A new season is underway at Sidmouth Photographic Club and the first few meetings have brought in a wave of new members – all keen to meet like-minded people and share ideas and images, learn, improve and be inspired at this friendly club.

The programme of Wednesday evening meetings at All Saints’ Church Hall, Sidmouth, features a variety of topics, while a line-up of special interest groups and outings completes a packed 2023-24 calendar.

Regular sessions each month feature showcase evenings, where members share images from club trips and any personal photographic or audio-visual projects, internal competitions (Print, Digital and Mobile) judged by external judges based in the SW and trained and accredited by the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF) and tutorials or workshops – practical sessions to help members get the most from their photography and post-processing software, such as camera tips and tricks, flash photography, bringing images to life, macro workshop and painting with light.

The club will host talks by guest photographers – Kirsty Peake ‘Yellowstone’; Marko Dutka ‘At The Going Down Of The Sun’; Chris Shepherd ‘Composition & Catastrophe’; Mike Bennett ‘Visual Jukebox’ and Malcolm Macnaughtan ‘A Land Of Mountains And Flood’.

This season, SPC will meet neighbouring clubs Torbay and Honiton in two annual inter-club ‘Battles’, plus exchange and critique images with clubs based in the Netherlands and Finland and view the WCPF’s Travelling Exhibition. Several social evenings with ‘fun’ photography competitions completes the line-up of weekly meetings.

Aside from regular club nights, a special interest group organises monthly outdoor photo walks, there will be field sessions aimed at helping members develop photographic skills and techniques with their camera or mobile phone and the club will offer advisory meetings for members interested in working towards Royal Photographic Society Distinctions.

There’s something for everyone keen on taking pictures in the busy programme at SPC – regardless of experience or camera equipment! New members are welcome at any time of the year, but there’s no better time to join than now, to enjoy all that’s planned for the coming months.

The images in this gallery are from some of the club’s summer photo walks to locations close to Sidmouth - Mutters Moor, Exeter Quay, Bridport and the Lower Otter Restoration Project at Budleigh Salterton. More information about the club can be found at sidmouthphotoclub.org