Do you remember those long days of childhood when you got up early and with a group of friends walked through woodlands and across heaths, made bows and arrows and watched the birds? When everything seemed right about the world and there were no problems to worry about.

Ruth's workshop last Sunday (7th November) wasn't quite as relaxed as this opening paragraph might suggest but a dozen members of the Society’s Landscape Group, armed with tripods and cameras tumbled out of bed around four o'clock in the morning to travel to beautiful Suffolk to practice our photographic techniques armed with the notes and suggestions of Ruth and a lot of personal enthusiasm. Ruth had scouted four venues for the day, Captain's Wood first, just after dawn, another smaller ancient woodland Staverton Thicks, then onto Hollesley Common and ending on the shingle at Shingle Street.

We practiced finding compositions with camera 'phones, tried different frame sizes and took hard and soft images. Ruth's advice was clear and enthusiastic and different for each venue. We tried portrait and landscape modes, using polarisers and checking how the shapes of trees related to one another.

As we were individually afoot in the different venues Ruth came round and offered encouragement and advice to everyone - suggesting dancing around the viewpoint to check different aspects, including leaves and sunlight into the frame for effect, thinking about how the picture might look in black and white.

The day ended on the beach at Shingle Street at sunset. A row of photographers outlined against the night sky with tripods and filters all pointing at the setting sun and all experiencing the good karma of a wonderful day of photography.

The effort of early rising and the hard mental work of working out the shots resulted in a glorious day out. Our thanks to Ruth, not just for the venues, but for the inspiration, ideas and enthusiasm.