Two very talented photographers (as it happens, husband and wife) - two presentations, both travelogues and both highly enjoyable - provided the programme for this week’s meeting of the Isle of Man Photographic Society.

And, like a school essay question, our audience had the opportunity to ’compare and contrast’ their styles and their work.

First off was husband Chris Nicholls presenting travel shots of Slovenia - a ’broad brush, macro’ approach starting in the port of Piran, a well preserved mediaeval town with narrow cobbled streets, its historical relationship with Venice evident in the architecture of the church and houses.

We then traversed Slovenia, taking in many images of churches, caves, castles and countryside.

The church at Hrastovije has wonderful fresco paintings dating from the 12th Century while the deep limestone gorge and resulting caves at Skotchan and nearby Predjama Castle were particularly impressive.

We then moved on to the Julian Alps - with wonderful mountain scenery - and onwards to the popular destination of Lake Bled with its iconic church on a small island in the middle.

A side trip to Lake Bohniji included images of a typical village with hay barns, wood stores and old houses - some very evocative.

It was a well considered and presented traditional travelogue.

By contrast, wife Ruth Nicholls took a more ’micro’ approach, concentrating her presentation on the town of Rovinj in nearby Croatia - again a port with an attractive harbour, a church perched high on a hill overlooking the town, and narrow streets.

As well as giving us a detailed view of the town and harbour area, the presentation was very much a ’photographer’s tour’ - yes, a travelogue but with a definite artistic slant, with interest in both the wider picture and in the smaller scale detail.

There were shots of the same (or very similar) scene taken at different times of day or night to show just how the mood and feel of an image changes with the light - for example, the ’blue hour’ around the dawn with a slightly ’cold’ feel, the ’golden hour’ near sunset when everything has a much ’warmer’ hue - all beautifully shown and explained.

Both photographers have recently changed their camera systems to Fuji - and the realistic colours and pin-sharp images throughout both presentations were noted in a well-deserved vote of thanks given by the club president, Chris Blyth.

The society meets at the Art Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Withington Road, Douglas, with all meetings starting at 7:30pm.

Our next meeting on Wednesday, January 30, will be a presentation by Sue Blythe of Tigers of India.

Meetings are open to the public, and all will be given a very warm welcome.

Full details of our programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com.