landscape — PUBLIC BLOG — NDPS | Norwich & District Photographic Society

Landscapes of Victorian Alpine Regions (Australia) by Mieke Boynton

Last evening NDPS hosted a special presentation by the landscape photographer Mieke Boynton, from Bright, Australia. The presentation was shared with members of the Sheffield Photographic Society.

At eight o'clock about forty members of NDPS settled into their seats in the studio of Norwich Academy and a similar number from Sheffield logged in to watch on Zoom. Mieke is no stranger to NDPS, this is her third presentation to us, and it was good to share the work of such an outstanding practitioner with our colleagues from Sheffield. For Mieke it was six o'clock on a hot, summer morning, hence her summer dress, and for us it was winter with gales and rain.

Mieke took us on a landscape photographer's tour of the Australia where she lives - the Victorian High Country. She began by reminding us of the size and scope of Australia, a huge continent with an incredibly diverse geography, animal and plant life. Throughout her presentation she showed us beautiful captures of deciduous trees in autumn colours, apparently brought from England!

Special PresentationMaurice YoungJanuary 3, 2024alpine, australia, landscape, lond exposure, mist, fog

Wildlife and Landscape Possibilities in Epping Forest by Peter Warne

Peter began his inspiring talk by describing the Forest which covers an area of 6,000 acres and is 12 miles north to south, 2.5 miles wide and represents the remains of an ancient royal hunting forest.

He began with descriptions of water features. First up was Highams Park, accessed from a train line from Liverpool Street or parking on the road. The drain from the lake provided photo opportunities with lots of water birds: black headed gulls, moorhens, coots, cormorants and herons. Lots of colourful birds also; parakeets and green woodpeckers. There are even lots of rats living in the area.

Then Connaught Water, on the River Ching. This area you have to drive to and it is very, very popular and there is a charge for car parking. Again, there are interesting birds - nuthatch, tree creeper, kingfishers (who fish the ditches), green and great spotted woodpeckers and grebes. In addition there are 5 pairs of breeding herons and, oddly, terrapins!

The third pond was Wake Valley Pond. From the Wake Arms roundabout the Wake Valley car park in Lodge Road is accessible. Here Peter mentioned dragon flies, the Downy Emerald, emerging in May/June. These form food for ducklings and wagtails. Also in this area is a piece of heathland, a great backdrop for dawn landscapes, grass snakes, adders and lizards.

Special Presentation, Wildlife, Nature, LandscapeMaurice YoungSeptember 20, 2023epping forest, landscape, atumn colour, birdlife, fungi

Undiscovered Essex by Justin Minns

Justin, a well-known photographer, long-time friend of NDPS and now a Society member, opened our 2023/24 season with a brand new presentation. Undiscovered Essex was based on his experiences gaining Licentiate and Fellow qualifications from the Royal Photographic Society.

Justin began with a short biography going back in time to when he began his career as a professional photographer. Interestingly he said that initially he wanted the qualifications only for him to be able to add letters after his name and thus gain not only kudos but an aura of professionalism which could, perhaps, further his career as a photographer. He described how ten years ago he put together his submission for a Licentiate qualification and how he achieved this through taking lots of advice. But now, with the qualification in the bag and the letters after his name, his view of the RPS qualifications changed. He found that the exercise had made him scrutinise his work more carefully. He saw that his photography was benefitting from his careful examination - there were added benefits to be had from those letters after his name!

Having achieved Licentiate he discovered that he could leapfrog the Associate level and go straight into Fellowship. And so he did. His Fellowship panel was entitled 'Undiscovered Essex'. The title of his presentation this evening.

Special Presentation, Photo-talkMaurice YoungSeptember 7, 2023essex, lrps, arps, frps, landscape, distinctions

Cambridge Digital Inter-Club Competition 2023

The regional club competitions start each year with the Cambridge Digital Inter-Club Competition and it’s always a good chance to meet up with old friends and photographers from other clubs and see some of the best images from around the region. This year was the first in person meeting for a few years because of the effects of covid and those effects were still evident. Normally 35 clubs compete with a waiting list and there have been up to 190 visitors but this year numbers were down with only 27 clubs entered and only around 60 external visitors, but it was still a good meeting.

