A meeting of Swinford Camera Club will take place on Wed 20 Nov 2013 in Swinford National School in Station Road at 8:00 pm.

Meetings take place on 1st and 3rd Wednesday each month from September to July

With the evenings stretching out why not come along to the next meeting. New members are always welcome especially beginners.

All aspects of photography are covered throughout the year in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Swinford Camera Club was set up many years ago by local amateur photographers who wanted to learn more about photography and who importantly were willing to share their photographic knowledge. All of our journeys through photography is a constant learning process as photography itself is constantly changing.

Many years ago it was only black and white photography with totally manual cameras and external meters, no autofocus or in-camera metering back in those days. Cameras and tripods were also much bulkier too so no need for the gym back then, you’d get enough exercise lugging big equipment about.

Next came smaller lighter cameras and colour film and slides. Cameras that still had manual focus but had some either Aperture or Shutter Priority program modes. Later on came autofocus which at the time was a bit frowned upon by the old guard but eventually as it improved everyone accepted it.

Now we were getting into the era of point and shoot. The camera’s processor looked after the shutter and aperture setting, the metering and focusing leaving the photographer to give all their attention to composition which is still the area where the photographer’s ‘eye’ is the one thing that cannot thankfully be automated.

Through practice we get our eye in for seeing photos in all types of situations. As they say ‘practice makes perfect’

Then we moved into the digital age where film was replaced by the camera sensor. Now we can take a photo, instantly view our photos on the LCD screen and make adjustments if we deem it so. Where in the age of film hours were spent in the darkroom with various chemicals developing the film and printing our photos, this at last was replaced by photo editing in-camera or on a computer or laptop.

Now anyone can take high quality photos even on your smartphone, edit them on the smartphone before sharing them through Facebook and a multitude of other photo sharing sites.

What would the great photographer Ansel Adams make of it if he came back now?