photo-talk — PUBLIC BLOG — NDPS | Norwich & District Photographic Society

This presentation was billed on our website as 'one man's artistic approach to photography, stepping out of the club mainstream'. This description proved to be true as Jonathon explained to us his methodology, his craft and his extreme enthusiasm for his subject matter.

So, is he a photographer or is he an artist?

Not my question but his, and we were left to decide.

He invited us to think inside the box he explained his deep interest in shapes, colours multiple exposures and with the image - reduce, reduce, reduce. But follow that by build back! He led us through his treatment of work by Henry Moore and his love of light flowing through stained glass. He follows his heart and his eye. He told us of his visit to Great Yarmouth (Premier Inn on the promenade) and getting up at 4.15am to photograph the outer harbour. His shots did not show the real look of the harbour but their desaturated colours and the overall composition certainly produced images which were eye-catching and beautiful.

Special PresentationMaurice YoungMarch 27, 2024photo-talk, prints

Seeing in Black and White by Eileen Rafferty

This evening from the far north of the United States, not so far from the border with Canada Eileen delivered her lecture on seeing in black and white. Her background was in film, and she was a full time darkroom technician in her early work life, and she mused how black and white was still an alluring form after 200 years or so.

Eileen was keen to point out at the very start that black and white conversion was definitely not a way to 'save' a picture! She said that a photograph was in two parts - form and content, the form is visible, and the content tells the story or concept or meaning. Inspiration can be drawn from early photos.

Using these old pictures we can ask 'Why black and white?', what is contrast and where is the eye of the person looking at the picture being drawn and why. Black and white images eliminate the dominance of colour and bring attention to content. The image is more homogenous in black and white, more dramatic! Obviously black and white is a departure from reality because colour is 'everyday'.

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungOctober 6, 2022photo-talk, zoom, black & white

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 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.

The End of the Mine by Chris Upton

The last of our regular Special Presentation of 2021 was a hugely inspirational talk by Nottinghamshire based photographer Chris Upton. Chris is a landscape, travel and social documentary photographer and his presentation led us through all these areas and much, much more.

This was a walk through Chris' project documenting the last months of Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire. What began as a simple project shooting a record of a mine, albeit not being allowed to go underground, bloomed into something much bigger and grew into an exhibition and a book, not to mention the AV and local radio and television.

This long journey was carefully, researched and choreographed by Chris including making meaningful relationships with the miners working on the site. The important point Chris was making was that a project, leading to a collection of photographs or even a book of pictures was a much better exercise that taking one photo to gain 10/10 from a judge!

The photographs that Chris showed us were wonderful examples of the art of black and white photography, because that’s what they were, he explained that If they had been in colour we would have all had our attention stuck on the orange workwear and missed the important vistas in the background.

All the pictures were shot in RAW, of course, converted into black and white and the postproduction was in Nik or Lightroom. And what wonderful results they were, Chris showed himself to be a consummate photographer and postproduction expert.

Special Presentation, DocumentaryMaurice YoungDecember 15, 2021industrial history, mining, people, photo-talk

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.

Nightscapes and Light Painting Richard Tatti

The alarm rang beside his bed at quarter past four on Wednesday morning and Richard Tatti, 10,341 miles away in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, got dressed and tumbled into his office to make this presentation to over 40 members of Norwich and District Photographic Society at 7:30pm on Tuesady here in the UK.

And what a great presentation it was, to begin with he showed us a range of night photographs which included the Milky Way, several trees, both dead and alive, pictures from the Grampians National Park. Richard confessed his love of photographing trees after dark. There were perfect shots of the Milky Way core, caves in the mountains and all sorts of abandoned machinery making beautiful, carefully lit images. Panoramas of the night sky, time lapse and Star Tracker all were areas of Richard's expertise.

After the break he offered heaps of very practical guidance - scout locations in daylight, mark locations on GPS to find them after dark, learn the manual modes so you can set up the camera in the dark, double check focussing, think creatively and many more.

Manual focus adjustment is all important, finding infinity, and double checking it! White balance, he changed this setting depending on the scene, using 3,450 to 5,000k. But the basic requirements for night photography were a dark sky(!), camera, Tripod and light. Some of the things that got in the way could be fear of the dark, can't find locations, inadequate equipment and lack of confidence.

Richard concluded with notes on panoramas and photo stacking.

Our thanks for an inspiring evening packed full of tips and advice all delivered in a friendly and accessible way. Now I'll get out my Canon 6D Mark II, my 50mm lens and I can expose for 6 seconds before stars begin trailing because the camera is full frame, and I'm all set for a great night shoot…!

Special PresentationMaurice YoungApril 1, 2021nightscape, light painting, photo-talk, australia

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

Underwater Photography 2 by David Keep

David returned to NDPS with his second spine chilling presentation on Thursday night. The last time he was here he left us looking into the eyes of a crocodile he was photographing! It would seem madness to be so close to an animal that has not changed for 150 million years and is the closest thing possible to a dinosaur. But David was there with his camera and his Go-Pro.