The Cambridge club are very well organised the competition runs very smoothly, and their catering team provide very good cakes. There are five rounds, Mono, People, Landscape, Nature, and Open, each image is marked out of 20 and the highest scoring club is the winner.

Ralph Duckett MPAGB EFIAP APAGB, from Staffordshire had the hard job of judging this year. He has been a member at Burton on Trent Photographic Society for over 40 years. An experienced PAGB judge, he gave concise and useful comments with good humour on each image and awarded very high scores to many of them, his opinion being that the standard was very high. Ralph awarded 37 images with full marks of 20/20 and this gave him a very difficult job to select his overall winning image. He whittled these down to a final 7 images but then threw it out to the audience to help him select the winner – not the most conventional way to pick a winner but this ended the afternoon with at least the winning photographer happy!

Five members from NDPS went along to observe the competition. Two of our 5 images scored 20 and overall, we ended with 94 points, out of 100, putting us in equal 8th place slightly down on last year but still a result we were very happy with. Top club was Photographic Imaging Co-Operative (PICO) with 99, second was Welwyn Garden (98), third North Norfolk Photographic Society (97).

Next up are the St Ives Interprint and the EAF Championships. If you get the chance to go along and watch the judging it is recommended as it gives you a good feel for the standard of work in the region and will inspire your own photography.

Review by Dave Balcombe ARPS & Joan Jordan ARPS

CompetitionMaurice YoungJanuary 24, 2023cambridge, digital, inter-club, monochrome, people, landscape, nature, open

An Indian Adventure by Alan Cameron ARPS

This week at our Tuesday meeting Alan Cameron recounted his pre-pandemic holiday in India, he described it as his travelogue. And what a feast of art, history and photography this presentation proved to be.

Alan divided his presentation into two parts, part one featured the north of India, the 'Golden Triangle' and Ranthambore National Park, and after the break he moved south to Karnataka and Kerala.

After a late arrival in Delhi Alan showed us pictures of the terrible traffic and driving manners, highlighting the Tuk Tuk donkeys, sacred cows and the ubiquitous camel!

The India Gate, commemorating the fallen of both world wars and the mosque were beautifully photographed and presented. These formal photographs were contrasted with pictures of street markets including artisans with tools of their trades, and collections of foodstuffs, nuts, cloves and so on.

e Gandhi monument built on the site of Gandhi's cremation was an interesting building. World Heritage sites are abundant in India and the tomb of the second Mogul Emperor with its Paradise Gardens with its rivers of water, honey, milk and wine. A land flowing with milk and honey!

In Agra Alan showed pictures of the famous Taj Mahal with its tomb and paradise gardens.

In Ranthambore Alan found the famous Indian Tigers and he took some great pictures but not without some trepidation because firearms are not allowed for the guides in their open jeeps.

Thanks Alan for a wonderful evening.

Special Presentation, Cambidge Inter-Club, ZoomMaurice YoungDecember 2, 2022india, trravel, culture, people, landscape

Autumn Season opens with outstanding new talk by Ruth Grindrod

Opening Presentation for the new Autumn season = Scotland - Looking Beyond and Within

Norfolk base landscape, the inspirational Ruth Grindrod opened the new season of NDPS photo-talks with a bang! Ruth had prepared a new presentation and we were the first camera club to receive it. A real privilege and a real feast for the eyes.of the 56 members and guests who where there in our new home at the City Academy Norwich.

Ruth began, and indeed ended, with a rousing short audio visual presentation which introduced her photography, her thought processes and her technical tips. This was a 'no bullet point' start to an evening of Scotland north, south, east and west!

As usual with Ruth she began with a brief list of her kit - the cameras she uses, her filters and tripod. She followed this with her first piece of advice, advice which she has found invaluable over her photographic journey - get it right in the camera!

She said that printing your picture is by far the best idea and to help get the printing to your satisfaction you should print sample sheets on ordinary photo paper and then consider the best paper, the most suitable paper, for each particular image.

Ruth showed a series of breath-taking photos to illustrate composition. Offsetting an image by using a pebble - she didn't place it! It was there naturally! She showed the horizon in the centre of a picture, normally against the rules of composition but . . . Rules can be broken.

