I began the meeting with an update on our exhibition and a possible outing.

Our exhibition had been delayed by the council dragging their feet over permission – but we now have it up (picture attached). A huge thank you to my friend, Diana Flood, for coming and helping me, as was a little more complicated and time consuming than the library – looks great though. Juliette kindly offered to help but timings were wrong. Please get along and take a look and let everyone you know, know about it!

As for our outing, sadly, the Hertford Avenue allotment people have not responded to my approach, which is rather disappointing. I will try the Dover House lot and let everyone know.

I then moved onto an item of mine – I have just spent a few days at Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire and what a delight. I know some of you have been before, but boy, what a place despite the inclement weather (5 layers required and gloves – in June!!!) but thankfully no rain.

We then moved onto our theme of the month and my huge apologies for the time this took, as we overran badly (where were you Rodney when we needed you?) and I left no time to Julian and Sue to share some of their pictures. There was some post meeting discussion about perhaps moving things around to avoid this possibly happening in the future. However, I rather like us ending on the high of someone sharing their pictures – it was purely down to my indiscipline that we overran and I will ensure it doesn’t happen again. I also perhaps showed too many of my images, again, not good on my part. Again, my apologies to Julian and Sue, would you mind coming back next month and showing us your hats?

Anyway, over to Nigel for his reflections on our theme of Street Photography…

What a brilliant and varied set of photos! Trying to choose a winner was extremely difficult. Lots of characters stood out including Sue’s bird person, various pictures by Alastair, Anne’s Exuberance and Pride, and Martin’s dogs. So too did the musicians portrayed by Juliette, Mbeke and Julian. Then there were various stand out pictures of people passing by including Fred’s Walking Past, James’s Regent Remembered and Bill’s Notting Hill and Brixton pictures. However, I can’t stay on the fence any longer and the winning picture is James’s Don’t Worry (simply brilliant) followed by Alastair’s Penarth Pier (the similarity of the poses of the dog and the woman makes the picture) and Andrew’s Crossing the Road (how did you persuade them to use the crossing?)

Nigel’s idea for a new theme, Architecture, was enthusiastically adopted and I look forward to seeing plenty of concrete and glass next time.

Well done James, over to you for next month (even if it might well be from the South of France?).

Until next month – enjoy your photography – regards AW

Cover image © Andrew Wilson