‘Always prepared to try something new’ seems to be the maxim of the Isle of Man Photographic Society (‘Isle of Man Camera Club’) as members discovered on a highly successful Wednesday evening recently.

This was yet another ‘first’ for the society, which had never attempted anything like this before, so it offered members a fantastic, unique opportunity to produce the type of images as featured on this page.

More than a dozen members braved a cold, dark evening to gather together indoors but, unusually this time, in a vacant industrial unit on the Spring Valley Industrial Estate for a motorbike (and rider) photo shoot.

Thankfully, members arrived knowing something of what to expect, as the committee had had the foresight to warn them in advance of the limited facilities at this novel venue and to wrap up well with appropriate warm clothes.

On arrival, members were greeted by the sight of five motorbikes and one sidecar outfit and no fewer than three lighting set-ups – clearly, our hard-working committee had been very busy again in advance, preparing for those enthusiastic members who attended.

One of the three set-ups was arranged by Nigel Owen, who provided his continuous lights, positioned to the rear of the unit, thus giving colour changes from blue to pink, with shelves acting as an appropriate background.

Then, Tony Curtis had brought along his studio flash with a black backdrop which he positioned near the centre of the unit. The presence of smoke machines served to add more atmosphere to the resulting images.

The third set-up had been kindly provided by one of our life members, Andrew Barton of Andrew Barton Photography, who utilised the main door to the unit as a suitable background once everyone had assembled indoors and this arrangement proved to be a highly imaginative and give a very fitting ‘industrial’ look to the pictures taken there. Andrew also used four studio flash heads to illuminate the subject matter to great effect.

Hot on the heels of the biking evening, for which many thanks are due to the Spring Valley Industrial site owners, there was another good attendance for another practical evening when the creativity of members came to the fore.

Using an array of tripods, backdrops, and different forms of continuous lighting, the Committee had turned the St John Ambulance headquarters into a marvelous studio for the night, with highly pleasing modelled images of various forms of still life, being captured.

Society members (and guests) will next meet at 7pm on Wednesday, December 6, back at the St John Ambulance headquartets, for an assignment competition, the topic being sport.

With the recent educational talk given by Brian Goldie on this subject (which featured in a previous Courier report) still fresh in the mind and the follow-up invitation to members to photograph a ‘local’ match at the Union Mills Football Club pitch, this promises to be an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how much we have all learned! www.iomps.com

Antony Hamilton