Our slide show illustrates the wide range of talent that exists in our group. We invite new members to come and learn with us.

Recent Projects

July 2026
Our subject for July was `Just 2 Colours’ and it was interesting to see the various interpretations when we met to view Pat’s beautifully presented Power Point review. A few samples below:

April 2026
We’ve been ensconced inside for our winter sessions at the Oak’s Rugby Club, actively taking photos of various themes, including Oil and water/Fizzy Bubbles, The Barbican (plus coffee of course), Creating Advertising, Shadows and finally - Seeds, Legumes and Pulses. We then each choose a few to form a display of our work as a slide-show within the group, to much acclaim, smiles and occasional laughter. We can now start our better weather program, out and about next month…….. we hope!

April 2026
For our April photoshoot, we went over to Devonport Park on a bright, but windy, sunny day in search of 'Growth'. The trees were coming into leaf and the flower beds had been planted up with tulips and other spring flowers which were all in bloom to provide inspiration for us to utilise in creating our photographs. The park was very busy, as it was the school holidays.

As usual our second meeting was at the Oakes Rugby club where we had approximately 80 pictures with each member allowed to show up to four photos. The more predictable interpretations of 'Growth' included a lot of spring plants and trees with leaves and flowerbuds just opening up, as well as seedlings in greenhouses. Then we also had the more unusual scenarios of pot holes “growing day by day” and the traditional marks on the kitchen wall recording the increasing height of family members as they grew over the years.

March 2026
For our first monthly meeting on 12 February, we went down to the Barbican for a breath of fresh air on one of the few dry mornings of the month to do some “street photography”. The idea was to record things like interesting architectural features, which obviously include the newly installed statue of the Beryl Cook Sailor, as well as any day-to-day activities taking place. But the rain soon turned up and so we headed to the café for an enjoyable coffee and chat instead!.

For our second meeting on 26 February, we reverted to our childhood (if we ever left it behind) to play with washing up liquid and water to make lots of bubbles to create interesting photos. We also tried mixing oil, water and food colourings to create interesting patterns in a glass bowl. Further attempts in this vein involved putting fruit in glasses of fizzy water to record the resulting mass of bubbles that clung around the fruit and to the sides of the glass. Hopefully we will, with some skilful lighting, have created some photos worthy of exhibiting in any art gallery. We will be showing our best photos from the winter session to everyone at the end of March, so you will have to wait until then to see how successful our efforts have been.

February 2026
We are currently running our winter programme from January through to the end of March and so, we are holding all our meetings in the rugby club to keep out of the inclement weather.

For our first meeting on 8 January, we were challenged to produce an “advertising photograph” and we set up a variety of arrangements including packets of biscuits alongside cups of tea, wine in a glass with a strategically placed wine bottle along-side it. Another idea was a partially eaten box of chocolates with the empty wrapping papers casually strewn around it. We also tried using smoke from incense sticks to give the impression of steam raising from the “hot” cups of tea and coffee.

For our second meeting, the challenge was to use shadows as a major element in our photographs. This time people were using a variety of kitchen implements like colanders, spatulas and even hands to cast shadows on all sorts of backgrounds like the room’s walls or sheets of paper. Others were using torches or desk lamps to direct the light in a more controlled way and create shadows on individual items like statuettes, paper weights and other small objects.

This proved to be a very enjoyable exercise and we followed this up with a trip to The Foxhounds Inn at Brixton for our annual “New Years lunch outing”.

We will be showing our best photos from the winter session to everyone at the end of March, so you will have to wait until then to see how successful our efforts have been.

December 2025
In December we celebrated the end of a busy year with a little party at the Rugby Club, which was attended by 20 members of the group. We enjoyed mince pies and a slide show of some of our year’s work. This sparked a lot of conversation and pleasant memories of a happy year of outings spent taking some excellent photos on a variety of different topics. The same slide show was shown the following day at The Staddy, as part of Plymstock & District u3a’s Christmas party entertainment, and was I am sure enjoyed by everyone who came along.

November 2025
After Dark

Our topic for November was ‘After Dark’ and so it was decided that we would all go off and do our own thing, rather than having the usual group photoshoot outing. After many years Tony Banbury, has relinquished the job of producing our Power Point presentations and all our members would like to thank him for his sterling work and also thank Pat Green for taking over from him.

We saw an excellent set of pictures of harbours, sunsets and buildings from home and abroad. The thing we all noticed was how much better so many of the locations looked under neon lights or at sunset, rather than in the cold light of day!

October 2025
Minimalism

The topic for October was `Minimalist’ and it was interesting to see the wide range of the group’s interpretation of this. For a photoshoot some of the group went to the Mountbatten beach area. Following this, Tony Banbury put together an excellent Powerpoint presentation from the group’s contributions which we all enjoyed at our meeting at the Plymstock Oaks Rugby Club later in the month.

September 2025
Project - Shadows

The group met at Saltram for a photoshoot for our `Shadows’ subject, and most importantly a discussion in the cafe afterwards!

