Thursday 26 September 2013

The Flamsteed Astronomy Society present a Guide to Astrophotography.

Star Trails over Romney

Tuesday 1 October. 8pm.
The Flamsteed is an amateur astronomy society based at the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. They have kindly agreed to present a talk to AWPS this will include an introduction to the equipment and software required to shoot the sky at night, plus practical demonstrations - a telescope will be set up in the gardens, weather permitting, and they will have lots of out-of-this world images to show us!
This is free to members, guests will be charged £3 on the door. Arrive early to bag a good seat!
The Milky Way by Aquila



Monday 2 September 2013

Back to Skool!

Tuesday 3 September - our first meeting of the 'Bridge Season'.


This is a Welcome/Social evening with an introduction to some of the highlights of our September to December Bridge Programme, and the change to our calendar with a DPI presentation of some of the best images from last season.
See the full Bridge programme here
The evening runs from 8pm to 10pm. Refreshments will be available but edible contributions, cake, nibbles or a bottle of something cheap and cheeky will be very well received! 

Guests are welcome to come along to four sessions as a guest at a cost of £1.50 per meeting (paid to the venue for room hire), this is a great opportunity to meet the group and see what we do before deciding whether to join.

The Library, Shrewsbury House Community Centre, Bushmoor Cresent, Shooters Hill, London, SE18 3EG.


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AWPS member Andy Linden LRPS has a new, permanent exhibition at Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup.  Andy explains how it came about:

Goose at Hall Place' by Andy Linden LRPS

"Having had pictures in the AWPS exhibitions such as the one currently at QE Hospital, introduced me to Jeanie McNulty who organises arts on display across both hospital sites.

When I applied for my ARPS (associateship of the Royal photographic Society), I produced a panel of infrared photos of trees and I asked Jeanie if these might be suitable for an exhibition of my own at QE and she agreed. The prints were exhibited there for 3 months and then for the same period of time at Queen Mary's.

There was a good reaction from staff and patients to my pictures and last December Jeanie was asked to arrange for prints to be put up in the corridors and some of the wards at Queen Mary's. These would be prints that the hospital would purchase for permanent display and Jeanie asked me and another two photographers (not from APWS) to submit a tender to provide the images. I quoted a price for providing digital images from which large prints could be made, and I was the successful applicant.

The selection panel chose 4 pictures that they wanted to buy from the 20 that I submitted in the tender and then they asked me to follow a brief to provide other photographs for display. The brief was to go out and take photographs of specific places around Queen Mary's hospital. The pictures of these places had to be bright and vibrant and show them in a positive light so that they would bring a cheerful atmosphere to the hospital.

'Sidcup Place and Garden' by Andy Linden LRPS
The places I was asked to photograph were:  Elmstead Woods, Danson House, Hall Place, Sidcup Place, St Mary's Church - Bexley, The Red House, Lesnes Abbey and Lesnes Abbey Woods.

Last winter was very bad and trying to photograph all these places in decent weather was quite a task. Also, the deadline was suddenly brought forward to the end of May, when Jeanie thought she's be losing her job due to budget cuts. In the end, I think the hospital is happy with the photographs, but I know I could have done a better given more time. But then again, I'm always thinking I could take a better picture than the last one!

'Danson House and the Charter Oak' by Andy Linden LRPS

In all, I provided 25 images and the hospital paid for the printing and framing. 15 were printed twice, so a total of 40 prints are on display."

'The Red House' by Andy Linden LRPS