well quite a bit as it turns out ..

First off (and most surprising!) was the news that after resisting for so many years, Dave S has finally taken the plunge and bought himself a smartphone (those of you who have been members for a while will understand the significance of this!). Dave’s already appreciating the impromptu photography opportunities that a camera in your pocket can creat, as we saw with a couple of his entires this week .. so welcome to the modern age Dave!

Secondly, we learnt that our club is full of people who are pretty good at snapping a great shot on their phone (even if some members confessed to not really being fans of phone photography), and that members are equally adept at using Snapseed which seems to be the post-processing tool of choice for most of us.

Thirdly, we seem more inclined to print our work when it is on a smaller more manageable format .. a fact that was demonstrated by the 40 prints we had to enjoy!  Hopefully discovering (or maybe rediscovering) the pleasure of seeing work printed will encourage more members to consider entering future print competitions .. there really is nothing better than a print!

And finally, on the topic of printing, there was lots of great discussion on the various experiences that members had had printing with different companies.  Some members printed online with Tesco and were rather disappointed with the result (the key issue being that prints seemed to have been randomly cropped or resized, meaning that borders or areas of the print were missing). Others had a more positive experience of Tesco, although those members seemed to have printed in person at a store so could supervise the process.  Other print locations included Boots and ASDA, while a couple of members printed at home.

My favourite image from each person that entered work are shared below for your enjoyment. Well done to everyone that had a go, and thank you to David M for a brilliant job of hosting!

“A Cornwall Field of Poppies” – Christine G
“British Museum” – Barbara A
“Up Close” – Brian C
“Reflections Cueva de los Verdes” – Chris R
“Turbulent Sunset” – Dave S
“The Bombdy” – David A
“Dahlia” – David M
“Winter Lights Docklands” – Geoff N
“St Dunstans” – Martin D
“Micha Spero” – Paul S

I think you’ll agree that the variety and quality of images shows once again that a phone camera can produce images that are just as good as larger/more expensive cameras .. so no excuse not to get photographing wherever you are!

Right, that’s me done (short and sweet this week as I need to get myself out to see if there’s any aurora about!). Normal prompt blog service will resume shortly .. promise 🙂

Mark B
Author: Mark B

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