I’ve signed up for the Photo Forum again this year. It’s described in the U3AC’s course brochure as follows:
‘This course is a rejuvenation of the pre-pandemic Photo forum, in format and style. The aim is to provide an interactive, inclusive environment, in which members who enjoy photography can all participate. Forum members have the opportunity to lead on genres of photography of particular interest to them. There will be several informal photographic ‘challenges’ during the course, which will lead to an exhibition of work. We will discuss our own work and that of recognised photographers. There are no prerequisites in terms of camera types. While camera settings for different situations will be covered, it will not be a “how to” course on the technicalities of specific cameras.’
The aim is to improve our practice by: making pictures; learning from others; analysing work; and contributing by giving presentations.
We started by looking at members’ experience and interests.
- The average length of time people had been involved in photography is 38 years.
- The cameras used are split fairly evenly between Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Fuji.
- Lightroom was the most commonly used post processing software.
- Only a small minority used photo sharing web sites. Prompted the question, ‘What do people do with their photographs?’
- The most popular genres of photography were landscape and architecture/cityscapes, followed by travel, portraiture, nature and street photography. (No one admitted to an interest in erotica!)
- The techniques in which there was most interest were low light and long exposure followed by monochrome/B&W. I was the only one of 15 with an interest in analogue photography.