The group meets fortnightly on Friday afternoons from 2-4pm at Alford Hall, Manchester Road WA1 3NJ (just out of town past Kingsway North). There is plenty of parking available. On those Fridays in the early part of the schedule we also run sessions on confidence gaining in your photography (see below).

The levels of skill and experience are wide-ranging and beginners are welcome, although it helps to have a basic understanding of the subject.

Meetings are intended to offer a relaxed group forum to provide mutual help mixed with competitions and reviews with constructive criticism. Meeting notes are circulated to members afterwards.

Typically we have the following types of meeting:

EXTERNAL SPEAKERS – once or twice per year we get a professional photographer to come and speak to us about their speciality. We may have to charge for these to cover speaker costs.

GROUP MEETINGS/INTERNAL SPEAKERS – a mixture of talks by members about software, techniques, projects or of practical sessions to try something out.

BI-MONTHLY COMPETITIONS on a specified theme – members are encouraged to submit (usually) 2 A4 prints. There is no obligation to submit photos and you can still take part in the judging.

PHOTOSHOOT & REVIEW – these take place throughout the year, shoots are organised at a variety of locations in the area. At the following meeting there is a print review and a review of digital images. For the print review, members are encouraged to bring (usually) 4 A4 prints. Again there is no obligation to submit prints and you can still take part in the assessment, or just listen and learn from others' comments.

Exhibitions - we try to arrange visitor friendly exhibitions every summer. Most recently these have been

There is also an ANNUAL MEAL in January.

We have a PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP where members can post photos or details of events that may be of interest and where we will display the photographs that do well in our challenges. We may also use a Dropbox gallery to submit, display and judge competition entries. We use Flickr to display photos that have done well in photoshoot reviews and bi-monthly competitions (link below).

For those wishing to get more familiar with their camera and photography we also run a short series of Workshop Sessions from late September to January, meeting before the main group session (10:30 to 12:30 also at Alford Hall). This covers how to set up your camera or phone to take the best pictures in different situations. It allows members to concentrate on taking more creative photographs while the camera does most of the work! It includes taking portraits and groups of people, landscape photography, techniques for taking close-up, wildlife and action pictures as well as simple editing. Phone camera users are welcome.

The Group Coordinator can be contacted by following the Contact link at the top of this page.

See below for the current year's programme and competitions.

2026-27 Information

https://warrington.u3asite.uk/facebook

https://www.flickr.com/photos/202180094@N05/albums

Alfred & Mary Malone Memorial Prize

Our annual competition includes a presentation of the Alfred & Mary Malone Memorial Prize for Photography trophy to the winner.

This trophy has been created and presented to us by the late Paul Malone in commemoration of his mother, Mary, who started the Warrington U3A Photography group. Paul and friends of his have been selecting the winner from a digital gallery we create for him. Group members also select their favourites at a meeting in June.

Unfortunately Paul died suddenly in June 2026.

The 2026-7 Competition is entitled 'Festivals and Annual Events'.

Winners of previous competitions are shown on our Flickr group.

• Annual Memorial Web-page