We arrived at the crocodile after a long list of other big creatures. He began with the personable manatee in Florida, a creature that could grow to 4 meters and reach 1.5 tonnes but would not tolerate water temperature below 20 degrees C.

From Florida we made the trip to the Gulf of Mexico where David showed his photos of the 10 meter, 20 tonne Whale Shark, hoovering food through its mouth and out through its gills. Enormous beautifully marked creatures. Then on to Hammerhead Sharks off the coast of Miami. Rather ugly creatures but the second largest shark.

Dave explained how he used a canine hydrotherapy pool to photograph Thai the dog and next we were off the Farne Island of Northumberland with the Atlantic Grey Seals with their exceptionally sensitive whiskers used to decipher vibrations in the water left by fish!

Off to Cuba for the crocodiles and finally David told the story of his award winning shot of gannets feeding underwater. Another set of stunning images and another story of determination and courage to get the shots.

This Thursday eNDPS event was attended by our friends from Sheffield Photographic Society and Old Coulsden Camera Club - Thank you for joining us…!

Our thanks to David for yet another evening of adventure and outstanding photography.

The people of Madagasscar - Pierrot Men

On Monday 15th March through the moder day wonders of zoom invited members of the Society joined 'The Regular's Table' in Koblenz to hear a presentation by Pierrot Men entitled The People of Madagascar. This invitation came to us through our friends in Foto-Club Koblenz and in particular NDPS Honorary Member Helmut Wagner and his colleague Walter Nussbaum.

The Regular's Table is a group of about thirty photographers, all members of the Deutscher Verband fur Fotografie, who are organised into the regional association of Rhenanis - Palatinate and Hessia. The aims of the group are to exchange ideas and experiences in the field of photography with the intention of improving their skills beyond club level.

Pierot Men presented a series of photographs, all taken on the island of Madagascar, to thirty seven attendees. Many of the pictures were in black and white and many from film. Pierot spoke in French and a member of Koblenz translated into German.

The pictures proved to be an eclectic mix of reportage, street photography and social interest. All the subjects of the photographs seemed eager to have their likeness taken - when they were aware of the photographer! Often the photographs were taken without pre-planning and they showed a rare immediacy of purpose.

A very interesting and thought provoking series of images. We are indebted to The Regulars Table for the invitation and to Helmut for organising the evening. Thanks also for the English translations in the Comments Box.

Regular's TableMaurice YoungMarch 20, 2021madagascar, people photography, photo-talk, monochrome, pierott men

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

Interesting Stuff by Justin Minns

The main event during last night’s meeting was the fantastic landscape photographer, Justin Minns. No stranger to NDPS and making his third presentation to the Society, he divided his presentation into four sections; Local Interest, Making it interesting, Interesting Places and Interesting Timing.

He began with a quote from the great photographer, Jim Richardson 'If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff', and the title of his presentation was right there! Justin took us through his first section with a collection of photographs of East Anglia from beaches to windmills and bluebell woods. He talked of the seasons, the subtleties of light and atmospheric mist and his photos were laced with fine examples of these.

In his second section, Making it Interesting, Justin gave examples of motion, intentional camera shake, long focal length, slow shutter speeds and infra-red photography. All illustrated with breath-taking examples.

In Interesting Places he took us to Yosemite, The Canadian Rockies, Slovakia and Madeira, fabulous locations and fabulous photos. Finally he talked on Interesting Timing, being at the right place at the right time, how frost make things interesting and snow transforms a landscape. How fog does something similar and how the Blue Hour (only 20 minutes!) works.

Justin ended with a John Constable quote 'I never saw an ugly thing in my life; for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful'. A point of view that Justin shares. These were outstanding examples of landscape photography not only technically brilliant but also beautiful and awe inspiring.

Many thanks Justin for a spellbinding evening.

Special PresentationMaurice YoungMarch 3, 2021interesting stuff, 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

Another First for NDPS

NDPS is committed to booking inspirational speakers from around the globe and on Tuesday 9th March we have our visit Special Presentation from Australia - see programme for full details

Be inspired by the breathtaking photography of Mieke Boynton who was the first Australian and first woman to win the prestigious Epson International Pano Awards, with three of her abstract aerial photographs receiving Gold Awards.

“Landscape and Aerial Photography” is a 90min presentation by Internationally-acclaimed landscape photographer Mieke Boynton.

In 2008, she travelled to the rugged and remote Kimberley region of Western Australia and promptly fell in love with the landscape. She took up photography as a means to share her amazement with family and friends, and quickly caught the photography “bug.”

She is now a full-time professional photographer, specialising in landscape and aerial photography, and has won numerous International awards including the prestigious Epson International Pano Awards. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, and was named the AIPP Victorian Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2019.

