Members Night

Last Tuesday we had a member’s night where anyone could contribute, showing and explaining images on any subject. As usual, Maggi had assembled an eclectic list of members and subjects.

First off was Idse with a Pecha Kucha presentation on cloud types and skies. I never knew there was so much to gather from clouds and so much to look out for. As usual Idse displayed impressive knowledge, (or was a very good bluffer, no playing him at poker for me).

Next up was Nick with a great presentation on a tale of two cities, Vienna and Paris. They differed as Nick know Paris well but had never been to Vienna. What was great was that Nick displayed images he’d taken just for himself, not with a view to competitions or printing, just the strange little oddities which every city throws up.

Bob was next showing how AI is advancing in photo editing. Bob showed how even smartphone apps can now do incredible things, like rescuing out of focus shots. Other packages were shown automatically keywording images in catalogues, replacing skies with realistic reflections, and improving portraits. Fascinating and scary in equal measures.

Idse returned with another Pecha Kucha, this time showing birds flying slowly with specific emphasis on the parachute shape their wings make to remain in flight. Once Idse shared his screen we could all appreciate the majesty of birds in flight!

David then gave us a brilliant talk on his two trips to the Cuillins of Skye. His first trip had actually been his honeymoon, the second many years later to get to the peaks his first trip missed. While David characterised much of this as “walks” or “scrambles” it looked extremely frightening to me. A brave man and obviously a skilled climber, some of the views looking back where he had been were excellent.