The overall timetable of the monthly outings and meeting dates along with the topic for the President's Cup are listed below for 2026. Please email attendance to an outing a few days beforehand - so that a table can be booked at the meeting place for example. 

BPG 2026 Calendar of Meetings, Topics and Outings - modified July 20 2026

Note (PK Jan 25 2026): For some guidance on "High Key" and "Low Key" photography see our "Useful Links" page and the article
Also the View Youtube link to an informative session with Judy Hancock Holland provided by John,

For the 2026 timetable - download this PDF

For the 2025 timetable - download this PDF

For the 2024 timetable - download this PDF

I have put off - procrastinated - tackling the topic for the forthcoming August 2026 President's Cup, namely an image depicting a "Group of Three".

The criteria is open to some degree of personal interpretation as is the case with many creative ideas. Is it three objects/persons that are very similar - such as three red roses, capsicums, bottles. Alternatively could it be three different but related items such as two flowers and one vase. Maybe eating knife, fork and spoon - or three different plates.

Walking through Bundanoon during the recent Market Day I noticed many couples walking side by side each with a cup of takeaway coffee. If only I could get another to join them, then confront them to stand close together so I could take a close up of their hands and the coffee cups side by side. Oh, if I had my camera! But of course a phone could be used!

If you are addicted to watching TV programs such as The Block, Selling Houses, Rennovating Houses then you may have picked up that the pros usually use a group of three items to decorate a portion of a room or table, kitchen island bench etc. Or three cushions on lounges or double beds. How many cushions are at your place?

 So I went to the shed with the thought that I could take pictures of three similar items. Here are a few tools.

Then I wandered around in the garden and grabbed some small items and put them together.

Now you might want to play around with lighting and the composition such as short to tall, largest in the middle at back etc. (some changes shown above).

Also images might look different from different angles - side onto vases, or looking down, or up. Look for bad shadows. Lighting through a window to the side is good? Are the surfaces at all reflective and would that add to the impact of the image?

If you are close to the subject(s) you might want to be careful with your camera settings - such as aperture to get a good depth of field.

If you are comfortable with some "post processing" you might be able to select the background and make it considerably darker (or lighter) to draw attention to the main focus of the image.

Of course many may be "rejects" - only way to learn! Some of mine...

An earlier suggestion of mine - for the "macro" challenge - was to take images of your camera gear. Three cameras, three lenses, three tripods (if you win with this then you owe me a latte - 3 tripods with 3 legs each!!)

Of course, many large trucks with trailers that have groups of three axles drive on our main roads. Maybe a challenge is to vary the camera speed to display a motion effect of the set of wheels (whilst panning the camera - avoid parking bays near Goulburn!)

Good Luck!

When submitting your prize-winning entry be sure to write a line or "group of three lines" describing your image - such as basic camera/phone settings, what you were looking for in the image, any preparation such as lighting, time of day, camera setting challenges?

Please note that November's Topic is "Low Key" where the histogram is skewed to the left - as it would be for the 3 Tripods images. And the right image - single building, AMP Sydney with three different orientations/blocks etc is also skewed to the left/dark side.

The following "High Key" images were received for consideration and voting at the July 9 2026 meeting.

Alan Edward's tree image was voted the winner of the President's Cup whilst Sandy Berry's curved shell won the Pepperoni Prize.

The June 2026 meeting saw members submit what they considered to be their best image taken in the previous twelve months.

The following 13 entries were received to be voted upon by members at the June 11 2026 meeting. Unfortunately two of the six portrait submissions were severely cropped reducing their impact as images. Gen Graysons night time iphone image was taken in Sintra, Portugal, October 2025. After the tourist buses leave, the streets at night are practically empty. The background is a 10th century Moorish castle. It was awarded the coverted Pepperoni Prize