It is not a requirement that members of the Isle of Man Photographic Society must show their images.

It is perfectly OK just to attend our meetings and sit back and enjoy looking at the work of other members and gather ideas and perhaps to gain some inspiration.

But it is always a pleasure to see members volunteering their work in a presentation and to see their approach to photography and any special interests they may have.

So it is a double pleasure when two members offer to make a presentation - which was the case this week when both Richard Shafto and Kevan Osborne showed us some of their work.

It transpired that Richard had been a very experienced scuba diver, with more than 500 dives in Manx waters during the 20-year period from 1989 to 2010, plus other dives as far afield as the Red Sea, Australia, the Maldives and the Caribbean.

During that time he had used a Nikonos film camera to take hundreds of images of underwater life and - despite the difficulties of filming underwater which he explained in some detail - was able to show more than 200 images all of which had been scanned digitally for the purpose of his presentation.

The images included many superb shots of fish both large and small, crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters, beautiful corals and anenomes and - scarily - some rather close-up shots of sharks.

The macro shots in particular, aided by the use of flash to improve the lighting conditions, clearly demonstrated the vivid colours, stunning variety and beauty of life underwater.

By contrast, Kevan’s presentation was perhaps more typical of most members’ work - holiday shots taken on a trip to Australia via stop-overs in Dubai and Singapore - but proved equally enjoyable.

The vibrant life of Dubai and Singapore, the ’bling’ of skyscrapers and their modern architecture, the hustle and bustle of their shipping and streets was all well shown.

However, the main focus was on Australia with, in particular, Sydney, the harbour and the iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House, together with shots taken during one of the cricket Tests against England. Despite some technical difficulties, Kevan coped brilliantly with an amusing and much enjoyed presentation.

Our next meeting, on December `11, will be a presentation by Andrew Haddock from the Manx Police on the use of photography in the fight against crime.

The society meets at the Arts Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Worthington Road, Douglas, on Wednesday evenings, all meetings starting at 7.30pm, and all open to the public (with a modest fee for non-members).

More details of the dociety and its programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com.

Chris Blyth