On Thursday 5th November Smethwick Photographic Society will welcome and host our very own Mike Sharples. Mike will be presenting his collection of new images from his trip to Ethiopia plus a range of others from many parts of the world. And of course Mike will be live in the clubroom.

Mike’s passion of visiting other countries, and being inspired by the people, their lifestyles and dress.

This talk is based on how people express themselves in their chosen environment lifestyles, making a connection between the person being photographed, and the person viewing the portraits. This relationship is defined by the expression, putting the viewer into someone else’s shoes, evoking a private moment of the character portrayed.

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This week’s talk is part of a series of FREE ‘taster’ sessions for local Sandwell community residents and workers (non SPS members or regular guests). If interested do login or better still come along to the live presentation at the clubhouse. Full details below.

On Thursday 22nd October Smethwick Photographic Society will, for the second year running, welcome the club’s long time friend Mr Leigh Preston for a ‘journey through 100 portraits’. Leigh will be presenting live in the clubroom.

Following last year’s talks entitled ‘Roads Less Travelled’ and ‘Night Walk’ Leigh will be turning his hand and lens to portraits – no doubt in his own inimitable style!

Leigh is not actually known for taking portraits, so this is an effort to show that he sometimes can and does work with people! The pictures you’ll see will cover a wide range of how Leigh tries to portray people, their environment, their character and the emotion .

Leigh has produced and published four books of his pictures – ‘Shadows of Change’, ‘Five Essays’, ‘Editions’ and very recently ‘Liverpool, a Place Apart’ which depict the various aspects of his photography as outlined above. He is a double Fellow of the RPS, and holds FIAP and PAGB distinctions, has taught photography for Gloucester and Cheltenham colleges, for Jessops, Permajet and on landscape workshops, both in the UK and abroad.

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This week’s talk is part of a series of FREE ‘taster’ sessions for local Sandwell community residents and workers (non SPS members or regular guests). If interested do login or better still come along to the live presentation at the clubhouse. Full details below.

Do come along to support this monthly competition ervben if you haven’t entered. Perhaps the images and feedback from judge will inspire you to enter next time.

And if you need access to a good quality large format printer then look no further than Smethwick’s very own newly revamped Monday Night slot to help  members in the form of the Techniques’ Evening.

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This week’s talk is part of a series of FREE ‘taster’ sessions for local Sandwell community residents and workers (non SPS members or regular guests). If interested do login or better still come along to the live presentation at the clubhouse. Full details below.

Cat Cross is a freelance photographer based in Hertfordshire who specialises in theatre, portraits, events and schools photography. Her work has been featured on the BBC News website, on BBC Sounds and The Guardian.

Cat has been a keen amateur photographer for most of her life and was fortunate to turn this passion into a career in 2023.

In this talk Cat will tell us about her early steps into theatre photography, from a teenage visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,  working with local am-dram groups to hone her skills, and finally to the project which would define her future career path.

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This week’s talk is part of a series of FREE ‘taster’ sessions for local Sandwell community residents and workers (non SPS members or regular guests). If interested do login or better still come along to the live presentation at the clubhouse. Full details below.