August 2025
On our first meeting in August, we went over to Stover Park on a very hot and sunny Thursday morning. We were looking for “Wildlife” subjects and wandered slowly around the lake admiring the ducks, coots, swans and other waterfowl that call the lake home.

Part way around the lake there is a high-level timber walkway that takes you out into the tree tops of a wooded area and the wardens hang bird feeders from the trees. These usually attract lots of the smaller birds like blue tits, but on this occasion, there were not many around. Perhaps it was too hot for them. We also spotted a few damsel flies on the reeds at the edges of the lake and some butterflies but these proved harder to photograph than the birds, as they are never still for long. So, there was plenty for us to photograph before we went over to Trago for a spot of lunch and some cheap petrol!

As usual our 2nd meeting was at the Oakes Rugby club where we had approximately 72 pictures of wildlife with each member allowed to show up to 4 photos. There were pictures from all around the world, and we saw everything from the smallest insects and spiders to the largest animals with lions and elephants taken on safari in Africa.

July 2025
For our first meeting in July, we went out to Norsworthy Bridge at Burrator Reservoir on a very hot and sunny Thursday morning. We were looking for “Weathered and Eroded” subjects and wandered up a foot path to an abandoned farm house, along the way looking for inspiration from the surrounding area with its stone walls in various states of disrepair and the fallen trees etc. However, the heat soon took its toll and so we decided instead to withdraw and head to the Burrator Inn for a cool drink and a light lunch which was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

As usual our 2nd meeting was at the Oakes Rugby club where we had approximately 70 pictures on “Weathered and Eroded” with each member allowed to show up to 4 photos. There were several common themes running through some of the images, with a number of them featuring landslides at various locations along the Devon coastline, also tree branches that had been eroded and washed up along the foreshore. Abandoned boats and old buildings also featured strongly.
All in all, we had an interesting variety of photos to enjoy and the standard of work was very high, so “thanks” go to all who submitted work for us to enjoy.

June 2025
Our first meeting in June was called off due to the torrential rain that morning, so we all stayed at home in the dry and had to rely exclusively on photographs taken on previous occasions for our submissions to this month’s topic of “Leading Lines”.

As usual our second meeting was at the Oakes Rugby Club where we had approximately 70 pictures on “Leading Lines” with each member allowed to show up to four photos. There were several common themes running through the images, with a number of them featuring the use of railway lines to lead the eye through the picture. Footpaths running through fields, park land or the countryside were another common feature in the work submitted.

All in all, we had an interesting variety of photos to enjoy and the standard of work was very high, so “thanks” go to all who submitted work for us to enjoy.

May 2025
Industrial Activities and Heritage
On our first meeting in May, we went on a photoshoot on the Barbican, where we were looking for inspiration to take pictures on “Industrial Activities and Heritage”. There were only six of us this time and we explored the area looking for interesting compositions from the fishing fleet, the heritage buildings and the antique shops that can be found across the area. After recharging our batteries with a timely coffee break and chat, several of us made our way up to the Hoe for the moving VE day ceremony taking place there.

As usual our second meeting was at the Oakes Rugby Club where we had approximately 60 pictures on our subject, with each member allowed to show up to four photos. The images covered a wide range of industries and included black-smiths’ workshops, Hemerdon mine workings, weaving machines, railway work-shops and construction sites.

April 2025
Buckfast Abbey
On our first meeting in April, we went on a photoshoot to Buckfast Abbey, on what turned out to be a lovely sunny day, where we were looking for inspiration to take pictures on “Religious connections”. The first thing we did on arrival was to check out the coffee and cakes in the café, which were excellent. Then suitably refreshed we explored the grounds and inside the Abbey. Along the way we discovered that the Abbey’s organ was being tuned by two men and that this exercise would take three days to complete!

We also learned that one of our member’s daughters had played the Abbey’s organ as a teenager and is one of the rare breed of people who are church organists. The majority of us decided to make the most of the day and so after having a hearty lunch in the cafe, we went on to the nearby South Devon Railway to photograph the steam trains which were running as it was the school holidays, and others went on to the burnt-out church on the hillside above the town.

As usual our second meeting in April was at the Oakes Rugby club where we had approximately 60 pictures on “Religious connections” with each member allowed to show up to four photos. The images included church buildings from around the country, stain glass windows, carvings on pews and elaborate tomb stones.

March 2025
My Favourite Photos
Our first meeting in March was a training session using Youtube videos to improve our photographic knowledge and our second meeting was a "Show and Tell" of our favourite photographs taken over the years, a very small selection of which are shown below.

January/February 2025
Projects

The photography group meetings in January and February were held at the rugby club, practicing and improving our photographic skills in the warm and dry. We had 3 topics, "Jewellery and Small Objects", "Plants and Foliage" and "Experimenting with Light" and finally "In-Camera Movement", all carried out in the warm and dry.

You can see all our efforts by clicking on any of the 5 photographs below.

November 2024
Project - Symmetry

October 2024
Project - Enthusiasm