Special PresentationMaurice YoungSeptember 11, 2022scotland, landscape, coastal, seascapes, initimate, grand vistas

Rome - In Pictures and Words by Chris Ceaser

On Tuesday evening Chris Caesar led us through the streets of Rome and treated us to a potted history of the Eternal City beginning from the 9th century BCE up to today. He talked of the seven hills of Rome, the myths surrounding the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, their falling out and Romulus' victory. Chris mentioned the Sabine women from the next door hill and the arrival of the Eutruscans.

We saw pictures of the Circus Maximus, the chariot racing arena, and Chris explained the meaning of the ubiquitous logo 'SPQR' (Senatus Populusque Romanus) the Senate and People of Rome, to be seen on so many structures in the city.

Julius Caesar made an entrance and his well known sound bites explained - 'The die is cast!', 'Crossing The Rubicon', 'I came, I saw, I conquered'.

Then on to The Appian Way, its construction and its bloody history of punishment of the slaves of the Spartacus rebellion, 6,000 prisoners nailed to crosses every 60 yards!

The emperor Trajan his column, a carved history of war and invasion, his building of what is believed to be the first supermarket and the first use of concrete in construction.

After the break we saw some beautiful pictures of the Pantheon and its oculus, its eye in the roof open to the sky. In the 1400's Piazza Navona was constructed and this breath-taking open area still retains the shape and dimensions of the original circus on which it was built.

Piazza del Campidoglio, beautifully designed by Michelangelo, is the masterpiece of the Capitoline hill and beautifully photographed my Chris. More excellent views of the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and Piazza del Popolo.

We walked along the banks of the Tiber on Lungo Tevere and admired the bridges, the Ponte Rotto and the Vatican church and state.

Chris ended his Roman Holiday with a brief tour of the fountains, the 'typewriter' monument and the 'bocca della verita'. You know, the drain cover which bites your hand off if you don't tell the truth!

Great photos, great explanations and an evening to remember. Our thanks to Chris.

A Bit of a Journey by Mark Gilligan

Yesterday evening's presentation from an absolutely outstanding photographer kept over forty members enthralled for the whole evening.

Mark introduced himself and ran through his early life from his schooldays, when he was in the football team, to his retirement! He made no apologies for this journey which included several references to his father who he described as his inspiration. His dad was a photographer and Mark had never known a time in his life when there was not a camera around, and a good camera too because his dad allowed him to use the newspaper camera from work!

Mark explained how he rose to the heights of working for the Daily Mirror and, importantly, working in the Mirror dark room. From 1972 - 1975 he worked for an ad. agency and then he was recruited by the Home Office.

In this job he was responsible for training photographers and AV people when the Home Office was interested in the inner city riots - his images followed this route, Acquisition, Assess, Protection and Court! This led to film production and even more pictures of city centre riots, but he was always able to escape for short periods to the lake district for landscape photography.

1984 and Mark was involved in the miner's strike, flying pickets and Mr. Scargill. 1985 saw him photographing and recording the Heysel Stadium disaster and Bradford City disaster.

The Home Office needed a system to deal with English football hooligans at home and abroad and Mark helped in devising and putting this in place. This is now known as the National Crime Agency.

He covered the Tottenham Riots of 1989, the prison riots of 1990 and went on to make counter terrorism films.

This whistle-stop tour of disasters brought us to the break. When we resumed Mark shared how he makes a photo - assess, compose, expose and click! He said that he used Lightroom but doesn't take more than a couple of minutes in post processing. In addition to Lightroom he used Nik Collection Silver Effects.

He had an interesting way of dividing a day into sections. First, sunrise, then daytime (yes you can take pictures during the day!), Grim and finally Dusk. An interesting assessment of a photographic day but all the time he wove his fabulous landscapes of the Lake District and North Wales through his explanations.

Special Presentation, Photo-talkMaurice YoungApril 13, 2022landscape, snowdonia, wast water, lake district

Mastering Long Exposure Photography by Antony Zacharias

Mastering Long Exposure Photography

Last evening Antony gave us his presentation on long exposures. He promised to give us a focus on wide ranging aspects of long exposure work including night-time images, neutral density filters and a wealth of hints and tip to improve long exposure photography.

Well, he kept his promise..!

His explanations together with a fantastic set of photographs were an inspiration to landscape photographers and, I suspect, photographers from other genres..!

He began simply by setting out a two part definition of the use of long exposure:

1. where there is a shortage of available light and

2. a deliberate and creative use of extended shutter speed.

