Welcome to PhotoSoc

Welcome to PhotoSoc!!! Whatever you are interested in, if there are cameras, you've come to the right place! The society is growing very quickly and embarking on new initiatives, so there is plenty to do and plenty to chose from

What PhotoSoc does

- socials amongst ourselves. Sometimes we meet just to share photos, comment on various photographers, share ideas and techniques. Sometimes we have themes to our days and go around Bath and do, for example, some street photography, then another day we might go to the market and explore taking macro photos of food, etc etc.

- traveling. There are loads of people within the society with a passion for traveling, so a lot of that will be done this year. Maybe making day trips or even staying away one night around the UK (Bristol, Cardiff, Brighton, Cambridge, Penzance, etc

- mixing with other societies! There are loads of societies who ask for our assistance in taking amazing shots of their socials, their life or them generally having fun. There are some other societies which host very unique events (debates, meetings with important people, festivals, juggling with fire by the lake in the moonlight (Gravity Vomit!!) etc) so we'll be experimenting a lot of that

- photoshoots. There are a lot of people who contact the society asking for photographers to cover their events or have a photoshoot, on a more professional note. Sometimes they are paid, sometimes they are unpaid so amateur photographers can explore the professional arena without necessarily having to comply with expectations. There is a bit of everything.

Courses

This year, PhotoSoc has a course especially designed to suit the society's needs. Professional photographers from the ICIA (who teach courses at the arts center) and I have designed a course that is less demanding and less binding than the ones offered by the ICIA, and a lot more versatile

This semester it will be released as a fortnightly workshop lasting 2-3 hours on Saturday afternoons, starting at 1 or 2 pm (timings to be confirmed). The first lesson is aimed at helping beginners who have just approached photography to scratch up their knowledge on the more technical aspects of photography (aperture, focal length, bracketing, etc

The first one is on the 18th of October! Further details will be provided

The course is only £15 pounds, which means it's £3 a session, almost £1 an hour! This is a bargain! And there is an unlimited number of places!

To receive updates, join PhotoSoc so you are added to the mailing list. Through this, I will notify everyone on the course (details about the content of the lessons, timings, location and how to pay, etc)

Cameras and Equipment

Your own Camera

A lot of people in the past have asked what was needed to join PhotoSoc. Now, if you don't have a camera, that does beat the purpose of the society - how will you learn anything! But you don't need  it. There are many things we do that don't involve cameras (socials, discussing about photographers at someone's house just chilling, going to the National Portrait Gallery in London, etc)

As for the type of camera, no one needs a huge big and heavy SLR to join the society! There are some photographers profesionally experimenting with cellphone cameras, so if they manage to take great shots with that, I'm sure everyone can go quite far with a point and shoot. And anyways, it's about sharing a passion, not about taking the best photo in the world. There is space for that, but that isn't the main purpose of the society

Renting

The society has a lot of equipment you can rent. The rental is £1 per day, for anything that is rented. It's an extremely small amount, but at least it helps us fund things for the rest of the society throughout the year and it enables us to buy more equipment for all of you guys

Things there are to rent

- lighting equipment. (soft boxes, flashes, etc

- film cameras (a vintage Praktica with a set of three lenses; a relatively new film Canon EOS

- a new digital camera Canon 1000D with a set of three lenses

- a tripod

- books

- a film scanner

and hopefully a lot more soon as we'll be getting more equipment

To Join

Buy the £4 membership on this page! Then join the facebook group It’s Photosoc 2009-2010 and it's part of the Bath University Network

This is a link http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159409160961&ref=ts

extensively. This is where everything will be posted, all the events, all the photos taken during the events, so everyone can share photos ideas and comments and information

One thing that is fundamental: if you plan on coming to an event, put yourself as “Attending the event!”on the facebook event status. It is vital that you do this because events can change massively in character if there are only 5 people coming or 60, and it has to be organized beforehand

JOIN! And :) can't wait to meet you all!