THURSDAY 1st APRIL
CHAIRMAN’S EVENING – BRIAN WETTON
Into every programme, for each season, a chairman’s evening is planned, where the chairman can ‘do as he/she wants’.
This year our chairman, Brian Wetton, decided that as he was at the end of his tenure he would entertain us with what has kept him entertained throughout the long twelve months of covid-19.
About a month into the first lockdown, Brian was invited to join a Facebook group, which was set up on the 25th March 2020, for photographers to participate in by adding one image per day whose title began with a particular letter of the alphabet starting with A and twenty six weeks later ending with Z. As we all know, apart from a short break in the summer, lockdown and the, at one time, tier system is still ongoing and so is the Facebook group. They are now given a particular seven character word for the images to be posted.
Now, for those of you who like statistics that is, including today (1st April 2021), a maximum number of 273 images per member of the Facebook group! When invited to join the group, Brian didn’t have a Facebook account so he joined and posted his first image on 26 April, that means he only has a maximum of 241 images – shame on you Brian!
He began our evening where he had started with the letter ‘E’ and immediately took us to India with his image of an elephant taking tourists up to the Amber Fort close to Jaipur, India. On his way to the letter ‘Z’ there were many more beautiful landscapes, portraits and architectural shots from the many holidays he and Christine have taken in not only Britain but all across Europe and Asia as well.
He admitted that some of the letters were a little tricky, especially when you had to find seven images to fit the letter X! How clever though to include the X of the arches in Wells Cathedral, an X box and the word xenophobia on a scrabble board. Some images had been reproduced from slides Brian had captured when slides were the only option available pre digital cameras, but no matter where they came from, Brian said he had thoroughly enjoyed the many trips down memory lane whilst searching through what must have been thousands of images taken over countless years in order to complete the challenge thrown down to him. With a time constraint put upon him, Brian didn’t get to show all his images, but I am sure come the next members evening he can pick up where he left off.
Thank you Brian for really enjoyable evening and sharing your wonderful images with us!