The art of storytelling at Leighton Buzzard Photographic Club

Lloyd is a photographer, a member and Past-President of the Watford Camera Club, and a very experienced CACC judge.

As both a photographer and judge, Lloyd had recognised that many images are actually quite “samey”. His talk aimed to encourage photographers to distinguish their work from other very similar images.

Storytelling (ie, the indication that something is happening) could be a large part of that, although there are other elements which can provide the extra ingredient needed to create something different.

So, to be successful in competitions, an image should have impact, originality, narrative, mood, atmosphere, a decisive moment, author input, behaviour, or movement. Images without at least one of these elements might be technically sound but were also likely to be soulless and/or boring.

Rather than merely documenting a scene, adding the extra element can turn a “nice” image into something with interest and meaning. Using his award-winning images as examples, Lloyd helpfully showed us the “before and after”, the thoughts that went into producing them, and how he had prepared them for competitions.

We are always keen to share our passion for photography and provide a warm welcome for new members at our meetings (at Greenleas School, Derwent Road). We run a varied programme of activities for photographers of all levels.

See our website at lbpc.org.uk for details and join us soon to unleash your creativity.