February Newsletter
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February Newsletter U3A PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP The Photography Group had been meeting twice monthly, apart from a summer break, for twelve years when, early in 2020, Jeff Thatcher indicated that he wished to reduce his load as our long-time Group Leader. There was no wish by Jeff or any of the members to close the Group, but discussion on its future was delayed by the COVID-19 lock down in March. It was clear that we needed a revised format for our meetings, with more involvement and participation by the members. Meanwhile, the Emsworth Arts Trail had been cancelled so we were unable to hold our usual annual exhibition at the Community Centre. Just to show that we were still in business, we put a selection from what would have been our exhibition images on to the Ems Valley U3A website. Our members have cameras ranging from smartphones to DSLRs. Any future programme had to appeal to all these users, so members were invited to suggest topics they would like to be covered, both theoretical and practical. Given this information, a representative six members of the Group, the most allowed at the time, met to plot a future programme. Left: ‘MOONRISE’ by Patick Colin Prior to this, Jeff had agreed to stand down as the Group Leader and Roger Bleasby was ‘appointed’ to take his place. We were very pleased that Jeff was happy to remain as our Consultant to share his technical and photographic expertise as ever. Roger made it clear that, although agreeing to be Group Leader, he was not going to be personally designing and/or delivering the programme. That would have to be done entirely by the Group members. The Group would have to be proactive to maintain interest and thrive. The ‘representative six’ held outside meetings in their gardens, as then permitted, and decided that Group meetings should continue to be held twice monthly in the Community Centre. Every month one of the meetings would include a talk by one of the members, each one suggesting, researching and producing the material - it was not expected that members should be expert in their chosen field, just interested enough to explore the subject, with outside help as needed. The talk would then form the subject of an assignment, with members being invited to submit three images each for review at the following month’s meeting Outings and guest speakers would also be arranged, together with practical workshop sessions. A 2020/2021 programme was produced, starting in September 2020, and circulated to our members, just in time to fall foul of a further lock-down! A field trip to Portchester had to be cancelled and also use of the Community Centre. Risk assessment requirements and increasing lock-down have put paid to other ideas for field trips in the immediate future. That said, several members made their way individually to Portchester and a selection of their photos from this ‘cancelled’ trip can be viewed on the U3A website. A prompt revision of our programme saw meetings cut to one a month on Zoom. Each meeting has included a talk and a review for the previous assignment. Carefully prepared and well-received talks have been given by Nicola Hammond (Low Light Photography), Shirley Court (Food), and Martin Stewart (How to Critique Images). At the time of writing we are looking forward to a visiting speaker, Jill Stanley ARPS, who will be talking to us at our February Zoom meeting about Flower Photography. Jill is a member of our U3A and was an original member of our Photography Group. She put together our first two Arts Trail exhibitions. Future talks by members will include Weather, Breaking the Rules, Portraiture, and Rural Landscape - and there remains a long list of topics that members have suggested. Left: FRUIT & VEG by John Harwood We welcome new members to our Group. If you are interested, please click ‘Groups’ on our U3A website, then click ‘Photography’ and leave a message after clicking on the bird (top right). There follows a selection of images submitted by members for the Low Light and Food assignments. Roger Bleasby LOW LIGHT PROJECT top left: Town centre in blue hour, John Harwood top right: Dining out, Maureen Power bottom: Racing hut after sundown, Nicola Hammond FOOD PROJECT Red cabbage abstract, Martin Stewart Yorkshire Alfresco Lunch - Roger Bleasby Croque Madame - Martin Stewart How was “MURPHY’S LAW so named? Edward Aloysius Murphy Jr. (January 11, 1918 – July 17, 1990) was an American aerospace engineer who worked on safety-critical systems but best known for his namesake Murphy's law, which is said to state, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Murphy regarded the law as crystallizing a key principle of defensive design, in which one should always assume worst-case scenarios. In 1952, after serving in the United States Air Force, Murphy carried out a series of rocket acceleration tests at Holloman Air Force Base, then returned to California to pursue a career in aircraft cockpit design. He worked on crew escape systems for some of the most famous experimental aircraft of the 20th century, and during the 1960s, he worked on safety and life support systems for Project Apollo, and ended his career with work on pilot safety and computerized operation systems on the Apache helicopter. Let’s give you a few examples, even if we have stretched Murphy’s law a little: 1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. 2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well. 3. A day without sunshine is like, well, night. 4. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine. 5. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't. 6. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong. 7. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it. 8. Torch: A case for holding dead batteries. 9. God gave you toes as a device for finding furniture in the dark. 10. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people, who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. You maybe be left wondering about his brother, Sod. Sod's law is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law ("Whatever can go wrong will go wrong"). ... While Murphy's law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (eventually), Sod's law requires that it always goes wrong with the worst possible outcome. Have a good day…. WHY TEACHERS take to drink! These are genuine answers from 16 year olds Q. Name the four seasons A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar Q. How is dew formed A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed Q. What are steroids A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs Q. What happens to your body as you age A.. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty A.. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes A. Premature death Q. What is artificial insemination A. When the farmer does it to the cow instead of the bull. Q. How can you delay milk turning sour A. Keep it in the cow (Simple, but brilliant) Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.g. The abdomen) A.. The body is consisted into 3 parts - the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A,E,I,O,U Q. What is the fibula? A.. A small lie Q. What does 'varicose' mean? A.. Nearby Q. What is the most common form of birth control A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium. (suppose that would work) Q. Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean section' A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome Q. What is a seizure? A.. A Roman Emperor. (Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit) Q. What is a terminal illness A. When you are sick at the airport. (Irrefutable) The latest advances in ZOOM! 1. Raising your Hand in Zoom (using an Icon) The location of the “Raise Hand” option has changed in the latest version of the Zoom app (officially called the Zoom client). This can now be found as follows: · For Windows and MacOS clients – Select “Reactions” icon on the Zoom control bar then “Raise Hand” · For Android and iPad – Select “More” then “Raise Hand”. The raised hand icon is now yellow (previously blue) and is much more noticeable. You can continue to use the keyboard shortcuts for raising and lowering your hand: Alt+Y in Windows and Option+Y in MacOS. (With thanks to Tony Dale of BetaPlus for identifying the above changes, and to Susan Resouly for bringing them to our attention.) 2. Updating the Zoom client It is important to install new versions of the Zoom app to obtain new features and security improvements. Some updates will download automatically or prompt you to download, but many do not.