She regularly exhibits her work and thoroughly enjoys teaching photography through online workshops and individual tutorial sessions. Her “Landscape and Aerial Photography” presentation begins with a very brief explanation of her background, and then – through audience interaction – highlights a series of maximum-impact elements of Landscape Photography in an engaging and entertaining way.

She also presents a selection of her abstract aerial photography and provides some useful advice for members if they wish to try their hand at this genre. There are plenty of opportunities for discussion and questions too…!

Special Presentation, Special EventMaurice YoungJanuary 28, 2021australia, landscape, aerial photography, photo-talk

The World of a Wildlife Photographer - David Boag

Yesterday's presentation to the Society was by this professional wildlife photographer, billed as enthusiastic, encouraging and entertaining he certainly lived up to his billing. There was no 'Muck and Mystery' from this self-effacing speaker!

This was (mostly) a journey through his work for book illustration interlaced with anecdotes not just about the photos, which were wonderful, but also about the human interactions in his professional journey through life to pay the mortgage and feed and clothe the family.

There were many things to take away from this presentation. Firstly he explained that because the end use of the photographs was a book then he always worked on specific projects and he always had a theme. But he said that he was not special in any way and anyone could take these photographs providing they wanted to.

David's view of the weather raised a smile in the audience as he gave his view that there were not four seasons. There were 365 seasons! Every day is different and you can take pictures in any weather conditions and not produce boring pictures but ones that have a monetary and artistic worth.

He said that it is vital to know your equipment and how it works, never forgetting that it is the photographer who takes the picture not the camera. A 'poor' photographer will still be 'poor' even with expensive top of the range equipment. Having mastered the camera remember the theme and concentrate on timing the shot.

A very entertaining and informative evening by a consummate professional. Our thanks to David .

Special Event, Special PresentationMaurice YoungJanuary 20, 2021photo-talk, nature, wildlife

The Julian Claxton Charity - Give a Child a Camera

The recent presentation by Julian Claxton about the work of his charirty ‘Give a Child a Camera’ provoked much debate amongst members of the Society, including Martin Claxton (not related) who has written a commentary complete with photographs about a trip he made to Nicaragura back in the late 1970s..

I enjoyed watching the recent photography presentation by Julian Claxton and listening to the background story of his charitable work. I will shortly be sending him a bridge camera that I haven’t used for a while and a donation towards the support for an individual child. Julian seems to be a very altruistic person and I could identify with many of his aims, though my own charitable ventures were never as fruitful. My resources were always low, but I tried to help when I could and particularly if it involved me working abroad, such as on trips to Nicaragua and Romania. I heard some of the advice that was being given to Julian by other members of NDPS, who evidently have a great deal of experience in this field, and I hope he is able to continue and develop the project, despite the unrest in Uganda under the repressive Museveni regime.

After Julian’s presentation, I dug out some of my old photos from my trip to Nicaragua and scanned them over the weekend. I’m sending this selection of photos and commentary to Julian and I thought you might like to have a glance at them as well.

Best regards, Martin

Give a Child a CameraMaurice YoungJanuary 15, 2021nicaragua, charity, photo-talk

Give a Child a Camera

Yesterday's Special Presentation, the first of 2021, was given by Julian Claxton, the award winning professional photographer and founder of the project 'Give A Child A Camera'.

Julian's presentation covered the period from 2012 to the present day. It all began with a big adventure, a cycle ride from his home in Suffolk to Rwanda and his discovery of a simple school in a remote, rural corner of Uganda. In this single classroom school the idea of empowering these young children through the making of interesting and emotional pictures of the children's lives took root. Julian collected old film (!) cameras donated by people in the UK, took them back to Uganda and gave them to the children. He taught them the names of the parts of a camera and how cameras and film worked.

Then he gave all the new camera owners the mission to record the story of their life through portraits, family and landscape. The hope was that the exercise would build a new sense of confidence and independence in the young people and, hopefully, demonstrate, learn and understand the art of making photographs. Maybe even think about a career in photography.

Martin Patten - How to Critique Your Own Images

During our weekly meeting on Tuesday 1st December NDPS was host to professional photographer, President of the Chilterns Association of Camera Clubs and well known and respected competition judge, Martin Patten.

Martin's Special Presentation was How to Critique Your Own Images. An area of photography of interest to all those who make pictures, not just for competitions but for exhibition, photographic qualifications, projects, memories and even commercial reasons.

Martin's well-structured presentation began by asking 'Why are you taking pictures?' and continued with a discussion on emotions, critiques and characteristics of genres. At the end he said that this was a huge subject and that he had only 'scratched the surface'. Well that may be the case from his point of view but he laid out before us many pitfalls to avoid and many points to follow.

He said that we should 'divorce ourselves from the emotion of the shot!' A difficult process but one that should put distance between that moment of excitement when the shutter was pressed and the post processing began. Don't process a photo the same day! Don't choose the first frame you come to! Get another view - someone else to look at it, turn it upside down look at it in a mirror!

Special PresentationMaurice YoungDecember 3, 2020photo-talk, self-critique

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