- Last week’s meeting – Pete Warrington: Nipping into black and white infra-red, Oxford, Headington and up up and away in a beautiful balloon
Pete started his talk with a DIY solution to an issue with his Panasonic camera. As everyone who is familiar with Pete’s photography will know that he is the master of the low angle shot and the use of strong light. This approach has its problems, particularly when it comes to using the fully articulated LCD screen rear view finder. Bright sunlight makes it almost impossible to see what the camera lens is focussing on.
Pete built himself a box-like chimney that covered the LCD screen and had a hole for a jeweller’s loupe. This allowed him to shade the screen from the harsh light and allow him to compose his shot and precisely focus the lens.
He then showed us his stunning black and white infra-red images. These have an other-worldly ethereal feel, transforming everyday places and giving a totally different dimension to photography. Pete processes his shots in Photoshop and then adds a little red and yellow to the black and white image, a trick that Jerry Webb showed us when he gave a talk to the club a couple of seasons ago.
Pete is of the view that you don’t have to travel to far flung exotic places to take good photos. For the last two- or three-years Pete has been walking around his own patch of Sutton Courtenay with his camera. Before he heads off on his walk, he will look at the sky. Strong light drags Pete out and infra-red can make a blue-sky jet black and accentuate the whites in the clouds, the result is a dramatic sky to compliment any landscape.
He showed us spectacular shots around his local patch of Sutton Courtenay, Milton Park and the weirs. This was the stomping ground of former Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC, FRS and great grandfather of actress Helena Bonham Carter, who owns a small pied-à-terre called Mill House which is opposite The Fish pub.
Pete then showed us shots of a trip to Northumberland and Holy Island, then we were back closer to home with remarkable images of Holywell Cemetery and a series of colour photos from a photo walk in Oxford with his brother Phil. Pete’s view of street photography is on the more purist end of the spectrum. Refreshingly Pete will avoid heavy cropping and the Photoshop wizardry – dodge and burn mainly. If the image has ‘issues’ then, as he said numerous times, it’s a case of ‘try harder’ next time. He also had an excellent aphorism: ‘originality isn’t necessarily creative’.
On another photo walk after visiting Ivor, he took his first ever shot of the Headington shark. There is not much else to say about a photo of the Headington shark, it’s been done so many times before. Pete though used it as a double exposure, taking shots around Headington and merging them with shots of the shark. Not jumping the shark but putting it elsewhere.
To end his talk he took us with his wife on a hot air balloon across parts of Oxfordshire.
All in all it was an excellent evening to start off the new season and a dazzling set of original and creative images. Bravo Pete.
- Annual subscriptions
If you haven’t already paid your annual subscriptions, you can do this via the website at http://oxfordphotosociety.co.uk/annual-subsciption/ or directly to our bank account using the details below.
Subscription are as follows: –
- Full annual membership £48.00
- Joint membership £88.00
For those of you who are associate members because you have moved away from the area, please email Keith if you wish to continue. The annual cost is £25. Please note if you are an associate you are required to pay the visitors fee for attending meetings whether in the band hall. This year’s “visitors fee” will be £5.
Payment directly to the club’s bank account for online bankers is always appreciated. The details for this are:
Bank: Barclays
Account Name: Oxford Photographic Society
Account Number: 60707872
Sort Code: 20-65-18
Please include your name as a reference.
For those wishing to pay via debit or with credit cards, this will be available via “stripe” using the following link under “Store”: http://oxfordphotosociety.co.uk/annual-subsciption/
Payment can also be made directly to the above bank account via “the high street banks”.
Confirmation of receipt will be made by email.
Remember Fully Paid-up membership is a prerequisite for entering club competitions, for entering the annual exhibition, £2 attendance at band hall and joining in with special interest groups etc.
Where your renewal has not been completed by 30th September, members’ details will be deleted from the web site and their email addresses will be removed from the members’ circulation list.
Associate members and visitors will be required to pay the visitor fee, of £5, prior to the meeting.
- This coming meeting: Craig Jones, Wildlife Photographer
First half: “The Beauty of Wildlife” followed by “First Contact” in the second half of the evening.
Craig writes: Wildlife photography’s power rests on the belief that it represents an event that occurred naturally in the wild; something witnessed and recorded by the photographer with his camera at that given time. Clever use of friendly animals, hot spots, bait and the per-arranged perches or props along with digital technology has forced everyone to re-evaluate and question the validity of images they see now.
As a responsible photographer of wildlife I capture my images as seen on the ground. I always put the welfare of the subjects life and care of the environment above any photograph I take. I never use flash, props, live bait or any bait that will adversely affect the behaviour of an animal.
I am always honest in declaring the circumstances under which a photograph has been taken by myself. I never use digital manipulation to misrepresent a subject or mislead the viewer.
https://www.craigjoneswildlifephotography.co.uk
- Upcoming meetings in September
Tuesday 19 September 2023 7:30 pm
Story Telling for photographers.
JP Stone via Zoom in the Band Hall
http://oxfordphotosociety.co.uk/opsevent/story-telling-for-photographers/
Tuesday 26 September 2023 7:30 pm
Take 5 Competition
Our Annual Take 5 extravaganza where members submit 5 of their best images and the attendees on the night vote for each image.
The totals are added up and the winner announced the following week.
http://oxfordphotosociety.co.uk/opsevent/take-5-competition/
- Bharat’s forthcoming book Nomadic Tribes of India is on Kickstarter
Bharat put his forthcoming book on Kickstarter and it has already reached its funding goal!
The book contains a carefully curated collection of over 140 images in both colour and duo tone that showcase a disappearing way of life. Bharat’s goal is to publish this new collection of photographs with accompanying text in a large hard back coffee table book, 30cm X 25cm, with 200 pages.
The book is designed by the award-winning designer Wayne Ford. Much of the concept work has been done. It will be printed by Taylor Brothers in the UK.
Even though it has reached its funding goal you may still pledge by contacting Bharat via his website or his Instagram account:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/patelbharat/nomadic-tribes-of-india-by-bharat-patel
- General photographic interest
Best photography exhibitions to see in 2023
One of the best ways to gain inspiration for your photography and exploring different styles is by experiencing and viewing the work of other photographers and artists. We’ve put together a selection of the best exhibitions on around the UK during 2023 to see photography; including exhibitions that present photographs alongside other disciplines.
https://amateurphotographer.com/latest/articles/best-photography-exhibitions-to-see-in-2022/
Peregrine Falcon image wins bird photo award
Photographer Jack Zhi’s dramatic picture of a female peregrine falcon protecting her young has won this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year award.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-66706149
In pictures: Finding beauty in rugged sights of the Black Country
Stunningly colourful images featuring the post-industrial landscape of the Black Country in the West Midlands have been brought together in a new collection.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66706259
Bristol: Clifton Suspension Bridge captured on camera made out of beer can
Old beer cans have been used to take photographs of a city landmark.
The empty cans were turned into pinhole cameras by photographer Justin Quinnell and used to take pictures of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge during a workshop for local people
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-66709749
‘Up close and personal’: LensCulture street photography awards – in pictures
From church gatherings in Togo to sleek city cats, this year’s best images captured moments that might otherwise vanish in the blink of an eye
Two become one: dazzling duos – in pictures
Nina Welch-Kling is an expert at pairing photographs, producing diptychs that talk to each other through colour, shape and rhyme