Our own Studio Group hosted the evening, and members were encouraged to bring their cameras, tripods and any paraphernalia that they would like to photograph.

With several set ups and simple lighting that everyone could access, it seemed a busy and productive evening.

Stephanie Sewlyn was using candlelight and glassware for some twinkling images, I don’t think the tipples involved were alcoholic, but there was definitely some chinking of glasses.

Ian Ferris had set up a folding portable lightbox and various individual specimens were photographed throughout the evening starting with a simple vase with gerbera.

Cris Ablett had a traditional still life objects with side lighting. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do the set-up with the box of chocolates, quite a few people had offered to check they were suitable for a realistic portrayal.

Rachel Cooper had a rustic theme going on, using ‘top-down tripod’ plenty of foliage, fir cones and feathers gathered from the locality during the day, with the disclaimer that ‘some things are poisonous’

It was good practice and interesting watching how people laid out their ‘subjects’ and chose to compose their shots. As we have always found on these evenings, there is a generous spirit of people trying to help each other and it actually makes it a feel-good social event too.

We classed the evening as a success, no-one was visibly drunk after visiting Stephanie’s table and no-one died of poisoning at Rachel’s set-up.