Good to see everyone last week and I am looking forward to a little of the promised warmth later this week. Its most unusual not have had at least one day in April that has reached 20 degrees?

I started off by taking a look at the recent Sony Award winning pictures and debating the use of AI by one of the participants. Its right that he owned up but it was some people’s contention that there is still some creativity involved in AI since you have to set the criteria you are after. Expect more to come on this subject.

We then discussed Rodney’s idea for us to use a website to lodge our monthly images and perhaps more – we have a something in mind utilising ‘My Camera Club’ and I will be contacting everyone separately about registering etc. for this – so please look out for a further email.

We then moved onto our theme of the month, Decay, and everyone seemed to have great fun with this. Stand outs for me, Bill’s mirror shot, Alastair’s Hammersmith Bridge shot (nicely raising a very topical subject for us locals) and Julian’s car got a lot of attention in the room.

After the break, Joe entertained us with a look back at his pictures from lockdown, where he had made good use of black and white – I have attached one of the more popular shots. Thanks Joe, good job.

Ati has kindly said she’ll bring along something from her travels for next time (May 16th).

With the lengthening evenings, an outing in May was discussed, and I put forward a trip to Battersea Power Station, which seemed to be popular. Julian suggested we might like to take the Uber Boat up the river, which was a great idea.

So, with this mind, I would like to suggest the 9th May as a possible date to go, meeting up at Putney Pier at 17.40. There is a boat scheduled to leave at 17.50 and if that is a touch too early for some, there is another at 18.15. Anyway, could anyone interested in going please let me know.

A couple of other things – Barnes Artists are again holding an exhibition in St Mary’s in July and I have been asked if anyone would like to take part – the theme is ‘Trees’ and the cost of a panel is £75. This is quite expensive but there is no reason people shouldn’t share a panel, so if you would like to get involved can you please get back to me as soon as possible, as David Pearce from BA would like to firm up numbers etc.

I have been contacted by Mathew Williams-Ellis about an exhibition he is holding in the summer that I said I would promote for him – The exhibition is titled ‘Individuals’ and focuses on telling the personal stories of animals from the Maasai Mara in Kenya. By highlighting these unique, personal stories and showing animals to be emotional individuals rather than just an anonymous statistic in a wider population, I hope to promote a desire to protect and care for this precious wildlife. You can read more about the exhibition here: https://www.matthewwilliams-ellis.com/journal/individuals-maasai-mara-wildlife-photography-exhibition-london – a nice sentiment and lets hope it goes well for him.

Our meeting next month will be on Tuesday May 16th and our chosen theme will be ‘Bizarre’ (thanks James W for the idea) – until then, enjoy your photography – best regards AW Cover image: Susan White