It was good to see so many people attend the first meeting of WDCC of the 2022/23 season, the first meeting at Wellington School for two and a half years!

Notices
Firstly the Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and a special welcome was extended to new/prospective members.

Next Week
Diane (programme secretary) reminded us that next week is an evening of members' talks and images taken during the summer break and before. Please do show us what you've been up to, what you've learnt, any successes and failures (photographically!!), Bring them to the meeting on a memory stick, and please email Diane to let her know that you will be showing some images. This event depends on the input of members and is usually an interesting and fun evening.

Competition
The competition Secretary sent a message about the forthcoming competition. Next Wednesday September 14th is the final hand in date for the September competition, Paul is accepting images from now onwards, the absolute cut off point is close of play on 14th - no late entries can be accepted!! As usual Open and Themed. The theme this month a Rural Landscape as defined on the website An outdoors image of a rural setting, featuring strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light that may incorporate both land and sky. If people or buildings are present e.g. to provide a sense of scale, they should only form a minor part of the image. Water, in the form of lakes and rivers is acceptable but ‘seascapes’ i.e. images dominated by the sea, are not.

It is a Projected Digital Image (PDI) Competition, images must be sent by email to the competition secretary, wdcccompetitions@gmail.com (as previously) his email address is also on the website. Please make sure that the images are named correctly, as per the instructions on the website.

Our first speaker of the season was Tommy Hatwell who made a welcomed return to WDCC. He is a 'Commercial Photographer' from Plymouth and also heavily involved with the people of Uganda, fund raising and by teaching them the basics of photography.

The first part of his talk was titled 'A Creative Introduction to Photography'. His first point was that the most important piece of 'equipment' to use when taking photographs is Your Brain!! He talked about many of the guidelines that we are familiar with, rule of thirds, leading lines etc, the exposure triangle and the difference between looking and seeing. All these points were illustrated with his images, many of which were of the community in Uganda that he works with and fund-raises for.

The second half of the evening was about the Ugandan People and Tommy's fundraising for people on the village that he is involved with. Before Covid he was raising money to supply new mattresses to replace the meagre beds that they were sleeping on - 'the sleepwell project'. He related how he managed to produce a banner two and a half metres long of the 50ish kids who were from families who received a new mattress, comprising od some 40 individual photos combined one image. He also gave each of the kids involved a printed copy. his website thinkpeoplethinkstory.com is well worth looking at.

This was a great start to the season and so good to see members face to face, we look forward to some interesting images from members next week.

Have a good week and see you next week!