Creative Techniques by Glenys Garnett

Creative Techniques
Photography is a visual art that begins before you pick up the camera

This week on Tuesday evening Norwich & District Photographic Society were treated to a inspirational special presentation - Creative Techniques, by Glenys Garnett.

Why haven't I used these techniques? Glenys' results were breath taking. Of course I've used multiple exposures but not with blend modes!

Glenys began with a short introduction of herself, revealing that her background was in graphic design and IT. She said she was interested in landscape and nature and particularly floral photography. She said that many of her images were abstract and two important points were that mostly the capture was in camera and the end result created an impression, that is structure, shape, and form rather that a record shot.

Glenys, throughout her presentation, explained technique, and approach and in every case showed examples, and what stunning examples they were.

She said that photography was a creative visual art and that the whole process began before she picked up the camera - visualisation, capture, technical skill, processing and developing. She quoted Cartier-Bresson 'Think about the photo before and after, never during.' Being creative was a mindset and all about seeing, exploring and discovering ways of expressing yourself. Ask yourself; Why am I doing this? What am I trying to say or show?

Techniques do not make you creative, you must express yourself, play and experiment, develop ideas and visions.

Glenys was on a roll and in the second part of her presentation she focussed on intentional camera movement (ICM) and multiple exposures (ME). For ICM shots she recommended not to use small apertures, use ND filter, manual focus hold the camera still then move it.

For ME shots she described the different blend modes available in today’s cameras and the effects they produce. Of course these explanations were accompanied by her own wonderful examples.

This review barely scratches the surface of the information offered and falls short of describing the enthusiasm of Glenys for her hobby. So much to assimilate and so much to practice.Creativity is hard but she finished her presentation with the exhortation HAVE FUN

Special Presentation by Eddie Hyde FRPS

Making Sense of the Landscape - The Art of Seeing
A personal take on Landscape Photography

Yesterday's special presentation was all about landscapes and the art of choosing not only a subject but choosing all the elements of a composition. Eddie is clearly a consummate photographer and this expertise is the result of carefully 'seeing' what's in the viewfinder and making a multitude of decisions.

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer and often the supreme disappointment”

— Ansel Adams

Eddie began with the key criteria of landscape photography - the rules of composition and key elements. Composition, does 90% of the work in a good photograph but remember lighting, atmosphere and keeping it simple! Eddie showed many examples of simplicity with some remarkable subjects: planes, castles, beaches and storms.

Make use of leading lines and as examples he showed fields, railway lines and other compositional devices including the path to nowhere, the river to nowhere and the road to nowhere!

Another gem of an idea was to ask yourself 'Is there more than one picture within the view?' Eddie enlarged on this theme by explaining his use of different focal lengths - 50 to 200 mm, 109 to 500 mm to select different compositions.

Moving forward to woodland captures Eddie invited us to embrace the chaos and be aware of the power of light. Also he said use the marcescence of beech leaves especially when combined with mist and fog. Mist and light in woodland are heaven on earth!

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungMarch 2, 2022landscape, woodland, forest, mood, atmosphere

Special Presentation by James Rushforth

Exploring the Italian Dolomites and Iceland
18th January 2022
This Season Norwich & District Photographic Society has joined forces with Old Coulsdon Camera Club in South London to jointly present outstanding photo-talks by inspirational photographers from around the world. This evening more than 60 people 'Zoomed in' for a breath-taking tour of The Dolomite mountains of Northern Italy and also Iceland.

James Rushforth is a full time professional photographer, he began 12 years ago with his first camera, and he has managed to find a niche in the landscape market; climbing, ski mountaineering and mountain guide books. And what exciting pictures he showed us, even those pictures he took with his first camera were great. He explained that his technique improved over time, not just composition but in post processing also.

There were names to conjure with peppered throughout this presentation, the Tre Cima, Marmolada and the via ferrate, grades one to five! These are all big excursions in the world of climbing but James went on to discuss winter ice climbing on ice falls, the difficulties of good camera work in the winter and ski mountaineering or ski climbing! These were all photographs to set your heart racing, views of ski routes down very, very narrow couloirs and his final 'silly sport' - slacklining. Four hundred meters in the air and walking on a piece of one inch wide webbing. He said it looks terrifying but in fact it's not! Well each to his own, I'll leave it to James.

