For the past two years, the members of the Isle of Man Photographic Society have entertained themselves in their spare time with taking photographs to illustrate a monthly challenge, different topics being chosen each month.

When the Covid virus hit and we were not able to continue our meetings, we nevertheless continued to set ourselves these challenges.

Previously the number per member was limited but as there was nothing else to do, we broadened this to as many as anybody wished to enter.

They were all uploaded to our Facebook page, so that all members could see each other’s images, even though we could not see each other!

It has certainly given our members an incentive to pick up their cameras and to continue taking images - having a set subject needs thought and sometimes some ingenuity to provide images which meet the criterion.

However, no such problems with one of our more popular challenges which was on the topic ’Liquid’. Of course the most common liquid encountered is water, in all its forms. No-one thought to photograph ice, or steam, or clouds, but nevertheless we had a good selection of water pictures.

A useful reminder, very relevant to the present situation, was a photo of hands being washed under a running tap, by Andrew Cairns, and an essential ingredient of life at present was Chris Nicholls’s picture of cappuccino coffee - he labelled it Irish Coffee actually!

The power of saltwater, as in the sea, was captured by Barry during one of his outings for ’exercise’ - he said he was exercising his camera! More natural water was shown as a raindrop on a leaf, by Chris Blyth, and a rainbow lighting up in the spray during a car-washing session, by Ruth Nicholls, - a member commented that it was a symbol of a ray of hope that Covid would be conquered in due course.

Some of the other photos, out of more than 30 entries show that the photographers were keeping their eyes open for unusual manifestations of liquid, or intentionally setting up something at home to illustrate the topic. We had cuckoo-spit by Beryl Quayle, a lovely reflection in still water at Port Jack, by Mark Falconer, a raw egg with the egg-white spilling out, by Ruth Nicholls, and a lovely bright green image of coloured bubbly water, that had no title, but I think should be called Faerie Liquid (to distinguish it from any household product with a similar name!)

At present, the Society is in its usual summer recess, but we plan to resume ’normal service’ later this month (on the 30th September) with our usual weekly meetings on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm.

New members are always welcome. Have a look at our website - www.iomps.com or our Facebook page for lots of ideas to stimulate your interest.

Ruth Nicholls