The meeting this week of the Isle of Man Photographic Society was an assignment competition for both prints and digital images on the subject of ’Shapes and Patterns’, a topic which our members found to be not as easy as the committee had expected.

Our judge was the ever popular Ray Kelly - the author and photographer of three beautifully illustrated books on Manx tholtans, with an artistic eye for a good image, and as always, a commentary demonstrating his knowledge and experience and a willingness to share it with our members.

The meeting opened with the intermediate print entries, Steve Johnstone taking the honours in both the mono section with a very busy image of a ’Starling Murmuration’, and in the colour section with ’Water Droplets on Glass’ (this also winning the judge’s approval as his favourite print in competition).

Steve was kind enough to explain his technique for this latter shot - basically a mixture of water droplets and glycerine on glass suspended over four toilet rolls, and a colour image to be reflected back into the droplets.

It certainly proved a very successful process with a wonderfully bright and bold image resulting.

In the advanced group, Nigel Owen’s mono image of steps was outstanding - the interplay of lines and shadows showing high artistry, while Ron Shimmin demonstrated his skills in the colour section with ’Shipshapes’, a bright image of a boat’s prow, its colours reflected in the water.

Despite strong competition from Beryl Quayle, Steve Johnstone and Richard Shafto, Martin Sanderson proved to be the one to beat in the intermediate digital class, taking the lead in both the mono and colour sections - his mono shot of ’Concentris Windows’ showing good detail as the rectangular windows repeated into the distance, while a symmetrical winding hedge won the colour section.

Similarly, Sue Blythe swept the board in the advanced digital class, an imaginative arrangement of matches in the shape of a heart leading the mono class, and a bridge with spectators silhouetted against a sunset in the colour section (this chosen as the judge’s favourite digital image in competition).

Ruth Nicholls, vice president, gave the vote of thanks for an excellent evening.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday, February 5, when we hope to have a practical session on studio lighting.

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 society and its programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com.

Chris Blyth