Another fantastic, productive, busy month at the club, with lots going on. Each week saw a different activity & saw the members turning up, camera's in hand, looking forward to diving in & grabbing that shot.
We started of with smoke photography & saw 4 set ups in the room. Black backdrop, with a table on each side, one strobe per set up with a snoot or barn door to narrow down the beam & stop it from spilling onto the background or giving off lens flare. On the table, we had a small glass with the incense stick putting upwards & the camera's focus on the tip of the stick. Once the camera was in focus, the camera's were put into manual focus, so that each time members took an image, the camera's wouldn't be searching for the stick. Members focused the incense stick, so only the top of the stick was visible in the bottom 1/3 of the screen, so as members kept shooting, the incense stick would burn away & members would only capture the smoke.
The room was filled with Jazmin, Lavender, Wild Cherry & so many other smells that incense sticks come in. To begin with, members started with one incense stick, capturing the smoke trails from them, but as the night went on, some members chose to use 3 or 4 at a time. By the end of the night, the room looked like an opium den with the amount of smoke in the room. Where we are, the windows don't open, so the best we could do is open the door. Something was better than nothing.
But in all fair fairness, the images looked great & it's another night the members loved.
The following week we took a trip to the beautiful village of Croston. It's a stunning little village, were in places it looks like it's been lost in time. We got lucky with the weather, so was a good turn out from the members, some of whom we haven't seen in over 18 months, which is always nice to see them out again. Walking round the village & seeing the old style cottages, shops, cobbled roads, as well as the church, the gardens, the stream/river was lovely. Even the locals are pleasant when they stopped to talk to us. We've been to Croston before, but it's only this time we notice the large wooden carvings they have.
The week after the weather was once again on our side, as we took a trip to Crosby Beach & the Iron Men. Another great turn out, but hardly surprising. Meeting on the car park at the life boat station, we took a slow walk behind it & over the sand dunes, before slowly heading to the beach & heading back towards the car park. The tide was going out when we arrived, so it left behind beautiful ripples in the sand, which members used a lead-in-lines for the sunset & the iron men. Was a stunning sunset & even after it had gone down & we had the blue hour, there was something magical about the evening. One member had been shopping on Temu & bought himself a lens-ball. Made for great photographic fun, shooting through & nearly all members wanted a go. Got some interesting shots from it.
The week before our AGM, we had a studio night, with the stunning model, Natalie from Manchester. The theme for the night was Hollywood Glamour, the Golden Years. As always with the studio nights, a few members turned up an hour early to set up. We decided to set up 2 set ups, one would be an old school set up with a continuous lighting set up, just like the photography set ups of the 1950s. This gives a more harsh lighting look, that you would see in the photos of Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Donna Reed & Olivia Da'Haviland. The other set was using flash, similar style, but just using flash.
The members turned up very excited for this one, as it was different from our usual studio nights. As always, each member gets a set time, this is to make sure all our members have the same time shooting & our model has time to have a costume change. The model got 3 costume changes in, all were stunning & with the hair & makeup, were suitable for the style we wanted. At the end of the night, the model pulled me to one side, to compliment the club & it's members. She said she'd never been to such a well organised studio night at a club before, were all the members were friendly & the atmosphere was relaxing & she can't wait to return. This is something we always try to achieve, as we want our members & models to feel relaxed & they all go away, having achieved something. We can't wait to have Natalie back.
Last week of May is the AGM & I'll do a separate blog post for that. But in the mean time, enjoy our members images from the month of May.
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