Al Buntin comes from an art background and has worked in the UK and USA mostly in the Greeting Card Industry, and has had several children’s books published.

Always having had a keen interest in photography where his main interest is photographing people at play, on the street, in pubs, in clubs, at sporting venues and festivals, Al has developed a unique style combining photos and art.

Digital photography opened another door with the planning and capture of imagery as well as the whole world of photo manipulation.

Al says, “My manipulated images don’t come from a camera, but from between my ears. All you need is vision and a little bit of imagination”.

 

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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.

Linda is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. She has gained two Fellowships, the first in May 2013 and the second in June 2022, both in the Visual Art Photography category. She has gained the EFIAP Bronze distinction (Excellence of the International Federation of Photographic Art).

Linda has exhibited widely both within the UK and internationally and has had her images and articles published in numerous magazines and other publications.

She has also in recent years published three books, the latest ‘The Aquitaine Countryside’, showing Linda’s images of the French countryside. The frist entitled ‘Creative Photography’, which goes through in-camera creative techniques as well as detailed photo editing techniques. Linda’s second book was entitled ‘Overlooked Beauty’, showing her successful Fellowship images.

 

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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.

Adrian and Jane live in the Northwest of England. Currently living in Wigan, Lancashire both like to explore many aspects and genres of photography. In addition, Adrian also develops software for photographers.

Both are active with local photographic club Chorley Photographic Society, Adrian is currently the General Secretary of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union, and also the General Secretary of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.

Some of Adrian’s software projects include https://ukcpg.co.uk and https://cimgr.com which are provided as a free resource to fellow photographers.

Adrian first became interested in photography after buying a digital bridge camera whilst on a family trip to London in 2006, moving quickly on to his first DSLR and joined a local Photographic Society in an attempt to become more proficient.

Joining a photographic club drew him into the concept of competition photography, and after twelve months perfecting the craft, Adrian started to have some minor successes at club level.

National competitions followed, and then entered his first national competition in 2008. This eventually led onto international competition, medals, and a reasonable number of blue badges (best author) in major salons.

Jane’s journey started in 2009 and soon she progressed and gained many accreditations and accolades and is currently enjoying subjects such as people, places and creative photography. As a Judge  and Lecturer for the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation and a Judge and Awards for Photographic Merit Assessor for the  PAGB (Photographic Alliance of Great Britain) she gets tremendous satisfaction from seeing great work from other photographers.

After joining Chorley Photographic Society in 2012 Adrian subsequently left his first club to pursue ambitions in national club competitions, helping Chorley to regularly appear in the top 10 in the FIAP World cup and also reaching the finals of both the National Digital and Print inter-club championships in recent years.

Adrian started out like most amateurs as a ‘traditional’ style photographer, but became interested in ‘pictorialism’ … the concept of photography as an art form, and photoshop, and developed a strong post-creative  ‘alternative reality’ style of imagery.

However, in recent years, now that Adrian & Jane have had the opportunity to travel, their favourite genre has changed again, and travel photography has become a new passion.

 

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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.

Van Greaves FRPS presents “A Touch of Kilroy” with worldwide images and different subject matter, Pictorial and illustrative subjects, numerous of which haven’t been seen before. A 47 year relationship with Smethwick PS allows Van a large history bank of pictures with the aim to keep up on the audience’s entertainment and interest.

With at least 10 illustrated outdoor books and counting, contributions to others, many illustrated magazine articles, calendar, and card publications, VAN GREAVES has been involved in the publishing world since 1980. He gained a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1991 with an applied panel of mountain pictures and many of his images were accepted, some awarded, in international salons of photography.

Since 2004 he has produced ‘Portrait of Birmingham’, ‘Moods of Worcestershire & Elgar Country’, ‘Moods of Staffordshire’, ‘Moods of Warwickshire & Shakespeare Country’, ‘Portrait of Shropshire’, and ‘Portrait of The Wye Valley’. Two new book projects (all for Halsgrove) are ‘Offa’s Dyke’ and ‘Cotswold Way’.

In 2009 he produced ‘Mountain Magic’, (Frances Lincoln), a lifetime’s photographic work in Britain’s mainland mountains.

Van has worked on commissions for AA publishing and several local authority tourism brochures. Other published work consists of calendars, magazines, (written & illustrated), cards, and private brochures.

An experienced Researcher/Interviewer Van also has a very fine singing voice and can often be heard singing to his own photos!

 

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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.

Mike Farley can hardly recall a time when he was not a photographer.  His initial interest came at the age of 5 or 5 when he “helped” in his dad’s darkroom, experiencing the magic of the image appearing in the developing tray.  He requested a camera for his 8^th birthday and received a Baby Box Brownie that took eight shots on 127 film.  The first seven exposures were taken rapidly but he saved the last one to depict his dad in his car when he arrived home from work.  Many years later, Mike discovered that Ansel Adams referred to this planning of shots as “visualisation”.

In 2004, Mike joined Croydon Camera Club, which prompted him to find out more about the different aspects of photography.  Realising that others could benefit from what he had learned, he has gradually developed a wide range of presentations.  While his images feature prominently, Mike is keen that his talks cover themes that do not often feature, such as psychological and philosophical aspects.  He has long felt that a greater understanding of the underlying principles is key to his enjoyment of photography.

You can visit Mike’s website here:

http://www.mikefarley.net/

Alternatively click on the image below to go to Mike’s flickr page:

All images courtesy of Mike Farley

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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.