ALTON Camera Club has kicked off the new autumn season with plenty of variety to entertain and enthuse a growing membership.

Highlights so far have included a presentation by renowned speaker Gavin Hoey, entitled ‘Snap Happiness’, which proved entertaining and motivating in equal measure.

Gavin was the winner of Adobe’s Next Photoshop Evangelist competition in 2010 and was a guest speaker at the Photography Show at the NEC, earlier in the year.

Members have enjoyed a show and tell evening, when they were able to bring along and demonstrate the use of their favourite equipment and gadgets – some expensive, others remarkably cheap but useful.

There has been a presentation by Jon Mitchell, who has been a regular visitor to the club as a competition judge. Entitled ‘A Little of What You Fancy’, Jon used his own work to demonstrate some of the basic guidelines to club competition photography.

The first projected digital image competition of the year attracted entries from more than 30 members, to be scored by a visiting judge. The highest-scoring entry was from Mark Turner, with his image The Home Straight, which scored a maximum 10.

And there has been a workshop on audio-visual techniques by Mike Reed, who illustrated the principles of story-telling using examples as diverse as a jazz session, archives of war-torn Coventry, and the startlingly colourful Venetian Carnival.

The programme in the coming month includes the first print competition of the season, based on a set theme entitled Two of a Kind, and a studio evening, with the chance for members to try out professional lighting set-ups, using their own cameras.

Alton Camera Club welcomes, and offers help to, anyone wishing to improve their photographic skills, such as knowing how to get the best out of their camera, image composition, and improve their processing skills.

The club meets at Alton College every Wednesday at 7.15pm. To find out more, pop in or visit altoncameraclub.org.uk. You don’t need an expensive camera, just an interest and a desire to improve your photographic skills.