AND WE'RE OFF. WELCOME TO OUR NEW SEASON

There was a friendly and anticipatory atmosphere in the hall when members gathered for the first meeting of the new season. There was a lot of catching up to do. Because of the breadth of the club’s catchment area, it isn’t always possible for people to meet outside of the active club season, so the first meeting is important to rekindle those relationships

President Alan Burkwood gave a warm welcome to regular and new members. He outlined the programme for the evening and then handed over to Rob Neal who has put together the new programme. Rob, a new member last season, has rapidly become an integral part of Retford’s core operations.

He arrived just as we urgently needed a new Programme Secretary, and bravely volunteered. He did a marvellous job and this time has had sole responsibility for preparing the programme. Rob talked through the year to come. Everyone was given a copy of the programme and Rob added more detail to the printed basics.

Next Ben Searson entertained us with his first foray into the world of film photography. Ben had stumbled upon a very cheap vintage camera and bought it for his collection. The idea of using it began to take root and on holiday in Kent he fund a specialist shop, which helped him to get started, while advising on the camera and film he should have bought.

Ben his first results. The film is developed as in the past, but then scanned and the results are used to produce prints. Ben described his disappointment with his first results, which were very pale and showed evidence of a large light leak. He could have easily left it there and it was the results of sending the scans to the shop in Kent for printing which gave him the boost he needed to continue.

The prints were much better and had more presence. This encouraged Ben to try again with an in-date roll of film. He also succumbed to the temptation to buy the better camera the shop had recommended and is now part way through using this.

Several things were obvious from Ben’s tale. Naturally there is no instant result. You cannot see what you have captured at once and even after the film has been developed and scanned, you still have to wait for your prints to arrive. This process can be reduced to 3 or 4 days depending on your printer. The older cameras had some form of light metering, but Ben found it difficult to trust it and resorted to using his digital camera to discover the best settings.

This threw into focus the other main big difference from the modern digital techniques - the cost. All the processing costs money, which can be a shock. Ben has begun to shoot with his digital camera to see how they will come out before committing to a film shot. That said, he is slowly filling his second film and is keen to see the results.

His presentation gave rise to an animated discussion with other members who share his interest and some who have worked with film in the past.

A break followed when everyone had a chance to see Ben’s scans and images as well as to delve into the tasty buffet, which is one of the occasional features of club meetings. The evening drew to a close with a presentation of a sequence of images created from last season’s competition images.

The season will run until 26th April 2027 with a seasonal break in December / January. Guests continue to be welcome for £5 a night and have until after their third visit to decide about joining.

Here are a few of the winning images from last season.