Club members, Ivan Topping and John Lister provided an evening of two distinct halves. Ivan provided a session called Here and There, a series of sequences set to music which depicted events and places at home and abroad. He began with the Moselle Wine Festival; people of all ages dressed in costume paraded through the local streets, some playing drums, and many carrying glasses of wine while others were carried on decorated floats. The Alhambra came next as a subject and providedimages of the intricate internal detail and external structure of this grand building. Ivan had visited Keukenhof near Amsterdam to capture tulips in all their variety of shape and colour. On a sunny day, he had spent a couple of constructive hours in and around York Minster leading to a sequence of images that showed the Minster in all its splendour. Gannets photographed on the east coast, looked splendid whether in flight or perched on the cliff face; Ivan captured the beauty of these birds in close up head shots.

Ivan concluded with a moving sequence to support the recognition of the hundred years since the beginning of World War 1. Clever manipulation of images, thoughtfully sequenced provided a poignant comment on lives lost, the youth of those on the front line and of the weariness of battle fatigued soldiers.

In complete contrast, John provided Can You Tell What Is It Yet? This consisted of 25 close up images of parts of familiar and less familiar subjects from unusual angles. The challenge was to identify what each image was, or of what it was part. Ten seconds was available after each image and before the next to record responses using pen and paper provided. This proved to be extremely difficult in many cases. Everyone recognised the close up of recycled milk bottles but hard to believe that hand held salon hair driers would fox almost everyone. But they did because John took a shot of them from such an angle they appeared futuristic and made to look much bigger than they really were. John then showed each image in its original setting. Scores were totalled and Lizzie Stewart won with a total of 17.

Many thinks to both Ivan and John for a session of contrasting halves.

Next week, the annual portfolio and landscape competitions will be judged by Steve Wilson.