It’s time to get the Portfolio group back and running. I hope you are all both energised and inspired by the work created by our members last year, and that some of you will join in this year.

Just to set the scene:

• A portfolio is a personal body of work that you collect and create into a way to share this work with others.
• You can be a beginner or an advanced photographer, and we only ask that you do your best, based on the level of skill you have.
• There are some basic rules that I will share when we next meet.

Our first meeting will be on Tuesday 18th March, from 7.30 in the main room at Mount Waverley Community Centre (where we have all of our usual meetings).

For those of you that created a portfolio in 2024, please bring this along to share and discuss. Think about what you learnt, what worked, what was difficult, and what you might have done differently. We will also spend a little time discussing ideas you might have for 2025.

Everyone is welcome to join in.

We have drafted the following outings for the Birding SIG in 2025:

Date	Location
Friday 7 March 2025	Healesville Sanctuary
Saturday 5 April 2025	Stringybark Creek Nature Walk
Friday 27 June 27 2025	Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary
Friday 22 to Sunday 24 August 2025	Bendigo weekend away
Saturday 13 September 2025	Western Treatment Plant
Friday 10 October 2025	Wicks Reserve
Friday 14 November 2025	Cranbourne Botanic Gardens

• Most of the outings are within half an hour to one hour drive of Melbourne.
• September outing to Western Treatment Plant needs members who have the key.
• Weekend away will be a trial as Bendigo has a lot of hot birding spots, car-pool is encouraged.
• A couple of Zoom meeting will be needed to make sure the smooth running of these outings.
• This is only a draft, just for planning purposes. It can be changed with advanced notice and it also depends on the weather.
• Please make sure to check your email and the weekly Watson for the updated information, including changes.
• Everyone is welcome to come along, but reply email or text messages are much appreciated for each outing.

Our first outing is to Healesville Sancturary in less than 2 weeks, details will be sent out next weekend.

The creative sessions for 2024 will be taking a slightly different direction this year, the first session will be hosted by Geoff Shaw on Tuesday 13th February 2024 and will cover:

1. What is Creative photography – Helen Warnod
2. In Camera BLUR – Jen Fawkes
3. Focus on Shirley Steel’s work – Jenny Adams
4. Appreciation/ review of uploaded images for February – Tim Keane
5. Discussion of sessions for the rest of 2024 – Paul Spence

After a very busy first 6 months of this year, I’ve finally got back to putting StreetBeat back on the agenda. There are some changes and I’m trialing something different. The aim of all of this is learning to ‘see’ so the arrangements and format will be different from what you might be used to.

StreetBeat will run on the last Friday of the month at 10am, at a location in Melbourne that will be accessible by public transport. (so mark your calendars). The location will be announced in Waverley Watson each month.

The format will be a little different, so instead of just wandering around a location, participants will be given a theme to look for. This might be an art element (a color, shape), shadows, words, people, reflections or light. Participants will be given an hour and a coffee spot for us all to reunite for some social time.

Afterwards people are welcome to continue on their street photography journey or head off home. New photographers are always welcome and we will try to link you up with someone that can help you.

I hope you will join me to get to know Melbourne better and to see Melbourne through fresh eyes. If you have any further questions please just ask.

And yes, the first StreetBeat will be this month, on Friday 28th July 2023 at 10am on the steps of the State Library for our first challenge.

Wednesday 10th May 2023 at 7:30pm over Zoom.

• PSA Interclub Round 3 results to date
• Making better images – before, during and after

It’s time to get our portfolio projects for 2023 underway.

You will have received an email earlier this year outlining some of the changes to the portfolio rules, to allow more images, more creativity and more fun.

Our first meeting will be on Thursday 27th April 2023, from 7:30pm in the craft room at Mount Waverley Community Centre (the usual place we meet). This will be face-to-face, and there will be a reminder in the weekly Waverley Watson.

At this meeting I will cover:
1. a quick review of the 2022 portfolios with some feedback and general comments
2. an overview of how the portfolio projects will be run this year with an overview of the new rules
3. a quick overview of how you might approach your portfolio

I hope you have all started to think about your theme, and we will give some time to share what you are planning. Remember, the aim is to get support, ideas and directions from others. This is not a competition so as much as we can share, the stronger your portfolio will be.

ALL members are welcome, of all levels of photographic ability. Even if you are just curious, come along and get excited.