Resume of the Moraira-Teulada U3A Photography Group meeting on 19th December 2018.

Seven members of the group attended the meeting, which was fewer than recent attendances, perhaps due to members taking part in Christmas activities.

The challenge from the previous meeting was “Cats and Dogs”, and several members had brought, or sent images to share with the group. Some of them will soon be seen on the group’s webpage.

The main discussion was about the Photography Exhibition which is planned for the 18^th to 31st May 2019, to be held in La Senieta, Moraira. An application to hold the exhibition has been submitted to the Teulada-Moraira Ayuntamiento by our U3A, but as yet no approval has been given, nor do we know when a decision is likely.

Tom and I both feel that we should proceed with planning the event, assuming that permission to hold it will be granted. So we are setting a deadline of 30^th April for everything to be in place. This will include:

1. Knowing who is submitting images, and the sizes and number of images.
2. Publicity, including posters, are prepared.
3. Sufficient hanging lines, hooks and fixings are available.
4. Obtain access to a monitor and DVD player to show a slideshow with music to supplement the exhibition.
5. Slideshow, comprising additional photos from members, is complete.

Subject Groups. The group has discussed subject groups at previous meetings, and it was decided they will be:

1. Landscapes
2. People
3. Fauna
4. Flora
5. Architecture
6. Members favourites
7. Our Local Area

An exhibition does of course need exhibits! There are around 50 or so group members, and it would be wonderful if every member could supply at least one image, and hopefully many members will wish to exhibit many more than that. I hope that we will be able to show over 200 images in the exhibition. And for those who are reluctant to share their pictures because they don’t think they are good enough, I’m sure that they will have taken at least one picture that others will enjoy seeing. If they needs tweaking a bit with an editing programme, I’m sure that other members would be able to help out – after all, that’s one of the main purposes of the group. So, don’t be shy!

The images shown in the exhibition need to be mounted on a board. I brought the images that I has shown at the last exhibition. The images were produced by a UK company, DS Colour Labs. Their website is https://dscolourlabs.co.uk   You send them a jpeg file of the image you  want them to print. They can print many different sizes of image, so even if you have cropped an image to an unusual size, they will probably have a print size to fit. You can choose different types of finish, matt or gloss for example. I had 12 images printed last year with 5 different sizes, ranging from 12” x 4” to 12” x 9”. The total cost was £16.97 including postage to Spain in sturdy cardboard packaging, which I thought was very reasonable. Gorila Grafica, http://gorilagrafica.com which is situated next to Global Cars in Moraira, cut white mounting board to the requested size and I then mounted the pictures onto the board myself, using a spray glue. Tom also used DS labs, and DS also mounted the images on board, which he was pleased with. Jan Adams used Gorila Grafica to produce the images and fix them to board, but wasn’t entirely happy with the result. We will bring examples of all three to the next meeting so members can assess them for themselves. Other members may have other companies that have produced images mounted on board for them, and I would welcome their input.

Please have a think about what you would like to exhibit, and when you can, let me and/or Tom know how many images you would like to include, and what sizes they will be. Although there are 4 months to go before our deadline, the sooner we have an idea of numbers and sizes the better. However, we strongly advise that you don’t produce the images until we receive the go-ahead from the Ayuntamiento.

Tom and I can’t do all this ourselves, so we are asking for volunteers to help us along the way.

A lot of physical help will be needed on the weekend of 18^th and 19^th May to prepare the room and hang the pictures, and also on the 31^st May to take everything down. If there is someone out there with the skills to put a slideshow with music that would be great, and is there someone who  could design an eye catching poster to advertise the event? Please step forward and let us know if you can help.

One more thing. We can’t accept images that are mounted in glass frames; they are too heavy to be hung on fishing line and the glass also liable to break, as has happened at previous exhibitions.

Inputs from group members who have been involved in previous exhibitions are very welcome.

Finally – The Challenge. Dave Hardy delved into the challenge bag, and out came “Fruit”. However, with Christmas just around the corner and New Year and the 3 Kings following close behind, we decided to also include images that “Capture this Festive Season”.

Tom and I hope that you have a really good Christmas and New Year, and we look forward to seeing you at the next meeting on Wednesday 16^th January.