But it wasn't all mountains in the Dolomites, he had lovely pictures of a dragonfly, a lady's slipper orchid and some enchanting night photography including a shot of the galactic core over the Tre Cima.

After the break we went to Iceland where James ran wild photography courses and produced another book, this time Iceland. He had pictures of sailing ships with icebergs and pictures of his own live-in Fiat long wheelbase van. Not all easy living when the weather confined you to the back of the van for several days!

Nevertheless, he displayed lots of landscape pictures of Iceland plus several pictures of arctic foxes, reindeer, and arctic terns. Not only that he found an abandoned herring factory which proved very photogenic.

He talked of the 'lunar' landscape, geothermal vents and the northern lights and brought his presentation to an end by describing his drone photography and showing us his complete kit and equipment.

An excellent photographer and some quite amazing images. We are indebted to both James and Old Coulsdon for hosting a riveting evening.

Infrared Photography by Derek Michalski

On Tuesday evening Derek shared his enthusiasm and love for infra-red photography with us. But he said he was not a technical photographer and his passion for photography began in his childhood with a Russian plastic camera when he was only 12 years old, but this cheap camera fired his imagination and then later in life he studied philosophy, and this guided his own particular and special approach to taking photographs. Everything is made up of atoms and everything is related.

Derek thanked Robert Williams Wood who invented IR (and ultraviolet) photography in the 1800 s. It is very important to remember that we are not photographing visible light with these IR cameras and that's why post processing is very difficult to grasp if you are working on your own. But the colours are false, of course, and there are many opportunities to just have fun with colour.

This idea of having fun and above all experimenting with filters and post processing were a theme running through Derek's presentation.

He showed us a series of photographs of trees and woodlands, olive trees from a garden centre and city centre shots! What a breath taking selection of beautiful images.

After the break we went to one of Derek's favourite places, a cemetery - here, he said, he felt at home and surrounded by endless opportunities for IR. This was followed by a whole series of photographs of clouds, seascapes and a landscape of Stone Henge!

Derek rounded off his presentation by offering 'The Best Of', some of his favourite photographs - Cambridge, abroad and a very happy cow!

Practice makes perfect was his last injunction and it was apparent to us all that here was a photographer who had practised a great deal. Our thanks for an instructive, informative and entertaining evening.

Summer Event, Special PresentationMaurice YoungNovember 5, 2021infrared photography, seascape, landscape

Venice in Pictures and Words By Chris Ceaser

This presentation, the last for the 2020/2021 season, was a brief history of the city and state of Venice from the 400's to the present day illustrated with his Chris’s own photographs and the works of artists through the centuries.

Chris divided his presentation into chapters - an introduction, Byzantine, Venetian Gothic, Hope and finally Sex! A really nice idea to lead us through the story of Venice. Particularly helpful was the 'plan' of the lagoon with Venice and the surrounding islands.

The city is built in a lagoon on thousands and thousands of trees driven into the mud with a level platform on top! Chris' images of these man made islands were a joy to see. The Byzantine period with their square windows and simple arches are to be found all over the city and indeed allow us to compare the paintings of Canaletto with a photo taken from the same spot today.

In the Venetian Gothic period, 1100 - 1450, Venice grew its wealth despite the fact they could not grow meat or veg! Instead they traded in salt, dried from the salt water of the lagoon. It was this period that the Ducal system began; such a good system of government that it lasted 1,100 years! Chris gave us the story of Enrico Dandolo, the Massacre of The Latins and the first Crusade including the Shameful Glory.

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungJuly 21, 2021venice, words, pictures, history, landscape

Looking upon the landscape with new perspectives - Nic Stover

Yesterday evening Nic Stover a professional landscape photographer and tour leader gave another inspirational presentation to NDPS who were joined on this occasion by friends from Sheffield Photographic Society.

Nic had been to Norwich before, so this was his second visit by Zoom and he took the opportunity to make a different sort of presentation. Besides numerous examples of his work this time we also got to delve into logistics and planning – an opportunity to look behind the scenes and understand how Nic pulls his successful tours together

In the first part of his talk Nic explained what he called ‘five styles’ of landscape photography and in the second half he talked about planning and logistics. Talking about actually taking photographs he insisted that we should learn to be 'confident and consistent'.

