SURPRISE SHOW AND TELL
02nd November 2026
Members saved the day after our speaker finder, Rob Neal had a few difficult days having to change his carefully prepared programme at varying degrees of notice. Most pressing was the last-minute cancellation by our speaker for 2nd November with a couple of days to go.
Rob proved the worth of our relatively new WhatsApp group by appealing to members to offer to bring some of their own work for one of our popular Show and Tell evenings. The result could have been anything, but in fact it was a varied programme with something of interest to everyone. It was good to see some of the members who don’t always compete along with more of the work of those who do, but who showed some of their other work.
Joyce Bell began with a selection of her favourite monochrome work and told the stories associated with some of them. She was followed by Tom Coulson with some of his prints of wildlife as well as a venture into abstract work which had intrigues members at Snappers, his other club, sufficiently that he had been asked to demonstrate it.
Alan Burkwood spoke about his feelings on street photography. Like a good many others, he is acutely uncomfortable taking pictures of people surreptitiously in the genre known as street photography. He prefers to go to reenactment and costumed events where the participants actively want to be photographed, and props enhance the atmosphere.
RETIRED MINER
Alan Burkwood
Dave Clark was the first member to show pictures from a foreign trip, in this case Canada. He had spotted a number of unusual features which he spoke about including a steam clock and a rope bridge.
Pete Joyce closed the first part of the evening with two of his audio-visual presentations. These require a substantial number of images in a given context accompanied by music. The first built on what Alan said about people liking to be photographed in costume and showed the steam punk event at Lincoln.
Melvin Lambert started proceedings up again with another interesting selection in various genres. He was followed by Andy Stephenson, a photographer who seems to be able to produce a great image on any genre. For this event he took up earlier comments about the level of patience required for nature photography. He showed shots taken on a bird of prey workshop at a smart hotel in Yorkshire. The tutor had arranged f=various sets where he placed his birds, enabling the participants to get some great shots. The birds seemed very comfortable and cooperative and Andy had some great shots.
DRAGONFLY
Melvin Lambert
Mike Vickers, another of our great nature photographers came next with pictures from his trip this year to Brazil, and specifically the Pantanal – the largest flood plain in South America. He had been able to get images of some beautiful creatures including ocelot and jaguar, a maned wolf, all five species of local kingfishers and a hyacinth macaw.
LITTLE OWL
Andy Stephenson
The final presentation could not have been more different. New member David Wagstaff showed a selection of images he had obtained from negatives found in his father in law’s legacy to his daughter. A studious young man who went on to become a nuclear engineer, at the age of 14 he began taking photographs and his detailed notes about each negative remained with the negatives along with the camera which had taken them. David had used digital technology to create positives from the negatives and then to enhance them with his processing software. He has used the body of work to print a book of the photos. He also showed a number of shots he has recreated with his wife in the same position as her father in his shots.
Next week we look forward to welcoming Russ Smith with his portraiture workshop. Members should bring cameras, tripods and notebook if they want to record how to achieve the results.
The 2026/2027 season continues until 26th April 2027, with weekly meetings on Mondays at 7.30pm in St Joseph’s Hall, Babworth Road, Retford. Guests are welcome for £5 a night and have three no obligation visits to decide about becoming members.
Full details about the club are on our web site: http://www.retford-photographic.co.uk
Rob proved the worth of our relatively new WhatsApp group by appealing to members to offer to bring some of their own work for one of our popular Show and Tell evenings. The result could have been anything, but in fact it was a varied programme with something of interest to everyone. It was good to see some of the members who don’t always compete along with more of the work of those who do, but who showed some of their other work.
Joyce Bell began with a selection of her favourite monochrome work and told the stories associated with some of them. She was followed by Tom Coulson with some of his prints of wildlife as well as a venture into abstract work which had intrigues members at Snappers, his other club, sufficiently that he had been asked to demonstrate it.
Alan Burkwood spoke about his feelings on street photography. Like a good many others, he is acutely uncomfortable taking pictures of people surreptitiously in the genre known as street photography. He prefers to go to reenactment and costumed events where the participants actively want to be photographed, and props enhance the atmosphere.
RETIRED MINER
Alan Burkwood
Dave Clark was the first member to show pictures from a foreign trip, in this case Canada. He had spotted a number of unusual features which he spoke about including a steam clock and a rope bridge.
Pete Joyce closed the first part of the evening with two of his audio-visual presentations. These require a substantial number of images in a given context accompanied by music. The first built on what Alan said about people liking to be photographed in costume and showed the steam punk event at Lincoln.
Melvin Lambert started proceedings up again with another interesting selection in various genres. He was followed by Andy Stephenson, a photographer who seems to be able to produce a great image on any genre. For this event he took up earlier comments about the level of patience required for nature photography. He showed shots taken on a bird of prey workshop at a smart hotel in Yorkshire. The tutor had arranged f=various sets where he placed his birds, enabling the participants to get some great shots. The birds seemed very comfortable and cooperative and Andy had some great shots.
DRAGONFLY
Melvin Lambert
Mike Vickers, another of our great nature photographers came next with pictures from his trip this year to Brazil, and specifically the Pantanal – the largest flood plain in South America. He had been able to get images of some beautiful creatures including ocelot and jaguar, a maned wolf, all five species of local kingfishers and a hyacinth macaw.
LITTLE OWL
Andy Stephenson
The final presentation could not have been more different. New member David Wagstaff showed a selection of images he had obtained from negatives found in his father in law’s legacy to his daughter. A studious young man who went on to become a nuclear engineer, at the age of 14 he began taking photographs and his detailed notes about each negative remained with the negatives along with the camera which had taken them. David had used digital technology to create positives from the negatives and then to enhance them with his processing software. He has used the body of work to print a book of the photos. He also showed a number of shots he has recreated with his wife in the same position as her father in his shots.
Next week we look forward to welcoming Russ Smith with his portraiture workshop. Members should bring cameras, tripods and notebook if they want to record how to achieve the results.
The 2026/2027 season continues until 26th April 2027, with weekly meetings on Mondays at 7.30pm in St Joseph’s Hall, Babworth Road, Retford. Guests are welcome for £5 a night and have three no obligation visits to decide about becoming members.
Full details about the club are on our web site: http://www.retford-photographic.co.uk