Dear All

Good to see everyone and again, a huge thanks to The Coach & Horses for the ‘on the house’ pancakes, which were a real treat.

I started the meeting by taking a look at a couple of things that have caught my eye over the past month –

Garden Photographer awards: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-64472234
Press Photographer of the Year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-64513500

We then explored an idea of Rodney’s that we look to create an online base for our photography (using one of the new portals available). One immediate advantage would be rather than send pictures to me each month, you could load them up directly, which would allow people to view and grade them in advance and I can then just go there at our meetings. Martin kindly said he would join Rodney and I in looking into this and we will report back next month.

After the pancake break, James K gave a shout out for his and Tammy’s show in the West End this coming week (also including me in a limited way) and invited us to an open evening on Tuesday 28 February at 5pm and I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Speaking of exhibitions and a little nearer home, the Barnes Music Festival kicks off on Saturday 4 March at St Mary’s in Church Road and David P, Sue O, James K and I, together with Barnes Artists will again be presenting some new work – this year, all in aid of FiSH Neighbourhood Care, which is based in Barnes near the pond.

We then moved onto our theme for the month, Cold, and thankfully we didn’t immediately have a heat wave to undermine my plans. Some nice work from everyone, with my stand outs being Bill, Fred, Juliette, Nigel (we liked the height you gave yourself on this shot), Sue L (we think you should have cropped out the snow in the foreground) and Rodey (what a moment to have captured).

Sadly, on account of the pancakes, we ran out of time and will hold over Fred’s presentation until next month – thanks Fred.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday March 21 March and our theme, courtesy of Fred, will be ‘Contrasts’ .

Thanks again everyone and catch-up next month – cheers AW

Cover image: Andrew Wilson