The Bermuda Society of Arts' Fall Members' Show at their City Hall gallery is something of a mixed bag. As is not infrequently the case, photographs tended to outshine paintings. The photographs were mixed in amongst the paintings with no apparent reason and both sets of photographs and sets of paintings were split up around the gallery adding to the confusion.Individual artists' works were also spread about at random, making the viewing experience altogether staccato.

Almost the only set that is shown coherently is by Peter Lapsley, the Gallery's curator. Titled "When Confusion Reigns it Pours", it is a series of five mixed media works on paper and seems to have been inspired by TV projections of recent hurricanes related to ever increasing renditions of chaos, represented by wilder and wilder ink blots and splashes.

Sue Grass missed a wonderful opportunity for literary wit in the title of her decorative series "Leaves". These are a group, in various sizes, of highly textured canvases superimposed with silhouetted leaves in monochrome.The colour schemes are well controlled and clear in circumstances that might easily have become muddied. Four of the group are hung together, one at a considerable distance away so that the group cannot be seen as a whole.

An interestingly textured work by Joyce Joell Hayden consisted of crushed eggshells in layers on a canvas or board sprayed with two colours of gold paint. Called "Midas Hatch" its fascination lay in the varying intensities of refraction depending on the angle of view.

Otto Trott's mastery of texture in nature was well displayed in his two works done at the unfinished church in St. George's, both a little away from his usual subject matter. Both set tangled nature against the weathered stone formality of the church to excellent effect. The counterpoint of the shadow of the palm leaves in "Palmetto" is particularly satisfying.

Two mixed media prints, "Conundrum" and "Clasp", by Jackie Stevenson were created from the same collection of more or less identifiable textured elements printed in different colour schemes. They caught my imagination in a way that her two water colour collages failed to do. This isn't because of any failure of concept, but rather because Ms Stevenson seems so uncomfortable with watercolour as a medium.

Kok Wan Lee, probably the Island's most prolific artist, has two pairs of works, "Chatting I and II" and "Listening I and II". The two "Chattings" are sequential and intriguing abstractions of progressive intimacy.

Incomprehensibly they are separated in the Gallery in a way that makes it almost impossible to see them in one gaze. This is both irritating and completely unnecessary. His two "Listenings" are hung together and are rather loud in colour scheme for such a passive occupation.

The principal part of the art of the photographer comes in how he sees what he sees. A certain amount of contrivance is sometimes possible, but usually nature provides. After that comes the technique with which he uses his mechanical medium.

Juliette O'Connor sees what she sees uniquely. "Sidestep" is wittily titled and it is only with attention that what appears to be an abstract in assembled textured verticals is in fact a photograph of a flight of aged concrete steps shown on its side.

"Rust" is of an ancient, decrepit punt, its paint peeling, its seems split, its single venerable sculling rowlock on the stern hanging forlornly in rusted disuse. Beached on flagstones this is a sad monument to an almost vanished aspect of Bermuda. On the other hand her pair, "Wet and Dry I and II" working chains on a slip in and out of the water is testimony to the still vital maritime life in Bermuda - even though I haven't seen anyone sculling a punt with a single oar over the stern for many years.

There are two photographs of reflections in water, a not uncommon subject, but here so remarkably different that they illustrate my point about the eye of the photographer extraordinarily well. One is "Water Chrome", an almost black and white work of strong contrast and intensity by Daniel Atwood, the other a pattern of aqua colour divided into four sections by vertical lines distorted in the reflection, by Charles Anderson.

Both these artists range over a wide field for their inspiration. Atwood is also showing a single bright frangipani nestled amongst the dark leaves of its tree and a heap of disintegrating rope on the rocks, sharpened by the branch of a dead casuarina in one corner, a study in contrasting textures.

Anderson's "Road to Zion", stark footprints in wet sand almost all going in one direction is only slightly marred by the fact that one unmistakable track not only goes the way of the others, but also in the other direction as well.

His "On the Fence" seems to have been a sidelong look at some brightly coloured graffiti painted on a white fence. Whatever the subject the result is decorative and compositionally fascinating. Perhaps the most beautiful of his work here is "Abalone", a close-up of the shell of that mollusc resulting in an exquisitely coloured abstract of swirling composition.

In a similar vein, but with entirely different subject matter are three photographs of ancient dead cedars by Gillian Outerbridge. The wood is corrupted by time and by worm. The combination of the natural form and grain of the wood and the decay it has suffered make for splendid contrast and line composition. These are small gems.

In the Edinburgh Gallery are the iconic works of Edwin M.E. Smith, senior lecturer in art and design at the Bermuda College. For whatever reason, Mr. Smith is obsessed with motorbikes, which he photographs brilliantly, herein a series of four entitled "Cycle Cycle". His iconic bent, however, leans him toward the surreal in painting, a style for which he seems to lack the technical resources and craftsmanship. This failing so diminishes the potential impact of Mr. Smith's work as to reduce it almost to the trite.This is sad because, with the necessary technique, the artist might well convey an important message.

I have usually closed my reviews of shows at the Bermuda Society of Arts with an exhortation to go in and see them. There is good value in this show,but it is so confusingly hung that it takes work to pick your way through it.