Expounding on creativity in photography Nic spoke of the Wallace Model, preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. Each heading illustrated with beautiful photographs and accompanied with clear examples and explanations. After this he moved on to what he called intimate landscapes; plants, abstracts, night. The plant example was taken on an iPhone from a captured RAW image, beautiful.

After a short break Nic move on to tools for planning to be sure he could get it right in camera. His list of aids to planning was comprehensive - everything from Magic Seaweed to webcams, Google Maps, Gaia GPS, old photography books, campervan rentals and old fashioned spreadsheets to keep everything in check!

A capture clip harness and a handheld strap, a ‘aircraft compliant’ Lowepro back-pack, L brackets and a second camera with a lens attached were also in his must haves for photo shoots.

An exciting evening full of breath taking photography and packed with endless practical advice. Our thanks to Nic - over 60 people from Norwich and Sheffield enjoyed this excellent presentation.

Pole to Pole Through Africa - Renato Granieri

Last night's Special Presentation was jointly produced by Old Coulsden Camera Club and NDPS and was attended by a large number of the members from both societies.

Renato divided his presentation into two halves covering the poles, both North and South, before the break and then Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone after the break. This meant a cold (-30 degree) first half and a hot equatorial climate for the second..!

But the Poles first - there were some great pictures of penguins, Antarctic birds, and landscapes. Renato's style of experimenting with exposure, high key and low key, shone through these images and produced admiration in the audience when he explained that it was done in-camera with very little postproduction work. It was while he was showing this series of pictures that he offered some excellent advice, 'When you are on a shoot ask yourself, "Why am I taking this picture?"'

The first part concluded with his Top Tips - Keep it Simple; Understand Your Subject; Look for new angles - Move Around; Maximise your time and keep going back..!

The final part was Putting a Story Together. His work for the Papua New Guinea Tourist Board to promote the country as a destination. Here he showed a series of portraits, even using a fish eye lens for a dance routine.

In Sierra Leone he worked in a chimpanzee sanctuary, illustrating this part with some great pictures including emergency rescues of chimps offered for sale in the street.

Again, he concluded with some Top Tips. Understand your camera; Be creative; Be different and get inspired.

An excellent evening with lots of technically good and heart-warming photos from around the world.

We look forward to Tuesday 18th May when the members of OCCC and NDPS will hold their first joint Members’ Evening which will gives us a much better opportunity to learn more about each other.

ARPS Distinctions - Royal Photographic Society by Dave Balcombe & Malcolm Wood

Yesterday evening's presentation to the Society was made by Dave and Malcolm, both Society members, both accomplished photographers and both describing their panels that achieved them ARPS distinctions from the RPS.

Malcolm began the evening by talking about his fine art 'landscape' panel. The use of quotation marks here is intentional because all of Malcolm's shots were taken one meter away from the subject! The Statement of Intent for his panel showed that this was his motivation, to take images close to the subject and transform them into what would appear as long distance shots. We also learned that nearly all of his pictures were taken within the bounds of his house. The result was a collection of inventive images worthy of an ARPS.

There were some good technical tips here too, pointing the camera downwards tended to make half the picture slightly out of focus which gave the impression of distance and depth, gain an LRPS first and make sure that prints are technically correct and properly mounted.

Dave followed with a description of his ARPS panel. He said that one of the most difficult steps was inspiration and it took some time for him to reach the conclusion that patterns would be the answer for him, in fact that idea germinated when he took a picture of the roof of Newcastle railway station! Once under way he made a collection of 2,000 source pictures to work on. Again there were some good tips, the judges are not interested in your camera kit but do make sure that there are no technical faults in the prints!

Dave explained the assessment procedure, the red and green cards, the first and second vote and he even showed the room where the assessment is made. He produced some figures to demonstrate that all the RPS awards were not so easy to gain and how seeking advice and help is essential.

He went on to talk of other awards and qualifications that members could consider attempting.

An enormous thank you to Malcolm and Dave for a great evening and a collection of outstanding photographs. Inspiration is in the air .

Distinctions, Photographic AwardsMaurice YoungMarch 24, 2021ARPS, landscape, fine art, patterns, ndps members, photo-talk

Living and Working as a Professional Photographer in Namibia by Scott Hurd

This week’s regular Tuesday meeting saw members and guests attended this Zoom presentation from a consummate professional photographer. Scott led us through his journey from England to Namibia and told us, by means of his wonderful photographs, how his work unfolds in that sub-Saharan, west coast country.

