AT the start of our meeting this week, our President, Brian Ireland, announced that Hubert Martin had passed away. A very well known official and formidable tennis player, Hubert had also been a member of the Probus Club for many many years. Members stood in silent tribute to an exceptional man.

The Club has also received a bequest from Ken Perkins, who had died earlier in the year. Ken had been our President in 2006 and is greatly missed.

Last week our speaker was Peter Preece, who, together with his wife Maureen, gave a presentation entitled Every Picture Tells a Story in which he enthralled us with wildlife (and other) photographs.

He praised the capabilities of modern digital cameras but feared that the lack of a physical record – in the form of a print or a slide – meant that photographs had lost their permanence.

On behalf of the members, Steve Swarbrick thanked Peter and Maureen for bringing us such superb pictures.

And this week our speaker was Andrew Harris, the Harris paint brush manufacturer, of Droitwich. He showed us a variety of photographs taken by the celebrated British photojournalist, Don McCullin, CBE, who is particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. The war photos, most in black and white, were horrifying. And the pictures for example from the Congo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Northern Ireland and Biafra reminded us how brutal human beings can be.

McCullin too has embraced modern digital cameras but warned that as digital images can be manipulated they should be treated with extreme caution.

Don McCullin’s still life images, coupled with those we had seen last week, showed us a completely serene, and perhaps an incorrect view of our world.

John Cotton thanked Andrew on our behalf.

On 3 November we shall hear about miscellaneous mechanicals - whatever they are!

CHRIS DONOUGH