Photographically, what really interests me is……
Week 15
Tuesday April 13, 2021 from 20:00 to 22:00 Attendees 29
Last night we had a remarkably interesting and fun evening when six members of the club shared their personal projects and interests during presentations.
John Timbrell began telling us that during lockdown he had been working on seven books of observational photography.
John had titled one of the books ‘Phone Age’ as all the pictures featured people with some type of mobile device.
John explained that social communication has changed very much in the last ten years and he wanted to document this in his pictures.
He told us that he chose many of the slides shared because of composition and went on to explain the place and circumstances they were taken. On of his images showed a couple having a meal, while the man spoke on the phone, for the entire meal!
Another image showed a woman working on her Laptop in a café and John observed how work could now be carried out almost anywhere.
His talk was a great insight into the changes that have happened almost without us realising the effects these have had on our lives and community.
Derek Green presented his talk called “To the Manor Born” which was about his four day stay in Cricket St Thomas. This is now a Warner’s Hotel set in eighty-seven acres of beautiful park which was once owned by the Taylor family. During his stay Derek met the two brothers from the family.
Derek joked that he had booked the Lord Nelson suite and after breakfast retired to his suite with his Lady Hamilton. (His Wife)
Derek had taken three beautiful images of the grounds which he shared with the Manager who then put them on display throughout the rooms downstairs in the hotel.
He had also entered them for our competitions achieving a good score for all.
Derek explained that the grounds had been a Theme park, used for Noel Edmunds House party which had featured on our televisions on Saturday evenings for many years with Mr Blobby. It was an interesting and very humorous talk.
Lyn Day has been a deep-sea photographer for twenty years and presented the club with a talk on the equipment, and the intricacies of diving especially with wreckages. She also told us of some places she had travelled to dive. She had some particularly good images showing us some of her underwater pictures.
Most people were amazed at the weight and amount of equipment, but after the talk we all had a good idea how difficult the hobby could be. It was a great talk.
After our tea break Carol continued with a power-point called “Weston Turville Reservoir with a difference.” She explained that she loved to take photographs but liked to change them into quirky, sometimes colourful, and bizarre pictures. She had set her power-point to music, but it didn’t work quite as it should have as she had not shared the music on Zoom. Carol explained that technically some of her images were not good, but they were impactful, raised an emotion in the viewer, and told a story of the Wildlife visiting the Reservoir.
Alan Taberer talked to us about his love of portraiture and introduced us to various famous portrait photographers. He detailed each one’s technique and said that his favourite was Andy Gotts MBE who he got to meet in 2014.
Andy Gotts began his career by introducing himself to Stephen Fry and asking him if he could take a portrait picture of him. He then asked him to nominate one friend for a portrait picture and this is how he continued until he had photographed many celebrities. Alan said that Gotts told him ‘the uniqueness of his pictures comes from the personalities portrayed by the picture.’
He had a new book called ‘Behind the Mask’ where he has again photographed celebrities without their make up and in not in typical Hollywood poses. Alan has been inspired by this book.
Brian Worley finished the evening with a presentation called “Capturing Sharper Shots.” Brian explained that to guarantee a sharp photograph you needed two things.
To achieve accurate focus
To achieve elimination of Movement.
Brian explained very clearly that the camera will always focus on the nearest thing to the lens an so on occasions the photographer must override the camera ‘s focus system and manually focus on what is wanted.
Holding a camera steadily to eliminate movement in a camera he explained using two hands and the eye works well and of a course a tripod.
A fast shutter speed will also help. Brain went onto say that if you are trying to shoot a car travelling at an amazingly fast speed you must up your iso and your shutter speed to account for the fast movement of the car. I/1600 should ensure a sharp photo.
The evening passed quickly and inspired other club members to share their projects and interest’s next time.
- Next week A Project Based Approach to Photography – producing images with the Wow factor – Guest Speaker David Keep