But Scott began his talk by outlining the origins of man in this area and throughout added more and more information, bit by bit, and brought us into the present day - so much so that he told us about the Namibian fight against Covid and how successful the country had been in containing the pandemic.

What a fantastic country - the Skeleton Coast, Fish River Canyon and the Benguela Current. It is no wonder that tourism makes up such a big part of Namibia's GDP.

Health and safety needed to be considered - he showed us a publicity shot of a floating bar, a beautiful bar in a tropical sunset. But the bridge to it had missing planks and the handrail was only really there for the high voltage cable! This is Africa. But Namibia is changing it has the best roads in Africa (and the worst drivers in Africa).

The scope of work Scott has undertaken is inspiring, we saw photos of children at school, fabulous weddings and, of course, the wildlife. Black and white rhinos, hippopotamus, desert elephants and pangolins. How can these animals be saved from poachers who sell their scales for medicine and their bodies for food. Scott's work in photographing all these endangered species certainly helps to raise awareness worldwide.

His assignments included being there when a gold mine was first discovered and recording every stage of the industrial development, photographing the front line anti-poaching squads and shooting the President.

Perhaps his oddest shoot was the Calendar Girls shoot for an all-female equivalent of the Women's Institute.

The evening was a cornucopia of plenty! Thanks Scott.

Landscape Photography and Aerial Photography by the inspiring Mieke Boynton

Last night's presentation from Mieke, more than 10,500 miles away from her home the beautiful Alpine Valleys of North-East Victoria in Australia, broke the Societies record of distance for a presenter and allowed 58 members and guests to enjoy a fantastic evening of wonderful photography and infectious joy from a world class practitioner. For Mieke this was the start of her day 6.00 am!

The presentation was in two distinct parts, the first part about her background and her inspiring landscape photography and in the second part we were transported into the air for helicopter rides over Kimberley and Iceland.

Meike gave us a short CV - art school; scholarship in America; teacher in Melbourne; a librarian; discovering camping and connecting with nature and the aboriginal culture when she moved to Kimberley. How she discovered that photography was an art form not just a record of what it looked like!

She asked us what makes a landscape photograph special. She gave us a list. Seven points that she considered important in her landscape photography. Then she showed a selection of her photos and we had to explain to her what she had captured in each shot. Real listener participation. We saw pictures from Patagonia, Tasmania, Iceland, Kimberley, New Zealand, Norway (red wine and the aurora), Namibia and Morocco.

And she answered her own question about what makes a landscape photograph special by saying that she showed people what they don't normally see!

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungMarch 10, 2021landscape, aerial photography, photo-talk

The Beautiful Light by Jane Goodall

Yesterday's presentation by the wonderful Jane Goodall was received with enthusiasm and joy by nearly 60 participants including Claudia Frost who watched Jane from her home a few miles West of Chicago in the USA - 3,975 miles away beating the NDPS record for the furthest guest by more than 800 miles.

This was all about photo composition with the mind in mind. Always try to work out how your mind relates to the picture and how this can make or break a good composition. She urged us to be objective behind our cameras and tripods and look for the visual clues to capture the many sensory inputs in a scene. Remember, our brains work in 3d but a photograph is in 2d! She invited us to consider the difference between 'field of view' and 'depth of field' but in any case work with the sun, the source of light, and don't forget the 'finger trick'.

As aids to good photography she emphasised the need for careful planning and the use of The Photographer's Ephemeris and Imray's Tide Planner to be sure that everything works on the day. She emphasised not only the use of a tripod but stout wellington boots and the need for compact packing of equipment and care in crossing slippery rocks on a seashore.

But her most surprising tip, to make sure you see any problems or something unusual in your frame, was to follow the training of an army sniper! Search your scene from right to left, an unnatural eye movement and one that would make anything out of the ordinary stick out like a sore thumb!

It's impossible to cover all the photo tips and all the breath-taking photos she presented but as an indication of the breadth of this presentation Jane produced three consecutive photos to illustrate a particular point - Overstrand, Death Valley and Normandy. This reviewer has never seen three more disparate locations to highlight a technique.

Thanks Jane for a great presentation.

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungFebruary 24, 2021landscape, photo-talk, gower, northumberland, scotland, simplicity

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