We were honoured to be asked to judge the recent Love St Helens photography competition for 2025. Suffice to say it was almost impossible to choose winners from the submitted photographs, instead we decided to award Judges choice awards, as the standard of the competition was so high that is was impossible to pick just one winner.
May we thank all the staff and members of St Helens Parish Church for their efforts in organizing this event and allowing us to comment on the photographers work.
Once we have a date for the public exhibition we will publish it on here, so please keep coming back to see when it starts.
Not long to go until we begin our 2025 season, this is our 125th anniversary year so we are putting together a program of events which should cover most genres of photography.
We start on the 8th September where we are hosting a photo exhibition arranged by St Helens Parish Church for Love St Helens.
Showcasing amazing photographs taken by residents of St Helens.
On the 22nd of September we are holding a fashion exhibition in association with Zero over the summer we took a team of photographers into the town to shoot an editorial fashion camaign for the brand. on the 22nd we are inviting staff and customers to come along and see the result of all their work, there will be a short introduction and talk about how we shot the campagin and then the exhibition will be opend to the audience. There will be an opportunity to have selected prints signed and presented to anyone who would like to own one. Please come along to see what the camera club can offer the community and how photography can support people and sustainable brands like Zero.
Our year to end of 2025 syllabus is presented as follows please have a look and perhaps you too would like to start your photographic journey. No DSLR required, bring along your phone camera and desire to produce some great pictures. Keep looking at the page as we will be presenting a three part portrait workshop and Macro photography practical evening as well as our 2026 syllabus.
Is photographing people something you avoid? Do you prefer to photograph landscapes ? Why ?
Photographing people can be the most rewarding experience you can have, it might be a new addition to the family, a special occasion or that special holiday and you want to take better holiday photos.
Perhaps you want to experience a studio shoot, working with Flash (it’s not as difficult as you might think) or take the flash outdoors ?
Well in this intensive series of workshops we are introducing the members to taking great portraits. Both men and women will be covered as the lighting can be quite different.
Join our two working photographers as they introduce you to the equipment they use on a shoot, and how to pose and light your subject.
In the second Workshop they will be leading a practical night of portrait photography, having two highly experienced portrait photographers on hand to lead you on set and to help you produce high quality portraits. Please note this will be a practical night, however should you wish to attend without shoot you are more than welcome to experience what a real-life shoot looks like.
Our final workshop will be to demonstrate how to post produce the photographs you have produced.
We will be demonstrating the workflow from RAW development, pixel editing and plugin support.
Using a combination of Free software, paid for software and subscription software so there will be no barrier to you producing the best portraits you can.
Welcome to a New World, we are delighted that two of our most experienced Photographers will be sharing their skills with us. On the 17th November we are holding a practical night focussed on macro photography we will have three shooting stations rigged and ready for our members to shoot at. Hopefully producing some competition worthy photographs for this season. John and Gavin will be hosting this and it really is not one to miss.
We are very pleased to be working alongside two wonderful partners in 2025. We start with our presentation night with #Lovesthelens Photo Exhibition which has been running during our Summer break and which we have been involved with. The 8th September will be our chance to host the event, we will be presenting the members images and celebrating the photographers of St Helens. The 15th September will be our first Competition of the Season which is designated as ‘Open’
Following this on the 22nd September we will be partnering with Zero Fashion Brand to showcase their sustainability ethos and to showcase our own Photographers who shot two Fashion shows within the Town, there will be many opportunities to view the fashion photos and to talk with our photographers about their experiences and perhaps draw upon their experience should you wish to start a career in fashion photography.
Finally on the 29th September we will begin our three parts ‘Light, Pose, Produce’ series of portrait workshops hosted by two of our professional portrait Photographers. the 29th session will concentrate on practical aspects of lighting a subject as well as discussions and advice about flash equipment, modifiers, working with on set talent and how to successfully run an efficient and productive shoot. We will be working with some highly talented subjects and will concentrate on the technical aspects of the Art.
While the tea cup and the buscuits might have changed in the past century or so, we are still taking wonderful pictures with cameras, we might not shoot film too much today however with the advance of digital cameras and our mobile phone cameras we have more access to photography than any time in history.
Our 2025/26 season starts in September and we are runing events all through the summer, why not come along to explore what the next 125 years might meant for the art of photography.
In 2025 we are celebrating 125 years of taking great photographs. To help us celebrate this we are appearing in St Helens Town Hall as part of the towns Heritage Festival. On the 31st May 2025 we will be displaying cameras, magazines and photographs from the clubs rich history.
The towns celebration details can be found at this link
Some of our experienced members will be available all day to answer any questions you might hove about the club past and present as well as offering advice about photography and how you too could become a member.
As part of the celebrations some of our members will be out and about taking photos to add to our archive and to share and celebrate across our socail media.
We are also holding our exhibition at St Helens Parish Church in Church Square.
Has had one of his images accepted by the London Salon for this year’s exhibition. This is such a wonderful achievement and we all congratulate him on his acceptance. Tillman has had an incredible career in photography, and this is one of the highlights of his success.
On Monday 7th April 2025 we are hosting the Inter-Mersey competition with our respected Judge Martin Pickles.
Why not come along to see some of the most prestigious photographs taken by Merseyside photographers.
Doors open at 1930hrs for a prompt 2000hrs start
This will be our last formal meeting of the 2024/2025 season. However, we have a full summer months program in place.
So, if you have ever desired to learn how to use that DSLR camera lying in your bag, or how to creatively use your smart phone camera. then why not join us at one of our Summer get togethers.
Indeed, if there are any 35mm film camera users out there, we would love to see you at one of our meetings.
Details will be posted on our social media site as well as our Social Media page
