Welcome
Welcome
Chairman's WELCOME
Joining a photographic society or camera club is a great way to improve your photography. You can get help from people with a wide and varied experience, who can advise, support – even criticise if you want! When you want to you can try your skills against others in competitions or you can just sit back and enjoy looking at great photographs (have a look at our
Gallery) or being entertained by a visiting speaker (see this year's Programme)..gif){kind=logo}
Photography is changing and we are adapting to those changes (check out the latest News); you will find members who are well versed in the digital arts. To help us spread digital imaging to the wider community in 2003 we were awarded a Lottery "Awards for All" grant which allowed us to equip the Society with a laptop PC, digital projector and scanner. The qualities which make a good photograph, however, do not change; the process – film or digital - is the means, not the end. We can learn an immense amount by looking critically at good images, from the beginning of photography to the present day.
A warm welcome to the Society – I sincerely hope that you will want to become a member but give us the “three meetings free trial” by all means!
John Royle, CPAGB, Chairman
Meetings
We normally meet between 7:45 to 10:00 pm at Crewe Library every Thursday from September to May, giving you something to do in the long winter evenings! You can come along to up to 3 meetings and just pay the attendance levy of £1.50 (to cover your cup of tea or coffee and biscuits) after that Membership fees for this season are only £22.50 for an individual, £34 for a couple or £8.50 for a Junior (under 18). It’s a great chance to make new friends, learn new techniques, ask for help and advice and above all enjoy yourself!
We have a very varied Programme each season including:
 | Demonstrations on photographic techniques and equipment such as: Portraiture, Printing, Mounting, Imaging Software. |
| Shows of the best prints, slides and digital images from around the region and nationally |
| Excellent talks from both society members and invited speakers on a wide range of topics including: art and photography, composition, natural history, travel, macro photography, processing, digital imaging, black and white photography and printing (you'll find helpful handouts on a number of topics in Downloads) |
| A mixture of Competitions open to all abilities with fellow society members and other clubs and societies for Colour and B&W prints, Slides and Digital Images. (See the Competitions section below). |
| We also have instructional CDs which you can borrow. |
Every week there'll be an opportunity to view (and enter) images for the current open themes that are run just for fun (See this season's Programme for details)!
Competitions are an excellent way to improve your photographic techniques, whether it’s by learning from other people's efforts or hopefully by entering your own images. They are open to all abilities, with a mixture of judges (mostly from outside the Society) who generally provide encouragement and constructive criticism (don't worry all entries are anonymous, with just the winners being identified).
Our internal competitions are varied covering: Slides, Colour Prints, Monochrome Prints and now Digital Images. Throughout the season we run League Print and Slide competitions with final Annual Competitions at the end of the season. We also have digital and slide knockout competitions the “Maurice Ashwin Portrait Trophy” and new for digital the “Jim Harrison Trophy”. We enter a number of external competitions and battles with other local clubs and members of the L&CPU and it’s a great chance to meet members of other societies, visit their clubs and view their work.
The very best source or advice and help you can get, with a wealth and breadth of knowledge in all aspects of photography (Committee members are a good start). Don't be afraid to ask anyone for help, we're a friendly and open bunch and remember we all started knowing nothing about photography.
The Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU) is the umbrella organisation which 105 Clubs in the region belong to. With over 3,500 members they organise regional competitions, speakers, judges as well as mundane but vital things like legal advice and insurance. They in turn belong to the PAGB (the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) which is the national organisation. The L&CPU’s website (www.lcpu.org) has a Forum (www.lcpu.org/forum) which is an excellent on-line message board where you can look for information, ask for advice and find out about the latest news about the L&CPU and member clubs including one for Crewe PS, so go along and register. You can even post your images on-line for critique by other members (don't worry they're very supportive!).
Check out our Downloads page which has an ever growing range of tutorials (many from past Open Evenings) covering a range of topics including:
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The elements of a digital image workflow from: Working with RAW images, storing digital images, basic image manipulation and printing and even entering digital image competitions. |
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Practical advice: Cleaning a digital SLR camera's sensor and mounting prints. |