Being a member of a photographic club sometimes isn’t just a case of being able to ’point and press’ the button on a mobile phone or camera and taking a shot, but also of developing skills to show one’s work to best advantage - whether as a print or as a digitally projected image.

So the meeting this week of the IOM Photographic Society was both a social evening with the opportunity for members to discuss their shared enthusiasm, but also a ’technical evening’, designed to explain the intricacies of mounting a print and of preparing a digital image for competition purposes and projection on to a screen.

This was an evening aimed first and foremost at our new members - of whom there are a pleasing number - but also at existing members as a refresher session and to answer any queries that may arise.

The mounting of a print was covered in demonstrations by Ruth Nicholls and by Jeremy Broome-Smith - the first and cheaper method essentially being a simple adhesive application to the back of a print and placing on to a single mountboard (a rolling pin being very helpful to ensure no air bubbles are left behind!).

The second is a ’sandwich’ or ’window’ process requiring two boards (and hence slightly more expensive) - an aperture being cut into a top board of a size to suit the print, and then both fixed to a lower board.

Preparing a digital image for uploading to our competitions website was explained by Nigel Owen and Chris Blyth, both showing fairly simple processes in editing software such as Photoshop - but also requiring an understanding of the rules and the necessity of ensuring compliance such that we all enter competitions on a standard footing.

Our next meeting, on October 23, will be our first open competition of the season, in both prints and digital images, with Dennis Wood having the duty of judge.

With a number of new members already keen to be involved, it is certain to be a very interesting and entertaining evening.

The society meets at the Arts Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Worthington Road, Douglas, on Wednesday evenings, all meetings starting at 7.30pm. All meetings are open to the public (with a modest fee for non-members) and all will be given a very warm welcome.

More details of the Society and its programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com. Chris Blythe