Own a camera but don’t know what all those buttons and menus mean?

Own a camera and like taking pictures of your family and your holidays but would like to develop your skill in using it?

Would like your images to have a "wow" factor and some real impact? Have you thought about joining a society of like-minded people who share your enthusiasm?

The new season for the Isle of Man Photographic Society has now started, and runs every Wednesday evening through to late April, with a short break over the Christmas and New Year period.

The programme, as always, is ambitious and includes a broad and balanced range of activities to ensure there is something to enjoy for everyone with a liking for photography.

The programme includes several evenings devoted to practical workshops and demonstrations - a studio lighting session for portrait work for example, with the different lighting set-ups possible for male or female models to be shown, while another session will be on macro-photography of subjects such as fruit slices, bubbles and water droplet splashes - but all intended to develop skills and techniques for our members.

A number of presentation evenings are planned, some from external speakers such as Shan Fisher, once a club member and now an award winning portrait photographer and Carmen Norman, a well-known landscape photographer from the Lake District, while club members such as Chris and Ruth Nicholls will also contribute.

Folios from our federation, the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union will be shown on three evenings during the season. These always include some amazing and inspiring images from other photographers around the region.

As ever, competitions are a significant part of the year with our judges tasked to provide an encouraging and supportive commentary on all entries. Some competitions are internal, only for club members and either "open" (where the subject is entirely the choice of the member) or an "assignment" (where the subject is specified).

Three other competitions are designed as "digital battles" with other clubs but each involving a slightly different format to ensure variety and excitement.

The aociety meets at the Art Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Withington Road, Douglas, with all meetings starting at 7:30pm. Our next meeting on Wednesday, October 10, will be a presentation by Shan Fisher on her portrait work.

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.

Chris Blyth