It has been a long time since we attempted the exercise of taking an image and letting members process it in any way they chose but there was an echo of an earlier attempt involving a donkey that will be referred to later. George Reekie provided us with three images. One was of Blackchurch Rock in Devon, another of a dancer and a third of a dog on a wet beach reflected in the water. Without any disrespect to George it is fair to say that the images were not perfect.
Blackchurch Rock is a bleak rocky feature with its prominent triangle jutting from rocks into the sky. The sky was bland and the original image somewhat dark. In addition to adjusting the exposure and sharpening various techniques were used to improve the colour, bring out detail in the sky or even replace it with a more interesting or dynamic sky and in one case stars. Different crops were made, though none was very radical. One example introduced a sun burst beside the rock and another turned the alien landscape into a Dr Who poster. Rugby players climbing up the rock were different. As I mentioned, some years ago our much loved but departed Audrey Gray, inserted a donkey into a window of an abandoned shed at Dungeness in a similar exercise. The donkey returned this time peering through the large gap in the rock. It would have been more dramatic if the same caption "Hello!!!" had been used again.
Photographing dance movement can be tricky. The second image was of a colourfully dressed dancer in a studio performing before a fabric wave. The original image was not especially sharp and the movement in the dancer's dress was Most efforts focussed on the dancer to the exclusion of much of the background and varying between converting to mono, blurring the image even more, creating multiple images to illustrate movement and enhancing the dancer's face. One image kept her face very sharp but twirled her body in a circular motion. Using the colours and the angles of her features another turned the image into an abstract aurora.
The dog was the most difficult with which to be creative but various attempts were made to reverse the image, concentrate on the body but eliminate the reflection, focus on the head, just the feet or only the reflection. There was a mono and a high key version but the most dramatic was of a basset hound with the shaggy head of highland cattle.
It was an interesting exercise in creativity and great fun. By way of contrast an presentation of photographing in snow ended the evening.