The adverse weather that often greets the start of a new year caused disruption to the Society’s Winter programme, once more, after Christmas and a previously planned evening, postponed from its original slot, was finally able to be held in mid-January, 2025!
Table top Reflections was the Society’s theme for the long-delayed ‘practical’ workshop held at the St John Ambulance HQ, off Glencrutchery Road in Douglas. Whoever could have imagined that such a seemingly simple concept would result in such a variety of subjects to be photographed in so many different, experimental ways? Reflections in landscape photography are always highly pleasing to the eye, but static, table-top subjects are quite a different phenomenon calling for a degree of ingenuity and lighting variations. Of course, we are all aware that, if a surface is smooth and shiny, like glass, water or a polished metal, the light will reflect at a similar angle as it bounces off the surface. This is usually referred to as specular reflection. This works with any polished surface, not only with mirrors!
Armed with this knowledge and utilising a range of set-ups, those present managed to achieve a kaleidoscope of pleasing images from, in some cases, possibly the most unexpected subject matter. As is often the case with ‘practical’ evenings, there were fewer attendees than would normally be the case for a club night, but what was missed in terms of participants was more than made up in terms of the high degree of enthusiasm!
Members arranged themselves between the two available rooms with individuals setting up their subjects to photograph in their own imaginative way. Several mirrors were clearly visible, with quite a few members using new technology such as ‘smart’ tablets to display a colourful image for a base and then using a light bulb or other glass object to catch the reflection with, mostly, black backgrounds. As is always the case for such ‘practical’ evenings, the more experienced members were on hand to offer whatever gentle guidance might be needed as a part of the learning process.
The next meeting of the IOMPS will be held at the same venue at 7.00 pm on Wednesday, 22nd January when the second ‘Open’ Competition will be held and this will be followed on the 5th February by the 3 Way Battle.
In the meantime, the Committee has announced that the subject for the latest non-competitive ‘challenge,’ for the month of January, will be ‘Wintery.’ The idea of this is to encourage members to explore their personal style of photography and to capture up to 6 images on any device on or before 2nd February.
By Antony Hamilton
