Our oldest member, Graham Nicholls, entertained us royally when he led the recent club evening with a presentation that featured his photographic exploits during the past twelve months, writes Jenny Short, chair of Norton Radstock Photographic Society.

We were treated to a visual ramble through the months of 2024 that was filled with fun and laughter, and engaged us wonderfully with anecdotes and tales from yesteryear that seamlessly linked with the endeavours of himself and his family, aptly punctuated with the droll comments from Iris, his long-suffering wife of many years.

Now in his ninetieth year, Graham is a man of many talents, who, in years gone by, was in much demand as an author and lecturer of some note on all things floral. He and Iris travelled extensively in the USA in those days, staying with friends while discovering, and bringing home, a number of foreign species that have since blossomed in the garden they have tended for over 40 years.

We laughed at tales of leaking cisterns and squeaky violins that kept him awake in Denver, whilst admiring the Lemhi Purple plant that survived the journey home from Idaho. He illustrated every month of the year with images from the garden in which he now safely soldiers on, with the help of Iris and a set of walkie talkies! Their garden abounds with wildlife too - strutting pheasants and cheeky, thieving, squirrels that growl at him from the treetops were all the focus of his photos, together with bees and insects captured through his macro lens in all their glory, against the vibrant colours of the flowers.

Graham is a living example of the fact that you can teach an old dog new tricks. It is guaranteed that he will try techniques introduced at practical sessions, and there was something for everyone - ICM for Pamela, experimental photo elasticity for Jenny, and macro efforts for U3a members.

Never daunted by optical illusions, multiple exposures or high-speed sporting action, he simply has a go, although he does admit to not always knowing exactly which button he pressed or how many exposures he took!.

It was a really typical NRPS social evening with a photographic twist, delivered with humour by a lovely man.