The group meets in the 2nd Monday of each month in the United Reformed Church, Burnham on Crouch at 10am - 12 Noon. The photogroup is open to anyone with an interest in photography whether they are using an expensive DSLR camera or a mobile phone. Each meeting we have a topic to try and learn about an aspect of photography of interest to the members. For example, we have had sessions on outdoor portrait photography, using flash, and an introduction to digital post-processing. The group is open to new members of all abilities.

March 2025

Last month’s subject was "Water" and we had over 40 photographs to look at. They varied from spectacular bright yellow sulphur lakes in New Zealand to stunning black and white shots from nearer home. Whatever equipment was used be it professional cameras or smartphone, everyone had a story to tell with their photos.

Our next month’s topic is "Night Shots" and we watched some interesting and informative videos on the subject which we all found useful.

It is a really friendly group with an assortment of experience which is readily shared. Come and join us on 14th April at 10am at the URC, 53 Station Road, Burnham. If you have some photos that you would like to share, please send them to Diane Raddon.

Look forward to seeing you then!

Susan Hardy

February 2025

A group of 11 members turned up for this month’s meeting in the small hall at the URC. The topic for that session was photographs portraying Winter. Most people sent examples online with one or two hard copies. There were a range of winter scenes showing fog, frost, snow and icy cobwebs. Some of the more wintry scenes were from several years ago when we used to get REAL winters!

People had been asked to bring their camera gear with them so we could compare the different types of cameras and lenses. We all explained to the group what we used them for. The most common camera set up was DSLR but there were also bridge cameras, mirrorless, point and shoot, smartphone and pinhole! (For those who don’t know, pinhole cameras were where photography began.) There was an amazing selection of equipment on display but the overriding opinion was that whatever type of equipment you use is fine if it works for you.

The next meeting is on Monday 10th March. Our topic for the month is of scenes involving water. Please send these to Diane on the Saturday prior to the meeting. We will be discussing nighttime photography and people are asked to find any suitable videos and information prior to the meeting. We will be discussing astro-photography at a later date.

New members would be very welcome whatever your degree of experience and expertise. We pride ourselves in learning from one another.

Tony Bridgman

January 2025

We had a good turn out at the January meeting with a slide show of everyone’s photos of "Reflections", our topic of the month.

Using a Bridge camera, I made use of the many puddles on the Quayside! Being fairly new to photography, I welcome the help and constructive criticism given by the more experienced shooters in the group. As you can see (next page), I enjoy playing about with post-production and was particularly interested in Carl Hughes’ informative presentation on Photoshop, Lightbox and many other photo editing programs.

No outdoor trip has been planned for this month but there are lots of suggestions for the upcoming months including local airfields, churches and country parks and gardens.

Hopefully they will all include a coffee break and lunch!

The topic for next month is "Winter", we will also be having a "show and tell" of everyone’s favourite basic photography kit - from a Smartphone to a backpack of equipment weighing more than 10kg!

We usually meet every second Monday of the month at the United Reformed Church and have use of a spacious room for our projector and indoor photo shoots (outside if sunny).

New members are always welcome so whether you're the next David Bailey or just an enthusiastic happy snapper, join us for 2025. Our next meeting is Monday 10th February, at 10.00am.

Barry Hardy

December 2024

We are a diverse group of shooters united by our enthusiasm to capture the next perfect pic! Each month we get together to share photos on a given topic and one member will give a presentation on their own particular subject of interest. Our discussions are often lively and always interesting, photo editing being one such example. During each session we choose a topic for the forthcoming meeting such as wildlife, portraiture, landscapes, macro, motion, light, colour or seasonal nature – the list is endless. The topic for our next meet is ‘reflections’.

Some shooters use long lenses to capture birds in the sky or yachts on the Crouch while others prefer the convenience of smartphone cameras. I like to try my hand (and eye) at various genres but feel at home with landscapes and street photography. Between our meeting dates we arrange ‘field-trips’ to locations with good photo potential, always popular in fair weather.

We usually meet every 1st Monday of the month at the United Reformed Church and have use of a spacious room for our projector and indoor photo shoots (outside if sunny). New members are always welcome so whether you’re the next David Bailey or just an enthusiastic happy snapper, join us for 2025. Our next meeting is on Monday 13th January,

10.00 am.

Vince Hernan

25th April 2023

On Monday 25th April, 8 members of the group visited Copford Church to view and photograph the wall paintings. We were met there by the Church Warden who told us a little bit about the wall paintings and how they were preserved by being lime washed over in around 1550.
The church was originally used as a place of worship by Bishop Anslem (who had a house next door) in about 1130. This explains why a small rural building was so richly decorated. The Victorians rediscovered the paintings in the mid 1800’s and removed the white coating to reveal the paintings.
The Church Warden also revealed a more gruesome piece of the church’s history when she showed us a piece of what is thought to be human skin, which had been found attached to the original door. The skin is thought to date to not long after the church was built and was probably from someone who was flayed as a punishment for desecrating the church.

13th September 2022

The chosen topic for this month’s meeting was ‘Macro Photography. One of the definitions of this is ‘where the images are those where the magnification of the subject is life-size or greater’ when filling the viewfinder. A few of us had brought objects that could be photographed in this way.
One way of achieving a macro picture is to use extension tubes between your regular lens and its camera body. We watched a short video of how these could be used.
A far better (and much more expensive) way is to use a lens that has been manufactured especially to be a macro lens.
Two of us had cameras with such a lens but Diane’s being of the longest focal length achieved the best results by far.
-David Gipson

13th July 2022

This month’s meeting was going to be a hot one!
I didn’t realise how glad we would be that I had taken a fan! this was to take photos of but came in very handy!
Our topic challenge was ‘Action’ – a continuation of a day out where we took fast shots and practiced “panning” at a motocross competition.
Out of several really good entries Tony Bridgman’s great picture was judged the winner.
After a bit of chit-chat/coffee and discussion on what we wanted to do it was suggested we tried “ghosting” a picture This was achieved by focusing on the main person and getting others to walk past at a fast pace whilst the shot was taken. If all that sounds a bit complicated, believe me we took a while trying to get our heads around it and there were several “deletes”!
As we all had different models of camera and different lenses we found no one setting fitted all, so much trial and error before we were happy with our shots. There was much laughter too as we ran back and forth trying to avoid each other. I know some of us learned new knowledge about our cameras helped by those that knew a bit more, but I think we all learned something and had a great time and got some great photos.
Following on from that we turned to the fan!
This was my original idea for our practice, but being a flexible group, nothing is set in stone and as long as everyone is happy with the ideas we run with it.
With a little time left we did decide to try and get a blurred and a static picture of the fan. Unfortunately the settings did need adjusting to make any pictures worth showing and maybe the background could be cleaned up with a backdrop but time was not on our side, practice for another time maybe!
-Dee Elliot