On Thursday 23rd October Smethwick PS will be delighted to welcome Mr Andrew Brown for a journey around ‘American Deserts’. Andrew will be presenting live in the clubroom.

Following an extensive period of stay in Tuscon Arizona, Andrew has returned to the UK and currently resides in Gloucestershire.

Being a past long-term worker in the forestry industry, he has an expert knowledge of the natural world and specifically desert and tree rich environments. His landscapes. plants, and flowers are very colourfully illustrated. Andrew is not a club or competition photographer, but simply enjoys the medium of image making out in the wild.

Starts at 8pm in the club room and on stream

 

On Thursday 16th October Smethwick PS will, for the second time in recent months, welcome the club’s good friend Mr Leigh Preston for a ‘night walk’ photographic journey. This week’s lecture is the one postponed from the summer. Leigh will be presenting live in the clubroom.

Following the summer talk entitled ‘Roads Less Travelled’ much of Leigh’s work is about the urban environment, depicting a changing industrial landscape or portfolio work in far-flung locations. 

Over the past 40 years Leigh has travelled in the USA to the empty Prairies or in deserts, to Greenland, Iceland, Norway, the Baltic, the mountainous areas of the UK to find winter landscapes or the exact opposite in Australia. Trips  to Cuba, India and Georgia, gave opportunities for reportage style of portraiture. 

To avoid being forever known as ‘Mills & Gloom’,  recent new generes of work have been about street characters, humour or aspects of the absurd making images at rock concerts and tackling architectural abstracts. And now night time black and white photography. Leigh prefers to work alone, influenced by the environment he grew up with, and the photography of Bill Brandt, John Gray, Michael Kenna and the artists L.S.Lowry and Atkinson Grimshaw. Lyricism and narrative have become increasingly important in the documentary work he is now producing, linking influences such as J.B. Priestly, Jonathan Raban, Beryl Bainbridge alongside songwriters like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Roger Waters, and the composer Vaughan Williams and Sibelius.

Leigh has also 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.

 

Starts at 8pm in the club room and on stream

 

On Thursday 9th October Smethwick Photographic Society and guests will be treated to:-
“Urban Night Photography” with night photography expert Alistair How.

Alistair has had a lifelong interest in photography starting his career at Kodak after studying Geography at Southampton University.

A keen amateur photographer he returned to more serious photography during covid and became president of Harrogate Photographic Society for the 101st year in 2023/24 season and was asked to be president again for 2024/25. 

Based in North Yorkshire he is right on the doorstep of a number of photographic hot spots, but also travels far and wide looking for new locations and opportunities. 

His photographic interests include almost every genre. He runs a number of landscape workshops in the UK and beyond, has a passion for street and architectural photography and is a regular sports photographer for Leeds Knights Ice Hockey and Harrogate Town AFC.

He judges locally within the Yorkshire Photographic Union and also nationally as a PAGB judge. He also provides talks for Camera Clubs and Societies throughout the year.

His work has been recognised by various bodies including awards at the Yorkshire Photographic Union, FIAP, BPE and publications in Outdoor Magazine and the RPS.

In fact just recently Alistair was appointed trustee of the RPS.

Starts at 8pm in the CLUBROOM and on the new stream system for those not able to attend.

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.

For information go to our Streaming page HERE

On Thursday 2nd October Smethwick Photographic Society and guests will be treated to:-
“Passion for Scapes” with seascape and landscape expert expert Kevin Pigney.

Kevin returns to Smerthwick with another round of impressive images. During this presentation Kevin will not only show lots of examples of his work relating to seascapes and landscapes but also explain in depth about the techniques involved and plenty of information as to how they are achieved in camera.

The evening will include subjects such as long exposure techniques, using physical filters, bracketing exposure, focus stacking, panoramas & planning a shoot.

Starts at 8pm in the CLUBROOM and on the new stream system for those not able to attend.

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.

For information go to our Streaming page HERE

On Thursday 25th September 2025;  We have our third members’ Colour Print Competition of the year,  a competition judged by Graham Walton.

Entry is open now  and will close on Sunday 21st September.

To watch by live streaming you must be registered and logged in and purchase a ticket. For information go to our Streaming page HERE

Programme begins at 8.00pm.

These images are from the same competition in 2024.

Starts at 8pm in the CLUBROOM and on the new stream system for those not able to attend.

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.