| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Coordinator: | |
| When: | Monthly on Friday mornings 10:00 am-12:00 pm 4th Friday of Month |
| Venue: | St Andrews Church |
You may attend any active group once as a visitor, if you contact the group coordinator first, but to continue you have to become a member of Bedford u3a.
Our meetings take place on the fourth Friday of the month, Holt Room. St Andrews Church. See the links on this page to see our recent months' assignment photos.
Bedford u3a Photography 2 Group are a friendly group of people from within Bedford u3a who are interested in photography and its use to make pictures for display, publication, or just simply for fun.
What do Photography 2 do?
The Photography 2 monthly meeting divides into two halves’, firstly, we have the ‘Assignment’ then we have coffee and a chat before viewing portfolios of our members pictures or watch a training video or listen to a talk or view a demonstration on a subject of collective interest.
FAQ: How does the ‘Assignment’ work?
A list of twelve subjects is selected by the group in October for each month of the next year. These are the ‘Assignments’. The interpretation of the Assignments falls to each member.
Photographs are collected approximately a month before the relevant meeting. Each member can submit from zero to two photographs for that month’s assignment. The photographs are placed on the Group’s Flickr pages and members are invited to comment via WhatsApp on each other’s work prior to the meeting.
At the meeting we take additional comments and investigate the provenance of each photograph including; What is in the picture if that is not obvious, how they were photographed, and how they were created or enhanced by the photographer.
The group coordinator then selects six pictures to go on to the Bedford u3a website. See the links at the bottom of the page.
Pictures on Flickr and the Bedford u3a website are open to the public so if you do not wish for a particular photo to be publicly exhibited, please let us know in advance.
What format / size?
The preferred photographic format is jpg. This should be an original high-resolution image of any size (But, probably, no bigger than 8 Mbytes for ease of emailing.) Each photograph requires a title when submitted. The picture should have been taken by the member in the last rolling year.
Can Photographs be post processed?
All materials should be the members original work (i.e. taken by yourself) The use of stock material, even copyright free, is discouraged. The manual post processing of photographs is permitted but use of generative A.I. is discouraged. When A.I. has been used the Group should be informed about the extent of utilisation, e.g. edited using Photoshop A.I. tools.
Group Members are encouraged to bring any other photographs they have taken on a memory stick to our meetings. We usually have time to view a few Members portfolios. Especially, if you have any that you are keen to show us. Often pictures of other activities or occasions.
If you are concerned or uncertain about the use of emails or the other technical media that we use. Do come and talk to one of us. We can explain and help you to join in.
Interested in Joining Bedford u3a Photography 2 Group
You don’t need any specialist equipment to join Photography 2 Group just a means to take photographs and a means to enter them in the Assignment and the enthusiasm to join in!
In the first instance a phone camera is quite sufficient to take and send your pictures.
Of course if you already have a high-resolution digital camera and are an expert in photoshop you are also welcome to come and join us. We’d like to you to come and share that expertise with us.
If you are interested in joining Photography 2 Group or want to know more about what we do please contact our Group Leader:
either by email or by phone or in person at one of the Bedford or Kempston monthly open meetings.