Social Page

My name is Joanne Searle and I have pleasure in welcoming you to the social page of Kingswood Photographic Society.

We hold 48 meetings throughout the year with an excellent programme which includes social evenings during July and August, enabling us to make the best of the summer evenings when they are at their longest. Our venues are varied to include all types of photography. Whether you enjoy architecture, portraiture, nature, landscape, seascape or night photography, we cater for everything and we are always looking at new ideas and welcome any suggestions by members

It is a time when ideas are shared and for those new to photography it offers the opportunity of learning on a one-to-one basis with the more experienced photographers in the club who are always willing to help and share their knowledge.

It is also a time when friendships are made, particularly at the end of the evening when it is usual to visit the local pub for a drink and a chat before making for home.

Outings are organised outside of club evenings and everyone is made welcome, as they say, ‘the more the merrier’.

Please join me and look at some images that have been captured by members during outings and events that have been enjoyed by KPS members.

Our next outing is scheduled for Saturday 5 September which will be our Annual Summer Outing to the Great Dorset Steam Fair.

Please contact our secretary for details if you would like to join us vanessaherring@gmail.com




CASTLE COMBE


Castle Combe has been called the prettiest village in England and is visited by many people from all over the World. Our visit to Castle Combe took a different angle as Steve Cox, a member of Kingswood Photographic Society, had organised for a theatrical model to travel from London for the evening. We all had a brilliant evening, with a difference, and the images shown here will indicate the difficult lighting conditions that we had to cope with. Certainly a testing photographic evening but most enjoyable.







PURTON


Purton is situated on the Severn Estuary and is well know by photographers for the relics of boats. Our evening trip could have been cancelled as the weather had been dreadful all day but a number of members decided to brave the elements and had an evening of broken cloud and sunshine, albeit cold.

BATH


Bath is the most beautiful city with its Georgean architecture and offers everything that any visitor could possibly want. Our visit was an evening in August. Again, not particularly good weather but we made the most of our time wandering the city, especially the new area of shops which should be completed in 2010. There are many places to eat and drink in Bath and we made good use of one of them at the end of our evening.

ST FAGANS, MUSEUM OF WELSH LIFE


St Fagans National History Museum represents the life and culture of Welsh life and is situated in 100 acres of parkland. Free admission and full of interest.

OUR FIRST STUDIO EVENING OF 2010


Members of Kingswood Photographic Society are privileged to have all the necessary equipment to hold occasional studio evenings and for our first session of 2010 we invited Tara to join us. With people on hand to explain the technical aspect of this type of photography it is always a good learning curve. Lighting, camera settings, angles are all extremely important and we always go away having added to our knowledge. We will be holding further practical evenings throughout 2010 and the programme section of this website will give you all the necessary information on our activities. Please feel free to come and join us.

AN EVENING WITH HELEN DREW

KPS members enjoyed a brilliant evening with model Helen Drew. The evening was led by one of our own members, Steve Cox, who started the evening with very useful instructions and also introduced us to useful reference books. We started in our usual meeting room, Warmley Church Hall, where the lighting was challenging and then progressed into the churchyard once the evening light had become low and atmospheric. Different props were used to add to the enjoyment with reflective material adding to the already good lighting conditions. All those members who came along agreed that it had been a great success.
We are now into our summer programme with evenings being organised at different locations around the area. These are listed above and all are welcome to join us.

AN EVENING VISIT TO BRISTOL HARBOURSIDE

Ten KPS members joined in on our first summer outing and it was decided that we should visit the Bristol Harbourside where there is always plenty of activity whether rain or shine. We did start the evening with a short shower but that did not dampen our enthusiasm. We travelled around as a group, which always proves to be very social as well as interesting. Each person sees pictures differently which makes the evening instructive as well as entertaining. Our evening took us to Millenium Square and a walk along the waterfront to the Centre before ending the evening in a local pub for a drink, a chat and a quick browse through our pictures before making for home.

AN EVENING AT PORTISHEAD


KPS members enjoyed an excellent evening at Portishead. We decided this would be a good venue and opportunity to photograph this ever growing town and harbour. The weather earlier in the day had been rubbish and some members decided to give the evening a miss. How wrong they were as the clouds rolled back and gave good evening light. Those that did go along came back with some good atmospheric pictures and I hope you enjoy just a few of the images shown below.

AN EVENING AT TEMPLE MEADS STATION, BRISTOL



Eleven KPS members visited Temple Meads Station having made special arrangements beforehand. There were health and safety regulations, mainly common sense, but other than that we were able to photograph wherever and whatever we pleased. A really interesting evening which would offer a challenge to any photographer. The station opened on 31 August 1840 having been designed by the British engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was expanded in the 1870's and again in the 1930's. For sometime it housed the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum until its relocation to London. The majority of the site is Grade 1 listed.

AN EVENING IN THE VILLAGE OF LACOCK



Members of KPS had an interesting visit to the Wiltshire village of Lacock meeting outside of the beautiful Lacock Abbey. Photographs were taken around this National Trust village and included a visit to the local church yard where there are always interesting images to be found. To end the evening we visited The Red Lion pub catching up on the news of other KPS members.

THE FESTIVAL OF THE TREE AT WESTONBIRT


The August Bank Holiday weekend offered no club meeting but a number of KPS members decided to visit Westonbirt for the Festival of the Tree. Many pictures were taken whilst admiring the wood carvers at work. Their artistry is amazing, starting with a huge piece of tree trunk and gradually bringing it to life with their imagination and skill. It was agreed that the conditions were more challenging than in previous years. The day, as is usual with our members, ended with a visit to the local pub for a refreshing drink and a natter.