At their meeting on Thursday, March 6, members made a presentation to Dennis Scrace, President of the club for many years, to express their thanks for his service to the club.

The Chairman, Mark Walker, presented Dennis and his wife Jill with a voucher for Sunday lunch at the Falmouth Hotel and Jill with flowers. Jill was presented with another bouquet from the club's tea boys, Geoff James, Tony Toy and Jack Condy and Dennis was given a framed photograph of club members by our new President Jack Condy. Dennis is a founder member of the club, which has been running for 34 years. In a short speech, he told how he was involved in setting up the club and explained that he had decided to stand down because he's unable to attend the club as frequently as he'd like. Members were pleased to hear that he will continue to visit the club when he can.

Members were delighted to welcome back Bjorn Thomassen, an award winning local photographer, who accepted an honorary membership to the club saying that he was touched and thrilled because he has an empathy and passion for what the club is doing. Bjorn then gave a fascinating talk, sharing some of his encyclopaedic knowledge. His topics included the art of seeing, using imagination to visualise and plan images to prevent them from failing and returning when the light is right if necessary.

He explained the importance of composition; what is the main point of emphasis of the image? He urged us to pay attention to the implied line, to prevent too much energy going out of the photo, to keep the viewer in the image instead. Photos can be flat, looking 2D and lacking in tone, but Bjorn explained that by including a scale gradient, (a component of 3D), the image comes to life.

By sharing his experience of judging international competitions he gave us a good insight into preparing work for competitions and improving all our photographs.

Next meetings: April 3, Image of the Year competition judged by Roy McBryde. April 10 – Members are reminded to bring a selection of images to our SNAP competition selection evening. Images will be judged on quality and closeness of the match, so a wide variety are needed.

Meetings take place each Thursday at 7.30pm at The Space, Penryn RFC, Kernick Road, Penryn TR10 9LF. It is a friendly and welcoming club that aims to help people improve their photography skills. If you would like further information please telephone the chairman Mark Walker on 07518 299379, visit the club website at www.penryncameraclub.org.uk or find us on Facebook.