Meet Tess, the new member of our family & latest photographic model.

Tess is our Border Collie pup. We got her from Heathlands Animal Sanctuary near Royston. They specialise in rescuing border collies from Ireland. We got her when she was 9 weeks old. She’s now 16 weeks.

As you can see from these shots, Tess presents a bit of a problem exposure-wise. With half her face in white & half in black it’s quite difficult to get a reasonable exposure which shows detail in both blacks & whites. This type of subject is often a photographer’s nightmare; if you expose for the blacks the whites are blown out & if you expose for the whites the detail is lost in the blacks. Add to this taking a picture of a mainly black dog in the snow we had a few weeks back & it’s enough to test any photographer.

We’re all enjoying the challenges & joys of owning a dog made better by the fact that Tess is so good; we’ve had very few accidents in the house, have not lost any furniture, shoes or other odds & ends to chewing & she is so obedient.

They say border collies are intelligent dogs & Tess is a fine example of that.

Sadly, due to a teenager-related incident, Tess currently has two broken bones in her front left foot & is now strapped up for a month. The day after she came back from the vets she learned how to walk on three legs holding her poorly leg in the air. The day after that she learned how to run on three legs.

I expect there will be quite a few shots of Tess over the next few years.

I decided to take a look at the local camera club.

The Letchworth Garden City Camera Club meets on a Thursday at the Settlement in Letchworth.

I’d been reading around on a couple of forums & the popular conception of camera clubs seems to be that they are full of old fuddy-duddies who are rather set in their ways with very traditional views on photography, who all shoot slide film & black & white on cameras which have wooden parts.

Whilst, in all honesty, the demographic of the club is tending towards the more retired among us of a male persuasion, most members have fully embraced digital technology. There are only a small handful of folk who still shoot slide or film.

My first meeting included a demonstration of some digital manipulation by one of the members using a laptop & digital projector.

The group arrange quite a few competitions throughout their season which runs from September to the following May. These are both internal, against other members and against other clubs.

The club is keen to attract new members & most folk seem very friendly & approachable. There is a variety of standards. I managed to recruit a new member from my contacts on the DSLR User Magazine Forum within 2 weeks of joining who is trying to recruit a new member himself.

If you live within string distance of Letchworth, why not pop down & give it a go. Whilst there is a fee for membership, you can attend a few meetings to see if you like it. I felt very welcomed & am looking forward to my first year’s membership.

I have it on good authority that we are much friendlier than another camera club not many miles down the road who had a better experience on their first visit to Letchworth than they did to another club!

You can find out more details on the club’s website at www.letchworthcameraclub.org.uk

Is it really more than a month since I posted anything to my blog?

It’s not for want of not taking any phbotos. I’ve been reasonable busy over the last 6 weeks, trying out some of the new gear & doing a few photoshoots, not to mention a holiday in Rome with fistfulls of shots to process.

I’ve started writing some stuff up but I need to convert some photos to add to the updates as all pics on this blog are individually processed specifically for the blog, so it’s not like just posting a quick link to a shot I’ve processed already.

So, plenty more shots & news to come including my recent foray into the world of camera clubs.