The tone of many of these articles on photography this summer has been fairly serious - articles giving advice on photographic techniques and ways to improve one’s skills - each illustrated with some super images demonstrating those skills, all produced by members of the Isle of Man Photographic Society.

All of our members can fairly be described as enthusiasts but like all with a serious hobby, we pursue photography not for money but for the sheer enjoyment of the resulting images - with an emphasis on ’fun’ and ’pleasure’.

With the onset of autumn and the shortening of daylight hours, those with cameras may explore the opportunity for some ’fun’ images using props found around the house - such as those shown here.

The image by Steve Johnstone of the strawberry dropping into water is all about the timingâ?¦. two flash guns sited to the side or a bright lamp above and behind the bowl, some white card for a background, a glass bowl full of water, a strawberry (or a slice of lemon or other brightly coloured fruit) plus some towels to mop up the splashes are all that is needed.

Set the camera up on a tripod, and focus the lens manually at the point where the fruit falls through the water, with a fairly open aperture (say f4 - f5.6) and a speed of 1/125th - 1/160th (depending on your camera’s flash synch speed) - and away you go, adjusting the lighting and ISO for the correct exposure (and the white balance if using an ordinary table lamp). The children will enjoy trying this!

Flowers frozen in a block of ice in the freezer is another very easy image to set up - and as will be seen in the accompanying image by Sue Jones, some very artistic and colourful results are possible.

There is no equipment required other than a flat dish in which to freeze the water and flowers - leave the flowers semi-submerged so that some of them are just above the water, some just below.

Leave overnight to freeze and some truly unique images are possibleâ?¦.

The Isle of Man Photographic Society commences its regular season of weekly Wednesday meetings on October 7 with the 2019/20 Annual Prints Competition (postponed from April).

Society president Jeremy Broome-Smith will welcome members, guests and potential new members, as well as Pat Tutt, well known local photographer and our judge for the event.

We are delighted to confirm the continued support of the Arts Council for this event - their assistance is very gratefully appreciated and acknowledged.

Please also note the change of venue for all our events which will now be held at the St John Ambulance Brigade headquarters on Glencrutchery Road.

All meetings start at 7.30pm, and all are open to the public (with a modest fee for non-members).

More details of the cociety and its programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com or on our Facebook page.

Chris Blyth