Taming the Chaos

This week’s meeting was on Zoom. Probably a good coincidence with the weather forecast of snow and ice.

There were 23 members in attendance to listen to the talk from Kieran Metcalfe ‘Taming the Chaos’. His tips, advice and workflow on Landscape photography.

Kieran is a freelance Graphic and Web designer in the real world, and photography is his hobby. He’s from the South Manchester area, another bonus for having the meeting on Zoom. Many of the pictures in his talk are from this area, and also the Peak District which is close for him.

There was so much covered that I’m only going to give a quick overview of his pointers, and I would strongly recommend that members watch the recording of the talk on the Members Page.

He opened the presentation talking about his ‘kit’, and the thinking behind the title ‘Taming the Chaos’. The natural world is somewhat chaotic, therefore taming the chaos fits, somehow ‘distilling’ a landscape scene.

He went on to talk about The Subject, the context and the camera settings.

If the light wasn’t right, think about taking macro shots. Composition was a big factor in creating a ‘nice’ picture into something ‘special’, he illustrated this with several comparison shots which really helped to show what he meant. Just by positioning yourself, or the camera differently can bring the picture alive. I suppose it’s easy to see a beautiful scene and expect your camera to just capture what you see, but Kieran showed how much more there is to beautiful landscape photography. And there certainly is a whole lot more.

I’m not sure I’d want to go for a walk in deep woodland with him and his imagination, but I loved the creativity of what he saw in the shapes of the trees and branches. Snakes, monsters and dancers! Although, in fairness, I could see what he saw before he interpreted. He explained and illustrated the difference of being able to capture these looks with the right lens and focal distance.

Thank you Kieran for an informative and inspiring evening.

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Next week is the third winner on the night competition for prints. Please remember to bring your prints if you entered! Judge for the evening is Paul Burwood.